The United States space shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a construction mission to the International Space Station on Friday, ending a three-month grounding to repair the ship’s hail-battered fuel tank. The launch bolstered Nasa’s hopes of finishing work on the -billion orbital research outpost.
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/ 18 February 2007
An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036 and the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission to deflect it, a group of astronauts, engineers and scientists said on Saturday. Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a one in 45 000 chance of striking Earth on April 13 2036.
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/ 10 December 2006
Space shuttle Discovery blasted off its seaside launch pad on Saturday, defying the odds of poor weather and ending the ban on night-time flights imposed after the 2003 Columbia disaster. High winds had threatened to delay the flight for the second time in as many days but the gusts calmed, clearing the way for Nasa’s third shuttle mission in six months.
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/ 5 December 2006
Nasa said on Monday it plans to build a permanently occupied base on the moon, most likely at the lunar south pole. The habitat will serve as a science outpost as well as a testbed for technologies needed for future travel to Mars, and construction will follow a series of flights to the moon scheduled to begin by 2020.
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/ 26 October 2006
An unmanned Delta rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida on Wednesday carrying a pair of solar probes to track potentially disruptive solar storms. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory, or Stereo, is designed to take three-dimensional pictures of the solar outbursts so scientists can pinpoint where the storms are heading.
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/ 21 September 2006
The United States space shuttle Atlantis returned safely to its Florida home port on Thursday, capping a successful mission to resume International Space Station construction after the 2003 Columbia accident. After 12 days in space, including six at the half-built -billion space station, Atlantis dropped from its orbital perch into Earth’s atmosphere.
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/ 9 September 2006
Space shuttle Atlantis roared off its seaside Florida launch pad on Saturday after two weeks of delays, setting the stage for Nasa to resume assembly of the International Space Station. The shuttle’s fuel tank appeared to shed at least two pieces of insulating foam during the climb into orbit, one of which may have struck Atlantis, but mission control said it was unlikely to have caused any damage.
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/ 8 September 2006
Technicians at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida started filling space shuttle Atlantis‘ fuel tank for a launch attempt on Friday after nearly two weeks of delays due to weather problems and technical glitches, officials said. Lift-off is targeted for 11.41am (3.41pm GMT) and meteorologists predicted a 70% chance the weather would be suitable for launch.