News Articles for 2003

	December 30, 2003 NASA Comet Hunter Closing on Quarry Having trekked 3.2 billion kilometers (2 billion miles) across cold, radiation-charged and interstellar-dust-swept space in just under five years, NASA's Stardust spacecraft is closing in on the main target of its mission -- a comet flyby. Read more

	December 29, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status NASA's Spirit rover spacecraft fired its thrusters for 3.4 seconds on Friday, Dec. 26, to make a slight and possibly final correction in its flight path about one week before landing on Mars. Read more

	December 23, 2003 Ion Engine Under Consideration for Jupiter Mission Passes Test A new ion propulsion engine design, one of several candidate propulsion technologies under study by NASA's Project Prometheus for possible use on the proposed Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter mission, has been successfully tested by a team of engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Read more

	December 18, 2003 NASA Announces New Name for Space Infrared Telescope Facility NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced that NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility has been renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope. Read more

	December 18, 2003 NASA Releases Dazzling Images From New Space Telescope A new window to the universe has opened with today's release of the first dazzling images from NASA's newly named Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility. Read more

	December 17, 2003 Mars May Be Emerging from an Ice Age NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions have provided evidence of a recent ice age on Mars. Read more

	December 16, 2003 Catching the Wild Child -- How Stardust Stays on Target Imagine driving through heavy fog to a place you've never been, guided only by a faint taillight in the distance. Read more

	December 11, 2003 Tones Break Silence During Mars Exploration Rover Landings On the phone, tones can signal a connection. On paper, they can add shape and dimension. On Mars, they can do both. This is why members of the Mars Exploration Rover Entry Descent and Landing team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be on the lookout for a series of tones during the mission's landings in January 2004. Read more

	December 10, 2003 Mission Captures Galaxies Galore The most sensitive and comprehensive ultraviolet image ever taken of the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest large neighbor galaxy, has been captured by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Read more

	December 10, 2003 NASA Scientists Discover Spring Thaw Makes a Difference Using a suite of microwave remote sensing instruments aboard satellites, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the University of Montana, Missoula, have observed a recent trend of earlier thawing across the northern high latitudes. Read more

	December 8, 2003 Odyssey Studies Changing Weather and Climate on Mars Mars may be going through a period of climate change, new findings from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter suggest. Read more

	December 5, 2003 The Measure of Water: NASA Creates New Map for the Atmosphere NASA scientists have opened a new window for understanding atmospheric water vapor, its implications for climate change, and ozone depletion. Read more

	December 5, 2003 NASA Scientists Use Radar to Detect Asteroid Force NASA scientists have for the first time detected a tiny but theoretically important force acting on asteroids by measuring an extremely subtle change in a near-Earth asteroid’s orbital path. Read more

	December 4, 2003 Progress, Promise in Space-based Earthquake Research Nearly 10 years after Los Angeles was shaken by the devastating, magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake, scientists at NASA and other institutions say maturing space-based technologies, new ground-based techniques and more complex computer models are rapidly advancing our understanding of earthquakes and earthquake processes. Read more

	December 4, 2003 Mars Missions Have International Flavor A European Space Agency mission that will arrive at Mars this month has American participants, and Europeans are team members for two NASA spacecraft that will reach Mars in January. Read more

	December 2, 2003 Mars Rovers Head for Exciting Landings in January NASA's robotic Mars geologist, Spirit, embodying America's enthusiasm for exploration, must run a grueling gantlet of challenges before it can start examining the red planet. Read more

	December 2, 2003 Challenges of Getting to Mars Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. Read more

	December 1, 2003 NASA Spacecraft Pinpoints Where the Wild Thing is Forty-nine days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt-2), from 25 million kilometers (15.5 million miles) away. Read more

	November 26, 2003 Mars Odyssey Mission Status The martian radiation environment experiment on NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter has collected data continuously from the start of the Odyssey mapping mission in March 2002 until late last month. Read more

	November 21, 2003 Final Death Throes of Nearby Star Witnessed First-Hand It takes only a few hundred to a thousand years for a dying Sun-like star, many billions of years old, to transform into a dazzling, glowing cloud called a planetary nebula. Read more

	November 21, 2003 Our Amazing Universe: Vote for Your Favorite Image You're invited to help NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory celebrate 10 years of dazzling imagery of the universe from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 onboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Read more

	November 20, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status NASA's Spirit spacecraft made its third trajectory correction. Read more

	November 18, 2003 Largest pair of 'eyes' ever built to aid search for planets Fully assembled, the Large Binocular Telescope resembles a face, gazing skyward with a pair of enormous saucer eyes. Read more

	November 17, 2003 NASA's Deep Space Network: Calling Home Is About to Get Easier This winter an unprecedented number of spacecraft will need to call home. Read more

	November 14, 2003 Dr. Jean Dickey, Physicist The television program "As the World Turns" is an apt description for JPL physicist Dr. Jean Dickey's line of work: observing Earth's rotation and the factors that affect it. Read more

	November 13, 2003 Delta-Like Fan on Mars Suggests Ancient Rivers Were Persistent Newly seen details in a fan-shaped apron of debris on Mars may help settle a decades-long debate about whether the planet had long-lasting rivers instead of just brief, intense floods. Read more

