Six selected for Mars flight simulation experiment

July 14th, 2009 Mars flight simulation experiment endsMOSCOW — Six men are emerging from three months of isolation in Soviet-era metal tubes after completing an experiment simulating a mission to Mars. Four Russians, a German and a Frenchman were sealed in the mock spacecraft on Moscow's outskirts for 105 days, cut off for the most part from the outside world.

July 14th, 2009 6 men endure Mars flight simulation experimentMOSCOW — Russian engineers broke a red wax seal and six men emerged from a metal hatch after 105 days of isolation in a mock spacecraft, still smiling after testing the stresses that space travelers may face on the journey to Mars. Sergei Ryazansky, the captain of the six-man crew, told reporters at a Moscow research institute near the Kremlin on Tuesday that the most difficult thing was knowing that instead of making the 172-million mile (276-million kilometer) journey they were locked in a windowless module of metal canisters the size of railway cars.

June 18th, 2009 Pilot dies aboard Continental flight to NewarkDALLAS — A captain on a Continental Airlines flight has died during the flight, says a person familiar with the situation. WCBS-TV in New York says the pilot died on a flight from Brussels and the plane was expected to make an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport.

June 18th, 2009 New images show evidence of ancient Martian lakeLOS ANGELES — New images suggest Mars had a sizable lake on its surface billions of years ago, further evidence that the planet had a watery past. Images snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a 30-mile-long canyon where researchers believe water once flowed and apparent beach remnants surrounding a basin.

June 18th, 2009 Pilot dies aboard Continental flightDALLAS — A captain on a Continental Airlines flight has died during the flight, says a person familiar with the situation. WCBS-TV in New York says the pilot died on a flight from Brussels and the plane was expected to make an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport.

June 4th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA managers have completed a review of space shuttle Endeavour's readiness for flight and selected June 13 as the official launch date for the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Commander Mark Polansky and his six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 7:17 a.m.

May 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA has released an interactive, 3-D photographic collection of internal and external views of the International Space Station (ISS) and a model of the next Mars rover. NASA and Microsoft's Virtual Earth team developed the online experience with hundreds of photographs and Microsoft's photo imaging technology called Photosynth.

April 25th, 2009 15 injured when jet over Pacific hits turbulenceHONOLULU — Fifteen people aboard an Air Canada flight suffered minor injuries when it encountered turbulence about one hour northeast of Honolulu. The airline says flight AC34 from Sydney to Vancouver, British Columbia, diverted to Honolulu and landed early Friday morning.

March 29th, 2009 LONDON - Six volunteers will be locked up in small steel tins off a parking lot in Moscow for 105 days, as scientists simulate a space rocket ride to Mars. The cramped metal capsules will be connected by cables and corrugated metal pipes in a hanger at the back of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems (IMBP) in the Russian capital on Tuesday.

March 18th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A group of scientists who worked on the Phoenix Mars lander last year say they have found evidence of liquid salt water on the red planet. An analysis of photographs from the lander that explored Mars for six months shows drops of what could be salty, liquid water on the legs of the lander.

January 30th, 2009 MOSCOW - Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will propose to the government the building of a low-orbit space station to support future exploration of the Moon and Mars, an agency official has said. 'We will soon propose to our government a project to construct a low-orbit complex, which could serve as a foundation for the implementation of the lunar programme and later on the Mars programme,' Alexei Krasnov, director of manned flight programmes at Roscosmos, has told a news conference in Moscow.

January 27th, 2009 BERLIN - Indian and German scientists began strewing iron powder on hundreds of square kilometres of the Antarctic ocean in a momentous experiment that may yield a solution to the global warming crisis. Some environmentalists have opposed the work of Indian and German scientists aboard the Polarstern, a German research icebreaker, but Berlin ruled Monday the project is safe and breaks no laws.

January 15th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of NASA scientists has found proof of the existence of methane gas on Mars, raising questions about the possibility of life on the red planet, the US space agency said Thursday. In an article published in the journal Science, researchers said they found seasonal variations in methane in the planet's atmosphere that could be evidence of geological or biological processes.

January 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Vijay Mallya-led Kingfisher Airlines will launch its daily non-stop Mumbai-London flight from Monday. 'We will launch our first flight from Mumbai to London tomorrow (Monday),' a Kingfisher spokesperson said Sunday.

January 2nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - When the Spirit rover landed on Mars five years ago, no one expected it or its sister rover Opportunity to make it to their first birthdays, let alone their fifth. The rovers had predicted life spans of just 90 days, but instead US space agency NASA this month marks the fifth anniversary of the mission that is still going strong.