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It's more than 50 years since Russia signalled the start of the space race with the launch of Sputnik One. For more than two decades from 1957 the Soviet Union and the USA competed in a battle to be the first to the stars. The race ended in 1969 when the US delivered the coup de grace by landing Neil Armstrong safely on the Moon. Now space flights are commonplace and Sir Richard Branson will soon be taking the first tourists on sub-orbital flights on his craft SpaceShipTwo. In 1964 the first TV satellite was launched into a geostationary orbit...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The shooting apart of a crippled U.S. spy satellite last month created no significant new space debris, with all but small bits burning on re-entry to the atmosphere, the mission commander said on Wednesday. "We thought there would be much larger pieces," Rear Admiral Alan Hicks, who heads the Pentagon's Aegis ballistic missile defense program, said in the most comprehensive report yet on the destruction of the satellite known as USA-193. In fact, none of the debris was larger than a football, he told a briefing at an annual conference of the U.S. Navy League, a booster...

Endeavour astronauts inspected the space shuttle's heat shield Wednesday, while NASA puzzled over a mysterious piece of debris that may have struck the shuttle's nose just after launch. Officials at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas refused to speculate on the origin or even the size of the debris captured on camera 10 seconds after launch. Nor are they sure if it struck the shuttle. "It looks like it's not coming from the orbiter, and you can't really tell if it strikes the orbiter or not," flight director Mike Moses told reporters after viewing video of the debris. "I...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The military's analysis of the missile strike on a dead U.S. spy satellite has revealed no sign of danger from debris, including no hazard from the satellite's fuel tank, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday. "As we continue to do the post-strike analysis, (it) continues to give us confidence that the hydrazine tank was ruptured. However, the analysis is still ongoing," spokesman Bryan Whitman said. U.S. officials have said the main reason they shot down the satellite was because of the potential health hazard to humans in the event the satellite's fuel tank, carrying 1,000 pounds of toxic...

WASHINGTON - Debris from an obliterated U.S. spy satellite is being tracked over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans but appears to be too small to cause damage on Earth, a senior military officer said Thursday, just hours after a Navy missile scored a direct hit on the failing spacecraft. Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and an expert on military space technologies, told a Pentagon news conference that officials have a "high degree of confidence" that the missile launched from a Navy cruiser Wednesday night hit exactly where intended. It was an unprecedented mission...

February 8, 2008 -- US 193, the U.S. spy satellite that has failed while in orbit, will crash into the Earth during the first week of March, U.S. officials say. The only problem is, no one seems to have the faintest idea as to where debris from the 5,000-pound spacecraft will land. The military satellite was launched in December 2006. It carries a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor. It experienced a power and computer failure almost immediately after entering space. The satellite has been wandering in orbit in a random path ever since. Without power, the satellite was doomed to...

WASHINGTON - A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, when asked about the situation after it was disclosed by other officials. "Numerous satellites over the years have come...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and propulsion and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday. The satellite, which no longer be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.

It has been one year since China took aim on its own nearly one-ton meteorological satellite by way of an anti-satellite (ASAT). That January 11, 2007 target practice spewed out a huge cloud of clutter - debris that remains a troublesome problem for operating satellites, as well as the International Space Station. Odds are that somebody’s satellite is due for a whacking - if it hasn’t already taken place.

Two orbiting U.S. spacecraft were forced to change course to avoid being damaged by the thousands of pieces of space debris produced after China carried out an anti-satellite weapon test one year ago today. The maneuvering, ordered by ground controllers and conducted several months ater the test, is an example of lingering problems caused by China's Jan. 11, 2007, missile firing in a bold demonstration of space weaponry against a weather satellite, said Air Force Brig. Gen. Ted Kresge, director of air, space and information operations at the Air Force Space Command in Colorado. Gen. Kresge, a F-15 figher pilot,...

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. - A forest fire has led to a chance discovery of debris from the impact of a meteorite 1.85 billion years ago, more than 450 miles away at Sudbury, Ontario. Geologists had scheduled a field trip in May along the Gunflint Trail in northeastern Minnesota, but most areas they wanted to explore were closed because of a wildfire that charred more than 118 square miles. Geologist Mark Jirsa of the Minnesota Geological Survey went up the trail to scout new locations and, in a spot he had never visited before, stumbled across debris now linked to the...