	November 13, 2003 Cassini Captures Jupiter in Close-Up Portrait Jupiter, our solar system's most massive planet, has been captured in the most detailed global color view ever seen, courtesy of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Read more

	November 7, 2003 Two Cosmic Explorers Named ‘Best of What's New' Two recently launched NASA missions won "Best of What's New" awards from Popular Science magazine. Read more

	November 5, 2003 JPL-Managed Missions Chosen for Study A mission to study black holes, managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is one of five selected recently by NASA as candidate mission proposals to study the universe. Read more

	November 5, 2003 Deep Space Network Gears Up for Interplanetary Boom NASA'S Deep Space Network has completed a number of upgrades to help support the fleet of more than two dozen spacecraft touring the solar system. Read more

	November 5, 2003 Voyager Spacecraft Approaches Solar System's Final Frontier NASA's venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft, built and operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is about to make history again. Read more

	November 4, 2003 Mars Rover Spirit Mission Status A series of tests of one of the science instruments on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has enabled engineers and scientists to identify how to work around an apparent problem detected in August. Read more

	November 3, 2003 Cassini Spacecraft Captures Sounds of Solar Storm University of Iowa Professor and Space Physicist Dr. Don Gurnett used NASA's Cassini spacecraft to record the sound of one of the largest solar flares seen in decades, as it moved outward from the Sun. Read more

	October 28, 2003 JPL Scientists Receive NASA Fundamental Physics Grants Four scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, along with 11 other researchers, have been awarded NASA grants totaling more than $6.4 million over four years, to conduct space fundamental physics research. Read more

	October 28, 2003 People Are Robots, Too. Almost Popular culture has long pondered the question, "If it looks like a human, walks like a human and talks like a human, is it human?" So far the answer has been no. Robots can't cry, bleed or feel like humans, and that's part of what makes them different. Read more

	October 23, 2003 JPL Researchers Unveil Superconductor-Based Light Detector A new and improved way to measure light has been unveiled by physicists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both in Pasadena, Calif. Read more

	October 23, 2003 NASA Scientist Dives into Perfect Space Storm Newly uncovered scientific data of recorded history's most massive space storm is helping a NASA scientist investigate its intensity and the probability that what occurred on Earth and in the heavens almost a century-and-a-half ago could happen again. Read more

	October 22, 2003 JPL Engineer in a Class of Her Own Dr. Ayanna Howard, an electrical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been selected as one of the top 100 innovators by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review Magazine. Read more

	October 20, 2003 Missing Link Sought in Planetary Evolution Just as anthropologists sought "the missing link" between apes and humans, astronomers are embarking on a quest for a missing link in planetary evolution. Read more

	October 16, 2003 South American Glaciers Melting Faster, Changing Sea Level The Patagonia Icefields of Chile and Argentina, the largest non-Antarctic ice masses in the Southern Hemisphere, are thinning at an accelerating pace and now account for nearly 10 percent of global sea-level change from mountain glaciers, according to a new study by NASA and Chile's Centro de Estudios Cientificos. Read more

	October 14, 2003 Cosmic Jets Whoosh into Free Public Lectures Cosmic jets -- a common but mysterious phenomenon in the universe -- will be the topic of two free lectures to be held on Thurs., October 16 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, and Fri., October 17 at Pasadena City College. Read more

	October 13, 2003 Space Infrared Telescope Facility Mission Status The Space Infrared Telescope Facility, NASA's fourth and final Great Observatory, has been successfully focused. Read more

	October 13, 2003 Associate Director Honored by American Astronautical Society Thomas R. Gavin, associate director of flight projects and mission success at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. is being honored as a fellow of the American Astronautical Society. Read more

	October 8, 2003 Research Scientist Receives National Minority Award Dr. Claudia Alexander, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calf., is the recipient of an Emerald Honor for Women of Color in Research & Engineering. Read more

	October 2, 2003 Saturn-Bound Spacecraft Tests Einstein's Theory An experiment by Italian scientists using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, currently en route to Saturn, confirms Einstein's theory of general relativity with a precision that is 50 times greater than previous measurements. Read more

	October 1, 2003 A Galaxy Far, Far Away Eyed by Linked Hawaiian Telescopes A galaxy far beyond our own Milky Way, with a monstrous, churning black hole in its center, has been observed by two optical telescopes working in unison as an interferometer. Read more

	September 30, 2003 Gallery of Mars Closeups from NASA Orbiter Adds 10,232 Views Thousands of newly released portraits of martian landscapes from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft testify to the diversity of ways geological processes have sculpted the surface of our neighboring planet. Read more

	September 23, 2003 Early Arctic Thaw Could Have Chilling Effect Spring will be coming early next year to the great forests and tundra of the Arctic. Good for the vegetation, but perhaps not so good for the atmosphere. Read more

	September 23, 2003 If You Thought That Was a Close View of Mars, Just Wait As Earth pulls away from Mars after last month's close approach, NASA is developing a spacecraft that will take advantage of the next close encounter in 2005. Read more

	September 22, 2003 NASA Awards Deep Space Network Operations Contract NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has awarded ITT Industries of White Plains, N.Y., a five-year, $274-million subcontract for operations and maintenance of NASA's Deep Space Network facilities in the United States and for support of overseas facilities. Read more

