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News July 2004: Saturn probe arrived

Saturn got a satellite from Earth on UTC 2004-07-01 ~02:50 after a nearly seven year space flight. Space probe Cassini is in orbit around Saturn after passing Phoebe, one of Saturn's 33 known moons, at a distance of about 2.000 kilometres on June 11. Switch


News January 2004: Mars Rover Spirit landed
Spirit has landed 2004-01-04 04:35 UTC right on target in the large Gusev Crater on Mars. The landing unit is in good condition and the rover will examine the Mars surface in the forthcoming months trying to find traces of water.
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News December 2003: Mars Express in orbit, Beagle 2 missing
Mars Express arrived at Mars 2003-12-25. It will analyze Mars from atmosphere to sub surface. Contact was lost with landing unit Beagle 2.
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News October 2003: First Chinese manned space flight
on 15 October, 2003, at 01:00 UTC, astronaut Yang Liwei was launched from Jiuquan Space Center, Desert Gobi/Gansu province, with the Shenzhou 5 space capsule atop a Long March CZ-2-F rocket into orbit and circled Earth 14 times within 21.5 hours. The craft landed on parachute near the destined landing spot in Inner Mongolia.

News July 2003: Mars rover "Opportunity" launched
on July 08, 2003, at 03:18 UTC, NASA launched a second Mars rover of the same make from Cape Caneveral, Florida, with a Delta II rocket. "Opportunity" should land on Mars January 2004 three weeks after the "Spirit" rover.
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News June 2003: Mars rover "Spirit" launched
on June 10, 2003, shortly before 18:00 UTC, the first of two NASA Mars landers was launched from Cape Caneveral, Florida, on top of a Delta II rocket. The second lander "Opportunity" should follow this month and both should arrive January 2004 at Mars. The rovers will drive around analyzing rocks and soil for traces of water and take images.
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News June 2003: European spacecraft launched to Mars
on June 02, 2003, around 17:45 UTC, Mars Express satellite and landing unit Beagle 2 were launched from rocket center Baikonur in Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz-Fregat rocket. The journey to Mars takes about 6 months. The Orbiter will map Mars and relay Beagle 2 signals. The stationary landing unit has a variety of instruments to probe and measure the environment from atmosphere to sub surface. Cameras will take pictures.
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News February 2003: Space Shuttle Columbia exploded
on February 01, 2003, around 14:00 UTC, over Texas in a height of approximately 60 kilometers during the approach to the Florida landing zone at Cape Caneveral. Seven astronauts died.
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News July 2002: Asteroid 2002 NT7 - here comes a big one
The two kilometres sized asteroid appears to come close to Earth. If an asteroid of this size hits, depending on the place, critical harvest areas and food chains are endangered.
- Update August: Calculations with improved trajectory data from further observations show this asteroid will very likely pose no danger in the next 100 years.
Based on the ISO asteroid search there are an estimated one million asteroids bigger than one kilometer in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
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News June 2002: Asteroid 2002 MN passed close
An asteroid in the 100 meter size range was detected after it has passed Earth in a distance of 120.000 kilometres. If it had collided with Earth a city could have been wiped out.
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News June 2001: Neutrino mass confirmed
Sudbury Neutrino Observatory finds neutrinos with different masses.
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News April 2001: Mars Orbiter 'Odyssey' launched
Launched April 07, 2001, 15:02 UTC, USA, Florida, Kennedy Space Center, the orbiter is scheduled to arrive at Mars 2001-10-24. After the orbiter achieves its final circular 400 kilometres (~250 miles) orbit it collects data on Mars' basic chemical elements, minerals related to water and the space radiation level. Additionally it should work as a communication relay for future missions.
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News November 2000: First long stay crew on ISS International Space Station
On November 02, 2000, at 10:23 UTC two astronauts from Russia and one astronaut from the United States of America have entered the International Space Station for a 4 month long term.
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News July 2000: ISS International Space Station third module Zvezda connected
The Russian build third modul of the International Space Station named Zvezda has been launched from Kazakhstan/Cosmodrome Baikonur 2000-06-12 05:56 UTC and joined the station at 2000-06-26 01:45 UTC around 385 kilometers (240 miles) away from Earth.
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Image of asteroid 433 Eros News February 2000: NEAR asteroid 433 Eros
The 'Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous' space probe turns into a close orbit around the 33 kilometers long and 13 kilometers broad (21 x 8 miles) asteroid '433 Eros' on February 14, 2000, after a journey of four years with a failed orbit insertion more than one year ago. Asteroid 433 Eros circles the Sun in 1.76 Earth years on a slighty elliptical orbit. Closest distance to Earth in the 20th century was approximately 22 million kilometers (14 million miles). The NEAR space probe will determine the composition of elements, density, mass and magnetic field at its planned one year study of the huge space rock. Eros is one of the biggest known asteroids in our neighbourhood. Switch


