European Space Agency

When North Korea tried and failed to launch a satellite into orbit last month, observers in the West paid attention mostly to the Unha-3 rocket beneath it. If the launch had worked, North Korea would likely have had a ballistic missile powerful enough to reach Alaska with a 1-ton weapon and Seattle and San Francisco with a 500-kilogram bomb (albeit with questionable accuracy). But the power of the booster wasn't the whole story: The third stage of the rocket mattered, too. Perched on top was North Korea's first remote-sensing satellite, and it carried an implicit message for rival South Korea, which has...

When North Korea tried and failed to launch a satellite into orbit last month, observers in the West paid attention mostly to the Unha-3 rocket beneath it. If the launch had worked, North Korea would likely have had a ballistic missile powerful enough to reach Alaska with a 1-ton weapon and Seattle and San Francisco with a 500-kilogram bomb (albeit with questionable accuracy). But the power of the booster wasn't the whole story: The third stage of the rocket mattered, too. Perched on top was North Korea's first remote-sensing satellite, and it carried an implicit message for rival South Korea, which has...

A Soyuz rocket carrying six satellites launched Friday from French Guiana in the Russian-built rocket model's second mission this year. It was to first release a French Earth observation satellite, Pleiades 1. Next to come would be four French micro-satellites and a Chilean Earth observation satellite was to be released last. Pleiades is designed to provide images to military and civilian customers, while the four smaller satellites will be used to gather electronic intelligence for the military, according to Arianespace.

MOSCOW - A Russian spacecraft designed to boost the nation's pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames yesterday, showering fragments into the South Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said. Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in water 775 miles west of Wellington Island in Chile's south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said. The military space-tracking unit was monitoring the probe's crash, its spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.

BERLIN — The European Space Agency is launching a sophisticated satellite that scientists hope will help them more precisely gauge the effects of global warming on the earth’s ice packs by accurately measuring the thickness of the ice. The CryoSat 2 mission, which starts today after years of delays, will be able to pinpoint details of changes in the world’s shrinking ice caps. Though most scientists agree that global warming is significantly affecting the ice sheets, many also say too little is known with certainty, and that is where the CryoSat 2 mission aims to...

TOULOUSE, France -- Laurence Theil lounges around in bed, with attendants to massage her back and bring her breakfast on a tray. But it isn't exactly a life of leisure: The French nurse has spent 50 straight days confined to bed for space research. She is not allowed to stand or sit up, ever; a 24-hour surveillance camera makes sure of that. She showers lying down and even jogs in bed, strapped into a vertical treadmill that makes her feel as if she's running up a wall. "Running while you're on your back takes some getting used to," says...

PARIS -- Hubert Curien, a scientist, former minister, and architect of French space policy regarded as a father of the Ariane series of rockets, died of heart failure Sunday in his secondary residence in Loury. He was 80. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin hailed Dr. Curien as the "main craftsman of French space policy" and noted the "exemplary success" of the European Ariane rockets. As president of France's National Center for Space Studies from 1976 to 1984, Dr. Curien oversaw the first Ariane launch in 1979.

MOSCOW - Russian engineers broke a red wax seal and six men emerged from a metal hatch beaming yesterday after 105 days of isolation in a Soviet-era mock spacecraft testing the stresses space travelers may one day 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 that the most difficult thing was knowing that instead of making the 172-million mile journey they were locked in a four-piece windowless module made of metal canisters the size of railway cars.

MOSCOW - A Russian spacecraft designed to boost the nation's pride on a bold mission to a moon of Mars came down in flames yesterday, showering fragments into the South Pacific west of Chile's coast, officials said. Pieces from the Phobos-Ground, which had become stuck in Earth's orbit, landed in water 775 miles west of Wellington Island in Chile's south, the Russian military Air and Space Defense Forces said. The military space-tracking unit was monitoring the probe's crash, its spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.