	September 21, 2003 Galileo End of Mission Status The Galileo spacecraft's 14-year odyssey came to an end on Sunday, Sept. 21, when the spacecraft passed into Jupiter's shadow then disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere at 11:57 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. Read more

	September 17, 2003 Galileo to Taste Jupiter Before Taking Final Plunge In the end, the Galileo spacecraft will get a taste of Jupiter before taking a final plunge into the planet's crushing atmosphere, ending the mission on Sunday, Sept. 21. Read more

	September 17, 2003 Surprising Jupiter After orbiting Jupiter 34 times and surviving four times the amount of radiation it was design to withstand, the resilient Galileo spacecraft is finally at the very end of its 14-year mission. Read more

	September 16, 2003 JPL Scientist Among NASA Trio Honored with Prestigious Awards A prominent scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., joins two other NASA leaders being honored by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Women in Aerospace for their outstanding achievements in aerospace technology, education and community outreach. Read more

	September 16, 2003 Lecture Brings Galileo's Travels into Final Focus Just a few days before NASA's Galileo mission makes its grand finale, Dr. Rosaly Lopes, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will discuss the legacy of the mission in two free lectures. Read more

	September 12, 2003 Marine Picks First Public Mars Global Surveyor Image If you were given a chance to aim the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter and take a picture of something on the red planet, what would you shoot? Read more

	September 11, 2003 NASA Wants You to Be a Solar System Ambassador With hopes to further expand the successful Solar System Ambassador program, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is recruiting more volunteers to be Solar System Ambassadors in 2004. Read more

	September 11, 2003 Lab Research Yields the Biggest Chill NASA-funded researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge have cooled sodium gas to the lowest temperature ever recorded -- one-half-billionth degree above absolute zero. Read more

	September 10, 2003 NASA Satellites Sample Hurricane 'Ingredients' to Help Forecasters Every year, from June 1 to November 30, the Atlantic Ocean becomes a meteorological mixing bowl, replete with all the needed ingredients for a hurricane recipe. Read more

	September 8, 2003 Lending an Improved Ear With the help of friends down under, calling home is about to get easier. Read more

	September 3, 2003 Space Infrared Telescope Facility Mission Status NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility has switched on two of its onboard instruments and captured some preliminary star-studded images. Read more

	September 2, 2003 NASA Explorer Schools Enroll in JPL 101 Teachers had a blast with the launch of the NASA Explorer Schools program this summer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Read more

	August 29, 2003 Teen Has 'Dream Science Vacation' at JPL Many visitors to Southern California have Disneyland on their itinerary. So when R.J. Gross and his family made their way here from Pennsylvania earlier this month, the Happiest Place on Earth was definitely a target destination. Read more

	August 27, 2003 As Sea Level Rises, Beaches Shrink The increase looks small, but the consequences are potentially huge. Rising sea level threatens to inundate low-lying regions, such as the Chesapeake, and dramatically increase coastal and beach erosion around the world. Read more

	August 25, 2003 Space Infrared Telescope Facility Mission Status Following last night's picture-perfect launch, NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility is positioned exactly where ground controllers want it to be, trailing behind Earth as it orbits the Sun. Read more

	August 25, 2003 Space Infrared Telescope Facility Lifts Off NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility successfully launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1:35:39 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (10:35:39 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, August 24) aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Read more

	August 22, 2003 Earth Has a New Look A brand new look and understanding of the place we call home. Read more

	August 21, 2003 New Findings Could Dash Hopes for Past Oceans on Mars After a decades-long quest, scientists analyzing data from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have at last found critical evidence the spacecraft's infrared spectrometer instrument was built to search for: the presence of water-related carbonate minerals on the surface of Mars. Read more

	August 21, 2003 Dr. Ayanna Howard, Robotics Engineer In this video profile, Dr. Ayanna Howard takes us to JPL's Mars Yard and more as she describes how engineers design and test future rovers for Mars. Read more

	August 20, 2003 NASA Seeks Public Suggestions for Mars Photos Earth comes closer to Mars this month than it has in nearly 60,000 years, but one new opportunity for seeing details on the red planet comes from a vantage point much closer. Read more

	August 19, 2003 Programs Will Share Inside Story of Mars-Bound Robots Two free public programs in Pasadena this week will offer an introduction to the challenges and excitement of NASA's project to examine two areas of Mars with robotic rovers that are currently flying to Mars. Read more

	August 19, 2003 Infrared -- Catch the Wave When you pick up that TV remote to switch to your favorite channel, you''re riding a wave--an infrared wave. Read more

	August 13, 2003 NASA Satellites Eye Forest Fires If a forest catches fire and no one is around to see it, can it call for help? Read more

	August 11, 2003 Science, Studies and a Little Sun for Students at JPL Thanks to a partnership between NASA''s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Washington College of Engineering, eight soon-to-be college freshmen are spending their summer working on science and engineering projects at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Read more

	August 6, 2003 Asteroids Dedicated to Space Shuttle Columbia Crew The final crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia was memorialized in the cosmos as seven asteroids orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter were named in their honor today. Read more

	August 6, 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status The first in-flight checkouts of the science instruments and engineering cameras on NASA's twin Spirit and Opportunity spacecraft on their way to Mars have provided an assessment of the instruments' condition after the stressful vibrations of launch. Read more

