Space News for March 19, 2002
Space Flight
Progress Detaches from Station
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| Image credit: NASA |
An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship undocked from the International Space Station today to make room for a replacement ship due for launch on Thursday. The Progress undocked at 1743 GMT (12:43pm EST), and fired a rocket that will slow its orbit so it will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and burn up. The replacement Progress will dock with the station on Sunday.
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Mar 19, 2002, 5:01pm
Space Flight
NASA Classifies Shuttle Launch Times
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| Image credit: NASA |
NASA officials have decided to keep the exact time of launch of the next space shuttle a secret until 24 hours before liftoff to guard against terrorist attack. So, the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, on a mission to continue assembly of the International Space Station, will occur at some point on the afternoon of April 4th.
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Mar 19, 2002, 3:27pm
Astronomy
Six Telescopes Acting as One
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| Image credit: USNO |
Astronomers from several US observatories announced that they have successfully merged the light from six independent telescopes to form a single, high-resolution image of a distant multi-star system. To create an image with this level of detail, a single telescope would need to be 50-metres across - bigger than anything that currently exists. This technique, called interferometry, has been done with pairs of telescopes before, but never with as many as six.
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Mar 18, 2002, 3:33pm
Space Flight
Grace Satellites Launched
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| Image credit: NASA |
NASA and the German Center for Air and Space Flight successfully launched the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or "Grace" today. The twin-satellite mission lifted off on Sunday from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on board a Rockot launch vehicle. Once in their final orbit, the satellites will separate to a distance of 220km apart, and will begin producing a high-definition gravity map of the Earth's surface to help scientists understand some of the factors that affect climate change.
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Mar 18, 2002, 3:21pm
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