March 2004 Space News |
- MARS ROVERS VOA 08 Apr 2004 -- The U-S space agency NASA says its twin Mars rovers appear healthy enough to last at least five more months. It has extended their water-seeking odyssey now that the "Spirit" rover has completed its 90 day prime mission and the "Opportunity" robot is approaching that goal.
- Transformation Director Says Cold War Space Approach Must Change AFPS 31 Mar 2004 -- Transformation across the armed forces is happening much faster than expected when the concept was announced two years ago, the Defense Department's director of force transformation told lawmakers during recent testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.
- International Interest in Missile Defense Rising, Kadish Says Washington File 29 Mar 2004 -- The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) says governments and companies around the world are expressing greater interest in participating in the widening effort to develop defenses against ballistic missiles.
- General Explains Missile Defense Funding Request AFPS 26 Mar 2004 -- The man in charge of safeguarding the United States against a ballistic missile attack warned members of the House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee on March 25 that in the coming years the country will face a ballistic threat from a variety of sources.
- Rover Finds More Evidence of Water on Ancient Mars Washington File 24 Mar 2004 -- The Opportunity rover has detected rocks on the surface of Mars marked by patterns that suggest the stones formed as deposits in a saltwater body, according to an announcement from the National Air and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory March 23.
- World: Mars Mission Finds Evidence Of A Salty Sea Hospitable To Life RFE/RL 24 Mar 2004 -- U.S. space scientists have moved one step closer to determining whether Mars once harbored life. Earlier this month, one of two robotic vehicles roaming the planet found evidence that water had once eroded stone. Now they've announced that the evidence points to something even more important.
- MARS / WATER VOA 23 Mar 2004 -- The U-S space agency NASA says Mars once had a shallow, salty sea that could have supported life. The evidence has come from chemical and physical traits of rocks being explored by one of the two robotic rovers on the red planet.
- SHUTTLE REPAIRS VOA 22 Mar 2004 -- The U-S space agency NASA is conducting an investigation into the failure of inspections over the years to find that a critical gear in a shuttle tail rudder was improperly installed when the orbiters were built in the 1970s. The part is being replaced, but one NASA official says the mistake could have been catastrophic to a shuttle crew.
- MARS / WATER VOA 18 Mar 2004 -- The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter has sent back images that show there is plenty of icy water at the red planet's southern pole. The finding confirms previous scientific studies suggesting the presence of icy water in the far reaches of earth's closest neighbor.
- Carrier rocket for Shenzhou VI to be shipped in June or July,2005 PLA Daily 17 Mar 2004 -- China will see the shipment of the carrier rocket for Shenzhou VI, the country's second manned space flight to be launched in 2005, in June or July next year, revealed a top scientist Monday.
- Space Digest VOA 17 Mar 2004 -- Water on Mars; Tumbleweed Rover; New Comet; Photos of Distant Galaxies
- NATO, Russia Conduct First Joint Missile Defense Exercise Washington File 11 Mar 2004 -- NATO and Russia are conducting their first joint exercise to test the interoperability of missile defense systems.
- NASA Looks a Decade Ahead in Planning Its Mars Missions Washington File 11 Mar 2004 -- The two exploratory vehicles currently roaming the surface of Mars are sending back data that have been "incredibly revealing," National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Associate Administrator Edward Weiler told the Senate Space subcommittee March 10.
- Hubble Telescope Sees Deep into the Universe Washington File 10 Mar 2004 -- The Hubble Space Telescope has achieved its most probing view ever of the visible universe, according to a March 9 press release from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
- PROS, CONS EXCHANGED IN DEBATE ON PURCHASE OF ANTI-MISSILE EQUIPMENT CNA 10 Mar 2004 -- Two debaters expressed their pros and cons in a televised debate Wednesday over the question of Taiwan's anti-missile military procurement, one of the two questions to be raised in a referendum planned for March 20 to coincide with the presidential election.
- HUBBLE IMAGE VOA 09 Mar 2004 -- Just-released photos from the Hubble space telescope have unveiled the earliest and deepest images into the universe to date. Scientists around the world are trying to decipher the Hubble images that peer into space 13 billion light years away to try to understand how galaxies originate.
- MARS ROVER VOA 07 Mar 2004 -- The Mars twin rovers are preparing to search for more evidence of water on the red planet. Last week, scientists announced Opportunity had found geological signs of great amounts of water, an ingredient necessary to sustain life.
- NATO-Russia Council Theatre Missile Defence Command Post Exercise (TMD CPX) NATO 05 Mar 2004 -- Under the aegis of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), the Theatre Missile Defence Ad Hoc Working Group will conduct the first joint NATO-Russia TMD Command Post Exercise from 8-12 March 2004 at the United States Joint National Integration Center (JNIC) (1) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- MARS / WATER VOA 05 Mar 2004 -- A U-S Mars rover has found more hints that water once existed on the planet. The latest evidence is on the other side of the planet from where scientists showed earlier this week that water once drenched the region.
- Spacecraft Finds Evidence of Water in Martian Past Washington File 03 Mar 2004 -- The rocks of Mars seem to reveal a past in which the Red Planet was a wet planet. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, headquarters for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) MARS mission, announced March 2 that the exploratory rover on Mars has discovered strong evidence that the area of the planet under investigation was once soaking wet.
- TAIWAN TO PURCHASE SIX PATRIOT PAC-3 MISSILE BATTERIES: MND CNA 03 Mar 2004 -- Taiwan will purchase six Patriot PAC-3 missile batteries from the United States under a 10-year weaponry system procurement plan, a high ranking Ministry of National Defense (MND) official said Wednesday.
- Space Digest VOA 02 Mar 2004 -- " Today we tell the latest news from the International Space Station. We tell about new evidence of a black hole, one of the most powerful objects in space. We report about problems that must be solved before people can be sent to the planet Mars. We begin our report with news about the two vehicles that are now exploring that planet."
- Europe: Comet-Chasing Spacecraft Due To Blast Off RFE/RL 01 Mar 2004 -- The European Space Agency is due this week to launch a mission to explore a distant comet. The spacecraft will eventually orbit the comet and -- for the first time ever -- send a lander to its surface to look for clues to the origins of the solar system.
- NATO Statement on the EU Commission - US Agreement on GPS/Galileo cooperation NATO 01 Mar 2004 -- "NATO welcomes the agreements reached between the United States and the European Commission on overall principles governing Galileo/GPS cooperation. "