	August 6, 2003 A Rock By Any Other Name It begins with a faint trace of light that besmirches an astronomer’s otherwise pristine image of a starfield. The process ends, if the observer is lucky, with an opportunity to dispense a cosmological version of immortality by naming a celestial object for an earthly entity. Read more

	August 4, 2003 Mars 2007 'Phoenix' will Study Water near Mars' North Pole In May 2008, the progeny of two promising U.S. missions to Mars will deploy a lander to the water-ice-rich northern polar region, dig with a robotic arm into arctic terrain for clues on the history of water, and search for environments suitable for microbes. Read more

	July 31, 2003 JPL Software Expert Wins Award Dr. Gerard Holzmann, who recently joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has won a Thomas Alva Edison patent award in the information technology category. Read more

	July 30, 2003 Ion Engine Records No Tuneups, No Problems The future is here for spacecraft propulsion and the trouble-free engine performance that every vehicle operator would like, achieved by an ion engine running for a record 30,352 hours at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Read more

	July 28, 2003 Mars Moves in for Some Quality Visual Time Living too close to a neighbor may not be very appealing, but when Earth’s neighboring red planet moves closer than it’s been in 60,000 years, observers expect nothing but acclaim. Read more

	July 25, 2003 Intriguing Celestial Images Arrive from Galaxy Mission NASA/'s Galaxy Evolution Explorer has beamed back revealing images of hundreds of galaxies to expectant astronomers, providing the first batch of data on star formation that they had hoped for. Read more

	July 22, 2003 Tiny Measurement Gives Big Boost to Planet Hunt To detect the stellar wobble caused by a planet as small as Earth, scientists need an instrument of almost unbelievable sensitivity. Read more

	July 21, 2003 USA-France Tandem Satellite Mission Serving Up Fresh Sea Fare Take one well-seasoned oceanography satellite, the joint NASA-Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (French Space Agency) Topex/Poseidon, nearing its 11th year in orbit to study the world's ocean circulation and its effect on climate, mix in a fresh sibling satellite, Jason, and add a dash of ingenuity, and you get what scientists are calling the Jason-Topex/Poseidon tandem mission. Read more

	July 21, 2003 Oceanographers Catch First Wave of Gravity Mission's Success The joint NASA-German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission has released its first science product, the most accurate map yet of Earth’s gravity field. Grace is the newest tool for scientists working to unlock secrets of ocean circulation and its effects on climate. Read more

	July 18, 2003 Students and Teachers to Explore Mars While the ultimate field trip might someday be an actual journey to Mars, NASA is doing the next best thing - giving high school teams the opportunity to explore Mars by working on specific research projects during the Mars Exploration Rover missions, set to land on the red planet in January 2004. Read more

	July 18, 2003 Mars Rover Opportunity Mission Status NASA's Opportunity spacecraft made its first trajectory correction maneuver today, a scheduled operation to fine-tune its Mars-bound trajectory, or flight path. Read more

	July 15, 2003 Asteroid Hunters Discover Near-Earth Object with New Camera NASA astronomers in pursuit of near-Earth asteroids have already made a discovery with the newly installed Quasar Equatorial Survey, or 'Quest,' camera mounted in mid-April on Palomar Mountain's 1.2-meter (48-inch) Oschin telescope. Read more

	July 14, 2003 Art Meets Aerogel The Louvre….the Vatican Museums….JPL? There is no doubt that the heavens and the exploration of space have inspired beautiful art. Read more

	July 11, 2003 Meet the Humans Behind the Robots From investigating abandoned buildings to charting the hazardous terrain of Mars, engineers at JPL design robots able to confront risky environments on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. Read more

	July 11, 2003 Scientists, Students Dig High and Low for 'Dirt' on Soil Moisture It's all about "getting the dirt." In this case, collecting detailed information about the soil. Read more

	July 11, 2003 Dr. Gary Blackwood, Interferometer Systems Manager In this video profile, Dr. Gary Blackwood explains how this future mission will look for signs of other worlds like ours. Read more

	July 9, 2003 Mars Rover Opportunity Mission Status NASA's Opportunity spacecraft, the second of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, has successfully reduced its spin rate as planned and switched to celestial navigation using a star scanner. Read more

	July 7, 2003 Newly Launched 'Opportunity' Follows Mars-Bound 'Spirit' Launched 'Opportunity' Follows Mars-Bound 'Spirit'. NASA launched its second Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, late Monday night aboard a Delta II launch vehicle whose bright glare briefly illuminated Florida Space Coast beaches. Read more

	July 1, 2003 NASA Explorer Schools Program Takes Off NASA launched a major new education initiative this week when the NASA Explorer Schools Program premiered at the 2003 National Educating Computer Conference in Seattle. Read more

	July 1, 2003 Hawaiian Telescope Team Makes Debut Discovery Astronomers have observed a young star ringed by a swirling disc that may spin off planets, marking the first published science observation using two linked 10-meter (33- foot) telescopes in Hawaii. Read more

	June 30, 2003 From VCRs to Spacecraft: Electrical Engineer Karreem Hogan Karreem Hogan is an electrical engineer participating in an academic program at JPL. Read more

	June 27, 2003 At 25, Remembering a Trendsetting Seafaring Satellite It only skippered the seas of space for a mere three months, but just as Gilligan's "three-hour tour" has continued on in syndication for decades, a salty satellite launched to study the oceans 25 years ago this week by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is living on through the many missions it has spawned. Read more