MOSCOW - Russia’s space agency chief said yesterday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of Earth impact, even though US scientists say such a scenario is unlikely. Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency, and others to join the project. When the 885-foot asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its...

Russian officials say they still have no firm information where a failed Mars moon probe plummeted to Earth, the day after it went down. The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe fell Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months. The $170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground anyway.

A Soyuz rocket carrying six satellites launched Friday from French Guiana in the Russian-built rocket model's second mission this year. It was to first release a French Earth observation satellite, Pleiades 1. Next to come would be four French micro-satellites and a Chilean Earth observation satellite was to be released last. Pleiades is designed to provide images to military and civilian customers, while the four smaller satellites will be used to gather electronic intelligence for the military, according to Arianespace.

By Juliette Kayyem Good news, mortals. The 1-in-3,200 possibility that NASA's UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) will fall from the sky and hit someone on Earth has come and gone. I know it was uncool to worry about it, but worry you should. In October, the scarily named Rontgensatellit (ROSAT), is expected to fall to earth, and this time there is a 1-in-2,000 probability that a person will be hit. Your chances of getting through the holidays are still exceptionally good, but the recurring incidences of space debris, commonly known on earth as junk, is symptomatic of...

MOSCOW — A manned mission to Mars may be decades away, but an international team of researchers will try to experience what one might be like by locking themselves in a windowless capsule for a year and a half — the time needed for a roundtrip to the red planet. The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian, and a Chinese won’t endure weightlessness, but beginning today they will live for 520 days in the spartan conditions of a mock spaceship and follow a harsh regimen of experiments and exercise.

BERLIN — The European Space Agency is launching a sophisticated satellite that scientists hope will help them more precisely gauge the effects of global warming on the earth’s ice packs by accurately measuring the thickness of the ice. The CryoSat 2 mission, which starts today after years of delays, will be able to pinpoint details of changes in the world’s shrinking ice caps. Though most scientists agree that global warming is significantly affecting the ice sheets, many also say too little is known with certainty, and that...

MOSCOW - Russia’s space agency chief said yesterday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of Earth impact, even though US scientists say such a scenario is unlikely. Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency, and others to join the project. When the 885-foot asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into...

PARIS -- A European rocket roared yesterday into space from a launch pad in South America, placing into orbit a surveillance satellite billed as giving France's military new abilities to spy worldwide. The unmanned craft lifted off smoothly from a launch center in Kourou, French Guyana, at 1:36 p.m. -- the third and last launch of an Ariane-5 rocket this year, said Arianespace, the commercial arm of the 13-country European Space Agency. The satellite and six smaller scientific ones were placed into orbit about an hour after liftoff.

Russian officials say they still have no firm information where a failed Mars moon probe plummeted to Earth, the day after it went down. The unmanned Phobos-Ground probe fell Sunday after being stuck in Earth's orbit for two months. The $170 million craft was one of the heaviest and most toxic pieces of space junk ever to crash to Earth, but space officials and experts said the risks posed by its crash were minimal because the toxic rocket fuel on board and most of the craft's structure would burn up in the atmosphere high above the ground anyway.

MOSCOW - Russian engineers broke a red wax seal and six men emerged from a metal hatch beaming yesterday after 105 days of isolation in a Soviet-era mock spacecraft testing the stresses space travelers may one day 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 that the most difficult thing was knowing that instead of making the 172-million mile journey they were locked in a four-piece windowless module made of metal canisters the size of railway cars.

WASHINGTON -- More than 9,000 pieces of space debris are orbiting Earth, a hazard that can only be expected to get worse in the next few years. And currently there's no workable and economic way to clean up the mess. The pieces of space junk measuring 4 inches or more total about 5,500 tons, according to a report by NASA scientists J.C. Liou and N.L. Johnson in today's issue of the journal Science. Even if space launches were halted now, which will not happen, the collection of debris would continue growing as items already in orbit collide and break into more...