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by William Atkins
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On December 27, 2006, a French-led multinational team (consisting of the European Space Agency, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, and Spain) launched the first ever spacecraft to exclusively study planets outside the Earth’s solar system. The spacecraft Corot, which stands for COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits, will study exosolar planets, or exoplanets; that is, any planet orbiting a star other than the Sun.
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by William Atkins
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The Space Elevator—an elevator that would go up and down between the Earth’s surface and a point in space above the Earth—has been a topic of science and science fiction for years. However, materials did not exist that were strong enough to actually build it. In the twenty-first century, that is no longer the case.
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by William Atkins
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The next NASA Space Shuttle mission is expected to lift off from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A on March 16, 2007. Aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, its crew will consist of Commander Frederick Sturckow, Pilot Lee Archambault, and Mission Specialists James Reilly, John Olivas, Patrick Forrester, and Steve Swanson.
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by Adam Turner
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The Space Shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts have landed safety at Florida's Kennedy Space Centre after NASA skipped two landing opportunities due to bad weather.
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by Adam Turner
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The Space Shuttle Discovery has begun its descent, performing the deorbit burn to bring it into land at Florida's Kennedy Space Center at 5.32pm.
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by Adam Turner
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The Space Shuttle Discovery has scrubbed its first landing attempt due to bad weather at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.
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by William Atkins
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Flight controllers at the NASA Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, have announced that mysterious red “blips” have been recently observed and NASA and contractor personnel at the Kennedy landing facility in Florida have discovered reindeer “signs” .
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by Adam Turner
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NASA engineers have cleared Space Shuttle Discovery for re-entry, with three landing sites to be prepared as the shuttle runs on emergency fuel.
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by William Atkins
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NASA is pondering the landing of the STS-116 crew aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Specifically, officials are deciding whether to land the shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center (the primary landing site)—since weather is forecast to be unacceptable for a landing—or to land at alternative sites at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico or Edwards Air Force Base in California.
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by Adam Turner
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NASA engineers are examining close-up video of the space shuttle
Discovery's exterior, checking for damage before clearing the ship for
re-entry on Friday.
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by Adam Turner
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A "hybrid gamma-ray burst" detected earlier this year, not caused by
a supernova, is believed to be the birth of a new type of black hole.
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by William Atkins
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Hubble is not the only telescope in space
We hear much news about the Hubble Space Telescope and, sometimes, it seems that it is the only telescope in space. However, it is not. Hubble--like other space observatories--is an instrument launched into space that is used by astronomers to observe planets, stars, galaxies, and other objects. These space telescopes observe electromagnetic radiation--self-propagating waves with electric and magnetic components--emitted by celestial objects.
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by Adam Turner
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The Space Shuttle Discovery has undocked from the newly overhauled
International Space Station and is preparing for a final heat shield
inspection before returning to Earth.
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by Adam Turner
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Discovery astronauts have finally retracted a stubborn solar panel on the International Space Station after an unscheduled fourth space walk that will see the shuttle dip into emergency fuel reserves.
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