	June 26, 2003 NASA's Odyssey Orbiter Watches a Frosty Mars NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft is revealing new details about the intriguing, dynamic character of the frozen layers now known to dominate the high northern latitudes of Mars. Read more

	June 24, 2003 NASA Orbiter Eyes Phobos Over Mars Horizon Images from the Mars Orbiter Camera aboard NASAs Mars Global Surveyor capture a faint yet distinct glimpse of the elusive Phobos, the larger and innermost of Mars' two moons. Read more

	June 20, 2003 Mars Rover Spirit Mission Status NASA's Spirit spacecraft, the first of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, performed its first trajectory correction maneuver today. Read more

	June 19, 2003 Stardust Spacecraft Mission Status With 198 days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA's Stardust spacecraft successfully completed the missions third deep space maneuver. Read more

	June 19, 2003 South America Shines in NASA's Latest Space Radar Map Release Straddling the equator and engaged in a titanic clash of great tectonic plates, South America is home to some of the worlds most scenic landscapes. Read more

	June 19, 2003 New Maps Open Roads to Research Aalto's special interest is rivers and how they transport mass -- taking rock away from some places and adding to others. Read more

	June 12, 2003 Mars Rover Spirit Mission Status NASA's Spirit spacecraft, the first of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, has successfully reduced its spin rate as planned and switched to celestial navigation using a star scanner. Read more

	June 10, 2003 NASA's 'Spirit' Rises on Its Way to Mars A NASA robotic geologist named Spirit began its seven-month journey to Mars at 1:58:47 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (10:58:47 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time) today when its Delta II launch vehicle thundered aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Read more

	June 9, 2003 Scope Out NASA's Space Observatory Finale An upcoming mission that will study the darkest and dustiest regions in the cosmos will be explored in two free lectures to be held on Thursday, June 12, at JPL, and Friday, June 13, at Pasadena City College. Read more

	June 8, 2003 Girl with Dreams Names Mars Rovers 'Spirit' and 'Opportunity' Twin robotic geologists NASA is sending to Mars will embody in their newly chosen names -- Spirit and Opportunity -- two cherished attributes that guide humans to explore. Read more

	June 4, 2003 NASA Will Send Two Robotic Geologists to Roam on Mars NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project kicks off by launching the first of two unique robotic geologists on June 8. Read more

	June 2, 2003 U.S. Partners Share in Excitement of Europe's Mars Mission Americans are participating in several ways in the European Space Agency's first mission to Mars, launched today from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Read more

	June 2, 2003 Doctor Prescribes Space Science to U.S. Troops in Iraq A nuclear, biological and chemical defense officer for the Army’s 1st Medical Brigade, Steinhurst is an army captain who also volunteers as a solar system ambassador for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Read more

	May 28, 2003 Galaxy Mission Honors Columbia Crew with First Light NASAs Galaxy Evolution Explorer has gathered its first celestial images, a first light milestone dedicated to the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Read more

	May 27, 2003 Theatre in the Rectangle The great sculptor gravity ensures that larger, denser objects in the universe -- like stars, planets and moons -- take on the familiar spherical shape. Read more

	May 22, 2003 First-Ever Snapshot Released of Mother Earth from Mars Have you ever wondered what you would see if you were on Mars looking at Earth through a small telescope? Read more

	May 22, 2003 New NASA Computer Models May Lead to Quake Forecast System Advanced computer simulation tools now being developed by NASA and university researchers may soon give scientists new insights into the complex and mysterious physics of earthquakes and enable vastly improved earthquake forecasting. Read more

	May 21, 2003 Frozen Light: Cool NASA Research Holds Promise NASA-funded research at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., that literally stops light in its tracks, may someday lead to breakneck-speed computers that shelter enormous amounts of data from hackers. Read more

	May 20, 2003 Newly Discovered Star May Be Third-Closest The local celestial neighborhood just got more crowded with a discovery of a star that may be the third closest to the Sun. Read more

	May 15, 2003 Dr. Suzanne Smrekar, Planetary Geophysicist In this video profile, JPL's Dr. Suzanne Smrekar studies gravity's effects on Earth and other planets. Read more

	May 8, 2003 Your Name Could Make a 'Deep Impact' on a Comet People worldwide may celebrate July 4, 2005, as the day their names reach a comet. NASA is launching a campaign to send hundreds of thousands of names to comet Tempel 1. Read more

	May 6, 2003 Galaxy Evolution Explorer Mission Status NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer successfully opened its telescope cover this morning at 4:32 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (1:32 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). Read more

	May 6, 2003 NASA Brings 'Mars at the Mall' to Florida May 9 and 10 Part of Merritt Square Mall in Merritt Island, Fla., will take on an unearthly tone during two "Mars at the Mall" days presented by NASA on May 9 and 10 to celebrate Florida's role as America's gateway to Mars. Read more

	May 1, 2003 JPL Welcomes World-Renowned Software Specialist Dr. Gerard Holzmann, a leader in software verification and validation, has joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to further develop the newly established Laboratory for Reliable Software. Read more

	April 30, 2003 NASA 'Ambassadors' Target the Future of Flight with Space Day About 35 volunteers in NASA's Solar System Ambassadors Program are planning an assortment of public activities across the country for Space Day, being observed this year on May 1. The events run through May 17. Read more

