Cassini testing for water on one of Saturn's moons

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Three years after gigantic geysers were spied on an icy Saturn moon, the international Cassini spacecraft is poised to plunge through the fringes of the mysterious plumes to learn how they formed.

An unmanned probe will sweep through geysers on one of Saturn's moons to measure the chemical makeup.

Wednesday's flyby will take Cassini within 30 miles of the surface of Enceladus at closest approach.

The unmanned probe will be about 120 miles above the moon as it sweeps through the edge of the geysers and measures their chemical makeup.

The carefully orchestrated event will take Cassini "deeper than we've been before," mission scientist Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute said in an e-mail.

Scientists long believed Enceladus, the shiniest object in the solar system, was cold and still because it resides hundreds of millions of miles from the sun. But recent evidence shows the Arizona-size satellite is geologically active, with a significant atmosphere and a relatively warm south pole.

In 2005, Cassini surprised scientists when it snapped images of geyser-like eruptions of ice particles and water vapor spewing from the south pole. The dramatic images effectively put Enceladus (en-SELL'-uh-duhs) on the short list of places within the solar system most likely to have conditions suitable for extraterrestrial life.

Scientists generally agree the presence of water, organic compounds and a stable heat source are needed to support primitive life.

Previous measurements by Cassini showed the eruptions were frequent, with gases and particles venting from the surface at about 800 mph and forming plumes hundreds of miles high.

The source of the geysers is a mystery, but some theorize reservoirs of liquid water below the surface are likely supplying the ice and vapor seen in the plumes.

Until now, scientists have not been able to measure the plumes' makeup in detail. Using its particle analyzers, Cassini will calculate the density, size and speed of the various gases and particles. The spacecraft's cameras will also image the moon during the flyby.

Of particular interest is whether the plumes contain ammonia, which can keep water in liquid form and would bolster the theory that liquid water lies beneath.

"There's not much for us ... to do regarding the upcoming flyby except to hold our breaths and cross our fingers," John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, wrote on the Cassini blog.

The close encounter poses little danger to Cassini because the plume particles are small compared with the dust-size debris the spacecraft is used to flying through while orbiting Saturn, scientists said.

The Cassini mission is a collaboration between NASA and the European and Italian space agencies.

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Messenger probe shows off side of Mercury never seen before

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.

A scientist thinks Mercury's "spider," found by NASA's Messenger probe, could be remnants of a volcano.

Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling.

The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image shows what looks like a large crater with faint lines radiating out from it.

Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has often been compared to Earth's dull black-and-white moon. But the new photos, which reveal parts of Mercury never seen, show the tiny planet is more colorful and once had volcanic activity.

With the help of NASA high-tech enhancement, Messenger photos showed baby blues and dark reds.

"It has very subtle red and blue areas," said instrument scientist Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University, which runs the Messenger mission for NASA. "Mercury doesn't look like the moon."

Mariner 10 was the last NASA spacecraft to visit Mercury. In 1975, it took pictures of just 45 percent of the planet.

Messenger, which will do a couple more flybys of the planet before going into a long-term orbit, already has taken pictures of another 30 percent of Mercury, Prockter said. The rest will be seen eventually.

Planetary scientist Robert Strom, who was part of both the Mariner 10 and Messenger teams, said, "This is a whole new planet we're looking at."

And Prockter noted "there are some features we haven't been able to explain yet."

Example No. 1 is what scientists are calling "the spider." It is in the middle of a basin formed billions of years ago when space junk bombarded an infant Mercury.

Mariner had seen only part of the crater. When Messenger took a look with sharper cameras and a better angle, it photographed the odd central plateau, jutting about half a mile high with dozens of tiny ridges radiating out.

It is as if "something is pushed up," said Maria Zuber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist who is part of the science team.

Prockter guessed that it could be remnants of a volcano. Other scientists think the leg-like features could be the same ridges seen all over Mercury.

The planet's ridges, first seen in the 1970s, now seen to more widely provide evidence that Mercury is contracting, the scientists said.

Scientists had theorized that as the core of Mercury cools, it contracts, and the whole planet shrinks. That was even a 19th century theory for why Earth had mountains, but one that was later proved wrong, Solomon said. But with Mercury, that seems to be the case. As the planet shrinks, a bit of crust is pushed over another, forming what Prockter calls "wrinkle ridges."

Besides having what looks like the leftovers from volcanoes, Mercury has at least one crater that seems to be filled with what would be that planet's version of lava, Prockter said.

NASA launched the $446 million Messenger on its nearly 5 billion-mile mission in 2004. It will fly by Mercury two more times, this October and September 2009, before settling into orbit in 2011. Messenger will take pictures, and it will measure the planet's tenuous atmosphere, hills, valleys and unusual magnetic field. Mercury is the only planet in the solar system other than Earth to have a magnetosphere.

Quirky Mercury is one of the bigger question marks in the solar system, probed not nearly as much as Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn.

Strom, a retired University of Arizona scientist who worked on Mariner 10, said that as he awaited Messenger's flyby earlier this month, "I couldn't sleep at all. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve."

Only he had to wait 30 years for his presents. It was worth it, he said: "What I saw was astounding to me."

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NASA to beam Beatles song to North Star

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way.

NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.

This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA's Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.

"Send my love to the aliens," Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. "All the best, Paul."

The song, written by McCartney and John Lennon, may have a ticket to ride and will be flying at the speed of light. But it will take 431 years along a long and winding road to reach its final destination. That's because Polaris is 2.5 quadrillion miles away.

NASA loaded an MP3 of the song, just under four minutes in its original version, and will transmit it digitally at 7 p.m. EST Monday from its giant antenna in Madrid, Spain. But if you wanted to hear it on Polaris, you would need an antenna and a receiver to convert it back to music, the same way people receive satellite television.