News December 1999: XXM ESA's advanced X-ray Multi Mirrors telescope
has been successfully launched into high orbit on December 10, 1999 from Kourou, French Guiana. The telescope will be able to detect very short changes in faint X-ray sources. Switch


News November 1999: Leonid meteoroid shower
on early morning November 18, 1999. There is a high probability that the peak occurs between 2:00 and 4:00 UTC = GMT.


News August 1999: Total solar eclipse August 11, 1999:
A total eclipse of the Sun will be visible over parts of Europe and Asia. The table show times for some locations where the peak of a total or partial eclipse can be observed when the sky is clear.

Times are in UTC = GMT          
Plymouth 10:13   Frankfurt 10:33   Vienna     10:45
LeHavre  10:19   Hamburg   10:34   Graz       10:45
Paris    10:23   Munich    10:38   Budapest   10:52
Basel    10:30   Berlin    10:39   Bucharest  11:06
Bern     10:31   Salzburg  10:41   Diyarbakir 11:39
Zurich   10:33   Linz      10:42   Esfahan    12:03   Switch


Graphic of star Upsilon Andromedae News April 1999: Planetary system discovered:
Data analysis implies that three Jupiter scale planets (3/4, 2x, 4x) orbit the star Upsilon Andromedae in the constellation Andromeda. The star is within our Galaxy around 44 light years away and the first to be known with more than one orbiting planet despite our Sun. The magnitude 4 star is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. Switch


News January 1999: Light emission during gamma-ray burst observed for the first time:
Gamma-ray bursts release in a few seconds amounts of energy that equals those released by the sun over billions of years. A decade ago it was not clear if they origin from within our galaxy or from a cosmic distance. Results from more sensitive detectors show that gamma-ray bursts are nearly evenly distributed among the sky and not restricted to the Milky Way plane. Even there are a few hundred gamma-ray bursts every year, only recently it has become possible to calculate and distribute their positions in time to enable an observation of visible light emissions. The detection of visible light from a gamma-ray burst helps to pinpoint it to a sky object and determine its distance from the redshift in its light spectrum. Switch


Simulation image shows first two ISS modules conected News December: 1998-12-04 08:35 UTC USA/Cape Canaveral:
The second part of ISS International Space Station named 'Unity' has been successfully launched into orbit with space shuttle Endeavour. The original start date was postponed for one day because of a technical alarm in the last minutes of the shuttle launch phase. In the next days astronauts will start to assemble the two modules in orbit with the help of a mechanical arm manipulator on board of the shuttle. Switch


Photo of ISS Zarya module News November: 1998-11-20 06:40 UTC Kazakhstan/Baikonur:
First part of ISS International Space Station has been launched with a Russian Proton rocket to its 380 km above Earth orbit. Launch of the next part is planned for 1998-12-03 with Space Shuttle. The final space station of the year 2004 will have a crew of seven people, cover an area of 110 x 80 metres and weight around 450 metric tons. Switch

News September 1998: Magnetar x-rays Earth
On August 27, 1998 a gamma-ray burst from tbe magnetar 'SGR 1900+14' hits Earth's atmosphere and gave a part of the population a mild X-ray exposure. Switch

News August 1998: Leonid meteoroid showers November 1998 & 1999 may cause satellite malfunctions. Switch

News July 1998: Two new planets outside the solar system discovered.
A planet in the constellation Hercules around the star 14 Herculis Switch
A planet in the constellation Aquarius around the red dwarf star Gliese 876 Switch

News June 1998: Discovery of Neutrino Oscillations and Neutrino Mass. Switch

News May 1998: First Hubble image of possible planet around another star. Switch




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