	April 29, 2003 Live Webcast Will Preview Mars Rover Adventure A live interactive broadcast and webcast on May 1 will offer an advance look at NASA's plans to land two robotic geologists on Mars in January 2004 -- the Mars Exploration Rover mission. Read more

	April 29, 2003 New NASA Data Helps Take 'Whether' Out of Weather Prediction Your weatherperson's job just got a little easier, thanks to new data now available from advanced weather instruments aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. Read more

	April 29, 2003 Breaking the Typhoon Rules Storms like Typhoon Varmei aren't supposed to happen. So when U.S. Navy ships were hit by this tropical cyclone in the South China Sea in December 2001, researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, Calif., decided to take a closer look. Read more

	April 28, 2003 Galaxy Evolution Explorer On Its Way NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft was successfully launched today from a Pegasus XL rocket released by an L-1011 aircraft off the coast of Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Station at 7:59:57 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (4:59:57 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time). Read more

	April 25, 2003 Lectures to Cover Engineering Challenges of 'Hard Rock' Science Scientists and engineers don't always dance to the beat of the same drum, especially when it comes to "hard rock" science -- the study of intact, crystallized rocks on other planets, which may provide clues to how these other worlds formed. Read more

	April 22, 2003 Transforming Teachers into NASA Astronauts Students and the public are encouraged to help NASA recruit teachers who can create out-of-this-world ways to educate students. Read more

	April 22, 2003 Galaxy Evolution Explorer Looks Back in Time NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer will carry a telescope into Earth orbit that will observe a million galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic history to help astronomers determine when the stars we see today had their origins. Read more

	April 21, 2003 JPL Open House to Take Visitors to the Planets and Beyond NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will hold an open house on Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., taking visitors on a virtual ride through the solar system with this year's theme, "Journey To The Planets and Beyond." Read more

	April 21, 2003 Shedding Light on the Universe The universe has been described as a symphony of light. And just as any piece of music is comprised of individual notes up and down the musical scale, the dazzling display of light from celestial sources is made up of photons, or "packets" of light, scaled by energy along the electromagnetic spectrum. Read more

	April 15, 2003 NASA and Naval Research Lab to Study Coastal Eddies NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory will take a closer look at the swirling water phenomenon known as coastal eddies when they fly a specially-instrumented NASA airborne sciences DC-8 jet off the Southern California coast this month. Read more

	April 15, 2003 NASA Orbiter Camera Team Begins Daily Mars Picture Postings The camera team for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission is beginning daily Internet postings of pictures that showcase the rich diversity of martian landscapes. Read more

	April 14, 2003 Peril in Peru? NASA Takes a Look at Menacing Glacier An Earth-monitoring instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite is keeping a close eye on a potential glacial disaster-in-the-making in Peru's spectacular, snow-capped Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains), the highest range of the Peruvian Andes. Read more

	April 11, 2003 NASA Rovers Slated to Examine Two Intriguing Sites on Mars NASA has chosen two scientifically compelling landing sites for twin robotic rovers to explore on the surface of Mars early next year. The two sites are a giant crater that appears to have once held a lake, and a broad outcropping of a mineral that usuall Read more

	April 10, 2003 Mars Mysteries Revealed in Two Public Lectures Two free public programs in Pasadena next week offer an overview of the historic Mars Global Surveyor mission. Read more

	April 9, 2003 Galileo Millennium Mission Status NASA's Galileo spacecraft serendipitously discovered seven to nine space rocks near Jupiter's inner moon Amalthea when Galileo flew past that moon five months ago. Read more

	April 9, 2003 Geoff Marcy, Astronomer and Planet-Hunter Leading planet-hunter Geoff Marcy predicts the discovery of another Earth within a decade. Read more

	April 8, 2003 Prolific NASA Orbiter Adds Thousands of Photos to Mars Album The winds of Mars leave their marks on many of the 11,664 new pictures being posted on the Internet today by the camera team for NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. Read more

	April 3, 2003 David Doody, Spaceflight Operations Engineer David Doody has been flying spacecraft since he was 5. Well, sort of flying them. Read more

	April 2, 2003 NASA Researchers Put New Spin on Einstein's Relativity Theory Albert Einstein might be astonished to learn that NASA physicists have applied his relativity theory to a concept he introduced but later disliked namely that two particles that interact could maintain a connection even if separated by a vast distance. Read more

	April 1, 2003 JPL Origins Theme Technologist Receives Goddard Award Dr. James Breckinridge, Origins theme technologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been named the 2003 recipient of the International Society for Optical Engineering's George W. Goddard Award. Read more

	March 31, 2003 Robots Stack Their Way to Victory in NASA-Sponsored Competition Complete with alliances and the thrill of knocking out your opponents, this competition is a little like the "Survivor" reality TV show. Read more

	March 31, 2003 NASA's Deep Space 1 Team Receives National Award The team that developed and flew NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft will receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' prestigious Space Systems Award. Read more

	March 28, 2003 NASA Finds Wide Annual Fluctuations in Arctic Ozone Loss Ozone depletion over Earth's Arctic region varies widely from year to year in its amount, timing and pattern of loss. Read more