The idea came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian, who then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to Beatles' music. One of those companies, Apple, was happy to approve the idea because is "always looking for new markets," Lewis said.

Perhaps coincidentally, the song's launching comes a day before the release of the DVD of the Julie Taymor movie named after the Beatles hit.

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Shooting down of satellite doesn't worry space station crew

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Military plans to shoot down a damaged U.S. spy satellite carrying toxic fuel will not concern the crew aboard the international space station, commander Peggy Whitson said Saturday.

Astronaut Stanley Love, upside down at left, installs a solar experiment package Friday.

The military hopes to smash the satellite as soon as next week -- just before it enters Earth's atmosphere -- with a missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the northern Pacific Ocean.

It was unclear how close the satellite will be to the space station when it is shot down. NASA referred questions to the Defense Department, which did not immediately return a message seeking clarification.

Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts will still be in orbit 215 miles above Earth when the satellite is targeted. The satellite will be about 150 miles up when the shot is fired.

Whitson said NASA and the Department of Defense "love the station crew" and would not put them in harm's way.

"So, no, we're not worried about it," she said in a news conference with the 10-person shuttle-station crew.

Atlantis and its seven astronauts will be safely back on Earth before the Pentagon takes aim. NASA plans to open up the backup landing site in California to increase chances of an on-time landing next Wednesday even if weather is a problem in Florida.

Left alone, the satellite would be expected to hit Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft would be expected to survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over several hundred miles.

Military and administration officials said the satellite is carrying fuel called hydrazine that could injure or even kill people who are near it when it hits the ground.

The satellite, known by its military designation US 193, was launched in December 2006. It lost power and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor.

The astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle-station complex focused their attention Saturday on the inside of the new Columbus lab.

They have all day Saturday and just half a day Sunday before the hatches between shuttle Atlantis and the international space station are sealed.

On Friday, a pair of spacewalking astronauts wrapped up work on the exterior of Columbus, installing a package of sun-gazing instruments as well as a huge box of experiments on radiation, orbital debris and other subjects.

During their 7-hour spacewalk, Rex Walheim and Stanley Love also installed handrails on Columbus, and removed a broken gyroscope from the space station and loaded it into the shuttle for the ride home.

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Astronauts attach science experiments to new lab

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Two spacewalking astronauts hung science experiments on the outside of the space station's new lab Friday and packed up a broken gyroscope for next week's shuttle ride home.

Astronaut Rex Walheim works in the space shuttle Atlantis' cargo bay during a spacewalk Wednesday.

It was the third and final spacewalk for Atlantis' astronauts, who arrived at the international space station nearly a week ago.

Rex Walheim and Stanley Love attached a package of sun-gazing instruments to the European Columbus lab as well as a huge box containing eight experiments to detect micrometeorite strikes and measure space radiation, among other things.

As they hooked up the solar experiments, French astronaut Leopold Eyharts informed them that the linked shuttle-station was just about to pass over Europe after sailing across the Atlantic.

"Just to let you know that you are finishing the installation of the first European payload on Columbus while we are arriving over Europe in the opposite direction of Christopher Columbus," Eyharts radioed from inside.

The work -- along with the removal of the bad space station gyroscope and the addition of Columbus handrails -- took more than six hours, and more tasks awaited them. By then, the spacewalkers were getting tired and begged off on at least one chore. They also did not have time to inspect a jammed solar rotary joint on the space station.

Before going back inside, the astronauts examined a small chip in a handrail near the space station's hatch. Love spotted the chip during Monday's spacewalk, and Mission Control dubbed it Love Crater.

Walheim put on a spare overglove and rubbed the fingers over the chip to see if the material would snag; then he did the same thing using a glove wrapped around a tool. Astronauts have ripped their gloves on previous outings, and NASA wanted to see if this chip might be a culprit.

Walheim said the chip felt rough at first, but seemed to get smoother with all the rubbing and cleaning.

At the very end of their 71/2-hour spacewalk, the spacewalkers wished a happy birthday to astronaut Leland Melvin, who turned 44 Friday and operated the robot arm on which they worked.

Between now and Monday's departure of Atlantis, the 10 spacefarers hope to complete as much work inside the Columbus lab as possible. NASA added a 13th day to the shuttle flight so the astronauts could do just that.

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Messenger probe shows off side of Mercury never seen before

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The first pictures from the unseen side of Mercury reveal the wrinkles of a shrinking, aging planet with scars from volcanic eruptions and a birthmark shaped like a spider.

A scientist thinks Mercury's "spider," found by NASA's Messenger probe, could be remnants of a volcano.

Some of the 1,213 photos taken by NASA's Messenger probe and unveiled Wednesday help support the case that ancient volcanoes dot Mercury and that it is shrinking as it gets older, forming wrinkle-like ridges. But other images are surprising and puzzling.

The spidery shape captured in a photo is "unlike anything we've seen anywhere in the solar system," said mission chief scientist Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The image shows what looks like a large crater with faint lines radiating out from it.

Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has often been compared to Earth's dull black-and-white moon. But the new photos, which reveal parts of Mercury never seen, show the tiny planet is more colorful and once had volcanic activity.

With the help of NASA high-tech enhancement, Messenger photos showed baby blues and dark reds.

"It has very subtle red and blue areas," said instrument scientist Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University, which runs the Messenger mission for NASA. "Mercury doesn't look like the moon."

Mariner 10 was the last NASA spacecraft to visit Mercury. In 1975, it took pictures of just 45 percent of the planet.

Messenger, which will do a couple more flybys of the planet before going into a long-term orbit, already has taken pictures of another 30 percent of Mercury, Prockter said. The rest will be seen eventually.

Planetary scientist Robert Strom, who was part of both the Mariner 10 and Messenger teams, said, "This is a whole new planet we're looking at."

