On August 28, 1999, the Mir space station was abandoned for the second time since it was launched on February 19, 1986. The first time the station was left uncrewed was in September 1989. By far the world's longest-serving space station, Mir orbited the Earth for over 13 years and hosted 135 people.

Viktor Afanasyev, Commander of the previous Mir crew stated;

"With grief in our soul we're abandoning a piece of Russia, abandoning something we constructed in space, and it's unclear what we'll build next."

Russian space officials began seeking private investors to fund a new crewed flight. If they were not able to raise funds for another mission, a so-called "funeral team" will visit Mir for about a month to gradually reduce its orbit and completely shut the station down. It would later be deorbited to burn in the Earth's atmosphere and fall into the Pacific Ocean.

Updated: 14 March 2000 - by Gregory A. Smith

The next Space Shuttle flight, mission STS-101, to launch on April 13, 2000, will be the first Shuttle flight to the International Space Station in almost a year. Six Americans and one Russian will spend six days docked to the Station to conduct maintenance work on the Unity and Zarya modules and to transfer a ton of logistical supplies for use by the first resident crew which will occupy the ISS later this year. - NASA Station Status - March 9, 2000

The Zvezda Service Module will be launched atop a Proton rocket to serve as the early living quarters for the first permanent residents of the ISS and will take over control and propulsion capability for the expanding station from the Zarya module which was launched in November 1999.

About 9 days after the launch of the Zvezda module, the ISS will link up with Zvezda using Zarya's jet thrusters during a series of rendezvous maneuvers.

NASA's chief Daniel Goldin, speaking at the Space Frontier Foundation Conference September 24, announced a new plan for NASA to turn operation of the Space Station over to private enterprise -- perhaps within the next decade.

After a period of five to ten years of operation, NASA would be willing to hand its portion of the station over to private industry. The move would free NASA to concentrate on exploring the solar system. NASA would retain a major presence on the station, but as a tenant. Under NASA's current plan, NASA retains control of the station while leasing up to 30 percent or more of the station to commercial ventures. - Excerpt from FRONTIER STATUS 09/24/99 - by Dale M. Gray
with permission
Frontier Status reports are weekly updates chronicling progress of the emerging space frontier. Frontier Status archives are hosted at www.cortesi.com/frontier

The International Space Station on-orbit assembly began with the successful completion of Space Shuttle Endeavour's mission to connect the first two elements of the station. Mission STS-88, also known as Assembly Flight 2A, completed its mission to connect the U.S. built "Unity" module to the Russian built "Zarya" (Sunrise) Control Module in December, 1998.

Zarya was successfully launched by the Russians on November 20, 1998, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, not far from where Yuri Gagarin became the first human to be launched into space over 37 years ago.

- by Gregory A. Smith

The Galileo spacecraft has completed its prime mission, its first extended mission and has now begun its second extended mission called the "Galileo Millennium Mission."

NASA Headquarters has agreed in principle to extend the Galileo mission past its planned January 31 finale. Details of funding and itinerary for the new extended mission, to be called the Galileo Millennium Mission, must still be resolved. A Europa encounter took place January 3, 2000, and is technically still part of the current, extended Galileo Europa Mission. Another Io flyby is planned for February 20, with flybys of Ganymede on May 20 and December 28, and joint observations of Jupiter with the Cassini spacecraft in December 2000.
- "Galileo News" - January 3, 2000

Spacecraft Health:
"All subsystems are reporting nominal health."
- MGS Mission Status Report,
Wednesday, March 8, 2000

Mars Orbital Camera (MOC)
Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
Mars Orbiting Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
Radio Science Investigations (RS)
Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer (MAG/ER)
Mars Relay Communications Experiment

Glimpses into Eros' shadows
Near Image of the day for 14 March 2000

NEAR spacecraft renamed in honor of planetary science pioneer Dr. Eugene M. Shoemaker.

The NEAR satellite continued to operate nominally this past week in orbit around the asteroid Eros.

NEAR is in a 200.6 Km by 209.1 Km orbit around Eros. NEAR will stay in this orbit conducting Science observations until April 2,2000 when an Orbit Correction Maneuver will place NEAR in a 200 Km x 100 Km transfer orbit. - MISSION OPERATIONS: March 10, 2000

The completely successful Lunar Prospector mission ended July 31, 1999 after mapping the Moon's geochemistry from orbit and delivering the ashes of renowned planetary scientist Eugene M. Shoemaker to the surface of the Moon. The spacecraft ended its mission with a targeted impact in a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole, at -87.7 deg latitude, 42 deg longitude.

SPACE UPDATE will continue to provide links and updates regarding the ongoing scientific analysis of data garnered from the Lunar Prospector mission for one year from the end of mission.