U.S. details China satellite debris By Jim Wolf Tue Apr 10, 8:35 PM ET A larger than previously reported debris field from China's antisatellite test in January has boosted risks to spacecraft in a wide range of orbits, the U.S. Air Force Space Command said on Tuesday. "The Chinese ASAT test has certainly increased the collision risk to all of the roughly 700 active spacecraft with (orbital low ends) below approximately 4,000 kms," the command said in reply to queries from Reuters. Such "low-Earth" orbits are home to satellites used for communications, scientific and environmental monitoring and weather predicting, as...

'Flaming debris' nearly hits jet The pilots of a Chilean passenger jet reported seeing flaming debris fall past their aircraft as it approached the airport at Auckland, New Zealand. Lan airline said the captain "made visual contact with incandescent fragments several kilometres away". New Zealand and Australian media suggested the debris was from a Russian satellite expected to enter the atmosphere later in the day. But the US space agency Nasa said it was more likely to have been meteors. '40 second margin' The Lan Airbus A340 had just entered New Zealand airspace as it approached Auckland's airport when the...

China Asat Test Called Worst Single Debris Event Ever Feb 11, 2007 By Frank Morring, Jr. Chinese delegates will have some explaining to do in Vienna later this month, when they sit down with representatives of other spacefaring nations to adopt international guidelines designed to mitigate the growing problem of man-made space debris in Earth orbit. The document drafted by a technical subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is aimed at preventing the sort of accidental events that have gradually engulfed Earth in a cloud of potentially destructive high-speed debris since the flight of...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A piece of space debris punched a small hole in one of space shuttle Atlantis' radiator panels during its recent 12-day spaceflight, NASA said on Thursday. Damage from debris has been NASA's top safety issue since the destruction of shuttle Columbia in February 2003, when insulating foam came off the ship's fuel tank during launch and punched a hole in the shuttle's protective heat shield. The radiator damage, which measures slightly more than one-tenth of an inch in diameter, was found during routine post-landing inspections at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA spokeswoman Jessica...

Sometime this year, an old Russian spacesuit — tossed overboard from the international space station this month — will make its final, fiery dive into the Earth's atmosphere. Within seconds, Suit-Sat — alias Ivan Ivanovich, alias NORAD Object No. 28933 — will be toast and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network will have one less piece of space junk to surveil. Ditto for Object No. 28934, aka Ivan's glove, which broke off when the suit was shoved out the station's air lock. At the moment, 9,233 pieces of space junk are being tracked in Earth orbit. But that tally only covers...

WASILLA -- A sharp-eyed husband spotted a piece of roadside debris that led rescuers early Wednesday to his wife and their two young children stranded at the bottom of a steep embankment along the Matanuska River. The wife, Stephanie Brenden, 32, and the couple's children, Joseph, 4, and Matthew, 18 months, were suffering from hypothermia and minor cuts and scratches, according to the husband and Alaska State Troopers. They were otherwise in good shape. "It was a real miracle," said the husband, Erik Brenden, 37.

With Discovery parked safely on the tarmac in California, the fate of the nation's manned space program now rests on the research teams assigned by NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin to figure out why at least four large pieces of insulating foam broke away from the shuttle's enormous external fuel tank. The teams, composed of engineers from NASA and Lockheed Martin's Michoud assembly facility in Louisiana, where the tanks are manufactured, were scheduled to give a preliminary report yesterday to Griffin and space station manager William H. Gerstenmaier. NASA has promised a fully "transparent" investigation, and initial findings may be...

RENTON, Wash. — It was a slab of particleboard, about 5 feet long, 18 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches thick. No one knew how far it had traveled or how many times it had bounced off the pavement. Late on Feb. 22, 2004, it was known only that it got loose on Interstate 405, near this Seattle suburb, and for a few moments became airborne. One witness later said it was simple physics that turned the board into a missile, hurtling north. Maria Federici was driving south. Like other cars nearby, her Jeep Liberty was going about 60 miles...

Employees at a Topanga Canyon dump found a work boot containing a recently severed foot in dirt that was dropped off Monday from a construction site at Fox Studios in Century City, sheriff's officials said. After the 9:30 a.m. discovery, sheriff's and Los Angeles police detectives scoured the dump and the construction site at Avenue of the Stars and Pico Boulevard looking for other body parts, sheriff's homicide Capt. Ray Peavy said. Construction workers and a bloodhound helped in the search, but no evidence was found by nightfall. "This could be a case of foul play or some kind of...