And Prockter noted "there are some features we haven't been able to explain yet."

Example No. 1 is what scientists are calling "the spider." It is in the middle of a basin formed billions of years ago when space junk bombarded an infant Mercury.

Mariner had seen only part of the crater. When Messenger took a look with sharper cameras and a better angle, it photographed the odd central plateau, jutting about half a mile high with dozens of tiny ridges radiating out.

It is as if "something is pushed up," said Maria Zuber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist who is part of the science team.

Prockter guessed that it could be remnants of a volcano. Other scientists think the leg-like features could be the same ridges seen all over Mercury.

The planet's ridges, first seen in the 1970s, now seen to more widely provide evidence that Mercury is contracting, the scientists said.

Scientists had theorized that as the core of Mercury cools, it contracts, and the whole planet shrinks. That was even a 19th century theory for why Earth had mountains, but one that was later proved wrong, Solomon said. But with Mercury, that seems to be the case. As the planet shrinks, a bit of crust is pushed over another, forming what Prockter calls "wrinkle ridges."

Besides having what looks like the leftovers from volcanoes, Mercury has at least one crater that seems to be filled with what would be that planet's version of lava, Prockter said.

NASA launched the $446 million Messenger on its nearly 5 billion-mile mission in 2004. It will fly by Mercury two more times, this October and September 2009, before settling into orbit in 2011. Messenger will take pictures, and it will measure the planet's tenuous atmosphere, hills, valleys and unusual magnetic field. Mercury is the only planet in the solar system other than Earth to have a magnetosphere.

Quirky Mercury is one of the bigger question marks in the solar system, probed not nearly as much as Mars, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn.

Strom, a retired University of Arizona scientist who worked on Mariner 10, said that as he awaited Messenger's flyby earlier this month, "I couldn't sleep at all. I was like a kid on Christmas Eve."

Only he had to wait 30 years for his presents. It was worth it, he said: "What I saw was astounding to me."

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NASA to beam Beatles song to North Star

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Beatles are about to become radio stars in a whole new way.

NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.

This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA's Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.

"Send my love to the aliens," Paul McCartney told NASA through a Beatles historian. "All the best, Paul."

The song, written by McCartney and John Lennon, may have a ticket to ride and will be flying at the speed of light. But it will take 431 years along a long and winding road to reach its final destination. That's because Polaris is 2.5 quadrillion miles away.

NASA loaded an MP3 of the song, just under four minutes in its original version, and will transmit it digitally at 7 p.m. EST Monday from its giant antenna in Madrid, Spain. But if you wanted to hear it on Polaris, you would need an antenna and a receiver to convert it back to music, the same way people receive satellite television.

The idea came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian, who then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to Beatles' music. One of those companies, Apple, was happy to approve the idea because is "always looking for new markets," Lewis said.

Perhaps coincidentally, the song's launching comes a day before the release of the DVD of the Julie Taymor movie named after the Beatles hit.

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Shuttle docks with space station, brings lab

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Space shuttle Atlantis docked with the international space station Saturday, delivering Europe's $2 billion research lab after years of delay.

Atlantis does a backflip maneuver Saturday durings its rendezvous with the international space station.

With commander Stephen Frick at the helm, Atlantis slowly and carefully pulled up to the space station and latched on after performing a giant backflip to give NASA a look at the ship's thermal shield.

The Columbus lab is the European Space Agency's main contribution to the space station. The Europeans had hoped to send the lab up in 1992 to mark the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' sailing, but the mission was delayed by station redesigns, stalled construction and shuttle groundings.

"We got some views of your station as we were still a long way out, and it looks like an amazing star on the horizon," Frick radioed as the shuttle closed in. "It just keeps getting better as we get closer."

The backflip, a routine maneuver since the Columbia disaster in 2003, allowed station crew members to zoom in for pictures of its upper surfaces and belly. Engineers on the ground will scrutinize the images for signs of damage.

Mission Control asked Whitson and cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko to take extra pictures of a thermal insulating blanket on the shuttle that was sticking up.

While Atlantis' last mission was extended so spacewalking astronauts could repair a similar thermal blanket that peeled back during liftoff, NASA spokesman Robert Lazaro said the damage reported Saturday was "not a show-stopper."

"They're just going to keep an eye on it and continue with photographic operations," he said.

The backflip, along with Friday's meticulous inspection of Atlantis' wings and nose, became standard procedure after damage from breakaway external tank foam caused the shuttle Columbia to disintegrate, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

After completing the somersault, Frick began guiding the shuttle to a linkup with the station. Atlantis will be the first shuttle to dock at the station's new Harmony module, which the shuttle Discovery delivered last fall.

John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, said Friday that engineers spotted no damage in a quick look at the images captured during the nose and wing inspection.

Some pieces of insulating foam fell off the external tank three times during liftoff Thursday, but none was big enough to pose any threat, he said A small piece may have bounced off Atlantis' belly seven minutes into the flight, but it lacked enough force to do any damage, he said.

During their weeklong joint mission, the astronauts aboard the linked shuttle-station complex will install and start setting up the 23-foot Columbus lab, the European Space Agency's main contribution to the space station.

Whitson, the station's first female commander, said Columbus' arrival was a great way to celebrate her 48th birthday on Saturday.

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Mars mission delayed 2 years

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA will wait two years longer than planned and spend another $40 million to launch a half-billion-dollar probe to Mars because of an unspecified conflict of interest in the purchasing process, officials said Friday.

NASA will have no Mars mission in 2011.

The Mars Scout program had scheduled a 2011 launch of the $475 million Mars atmospheric probe and was going to choose proposals for the mission from one of two Colorado research institutions. But a "serious" conflict of interest in one of the proposals forced NASA to disband the board formed to pick the proposal, officials said, declining to elaborate.