	March 27, 2003 JPL Participates in Two Community Events This Weekend On Sunday, March 30, JPL will join several companies and museums at the "Celebra la Ciencia" science fair at San Fernando Recreation Park, 208 Park Ave., in San Fernando. Read more

	March 27, 2003 The Sky's the Limit: Grand Finale for Twin-Telescope Survey The celestial harvest from astronomy's most thorough high-resolution digital survey of the entire sky, completed by twin infrared telescopes, is now online for scientists to scrutinize and the entire world to savor. Read more

	March 27, 2003 Cosmic Objects -- Something Old and Something New When the French astronomer Charles Messier was trying to discover new comets in the mid-18th century, he compiled a list of about 100 diffuse objects that, to his eye, could be confused with comets. Read more

	March 25, 2003 Space Observatory to Study the Old, the Cold and the Dusty A NASA observatory will soon open a new window to the universe. Read more

	March 20, 2003 Students Join Scientists in the Snowy Rockies Via Live Webcasts The team is studying snowpack from the ground, air and space this winter and spring to improve forecasts of springtime water supply and snowmelt floods. Read more

	March 18, 2003 NASA Astronaut Encourages Students in Los Angeles NASA astronaut and former National Football League player, Leland Melvin, will make several public appearances in the Los Angeles area this week to explain NASA's Educator Astronaut program and encourage interest among young people in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Read more

	March 17, 2003 Observatory Boldly Goes Where the Human Eye Cannot Equipped with advanced infrared technology, NASA will peer into unknown territories of the universe with the long-anticipated Space Infrared Telescope Facility. Read more

	March 14, 2003 Programs Will Share Excitement of Saturn-Bound Mission Two free public programs in Pasadena next week will offer a preview of the first mission to orbit Saturn. Read more

	March 13, 2003 NASA's Mars Odyssey Changes Views about Red Planet NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has transformed the way scientists are looking at the red planet. Read more

	March 6, 2003 Scientists Say Mars Has a Liquid Iron Core New information about what is inside Mars shows the red planet has a molten liquid iron core, confirming the interior of the planet has some similarity to Earth and Venus. Read more

	March 6, 2003 Space Infrared Telescope Facility Arrives at KSC The Space Infrared Telescope Facility arrived today at the Kennedy Space Center to begin final preparations for its launch next month aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket. Read more

	March 6, 2003 Rising Storms Revise Story of Jupiter's Stripes Pictures of Jupiter, taken by a NASA spacecraft on its way to Saturn, are flipping at least one long-standing notion about Jupiter upside down. Read more

	March 6, 2003 NASA's Newest Maps Reveal a Continent's Grandeur and a Secret From Canada to Central America, the many grandeurs of North America's diverse topography star in a just-released high-resolution map from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Read more

	March 6, 2003 A 'Smoking Gun' for Dinosaur Extinction Chicxulub, located on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, eluded detection for decades because it was hidden (and at the same time preserved) beneath a kilometer of younger rocks and sediments. Read more

	March 4, 2003 Sara Hyman, Mission Operations Assurance Manager If the producers of Jeopardy do call Sara Hyman, who recently passed the game show's qualifying tests, she won't be expecting anything related to her job to turn up as a category. Read more

	February 27, 2003 New Spacecraft Tool Reveals Massive Gas Cloud around Jupiter Using a sensitive new imaging instrument on NASA's Cassini spacecraft, researchers have discovered a large and surprisingly dense gas cloud sharing an orbit with Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Read more

	February 26, 2003 Galileo Team Disbanding as Long Jupiter Tour Winds Down The flight team for NASA's Jupiter-orbiting Galileo spacecraft will cease operations on Friday, Feb. 28 after a final playback of scientific data from the robotic explorer's tape recorder. Read more

	February 24, 2003 NASA's Newest SeaWinds Instrument Breezes into Operation One of NASA's newest Earth-observing instruments, the SeaWinds scatterometer aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite 2 (Adeos 2) Read more

	February 24, 2003 Flying with Nature's Own Fuel Hundreds of years ago, early discoverers used the Sun as a compass. Turns out the light of the Sun can do more than just guide us; it can actually propel us farther and faster into the vast realm of space than we've ever been able to go. Read more

	February 20, 2003 NASA Solves Half-Century Old Moon Mystery In the early morning hours of Nov. 15, 1953, an amateur astronomer in Oklahoma photographed what he believed to be a massive, white-hot fireball of vaporized rock rising from the center of the Moon's face. Read more

	February 19, 2003 Free Lectures Feature New Weather and Climate Tools Human nature yearns to understand our planet's weather and how we affect it. Read more

	February 19, 2003 NASA's Mars Odyssey Points to Melting Snow as Cause of Gullies Images from the visible light camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft, combined with images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, suggest melting snow is the likely cause of the numerous eroded gullies first documented on Mars in 2000 by Global Surveyor. Read more

	February 18, 2003 Women Working on Mars Imagine being able to respond to the eternal question of "what do you want to do when you grow up?" with a firm answer that you want to design or build a rover or spacecraft to send to another planet. Read more

	February 14, 2003 NASA Ambassadors Spread the Wow of Space Exploration NASA has selected a diverse network of volunteers nationwide to organize community programs that teach the public about solar system exploration. Read more

	February 14, 2003 Angel Sanabria, Solar System Ambassador Whether he is talking to children or adults, Solar System Ambassador Angel Sanabria knows how to capture everybody's imagination about the wonders of space. Read more

