• Unmanned Spacecraft

NASA has extended the Cassini-Huygens mission by two years, until July 2010.

• Unmanned Spacecraft

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft has extended its mission to include a search for exosolar planets (planets orbiting other stars). This part of the mission is called Epoxi.

• Unmanned Spacecraft

The Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been on Mars since January 2004. They were expected to last only 90 days but will work into 2009. The rovers are on opposite sides of Mars.

• Unmanned Spacecraft

Pioneer spacecraft 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 and are heading out of our solar system at a speed of about 30,000 miles per hour. Scientists have been monitoring them throughout their flights. They are about 92.12 AUs away from the sun. (An Astronomical Unit is the distance between the Earth and the sun, about 93 million miles).

• Unmanned Spacecraft

The joint mission to Saturn by the Cassini and Huygens spacecraft is a result of international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and ASI (Italian Space Agency). The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, its rings, and moons released the Huygens spacecraft that landed on Saturn’s clouded moon Titan on January 14, 2005. The data that is still being sent back by both spacecraft is revealing the amazing world of Titan.

• Unmanned Spacecraft

STARDUST RETURNS

NASA launched the spacecraft Stardust on February 6, 1999. Its 7-year mission included 3 orbits around the sun, a swing by Earth, and a comet flyby before returning to Earth. It collected interstellar dust on two of its solar loops. It collected cometary dust from its flyby of Comet 81P/Wild 2. Its 3 billion mile journey ended on January 15, 2006 when its capsule parachuted to the ground for a gentle landing in the Utah Test and Training Range at 4:12 a.m. (CST).

• Unmanned Spacecraft
• International Space Exploration

More than two years after its inaugural flight ended in disaster, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the Ariane-5 ECA rocket from Kourou, French Guiana on February 12, 2005. The 780-ton rocket can carry a 10-ton payload.

• Saturn
• Unmanned Spacecraft
• Asteroids
• Solar System

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released data sent back from their space probe Huygen that landed on Saturn’s moon Titan. The first pictures of the surface of Titan reveal a frozen hilly landscape with channels or riverbeds carved by some liquid. A picture taken from 10 miles above the surface shows a large dark mass that appears to be a lake. Another picture shows large white chunks of boulders or blocks of water ice scattered in the foreground with a grey surface in the background. More data reveals a pale orange landscape with a spongy surface like wet sand or clay. Huygen space probe’s microphone has picked up a low, whooshing sound.

• Unmanned Spacecraft
• Comets
• Solar System

NASA launched the spacecraft Deep Impact on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 on a mission to Comet Tempel 1. The 820-pound spacecraft will travel 268 million miles, more than 80 million miles from Earth and just beyond the orbit of Mars, to crash into the 9-mile wide comet at a speed of 23,000 miles per hour. The impact will be equivalent to 4.5 tons of TNT exploding. The debris from the comet poses no threat to Earth, neither will the slight change in the comet’s orbital path.