The agency created an entirely new panel, and that caused a delay in awarding the contract, Mars Exploration Program Director Doug McCuistion said. And since Mars only comes close enough to Earth to launch probes every 26 months, NASA had to postpone the mission from 2011 to 2013, he said.

NASA will have no Mars mission in 2011, the first time in more than a decade that the U.S. space agency will miss an opportunity to explore the red planet, McCuistion said. A European 2011 probe earlier had been postponed to 2013 and only Russia is talking about a 2011 mission, he said.

McCuistion initially said the delay would increase the cost "slightly" because it would involve more years and inflation. Pressed by reporters, he said that meant about $40 million, but it could be less.

"This was not a conflict of interest that could be avoided," McCuistion said. He refused to say who it involved or what kind of conflict it was or who was on the board, saying revealing that type of data could "compromise the competition" between the two proposals.

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Astronaut mourns mother from space

LOMBARD, Illinois (AP) -- As NASA astronaut Daniel Tani orbited Earth, hundreds of mourners filled a suburban Chicago church Sunday to remember his 90-year-old mother as someone who endured hardship to raise five children and worked until age 70.

Rose Tani spends time with her grandchildren, Lily, right, and Keiko in this undated family photo.

Rose Tani died December 19 when a train struck her car. Daniel Tani, 46, who is aboard the international space station, could not travel back for the service at his mother's church, First Church of Lombard, and sent a video message.

Daniel Tani "has lost the person who has been his inspiration for most of his life," said Rev. Rob Hatfield, according to a WLS-TV report posted on its Web site.

Rose Tani was remembered as a woman who braved a U.S. World War II internment camp, raised her children after her husband's death and worked in a school cafeteria until she was 70.

Police said Rose Tani stopped behind a school bus at a railroad crossing and then drove around the vehicle, bypassing the lowered crossing gate. A train struck the passenger side of her vehicle and pushed it down the tracks before stopping.

NASA has said Daniel Tani is believed to be the first American astronaut to lose a close family member while in space.

A private funeral service is planned for when he returns from space early next year.

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Mars mission delayed 2 years

WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA will wait two years longer than planned and spend another $40 million to launch a half-billion-dollar probe to Mars because of an unspecified conflict of interest in the purchasing process, officials said Friday.

NASA will have no Mars mission in 2011.

The Mars Scout program had scheduled a 2011 launch of the $475 million Mars atmospheric probe and was going to choose proposals for the mission from one of two Colorado research institutions. But a "serious" conflict of interest in one of the proposals forced NASA to disband the board formed to pick the proposal, officials said, declining to elaborate.

The agency created an entirely new panel, and that caused a delay in awarding the contract, Mars Exploration Program Director Doug McCuistion said. And since Mars only comes close enough to Earth to launch probes every 26 months, NASA had to postpone the mission from 2011 to 2013, he said.

NASA will have no Mars mission in 2011, the first time in more than a decade that the U.S. space agency will miss an opportunity to explore the red planet, McCuistion said. A European 2011 probe earlier had been postponed to 2013 and only Russia is talking about a 2011 mission, he said.

McCuistion initially said the delay would increase the cost "slightly" because it would involve more years and inflation. Pressed by reporters, he said that meant about $40 million, but it could be less.

"This was not a conflict of interest that could be avoided," McCuistion said. He refused to say who it involved or what kind of conflict it was or who was on the board, saying revealing that type of data could "compromise the competition" between the two proposals.

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Astronaut mourns mother from space

LOMBARD, Illinois (AP) -- As NASA astronaut Daniel Tani orbited Earth, hundreds of mourners filled a suburban Chicago church Sunday to remember his 90-year-old mother as someone who endured hardship to raise five children and worked until age 70.

Rose Tani spends time with her grandchildren, Lily, right, and Keiko in this undated family photo.

Rose Tani died December 19 when a train struck her car. Daniel Tani, 46, who is aboard the international space station, could not travel back for the service at his mother's church, First Church of Lombard, and sent a video message.

Daniel Tani "has lost the person who has been his inspiration for most of his life," said Rev. Rob Hatfield, according to a WLS-TV report posted on its Web site.

Rose Tani was remembered as a woman who braved a U.S. World War II internment camp, raised her children after her husband's death and worked in a school cafeteria until she was 70.

Police said Rose Tani stopped behind a school bus at a railroad crossing and then drove around the vehicle, bypassing the lowered crossing gate. A train struck the passenger side of her vehicle and pushed it down the tracks before stopping.

NASA has said Daniel Tani is believed to be the first American astronaut to lose a close family member while in space.

A private funeral service is planned for when he returns from space early next year.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Astronaut mourns mother from space

LOMBARD, Illinois (AP) -- As NASA astronaut Daniel Tani orbited Earth, hundreds of mourners filled a suburban Chicago church Sunday to remember his 90-year-old mother as someone who endured hardship to raise five children and worked until age 70.

Rose Tani spends time with her grandchildren, Lily, right, and Keiko in this undated family photo.

Rose Tani died December 19 when a train struck her car. Daniel Tani, 46, who is aboard the international space station, could not travel back for the service at his mother's church, First Church of Lombard, and sent a video message.

Daniel Tani "has lost the person who has been his inspiration for most of his life," said Rev. Rob Hatfield, according to a WLS-TV report posted on its Web site.

Rose Tani was remembered as a woman who braved a U.S. World War II internment camp, raised her children after her husband's death and worked in a school cafeteria until she was 70.

Police said Rose Tani stopped behind a school bus at a railroad crossing and then drove around the vehicle, bypassing the lowered crossing gate. A train struck the passenger side of her vehicle and pushed it down the tracks before stopping.

NASA has said Daniel Tani is believed to be the first American astronaut to lose a close family member while in space.

