21-04 - DELTA mission and ESA astronaut dock with ISS
The DELTA mission, with European Space Agency astronaut André Kuipers from the Netherlands, and the ISS Expedition 9 crew, successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) today.
These images from ESA's Mars Express show the western flank of the shield volcano Olympus Mons in the Tharsis region of the western Martian hemisphere.
Resembling a diamond-encrusted bracelet, a ring of brilliant blue star clusters wraps around the yellowish nucleus of what was once a normal spiral galaxy in this new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
This morning Maria van der Hoeven, Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science, officially started the Seeds in Space experiment. ESA astronaut André Kuipers is conducting the experiment on board the International Space Station as part of the Dutch DELTA Mission.
Around 70 000 schoolchildren are taking part in the experiment, which looks at the growth of rucola seeds in a special 'growing rocket'. Whilst Kuipers planted rucola seeds on board the Space Station, the children did the same in the classroom.
23-04 - Researcher Predicts Jupiter Spots Will Disappear
If a University of California, Berkeley, physicist's vision of Jupiter is correct, the giant planet will be in for a major global temperature shift over the next decade as most of its large vortices disappear.
23-04 - Status Check Shows Gravity Probe B In Good Shape
Gravity Probe B - the newly-launched NASA mission to test two predictions of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity - is orbiting 400 miles above Earth, and all spacecraft systems are performing well.
A montage of Cassini images, taken in four different regions of the spectrum from ultraviolet to near-infrared, demonstrates that there is more to Saturn than meets the eye. Cassini is two months away from entering orbit around Saturn.
Right now, one of the most precise physics experiments ever attempted is orbiting Earth: Gravity Probe B. Its builders have created "a pocket of near-perfection" inside the spacecraft where spinning gyroscopes can sense the twisting of spacetime around Earth.
26-04 - Buon appetito: Russian cosmonauts on a Mediterranean diet
In parallel with the DELTA Mission, two Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) - Alexander Kaleri and Gennadi Padalka - will perform the Mediet (Mediterranean Diet) experiment, demonstrating the use of the Mediet food system on board the ISS.
27-04 - Enter the Dragon: ESA and China's joint Earth watch begins
More than a hundred leading European and Chinese scientists meet today on the island city of Xiamen to commence the Dragon Programme - a wide-ranging research initiative employing ESA Earth Observation data to focus on China.
ESA today announced the launch of its 'Space Solutions' initiative, a business-to-business provider of know-how and technologies to industries in the wellness market. The launch was announced at an event featuring an address by ESA astronaut André Kuipers, live from the International Space Station.
28-04 - Plan for global Earth monitoring agreed at Tokya summit
Representatives from 47 countries and more than two dozen international organisations met in Tokyo last week, coming a significant step closer to achieving the goal of an integrated Earth monitoring network.
Europe waits on the deployment of the Mars Express instrument that will hunt for the Red Planet's sub-surface water.
The MARSIS team has advised ESA to delay the deployment of the MARSIS radar instrument on board Mars Express, scheduled for this week.
The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. At its centre lies a superhot dying star smothered in a blanket of 'hailstones'. A new Hubble image reveals fresh detail in the wings of this 'cosmic butterfly'.
29-04 - ESA astronaut André Kuipers prepares to leave ISS
Today, after eleven days in space, of which nine on board the International Space Station, André Kuipers is preparing to return to Earth. He is expected to land in the northern part of the Kazakh Steppe at 02:11 CEST (00:11 UT) tonight.
The only known gravitationally bound pair of pulsars -- extremely dense, spinning stars that beam radio waves -- may be pirouetting around each other in an intricate dance.
30-04 - All Future Shuttle Missions Geared To Space Station
NASA's latest return-to-flight implementation plan for the first time codifies an earlier decision by NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe ruling out any non-space station flights, like one to save the Hubble Space Telescope, after shuttle flights resume next spring.
01-05 - Interviews With Just-Returned Station Crew
Expedition 8 commander Mike Foale describes what it is like to land in a Soyuz capsule and flight engineer Alexander Kaleri reflects on the accomplishments of the half-year mission aboard the International Space Station in the post-flight interviews.
01-05 - Scientists Announce Cosmic Ray Theory Breakthrough
University of California scientists working at Los Alamos National Laboratory have proposed a new theory to explain the movement of vast energy fields in giant radio galaxies. The theory could be the basis for a whole new understanding of the ways in which cosmic rays -- and their signature radio waves -- propagate and travel through intergalactic space.
02-05 - Computer 'Mobile Agents' And Robot Tested By Nasa
NASA scientists has resumed testing 'mobile agent' software that someday may help astronauts on Mars talk with mission control on Earth. The tests are taking place in Utah's Southeast Desert in a NASA field operation that began last week and continues through May 9.
03-05 - Galaxy Family Has Close Interaction In Cosmic Tango
Stars like our Sun are members of galaxies, and most galaxies are themselves members of clusters of galaxies. In these, they move around among each other in a mostly slow and graceful ballet. But every now and then, two or more of the members may get too close for comfort - the movements become hectic, sometimes indeed dramatic, as when galaxies end up colliding.
04-05 - Illuminating The 'Dark Ages' Of The Universe
Astronomers who want to study the cosmic dark ages face a fundamental problem. How do you observe what existed before the first stars formed to light it up? Theorists have found a solution.
ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft has just made its 278th orbit, in good health and with all functions performing nominally, but its target is expected to turn blood-red in the evening of 4 May!
04-05 - ESA's miniature Earth observer put to many uses
Think of ESA's Proba as the little satellite that does a lot. It is only the size of a washing machine but its main instrument - the smallest hyperspectral imager ever flown in space – has an expanding portfolio of uses encompassing agricultural mapping, water quality monitoring, charting forest fire damage and disaster management.
05-05 - NASA's Genesis Spacecraft On Final Lap Toward Home
The Genesis spacecraft flew past Earth a few days ago in a loop that puts it on track for home - and a dramatic mid-air recovery Sept. 8. The mission was launched in 2001 to capture samples of the solar wind for return to Earth-bound scientists.
Could one of the fundamental assumptions of modern physics be wrong? A group of NASA-supported researchers are going to find out by bouncing laser beams off the Moon. They'll use a new Moon-laser facility opening in New Mexico this fall, and some mirrors left behind on the Moon by Apollo astronauts 30 years ago.
Nasa scientists are considering whether to send the Mars rover Opportunity into an impact crater the buggy has spent the last three weeks travelling to.
07-05 - Two Extremely Hot Exoplanets Caught In Transit
A European team of astronomers are announcing the discovery and study of two new extra-solar planets. The observations were performed in March at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Fulfilling an old dream of astronomers, observations with the Very Large Telescope in Chile have now made it possible to obtain a clear picture of the immediate surroundings of the black hole at the centre of an active galaxy.
Europe's Mars Express probe has sent back detailed images of a region of the Red Planet that was shaped by intensive continental plate activity. These images were taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA's Mars Express are of the Acheron Fossae region.
ESA's Proba satellite here shows a winding segment of the 7240-km long Great Wall of China situated just northeast of Beijing. The Great Wall's relative visibility or otherwise from orbit has inspired much recent debate.
The news items in this article have been collected from the following sources:
NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/ - Mailinglist/RSS Feed
ESA - http://www.esa.int/ - Mailinglist
BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/ - RSS Feed
Spaceflight Now - http://spaceflightnow.com/ - Mailinglist
