Former astronaut Charles Bolden picked to lead NASA

Nineteen years after helping launch the Hubble Space Telescope, Charles F. Bolden Jr., a former combat pilot, Marine Corps major general and veteran space shuttle commander, has been selected by the Obama administration to serve as the space agency's next administrator. Lori Garver, a former NASA associate administrator for policy and plans and a space policy advisor to the Obama campaign, will serve as Bolden's deputy.

These talented individuals will help put NASA on course to boldly push the boundaries of science, aeronautics and exploration in the 21st century and ensure the long-term vibrancy of America's space program," Obama said in a statement Saturday.

President Obama hails successful Hubble repair

President Barack Obama called the crew of the shuttle Atlantis late Wednesday and congratulated the astronauts on the successful overhaul of the Hubble Space Telescope. He also promised to name a new NASA administrator soon, although he provided no clues as to who might get the nod.

Astronauts test re-entry systems for Friday landing

The Atlantis astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems early Thursday and began packing for landing Friday, weather permitting, to close out a successful mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope. The flight plan calls for a de-orbit rocket firing at 8:49:16 a.m. Friday, setting up a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:00:31 a.m. A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 11:39:18 a.m.

With no major technical problems in orbit, the only question mark is the weather, with forecasters predicting a broken cloud deck at 4,000 feet, crosswinds above 15 knots and a chance of thundershowers within 30 nautical miles of the runway, all violations of NASA's landing weather flight rules.

High winds and torrential rains rumbled through the area overnight as severe thunderstorms lashed Florida's Space Coast. There is a 50 percent chance of heavy rain, high winds and thundershowers all day Thursday and more of the same expected overnight and Friday.

But the astronauts have conserved power and now have saved enough hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electricity producing fuel cells through Monday. As a result, NASA is not staffing backup landing sites Friday. If the weather or some other issue blocks the two available landing opportunities, the crew will stay in orbit an extra day and try again Saturday.

Spirit struggles with soft soil

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is facing one of its biggest challenges yet with a patch of soft soil that is currently holding the rover hostage.

During recent attempts to drive around the Home Plate area of Mars, Spirit’s wheels have sunk about halfway into the ground. Concerns have been raised that Spirit may sink so low that its body may make contact with rocks on the surface, making the escape from this situation even more of a challenge. Engineers and scientists have temporarily suspended all driving while they simulate driving options with a test rover back on Earth.

Behavioral problems that Spirit exhibited in early April – episodes of amnesia, computer resets and failure to wake for communications sessions – have not recurred in the past three weeks, though investigations have yet to diagnose the root causes.

Comet crystals feel the heat

Since comets formed out in the cold depths of the Solar System, the existence of materials in them that must have been created in high temperatures has been a real puzzle, until now. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has observed the infrared signature of tiny silicate crystals, of the type found in comets, being created in the planet-forming disc around a young star called EX Lupi, in the constellation of Lupus.

The stellar outbursts occur when the growing young star accumulates a large amount of mass from the dusty, gaseous disc that is spinning around it. Each outburst sends a flash of heat permeating through the disc. At the distance the crystals were seen at, the temperature reached 725 degrees Celsius (about 1,000 kelvin), enough to thermally ‘anneal’ the silicate dust.

Exotic dust in comet trail

Comet dust caught in the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere and scooped up by a NASA aircraft had been found to contain grains of dust dating back to before our Solar System formed. Dust like this is worth its weight in gold for telling us about the original conditions in the solar nebula that formed the planets.

The dust is from comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup, which last passed through the inner Solar System in 2002. A year later, Earth itself passed through the trail of the comet, and the NASA aircraft climbed to catch the dust. It was then handed over to a consortium of UK, US and German astronomers who found various chemical treasure troves, including in one dust particle four grains of silicate material that date back to before the formation of the Sun.

Proton rocket launches TV broadcaster for Asia

A Russian Proton rocket lifted off from Kazakhstan early Saturday with a satellite that will broadcast television programming directly into homes across Indonesia and India.

The Proton jettisoned its first stage two minutes later, leaving the second stage to burn for nearly three-and-a-half minutes. The launcher's third stage took over five-and-a-half minutes into the flight for a firing of more than four minutes, during which the rocket let go of its payload fairing that protected the ProtoStar 2 satellite as it flew through the lower atmosphere.

The spacecraft will be positioned in a slot at 107.7 degrees east longitude in the geosynchronous belt, allowing it to reach customers in Indonesia, India, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Ariane 5 rocket launches double science payload

An Ariane 5 launcher rocketed through blue skies and into space on 14.5.09 with two European telescopes designed to give scientists unprecedented views of star birth and the relic light from the Big Bang.

The bullet-shaped rocket, powered by a hydrogen-burning main engine and twin solid rocket boosters, lifted off at 1312 GMT (9:12 a.m. EDT) from the European-run spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Herschel and Planck are on their way

The European Space Agency’s Herschel and Planck spacecraft have successfully launched atop an Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana. The launch took place at 2:12pm on 14.05.09 afternoon.

Shuttle Atlantis blasting from NASA

When the space shuttle Atlantis blasts off on NASA's final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, the shuttle Endeavour and a four-man crew will be standing by for launch on a mission space agency managers hope will never be needed: an emergency rescue flight to bring the Atlantis astronauts back to Earth if heat shield damage or some other problem prevents a safe re-entry.