Universe Today - December 3, 2001

Russian Cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Tyurin spent 2.5 hours walking in space Monday morning to help fix an improperly docked Progress cargo ship. The pair exited the International Space Station at 1320 GMT (8:20am EST) and found that it was a defective rubberized o-ring seal that was stopping the Progress from making a "hard lock" with the station. With this problem overcome, Endeavour has been cleared for launch on Tuesday at 2245 GMT (5:45pm EST).

A Russian Proton-K rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Sunday carrying a payload of three replacement satellites for Russia Global Navigation Satellite System. Liftoff occurred at 1804 GMT (1:04 pm EST), and the three satellites - two standard Uragan models and one advanced Uragan-M version - were placed into a successful orbit four hours later.

NASA scientists have created an image of what Mars might have looked like billions of years ago when they believe it was covered with water. Using data acquired by the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft, scientists measured the amount of molecular hydrogen present in the planet's atmosphere. Based on this quantity, they estimated that there was enough water on Mars to create an ocean 1.25 kilometers deep in places.