Universe Today - December 10, 2001

The crews of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Endeavour held a special televised ceremony today to commomorate those who lost their lives in the September 11th attacks on the United States. Endeavour is carrying 6,000 small US flags which will be distributed to the victims' families when it returns back to Earth on December 16th. Astronauts Linda Godwin and Dan Tani will begin a hour-hour spacewalk later today.

New photos taken by the Mars Global Surveyor are tracking the changes to the Martian polar ice caps, and from what scientists can tell, they're shrinking. If true, this would indicate the Mars is warming up, and it's atmosphere is becoming more dense. In fact, if the erosion of the carbon dioxide ice continues, some scientists predict that Mars could become significantly warmer in just a few thousand years. Other scientists urge caution, though, pointing out that we don't have enough data to confirm climate change.

A Boeing delta rocket successfully launched on Friday, carrying two satellites into different orbits. The first satellite is the Jason 1, a joint effort of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the French space agency CNES which will help scientists build a more accurate model of ocean climate change. The second is called TIMED, a NASA satellite which will study aspects of the Earth's atmosphere which are difficult to record.