A private funeral service is planned for when he returns from space early next year.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Shuttle problem linked to bad connector

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- NASA on Tuesday traced fuel gauge failures in shuttle Atlantis' tank to a bad connector, and a top manager said he did not know how long it would take to replace the part or when the spaceship might fly.

Atlantis' external tank contains sensors that cut off the shuttle's engine when the fuel is used up.

The erratic shuttle fuel gauges -- part of a critical safety system -- forced back-to-back launch delays this month. Until Tuesday's tanking test, NASA had been aiming for a January 10 liftoff of Atlantis with a European space station lab.

"We're going to follow this trail where it leads us and we're going to solve this problem, and then we'll go fly ... whether it's January 10 or February 10 or March 10," shuttle program manager Wayne Hale said.

In orbit, meanwhile, spacewalking astronauts helped pinpoint the source of a flawed mechanism in the international space station's power system. But they unearthed few clues involving an even bigger problem with a fouled rotating joint for the solar wings.

As NASA pumped liquid hydrogen fuel into Atlantis' tank at the pad, astronauts Peggy Whitson and Daniel Tani inspected the space station's two crippled power components. The unrelated problems are curtailing power generation and threaten to delay future shuttle flights.

Their first stop was a solar wing-tilting mechanism that experienced circuit breaker trips on December 8 and shut down. Engineers initially suspected a piece of space junk may have damaged it, but Whitson and Tani found no signs of impact. They temporarily disconnected cables for a test that exonerated certain parts, leaving the motor most likely at fault.

NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, said a spare motor already on board will be installed during Atlantis' visit, a difficult spacewalking job.

Repairs to the damaged solar rotary joint, on the other hand, will be a massive effort requiring as many as four spacewalks and likely will not be attempted until next fall, Suffredini said. That's how long it will take to figure out what's wrong and train a crew on the repairs, he said.

The joint is supposed to automatically rotate 360 degrees to keep the solar wings facing the sun. It's been used sparingly over the past three months, ever since it began vibrating and exhibiting electrical current spikes.

Whitson and Tani spent most of their seven-hour spacewalk inspecting the clogged rotary joint, removing covers and peeking deep inside with a dentist-style mirror on a rod. They found more of the metallic grit that was first detected by Tani during a spacewalk in October, and collected more samples.

All the gears, motors and bearings looked fine, although some were dirtier than others. The spacewalkers removed one bearing for return to Earth on the next shuttle flight, for engineering analysis.

NASA had hoped to learn what was grinding against the rotating ring.

"We didn't find anything that stood out," Suffredini said. The space agency will try to limp along with the joint in its current state until repairs are made, he added.

Suffredini said that if both dilemmas persist, the space station may not be able to generate enough power to support the Japanese lab that's supposed to arrive in three sections beginning in February. There's "a fighting chance" to keep the first Japanese delivery mission on track, but beyond that, it would be "extremely difficult" to continue assembly, he said.

As for Atlantis' woes, two of the four fuel gauges at the bottom of the external tank failed during Tuesday's test, and another did not work right.

Special test equipment indicated open circuits in the connector that passes through the wall of the fuel tank, linking wiring between the gauges in the tank and Atlantis. It was too soon to know whether the shuttle would need to be returned to its hangar for repairs, Hale said.

The space agency has been struggling with sporadic fuel gauge problems for two years, ever since flights resumed following the Columbia tragedy. The gauges prevent the shuttle's main engines from running on an empty tank, which could be catastrophic.

Hale said it's unclear whether the same type of connector caused the previous problems. There could be a manufacturing defect or flawed design, or the part may have been installed improperly, he noted. The connector is less than 10 years old, "pretty new by shuttle standards."

"We are not going to be driven by schedule on this one," Hale said at a late afternoon news conference. "We need to get to the bottom of this, fix it and make sure it's fixed once and for all."

NASA is up against a 2010 presidential deadline for completing the space station and retiring the shuttles.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Three rookies, little experience on Atlantis

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Atlantis' seven-man crew is short on space experience, but that's on purpose. NASA wants to give as many rookie astronauts a shot at space before the shuttles are retired in less than three years.

Leopold Eyharts, Stanley Love, Hans Schlegel, Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin, Alan Poindexter and commander Stephen Frick.

Commander Stephen Frick said NASA will need experienced astronauts for the follow-on spaceships, and the only way to ensure that is to give some of the scarce shuttle seats to the younger members of the corps. Three are rookies.

"We have a total of four spaceflights among seven people," he noted. On Frick's last mission, one astronaut was making his seventh spaceflight, "almost double what my entire crew has."

"We've tried to make that up a little bit by really talking closely with folks who have had three, four, five, six, seven flights," Frick told The Associated Press.

Here's a quick look at all seven crewmen:

Commander Stephen Frick

Frick, the shuttle's skipper, has an inside source for all things related to the space station: his wife.

He's married to mechanical engineer Jennifer Rhatigan, who helped design the space station's power and thermal systems and has worked longer at NASA than he has. They met at Johnson Space Center in Houston after he became an astronaut in 1996.

"It's great. She's very knowledgeable and, actually, if I have questions about that stuff, I usually go to her first," he said.

Frick, 43, a Navy commander from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, is making his second trip to the international space station. His first was in 2002.

He flew 26 combat missions in Iraq and Kuwait during the Gulf War in the early 1990s.

He and his wife have no children.

Co-pilot Alan Poindexter

Poindexter was studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the 1980s when a former shuttle commander, Richard Truly, came to talk to the students. From that point on, Poindexter was hooked and made spaceflight his "backburner goal."

Coincidentally, Poindexter was in the same Navy squadron as another future shuttle pilot, Kent Rominger, and they served together during Desert Storm in 1991.

