Mission Control Moscow lost all contact with Progress 44 spacecraft, headed for the International Space Station (ISS) with 2.5 tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the ISS.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is in the early stages of planning a mission to the South Pole of the moon.

The European Space Agency (ESA) launched the satellite Proba-2 on November 2, 2009. Proba-2 is a solar observatory. It has many novel devices and science instruments using new technologies.

NASA has several launches scheduled for the summer. The first is on June 2nd for LRO/LCROSS mission to the moon.

The European Space Agency (ESA) extended the missions of three successful spacecraft until the end of this year.

On October 17th, The SETI Institute opened the Carl Sagan Research Center for the Study of Life in the Universe at Mountain View, California. The research group includes 50 scientists and is devoted to pursuing the scientific questions that fascinated Carl Sagan the most.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is building a new fleet of spacecraft to help get supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). The Automatic Transfer Vehicle (ATV) will be put into use in 2007.

China launched a satellite last month carrying the largest payload of plant and fungi seeds ever, at 474 pounds. The satellite will orbit Earth and return in two weeks. Chinese officials say that seeds exposed to the conditions of space (radiation and microgravity) contain more vitamins and other crucial minerals. The purpose is to improve the quality and yield of terrestrial crops by using the space-exposed seeds.

Twenty-three university groups worked together over the Internet to build a satellite and its payload. European university students built a satellite under the supervision of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa (Falcon) has traveled 200 million miles to the asteroid 25143 Itokawa and is hovering about 15 miles above its surface. Hayabusa has a laser altimeter to measure surface heights and two spectrometers to analyze mineral compositions.