According to a press release by NASA, the Mars Rover Spirit moved off of its comfortable landing pad yesterday to the tune of Who Let The Dogs Out (by the Baha Men). The first movements were successful and generated a bunch of cool new photos that can be seen by …

An article from Apple's site describes using Maestro (a program used by NASA scientists) to look at raw data from Mars. Here's the basics of what you need to know to look at the data from a Mac or PC. The Apple article describes doing it for a Mac and …

The so-far-successful Mars rover, Spirit, has been given its marching orders and is set to move out, according to a press release from NASA. Don't forget to check out the cool pictures at the official site.

There was a celebration and no doubt a huge sigh of relief this morning when the first pictures came in from the Mars rover, Spirit. The craft, about the size of a golf cart, will spend its life roaming the red planet, grinding up rock samples and analyzing their contents …

If you were wondering where the Rutan's Scaled Composites was getting its money to fund their attempt at the XPrize, then you need wonder no further. Space Today points at a number of reports of Paul Allen admitting that he is bankrolling the effort.

A story from the Associated Press earlier this month (courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle) reinforces the importance of paying attention to what you are doing. Lockheed Martin dropped a NOAA satellite (NOAA-N) on its side during a routine operation to move it from a vertical to horizontal position. The …

On the eve of the announcement that NASA plans to run the shuttle again next spring, the Christian Science Monitor has an article about the X Prize, a contest intended to bring commercial entities into the space race.

According to a press release by NASA, the ozone layer is still being depleted, but the rate at which it is occurring is on the decrease. Although not yet to the point where we'll be getting back to the pre-CFC state, it does show progress in reversing man-made pollution. There …

An article from SpaceToday.net reports that NASA has finally launched Opportunity, NASA's new Mars rover. Further information about, and pictures from, the launch are available in the NASA feature piece. More information on the MER (Mars Exploration Rover) mission, and about Opportunity's twin, Spirit, are available on the NASA …

Thanks to a pointer from SlashDot, I found this article by NASA Langley Research Center researcher Craig Hunter. The study compares the G5 against a P4 (and a pair of G4s) in a single processor configuration (done by turning off the second CPU using Apple's CHUD tools) on scalar operations …

DirecTV and EchoStar are threatening the state of South Carolina with a lawsuit if $30M in taxes that the companies allege were illegally levied upon satellite TV customers are not refunded. The Triangle Business Journal reports that the companies (really company at this point) have made the threat to conform …

An article from SpaceToday.net and referencing a press release from the Columbia Accident Investigation Board indicates that the board is requesting NASA put together a plan to check and repair tiles while the Shuttle is on a mission. The plan involves setting up an inspection regime for missions that …

If you have $20M, you can have one of two seats on upcoming Soyuz missions to the ISS. According to an article from the New York Times, Virginia-based Space Adventures and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency have reached an agreement to resume commercial space travel to the ISS. NASA …

According to an article on Space.com, NASA wants to start launching again before the end of the year and finish the US portion of the ISS by 2005. Among the other interesting tidbits: No more nighttime launches Redesign of the external fuel tank (to prevent falling foam incidents) Possible …

After two days of weather-related delays, a Boeing Delta II rocket lifted the two rovers from the Earth on their way to Mars. An article from SpaceToday.net points to a number of articles about today's launch. As planned, the first rover (Spirit) separated from the launch vehicle's third stage …

According to an article on Wired, a model rocketry group from Portland State University is putting together a model rocket that is running on Linux. The group is building a sophisticated rocket designed to climb to about 50,000 feet and to carry processors to control flight and send back …

Wired reports that the ESA (European Space Agency) has launched their Mars probe.

SpaceToday.net is reporting that a test intended to determine if a piece of foam insulation could have damaged the space shuttle has resulted in a 62cm long by .6cm deep gap in the test material, furthering speculation that foam strike was definitely related to the failure of the wing …

The launch of Beagle 2, the "British-led expedition of Mars" will lift off in less than 10 days aboard a Soyuz rocket. Scheduled to arrive in December, the Beagle 2 will search for life on Mars.

An article on SpaceToday.net says that the board investigating the Columbia disaster believes that a rescue (involving sending the shuttle Atlantis after the crew) would have been possible. This report raises questions about the decision by NASA not to pursue assistance in gaining satellite imagery of the damaged shuttle …