Once again, the future of Russia's Mir space station is in doubt. According to the Russian News Agency "Interfax," officials from the Russian aerospace agency `Energia' "have stressed that, given its financial problems, Energia is unable to work on two manned space programs: Mir and the International Space Station (ISS).

On Monday, October 16, a "Progress M-43" uncrewed Russian cargo spacecraft was launched to deliver food, fuel and materials to supply the next crew which is scheduled to board Mir in late January or early February next year. The Progress M-43 will dock with Mir on October 21.

Mircorp, the commercial organization which has leased Mir, contintues to plan missions for 2001, including the launch of Dennis Tito, an American businessman, and the flight of a winner from "Destination Mir," a reality TV series from NBC and "Survivor" producer Mark Burnett.

MirCorp is a Netherlands-based company that hopes to earn money with the Mir space station from a variety of activities including advertising, conducting scientific experiments under contract and space tourism.

October 31, 2000 marks the first day of humanity's permanent presence beyond Earth.

A three-member crew launched for the International Space Station upon a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 7:53am GMT on the "Expedition 1" mission to begin permanent human occupancy of the Earth orbiting space station.

U.S. Astronaut Bill Shepherd is the Expedition 1 commander. Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenko is the Soyuz commander, responsible for the Soyuz spacecraft from launch until docking. Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev is the station's first flight engineer.

ISS Assembly Flight 2R

Expedition 1

1. Begins permanent human presence on the ISS.
2. Provides an emergency crew return capability.

Commander Bill Shepherd, Soyuz Commander Yuri Gidzenko and Flight Engineer Sergei Krikalev, will spend four months aboard ISS until they are relieved by a new crew of three which will arrive on the space shuttle (Asssembly flight 5A) scheduled for launch on 15 February 2001.

The Soyuz spacecraft that brought the first crew to orbit will remain docked with the station to provide an emergency return to Earth for crew members if needed. The Soyuz emergency return spacecraft will replaced about every six months.

Reference: ISS Assembly Flight 2R NASA

The first piece of the International Space Station to be launched was the Russian built "Zarya" (Sunrise) Control Module . 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.

The International Space Station's 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.

- Gregory Smith

For the first time ever, two interplanetary spacecraft are studying the same outer planet at the same time. The Galileo spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995. The Cassini spacecraft, on its way to Saturn, will pass near Jupiter in December to gain the gravitational assist it needs to reach Saturn. Cassini will arrive at Saturn in 2004. Its closest approach to Jupiter will occur on Dec. 30, 2000. Cassini began returning Jupiter pictures and data last week.

A new website has been established to cover the double spacecraft encounter with Jupiter. Called the Jupiter Millennium Flyby, the website is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiterflyby.

See the Galileo Mission Discovery Highlights at
www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/discovery.html

Model of Europa's Subsurface Structure

Updated: 11 October 2000 - by Gregory Smith

The first valley, Dao Vallis, runs diagonally from the upper left to the lower center of the image. Niger Vallis joins Dao Vallis just above the center of the frame. Harmakhis Vallis crosses the right half of the picture. Martian geologists believe that large outbursts of liquid water formed these valleys during great floods far back in martian time, millions to billions of years ago. The valleys are each about 1 km (0.6 miles) deep and range in width from about 40 km (25 miles) down to about 8 km (5 mi).

This picture is a composite of images obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor on September 13, 2000.
Reference:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/dao_oct_2000

Spacecraft Health:
"All subsystems report nominal health."
- MGS Mission Status Report,
Wednesday, September 27, 2000

On October 26, the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft successfully flew within 5.3 kilometers of the asteroid Eros. This is the closest any spacecraft has come to an object without actually landing on it. After the close flyby, the robotic spacecraft was commanded to fire its engine and rise to a more stable position 200 km (125 miles) from the center of the asteroid. NEAR Shoemaker has been orbiting Eros since February 2000.

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.

For the first time ever, two interplanetary spacecraft are studying the same outer planet at the same time. The Galileo spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995. The Cassini spacecraft, on its way to Saturn, will pass near Jupiter in December to gain the gravitational assist it needs to reach Saturn. Cassini will arrive at Saturn in 2004. Its closest approach to Jupiter will occur on Dec. 30, 2000. Cassini began returning Jupiter pictures and data last week. During Cassini's Jupiter flyby Cassini will make coordinated measurements of Jupiter with the Galileo spacecraft.

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.

On June 21, after more than 7 months of dormancy, Deep Space 1's ion propulsion system is again powering the spacecraft on its way toward a rendevous with Comet Borrelly.

After completing its primary mission, Deep Space 1's Star Tracker failed, leaving the spacecraft unable to navigate through space. Engineers rescued the spacecraft by developing a means to navigate DS1 by using its camera rather than the faulty Star Tracker.

With DS1 is again operable, its mission has been extended to encounter Comet Borrelly in September 2001.

Deep Space One is the first deep space mission of NASA's New Millennium Program. Deep Space 1 is a New Millennium Program (NMP) demonstration project to validate advanced technologies while returning science data. Deep Space 1's mission was to test important, high-risk technologies in order to reduce the cost and risk of future science missions; "DS1 took the risks so that future missions would not have to." - Dr. Mark Raymond's Mission Log

The Stardust spacecraft went into safe-mode during a scheduled DSS track (communications link) in early October. During an added track, the spacecraft turned on the downlink as expected. Data was collected for quick analysis and a decision to exit safe mode was made within the 24-hour window. Lockheed Martin Astronautics reported that they were able to duplicate the safe-mode in the test lab. The track on October 11 was routine.

Source: Stardust Status Report (October 13, 2000)

The dust samples will be brought to Earth for analysis in January 2006.

The primary goal of the Stardust mission is to collect dust and volatile samples of Comet Wild 2, and samples of interstellar dust grains, and return the samples to Earth for analysis. The spacecraft will also send back images of the comet, counts of comet particles striking the spacecraft and conduct real-time analysis of the compositions of the particles and volatiles.

Stardust will use a unique substance called aerogel to capture and preserve the cometary and interstellar materials for return to Earth.

Stardust will be the first space mission ever to return extraterrestrial material from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Stardust is also the first U.S. mission dedicated solely to cometary research.