On March 5th, 1998 Lunar Prospector project scientist announced that the Lunar Prospector had returned data that indicates that there is a high probability of water ice existing at both the north and south poles of the Moon. The presence of a significant amount of water on the Moon could be important in the establishment of human communities beyond Earth.

See the CNN SCI-TECH article on Lunar Prospector's ice discovery at: CNN SCI-TECH Space - 05 March 1998 - Scientist: There is ice on the moon

For more information about ice on the Moon, check out the article "Ice on the Bone Dry Moon" by Dr. Paul D. Spudis in "Planetary Science Research Discoveries"

Also, check out the way cool Lunar Prospector "Data Viz" data visualization page.

This week an Orbiter Science Operations Working Team (OSOWT) telecon was held to focus on the period from -10 days to Jupiter closest approach. Science Teams were assigned to develop the detailed designs for observations to be made during the December flyby of Jupiter.

During the upcomping Jupiter flyby, the Cassini spacecraft will make coordinated measurements with the Galileo spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter.

The Cassini spacecraft will arrive on orbit around Saturn in 2004. Cassini will study the great ringed planet, its moons and ring system for at least four years. It will also deliver a scientific probe called Huygens which will parachute to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

The Japanese "Nozomi" Mars probe was successfully launched on July 3, 1998 from the Kagoshima space center in Japan. Unfortunately, the spacecraft used more propellant than planned in a course correction maneuver on 21 December 1998 after a 20 December Earth flyby left the craft with "insufficient acceleration". The good news is: Nozomi will reach Mars. The bad news: the arrival of Nozomi at Mars has been delayed four years from its originally scheduled rendezvous in 1999. The spacecraft will continue in a heliocentric orbit until it encounters Mars in December of 2003.

Nozomi is the first Japanese space mission to Mars. It is also the first non-U.S. or Russian space flight to another body in the solar system.

A Mars orbiting aeronomy mission, Nozomi is designed to study the martian upper atmosphere and its interaction with the solar wind. Instruments on the spacecraft will measure the structure, composition and dynamics of the ionosphere, aeronomy effects of the solar wind, the escape of atmospheric constituents, the structure of the magnetosphere, and dust in the upper atmosphere and in orbit around Mars. The mission will also be returning images of Mars' surface and the martian moons Phobos and Deimos.

The nominal mission is planned for one Martian year (approximately two Earth years). An extended mission may allow operation of the mission well beyond the original two years.

Updated: 1 October 1999 - by Gregory A. Smith

Deep Space 1's star tracker instrument, which has experienced problems for more than a year, has once again caused the spacecraft to put itself in a safe standby mode. There have been a number of instances in the past when the star tracker has been briefly unable to determine the spacecraft's precise orientation. Previously, normal operation has always resumed in a matter of seconds or minutes, but the current malfunction, which began on November 11th, has not yet been rectified. The spacecraft will remain in safe mode, with non-essential devices turned off, the high-gain antenna disengaged, and communication with Earth using the low-gain antenna, until the problem can be better understood.

Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission in September and has been in a relatively inactive cruise phase pending its comet encounters in 2001. During the cruise phase DS1 has been obtaining images of well-known objects such as Mars and Jupiter with its combined visible camera and imaging spectrometer instrument in order to allow better calibration of the instrument.

Another instrument experiencing some difficulties is the Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration. Degradation of the instrument may prevent it from measuring the composition of some of the complex ions it may encounter at the comets, but it will still be able to measure the energy and direction of ions and electrons such as those found in the solar wind and in the expanding cloud of gas and dust which surrounds a comet when it is near the Sun.

Deep Space 1 is now 241 million kilometers (=150 million miles =13.5 light minutes) from Earth. Source: Deep Space 1 Mission Status November 17, 1999

Updated: 18 November 1999 - by Chris Peterson

NASA's Deep Space 1 experimental spacecraft successfully flew closely above the surface of asteroid 9969 Braille at 9:46 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday, July 28 (04:46 Universal Time July 29), using a sophisticated new space autopilot system, exceeding 100 percent of the mission's objectives.

Deep Space 1 flew within an estimated 26 kilometers (16 miles) of asteroid 9969 Braille. Data from the spacecraft's infrared sensor indicate that the small asteroid may be similar to Vesta, one of the largest in the main asteroid belt.

"This is a dramatic finale to an amazingly successful mission," said Dr. Marc Rayman, chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager. "With AutoNav's successful piloting of the spacecraft, we've completed the testing and validation of the 12 new technologies onboard and possibly acquired important science data, including photos."

- July 29, 1999
NASA MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

Deep Space One is the first deep space mission of NASA's New Millennium Program. The New Millennium Program (NMP) is an agressive technology demonstration established to validate advanced technologies while returning science data.

Updated: 19 November 1999 - by Chris Peterson