Poindexter has been an astronaut for almost 10 years, and is only now making his first spaceflight. He said he's never bored.

"Really, honestly, this is one of the few jobs I've ever had where it's an absolute joy to wake up in the morning and come to work," he said.

Poindexter, 46, a Navy commander and former test pilot, grew up in Coronado, California, but considers Rockville, Maryland, his hometown. He and his wife, Lisa, have two sons, ages 18 and 22.

Rex Walheim

Rex Walheim was thrilled when the lead spacewalker on the last shuttle flight fixed a ripped solar wing at the space station. That meant he wouldn't have to deal with the mess as lead spacewalker for this mission.

"It was so nice to say, 'That's off our plate, we can stop thinking about that now."'

Walheim, 45, an Air Force colonel from San Carlos, California, went from being a NASA flight controller to an astronaut in 1996. He flew to the space station in 2002 and performed two spacewalks to hook up a giant girder and railcar. This mission, he'll spacewalk three times.

His 83-year-old father, an Army Air Corps pilot in World War II, would love to be on board, too. His dad tells him, "Hey, if they ever need an old B-17 pilot, you know who to call."

Walheim and his wife's two sons, 9 and 11, aren't as aviation-minded. One wants to be a scientist, the other a roller coaster designer.

Stanley Love

Love got a lot of teasing about his last name in middle school, and still does now that he's a doctor. "Merely a Ph.D., not a medical doctor," he's quick to point out.

The 42-year-old astronomer is making his first shuttle flight since becoming an astronaut in 1998. Before joining NASA, he worked on the Cassini spacecraft that traveled to Saturn. He ended up at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California where he focused on optical instrument systems for robotic spacecraft.

"I always thought space exploration was cool," he said.

Love started sending in astronaut applications and, after seven years and three interviews, finally got in. He will make one spacewalk and run the spacecraft's robot arm.

One of Love's passions, besides space, is Japanese animation films.

He is married with two sons, 8 and 11. "We've been very straight with our kids, told them up front that this is a dangerous thing," he said. He compares it to working on a fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska or doing a tour of duty in Iraq, and believes the rewards justify the risks.

Leland Melvin

Melvin is the only astronaut in history with the NFL on his resume.

As a 6-foot, 205-pound wide receiver at the University of Richmond, Melvin was picked by the Detroit Lions in 11th round of the 1986 NFL draft but never made a final NFL roster because of hamstring injuries.

Melvin, 43, admits it would have been nice to make the final roster cut and make it to the Super Bowl. "But I think now with flying in space, going to the cosmos, living in space, working in space with our international partners and our crew, it's one of the most amazing things I could ever think of," he said.

Education was Melvin's fallback plan. He earned chemistry and engineering degrees and began working at NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia in 1989. He applied to the astronaut program at a friend's urging and was selected in 1998.

The son of retired schoolteachers who still live in Lynchburg, Virginia, Melvin makes education his priority at NASA and frequently speaks to youngsters. On his first trip to orbit, he will be one of the primary robot arm operators.

A pianist, he's taking up a recording of Quincy Jones' 1969 Grammy Award-winning "Walking in Space."

He is single.

Hans Schlegel

German astronaut Hans Schlegel is accompanying the European Space Agency's lab, Columbus, to the international space station.

"Bringing Columbus up for a European astronaut, this is first of all an honor. Secondly, it's a duty to really help with your own hands and then, moreover and maybe most important, it's a joy," he said.

Schlegel, 56, a physicist and former paratrooper, flew on a shuttle in 1993 and performed lab experiments. This time, he'll perform two spacewalks to hook up Columbus.

Although 14 years have passed since his first mission, the Columbus lab has waited even longer to fly: more than 22 years.

"Time is a relative thing," said Schlegel, an astronaut since 1988. "You always have to compare to what you get for it, and I think Columbus is the highest developed scientific research lab we bring into space so far."

Schlegel, who is from Aachen, Germany, near Belgium, is one of nine children and has seven of his own ranging in age from 27 to 5, plus a stepdaughter.

Leopold Eyharts

Eyharts, a general in the French Air Force, will move into the space station for more than two months.

This will be his second station stint. In 1998, he spent three weeks aboard Russia's Mir. That mission was delayed six months after a cargo ship collided with Mir in 1997.

Eyharts, 50, takes comfort in the fact there is a reliable rescue ship at the space station and he can always flee in an emergency. He talks often about spaceflight with his 9-year-old son and, along with his wife, tries to convince the boy that he'll be safe.

"It's hard for him to understand all the details," he said. "I'm of course expecting that he will be at least a little bit concerned."

Eyharts, who is from the French coastal town of Biarritz near Spain, is a former test and fighter pilot. He became an astronaut in 1990.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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On-the-fritz sensor grounds Atlantis until next year

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- NASA scrubbed space shuttle Atlantis' planned Sunday launch after a cut-off sensor designed to gauge the fuel level of the external liquid hydrogen tank failed another test, a space agency spokesman said.

Atlantis' external tank contains sensors that cut off the shuttle's engine when the fuel is used up.

Atlantis will launch no earlier than January 2, Kennedy Space Center spokesman Allard Beutel said.

Thursday's launch was postponed after two of the sensors failed pre-flight testing.

Launch teams will drain the fuel from the external tank so NASA can perform a troubleshooting procedure in hopes of learning more about the "ECO" sensors, NASA spokesman George Diller said.

Wayne Hale, NASA's shuttle program manager, said last week that if the sensors failed Sunday, it would be unlikely Atlantis could take off during the launch window, which closes Thursday.

Hale said the sensors would have to perform flawlessly for the mission to move forward.

The sensors are much like the low-fuel indicators in an automobile. As the shuttle rockets toward space, the sensors monitor the amount of liquid hydrogen in the external tank and automatically shut off the main engines when the tank is empty.