Franco Aleman, of Barcepundit.com, provides us shocking suggestive evidence that the massive fire which destroyed a thirty-two story skyscraper in Madrid may have been the result of foul play. A videotaper caught what appears to be people with flashlights on lower floors of the building as the fire burned above. While far from conclusive evidence, this would be consistent with arsonists doing their work. The building housed the biggest accounting firm in Spain and a prestigeous law firm, so it might be a target for anti-capitalist thugs.

US Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who had hoped to replace George W. Bush as president yesterday, instead sat in the cold and clapped as the Republican began a second four-year term. Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin patted Senator Kerry on the back shortly before the inauguration Senator Kerry had hoped would be his. As Mr Bush delivered his inaugural address, Senator Kerry, about 10m away on the steps of the US Capitol, joined other lawmakers and the crowd in repeated applause. Senator Kerry looked relaxed, at times wistful. He frequently smiled, able to hide any disappointment over what...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Planet-building is dusty work, and now two space telescopes have captured images of cosmic construction materials: disks of dust circling stars about the same size as our sun. Pictures released on Thursday from NASA (news - web sites)'s Hubble and Spitzer telescopes give the clearest look yet at the early and late phases of the planetary construction process. Most astronomers believe planets are created from the disks of dust and gas that form around young stars, and the younger the star, the bigger the dusty disk. Big gas giant planets like Jupiter form first, then smaller rocky...

After the bombs stopped falling, Faith Fippinger ventured out into Baghdad. At a hospital, she found a man weeping beside his dying wife. Their six children had been killed in the attack, too, Fippinger said. When the man asked Fippinger where she was from, she told him the truth — the United States, which was dropping the bombs pounding the city. Not denying her citizenship was something she had sworn to do during her time in Iraq, Fippinger said. She wanted the Iraqis to know there were Americans who did not approve of the war on Iraq. "I would say...

LUFKIN -- A federal court jury today acquitted an East Texas constable of charges he stole debris from space shuttle Columbia while part of the huge team involved in debris recovery. Robert Hagan II, 46, had contended he simply forgot to turn the items over to authorities and did not intend to steal them. Hagan, a constable in Harrison County, testified earlier in the day he considered keeping a piece of carbon as a "remembrance" of the shuttle disaster but it was a passing thought. Jurors deliberated about 2 1/2 hours before announcing their decision. Hagan smiled at them as...

AMMAN, Apr 06, 2003 (Kyodo via COMTEX) -- Eight Japanese "human shields" at a water-purification plant in Baghdad were ordered by Iraqi authorities to move to a hotel in the center of the city on Friday night, local sources said Saturday. The eight wanted to remain at the plant but Iraqi authorities would not allow them to do so citing security reasons, the sources said. The plant is located about 10 kilometers south of the center of the city. The move appears to be intended to keep the human shields away from conflict as substantial U.S. forces supported by tanks...

BAGHDAD: When forest ranger Leo Warren decided to be a human shield in Iraq, he packed his camping gear to take with him. But he found no use for it as the Iraqis had supplied the shields with everything from housing to blankets and food. He now “lives” in a house at a food silo site with five other shields and their aim is to protect the Iraqi food supply. “It’s fine except that it can get a bit boring because I have finished every one of the books here,” said the 44-year-old British national, who has been here as...

AMMAN, Jordan, March 31 (AFP) - A first free bus to Baghdad left the Jordanian capital Monday, courtesy of one of Saddam Hussein's sons, with 50 Iraqi men onboard determined to fight for their embattled country against US and British invaders. "It was too expensive for me to leave before, but now the trip is free and I am going back to fight for my country," said Samir, a 35-year-old construction worker. The man said he was going back to Basra, the main southern Iraqi city partially controlled by the coalition forces and where pockets of Iraqi resistance still remain....

While others his age are more concerned with parties than politics, Mduduzi Manana (19) volunteered to go into a war zone as a human shield. “My objective was to show solidarity with the people of Iraq, especially the youth,” he told iafrica.com in an interview on Wednesday. “Our aim was to discourage attacks on civilian infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and power stations.” This infrastructure had been destroyed in the previous Gulf War. Manana, the son of Mpumalanga health MEC Sibongile Manana, was forthright about his reasons for volunteering. “I went to Baghdad to offer my humanitarian services. I did...