	February 13, 2003 Roll with the Rovers and 'Explore Mars' NASA hosts "Explore Mars!" -- a Cape Canaveral-area community and family day focusing on the upcoming Mars Exploration Rover mission, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., at the Radisson Resort at the Port Convention Center, 8701 Astronaut Blvd., Cape Canaveral, Fla. Read more

	February 12, 2003 NASA Scientist Clears the Fog on Gloomy Summers The word California invokes many images: miles of sunny beaches, streets lined with swaying palm trees, mountains that touch the great blue sky and cold nights filled with thick, dense fog. Read more

	February 10, 2003 Twins Share a Room Engineers for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission are completing assembly and testing for the twin robotic geologists at JPL. Read more

	February 7, 2003 NASA El Niño Expert to Speak at Long Beach Weather Fair As a dry Southern California braces for a possible return to wet weather next week, a NASA oceanographer known for studying how Earth's oceans affect our weather and climate and govern the El Niño/La Niña phenomena will present a free public lecture titled Read more

	February 7, 2003 Space Sensors Sample Brews from Earth's Volcanic Cauldrons Think of them as the Good Witches of the North, South, East and West, whizzing around the globe daily on their techno "broomsticks" in space. Read more

	February 5, 2003 Satellite Helps Scientists See Quake Effects in Remote Areas The unique capabilities of a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory-built and managed instrument aboard an Earth-observing satellite have allowed researchers to view effects of a major earthquake that occurred in 2001 in Northern India near the border of Pakistan. Read more

	January 31, 2003 A 70,000-Carat U.S. Space 'Gem' Marks Its Sapphire Anniversary At a mere 31 pounds, it was tiny by today's spacecraft standards. Yet as it sprang skyward from Cape Canaveral, Fla., 45 years ago today, January 31, 1958, aboard a Jupiter-C rocket, the Explorer 1 satellite carried with it the enormous hopes and dreams of a Cold War America. Read more

	January 31, 2003 Dr. Claudia Alexander In this video profile 'First Person,' JPL's Dr. Claudia Alexander explains what we hope to learn from these dirty ice balls. Read more

	January 31, 2003 Dr. Anne Kahle, Geophysicist A pioneer in remote sensing, Dr. Anne Kahle has helped develop several innovative instruments that observe Earth from space. Read more

	January 27, 2003 2003: A JPL Space Odyssey -- Join the Journey with Free Lectures From the oceans that govern Earth's environment to the stars that illuminate outer space, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will share a wide range of discoveries in science and space exploration with the public in a series of free lectures this year. Read more

	January 27, 2003 The Keys to the Stellar Kingdom The Space Interferometry Mission will provide the breakthrough technology needed to pinpoint these two extremes of stellar evolution. Read more

	January 24, 2003 JPL to Hold High-Tech Conference for Small Business NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will host the 15th annual High-Tech Conference for Small Business on March 4 and 5, 2003, at the Westin Los Angeles Airport Hotel. Read more

	January 22, 2003 Workers at Australian Site Save Space Antennas from Wildfire Australian antennas of NASA's Deep Space Network used for communicating with spacecraft are back in normal operation after a close call with wildfires that destroyed hundreds of homes and took four lives in the Canberra area. Read more

	January 21, 2003 A Cosmic Identity Crisis Nature defies categorization. Think of the platypus, a curious creature that lays eggs like a bird but suckles its young like a mammal. Read more

	January 16, 2003 What's Shakin' in Space Quake Research? Find Out at Free Talks Nine years to the week after the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory geophysicist who foresaw the likelihood of a large quake there will share the latest developments in space-based quake research at a pair of free, public lectures. Read more

	January 16, 2003 NASA Mission Will Look at Clouds from Both Sides CloudSat, the most advanced radar designed to measure the properties of clouds, will provide the first global measurements of cloud thickness, height, water and ice content, and a wide range of precipitation data linked to cloud development. The Earth System Science Pathfinder Mission is expected to improve weather forecasting and advance our understanding of key climate processes during its two-year design lifetime. Read more

	January 14, 2003 Mars and the Final Four Potential landing sites for Mars Exploration Rovers are relatively near landing sites for Viking 1 and 2, and Mars Pathfinder. The data is from Mars Global Surveyor. Read more

	January 13, 2003 NASA Instrument Captures Early Antarctic Ice Shelf Melting An international research team using data from NASA's SeaWinds instrument aboard the Quick Scatterometer spacecraft has detected the earliest yet recorded pre-summer melting event in a section of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf. Read more

	January 7, 2003 Getting the Big Picture on Houston's Air Pollution Now the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer, an instrument that flies on NASA's Terra satellite and is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is stepping in to help researchers find out exactly where, how much and what type of pollution is in Houston. Read more

	January 6, 2003 Astronomers Find a Hero Heroes are usually confined to comic books and movies, but as the saying goes, we all need one. So astronomers have turned to the deep, dark cosmos to find their heroic figure -- the "Hyper Extremely Red Object," or "Hero." Read more

	January 2, 2003 Earth and Asteroid Play Orbital Cat and Mouse Game The first asteroid discovered to orbit the Sun in nearly the same path as Earth will make its closest approach to our planet this month before scurrying away for 95 years. Read more