If the sensors aren't working, the engine could shut down before the shuttle reaches orbit, forcing Atlantis to make a dangerous emergency landing.

NASA engineers pumped fuel into the tank during pre-flight tests Thursday and two of the sensors failed. Sensor No. 3 failed Sunday. It is not clear if the sensor that failed Sunday is one of the sensors that didn't pass tests Thursday.

The root cause of the problem continues to elude NASA engineers. Hale likened the problem to an intermittent electrical malfunction on an automobile that appears to fix itself by the time it arrives at the mechanic.

The plan for the shuttle's upcoming 11-day mission was to deliver the long-awaited European addition to the international space station -- a 23-foot-long laboratory module named "Columbus," after the 15th century explorer.

The high-tech lab has been in the works for 25 years and is considered a huge milestone toward the completion of the space station.

CNN's Kate Tobin contributed to this report.

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Astronauts arrive for Thursday launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Seven astronauts arrived for the start of countdown to Thursday's space shuttle launch as NASA wrapped up repairs on Atlantis' fuel tank.

Damage was discovered Friday to the insulating foam on the shuttle's 15-story external tank. NASA doesn't know how or when the gouges to the foam occurred, but the damage is considered minor.

New patches of foam have been applied. It will take 16 hours for the foam to harden properly, in plenty of time for liftoff late Thursday afternoon, said NASA test director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson.

Now that it's repaired, the foam should pose no threat to Atlantis during launch, said Blackwell-Thompson. Falling foam was disastrous in the case of Columbia in 2003, and has been a recurring problem.

Countdown clocks were set to begin ticking Monday evening. Packed safely aboard Atlantis was the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory headed for delivery to the international space station.

Good launch weather was forecast.

"We hope it stays like this all week long," commander Stephen Frick said, standing next to his crewmates beneath a brilliantly blue sky.

French astronaut Leopold Eyharts will move into the space station for a few months and help get the Columbus science lab running.

"As I will be probably gone for a while, I would like to wish you all merry Christmas and a happy new year," Eyharts said. "See you in 2008."

This will be NASA's fourth shuttle flight of the year, all to the space station. So far, each of this year's countdowns has resulted in an on-time launch.

Ever since Discovery left a month ago, the three crew members on the space station have been working practically nonstop. They looked pleased Monday as they wrapped up preparations for the arrival of Atlantis and the Columbus lab.

"If they launch this week, then I'll be home by Christmas," said astronaut Daniel Tani, who flew up aboard Discovery in October. He will be replaced by Eyharts and return to Earth on Atlantis.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Venus also zapped by lightning

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearby Venus is looking a bit more Earth-like with frequent bursts of lightning confirmed by a new European space probe.

An artist rendition shows lightning striking the surface of planet Venus.

For nearly three decades, astronomers have said Venus probably had lightning -- ever since a 1978 NASA probe showed signs of electrical activity in its atmosphere. But experts weren't sure because of signal interference.

Now a magnetic antenna on the European Space Agency's Venus Express probe proved that the lightning was real.

"We consider this to be the first definitive evidence of abundant lighting on Venus," David Grinspoon of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science told reporters Wednesday at a briefing in Paris.

The finding is significant because lightning affects atmospheric chemistry, so scientists will have to take it into account as they try to understand the atmosphere and climate of Venus, he said.

The lightning is cloud-to-cloud and about 35 miles above the surface, said University of California, Los Angeles geophysics professor C.T. Russell, lead author of a paper on the Venusian fireworks. It is being published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Bursts of electrical energy from lightning are something that scientists have long theorized could provide the spark of life in primordial ooze.

But not on Venus.

"If life was ever something serious to talk about on Venus, it would be early in its history, not in its current state," said Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not part of the research team. "It's a very unforgiving atmosphere."

The idea of Earth-like lightning is fascinating, Russell said. However, you couldn't see it from Venus' surface, nor would you want to look because the Venusian atmosphere is 100 times more dense than Earth's, is about 900 degrees hotter and has clouds of sulfuric acid, he said.

"It may be Earth's 'evil twin,' but it is in many respects Earth's twin," Russell said.

What excites astronomers most about the lightning discovery is simply the coolness factor.

Venus' weather forecasts have long thought to be "kind of boring ... steady winds for the next 400 years," said Allan Treiman, a senior scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, who isn't affiliated with the research. The idea of lightning, he said, adds a spark to Venus' weather.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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China's ambitious plans in space

(CNN) -- When China's lunar orbiter blasted off last month, there was not a cheer or smile or a "whoo-haaa" to be had in mission control.

Taikonaut Fei Junlong exits the re-entry capsule of China's second manned spacecraft on October 17, 2005.

Perhaps because for the government scientists, it was just another small step in an ambitious space program which could ultimately see a Chinese space station orbiting the Earth, a Chinese moon colony and a joint China-Russia explorer on Mars.

If all goes well, and so far it has, the Chang'e 1 will spend the next year orbiting the moon, mapping the surface and looking for resources. Next, the Chinese hope to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2012, with a robotic mission to bring back samples by 2017. Officials have recently backpedaled from goals of putting a taikonaut (the Chinese version of an astronaut or cosmonaut) on the moon by 2020, but analysts believe that is still a pressing ambition.

"If China can go to the moon, eventually with a manned program, it will represent the ultimate achievement for China in making itself essentially the second most important space power, accomplishing what even the Soviets had not," says Dean Cheng, a China military analyst for CNA, a private research corporation.

According to Cheng, the Chinese are now embarking on a systematic space program the world has not seen since the 1960's and for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States is facing real competition. That may explain why the head of NASA, Michael Griffin, recently warned that "China will be back on the moon before we are . . . I think when that happens Americans will not like it."