LONDON (Reuters) - Human shields in Iraq seeking to prevent the destruction of civilian infrastructure like power and water plants have so far been unhurt by U.S.-led bombing, while a British peace activist feared lost has been found. The Human Shield Action group said none of the 8 shielded sites, which include an oil refinery and food silo near Baghdad, had been hit since the Iraq war began last week. "I think they're starting to think maybe they'll be alright, I think it's a bit early really," said Richard Scrase, director of the London-based Human Shield Action. Worries for British...

Three South African human shields, under tremendous pressure from their families, are trying to return home. They said they had come to realise their presence would not stop the war. However, the Iraq Action Committee's Abie Dawjee, speaking from his Baghdad hotel on Saturday, said: "We have settled in and are on our way mainly to the electricity sites, water filtration plants and food silos." 'We have settled in' He and the rest of the group - among them lawyers and students - volunteered to be human shields at selected sites in Iraq. They arrived in Baghdad on Thursday....

WASHINGTON -- U.S. military officials said Sunday they will not shy away from Iraqi targets even if Saddam Hussein uses so-called "human shield" tactics that might endanger civilians."We do everything in our power to keep our targeting as precision-based as it can be, always knowing that. . .there is room for problems that could take place," said Lt. Gen. John Abizaid, deputy commander of the U.S. military's Central Command. "But we're very precise in our targeting, and we're certainly not influenced by any targeting that (Saddam) would make against his own people."Briefing reporters at the U.S. military's Qatari-based headquarters, Abizaid...

As always, Rachel Corrie went last Sunday to the falafel stall where she usually had lunch and bantered with the Palestinian proprietors. Carrying a loudspeaker and wearing an orange fluorescent vest, the young American peace campaigner was heading for a protest against the Israeli army's demolition of Palestinian houses in the Gaza Strip town of Rafah. Later that afternoon Corrie, 23, died under the blade of an Israeli bulldozer and now, according to a growing legend, she is a new heroine for Palestine. There are graffiti in Gaza in her honour - one slogan reads: 'Rachel was a US...

OLYMPIA - Hundreds gathered in a campus gym to say farewell to peace activist and Evergreen College student, Rachel Corrie. 23-year old Corrie was killed last Sunday as she tried to stop Israeli soldiers from demolishing a Palestinian home. She acted as a human shield even as a bulldozer headed toward her. The driver claimed he couldn't stop in time. Corrie friends remembered her as a bright and compassionate woman who died helping others. "Rachel was the kind of person who stepped into your life and left a footprint" said long time friend, Briged Engstrom. "She had goals and ambitions...

WASHINGTON - The parents of Rachel Corrie, the US peace activist crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on Wednesday asked Congress to call on the Israeli government to stop attacking peace activists in the occupied Palestinian territory.         Craig and Cindy Corrie said they wanted the Israeli government to cease firing upon peace activists trying to protect Palestinian water supply networks and homes from “illegal demolitions”   Speaking to lawmakers, Craig and Cindy Corrie said they wanted the Israeli government to cease firing upon peace activists trying to protect Palestinian water supply networks and...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — When the allied missile attack on Iraq started Friday, Ingrid Ternert did not budge. The Swedish math and physics teacher was among at least 12 "human shields" pledging to remain at a potential airstrike target: the Al-Douri power plant, which was damaged in the 1991 Gulf War. Ternert said she was risking her life because Iraqi children will suffer if the plant is destroyed. "I'm here to try and protect this plant from getting bombed," she told journalists taken to visit the power station. "This is my way of showing that the people of Iraq have...

SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) -- The board investigating the Columbia tragedy said Tuesday it wants to know more about a mysterious object that almost certainly fell off the shuttle and was flying alongside the spacecraft during its second day in orbit. Meanwhile, NASA said late Tuesday night that a videotape from inside Columbia's cockpit has been recovered from the wreckage and shows four of the astronauts just before their ship began experiencing trouble.Thirteen minutes of tape were preserved; the rest was burned. The tape ends four minutes after the shuttle's atmospheric entry, while the shuttle is still over the Pacific...

NASA Searches Nev. for Columbia Debris NASA Says Radar Tracked Columbia Debris Falling Into Eastern Nevada Near Utah Border LAS VEGAS Feb. 20 — NASA said late Thursday that what is believed to be debris from space shuttle Columbia was tracked falling into eastern Nevada by air traffic control radar. The sheriff in Lincoln County, Nev., said NASA officials requested his department begin searching the rural county near the Utah border. "They just said they had tracked it by radar and gave us a projected point of impact," Sheriff Dahl Bradfield said. Imagery, trajectory and ballistics experts have been analyzing...

Three days before the Columbia lifted off on its ill-fated mission, NASA managers puzzled over ways to keep its shuttle fleet safe from space debris. The options were few: developing orbital repair kits, changing flight patterns and adding shielding to certain sections of the shuttle. Now in light of the Columbia catastrophe — with space junk viewed as a possible cause — those efforts are being sharpened. "People are having to ask questions again that were asked before," Jim Lloyd, a top NASA safety administrator, said Wednesday. "I'm sure it's taking on heightened interest." The cause of Columbia's breakup on...

<p>SACAMENTO(AP) - NASA has asked U.S. Forest Service rangers to be on the lookout for space shuttle debris in five remote California counties where the search may be limited by isolation and snow accumulation.</p> <p>None of the hundreds of possible debris sightings in California or anywhere west of Fort Worth, Tex., have been linked to the breakup of Columbia, investigators said Tuesday. But they said photographs and data suggest the shuttle began breaking up over the western United States.</p>

Large pieces of space shuttle Columbia debris sit wrapped on pallets at Nose Dock Six, Monday Feb. 10, 2003, at Barksdale Air Force Base, La.

Received an email forwarded several times with a link for pictures of shuttle debris. The email seemed to be originally from Kristin Moor Krumrey Technical Operations ISS Stowage Integration- OC4 Many of the pictures I had never seen before. Hope this isn't a duplicate post. I tried searching on everything I could think of. The website has automatic sequencing, or you can click on "Next." Link to Shuttle Debris Slideshow

<p>SAN AUGUSTINE, Texas — As Columbia was breaking up overhead, Johnny Ford was diving under pine trees trying to dodge debris plummeting into the dense forest where he was hunting.</p> <p>He suspected an airliner was crashing and worried aloud that the bodies of passengers soon would fall onto his hunting group as well.</p>

<p>SANTA CRUZ -- Carol Fredrickson thinks a piece of tragedy washed up at her bare feet.</p> <p>Fredrickson, a Belton, Mo., woman who was visiting her sister on a weeklong vacation, was walking along Twin Lakes State Beach, just south of the Santa Cruz harbor, Tuesday afternoon when she noticed a 15-inch metal cylindrical object, marked with ruler-like lines and some numbers.</p>

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) - Two Texans were indicted Wednesday on federal charges they stole pieces of space shuttle Columbia that had dropped onto the countryside. Federal officials in Texas also declared an amnesty period extending until 5 p.m. Friday, during which people who have collected shuttle debris can turn it in without fear of being prosecuted. After that, prosecutions will resume, they said. Merrie Hipp, 43, of Henderson, was charged with theft of government property for allegedly stealing a shuttle circuit board on Saturday. Bradley Justin Gaudet, 23, of Nacogdoches, was charged in a separate incident with stealing a piece...

<p>NASA investigative teams were headed Tuesday for San Jose and other West Coast locations where new reports of possible shuttle debris could provide crucial information about what caused Columbia to break apart on its descent Saturday morning.</p> <p>Just hours after more than 10,000 mourners gathered to honor Columbia's fallen crew, NASA officials said the newly discovered debris could show the spacecraft started breaking up over California -- possibly earlier than was previously believed.</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES(AP) - NASA sent investigators to California to look at possible space shuttle debris Tuesday as the search for clues expanded to the West Coast in an effort to find evidence of the earliest events during the fiery re-entry that preceded Columbia's disintegration over Texas.</p>

Rob Koebel Reports The FBI investigated reports Monday that possible debris from the space shuttle Columbia had been found in Arizona, an agency spokeswoman said. An FBI team working with the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) responded to several locations, said spokeswoman Susan Herskovits. She wouldn’t reveal the sites, but local authorities said they received reports from five locations around the metropolitan area. Herskovits said the FBI would determine whether any of the debris should be collected and sent on to NASA. “We’re aren’t going to be able to tell you today or maybe ever if that’s shuttle debris,”...

A jigsaw puzzle of debris 02/03/2003 By DON WALL / WFAA-TV and TONY HARTZEL / The Dallas Morning News NACOGDOCHES, Texas - In East Texas, where debris from the space shuttle Columbia rained down from the sky on Saturday, a number of agencies are struggling to organize an unprecedented search effort -- even as more parts from the ill-fated spacecraft are being identified. Search teams are also finding body parts in and around the wreckage. The first human remains were transported to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. "They formally, as in any military funeral, received the caskets," said...