But there could be a lot more at stake than just lunar boasting rights. It's unlikely the Chinese will land at Tranquility Base and pull down the Stars and Stripes. But the goal could be mining resources. One powerful, potential fuel source is helium-3. Helium-3 originated from the sun and was deposited in the moon's soil by the solar wind. It is estimated there are up to two million tons on the moon, and virtually none on Earth.

"If we can ever get helium-3 and helium-3 to fuse together it is what we call nuclear power without nuclear waste -- there is no radioactivity associated with that reactor," says Professor Gerald Kulcinski, an expert in helium from the University of Wisconsin.

The key though, says Kulcinski, will be developing a fusion reactor, which he says could be done within 15 to 20 years, in tandem with a program to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Just four tons of helium-3 would be enough to supply all the power needs for the United States for a year, two shuttle payloads according to Kulcinski.

Analysts believe the lure of such potent resources is one of the reasons behind China's exploration of space. State media reported last month details of a new rocket with enough thrust to put a space station into orbit. When it's developed, the Long March 5 will have almost three times the power of existing rockets.

China has long wanted to be part of the international space station, but has always been denied, partly it's believed because of U.S. concerns. But that may not be a problem for the Chinese if they can send their own space station into orbit, reportedly by 2020. But again the Chinese are sending mixed messages, saying no firm date has been decided. More immediately, there are plans a for televised space walk by three taikonauts next year, according to the Shanghai Daily.

At a recent news conference Pei Zhaoyu from China's space administration repeated at least three times that "China has always adhered to the principle of peaceful use of outer space." But he made no mention of China's satellite killer missile which was tested earlier this year, destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite in low Earth orbit.

That and the fact that China's space administration is controlled by the military has many in Washington worried about where the Chinese are heading. Technologically, the Chinese are still behind the United States, but analysts warn that might not be the case for much longer.

"The Chinese have the advantage of a centralized decision-making authority where they can say we will do that and we will apply those funds," says Cheng, while pointing out that NASA is at the mercy of Congress, politics and a new president in 2009 who may have new goals and ambitions.

China has always insisted that it's not in a space race with any country, especially the United States -- but it is on a slow, relentless march to the moon, and beyond.

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China's ambitious plans in space

(CNN) -- When China's lunar orbiter blasted off last month, there was not a cheer or smile or a "whoo-haaa" to be had in mission control.

Taikonaut Fei Junlong exits the re-entry capsule of China's second manned spacecraft on October 17, 2005.

Perhaps because for the government scientists, it was just another small step in an ambitious space program which could ultimately see a Chinese space station orbiting the Earth, a Chinese moon colony and a joint China-Russia explorer on Mars.

If all goes well, and so far it has, the Chang'e 1 will spend the next year orbiting the moon, mapping the surface and looking for resources. Next, the Chinese hope to send an unmanned rover to the moon by 2012, with a robotic mission to bring back samples by 2017. Officials have recently backpedaled from goals of putting a taikonaut (the Chinese version of an astronaut or cosmonaut) on the moon by 2020, but analysts believe that is still a pressing ambition.

"If China can go to the moon, eventually with a manned program, it will represent the ultimate achievement for China in making itself essentially the second most important space power, accomplishing what even the Soviets had not," says Dean Cheng, a China military analyst for CNA, a private research corporation.

According to Cheng, the Chinese are now embarking on a systematic space program the world has not seen since the 1960's and for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States is facing real competition. That may explain why the head of NASA, Michael Griffin, recently warned that "China will be back on the moon before we are . . . I think when that happens Americans will not like it."

But there could be a lot more at stake than just lunar boasting rights. It's unlikely the Chinese will land at Tranquility Base and pull down the Stars and Stripes. But the goal could be mining resources. One powerful, potential fuel source is helium-3. Helium-3 originated from the sun and was deposited in the moon's soil by the solar wind. It is estimated there are up to two million tons on the moon, and virtually none on Earth.

"If we can ever get helium-3 and helium-3 to fuse together it is what we call nuclear power without nuclear waste -- there is no radioactivity associated with that reactor," says Professor Gerald Kulcinski, an expert in helium from the University of Wisconsin.

The key though, says Kulcinski, will be developing a fusion reactor, which he says could be done within 15 to 20 years, in tandem with a program to establish a permanent human presence on the moon. Just four tons of helium-3 would be enough to supply all the power needs for the United States for a year, two shuttle payloads according to Kulcinski.

Analysts believe the lure of such potent resources is one of the reasons behind China's exploration of space. State media reported last month details of a new rocket with enough thrust to put a space station into orbit. When it's developed, the Long March 5 will have almost three times the power of existing rockets.

China has long wanted to be part of the international space station, but has always been denied, partly it's believed because of U.S. concerns. But that may not be a problem for the Chinese if they can send their own space station into orbit, reportedly by 2020. But again the Chinese are sending mixed messages, saying no firm date has been decided. More immediately, there are plans a for televised space walk by three taikonauts next year, according to the Shanghai Daily.

At a recent news conference Pei Zhaoyu from China's space administration repeated at least three times that "China has always adhered to the principle of peaceful use of outer space." But he made no mention of China's satellite killer missile which was tested earlier this year, destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite in low Earth orbit.

That and the fact that China's space administration is controlled by the military has many in Washington worried about where the Chinese are heading. Technologically, the Chinese are still behind the United States, but analysts warn that might not be the case for much longer.

"The Chinese have the advantage of a centralized decision-making authority where they can say we will do that and we will apply those funds," says Cheng, while pointing out that NASA is at the mercy of Congress, politics and a new president in 2009 who may have new goals and ambitions.

China has always insisted that it's not in a space race with any country, especially the United States -- but it is on a slow, relentless march to the moon, and beyond.

Source from: edition.cnn.com

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