Falling Satellite Poses Little Risk to Public, NASA Says (SPACE.com)

An outdated NASA satellite, which has been adrift in orbit for six years, is falling back to Earth, and some of its debris is expected to reach the ground in the next few weeks. But despite the chance that bits of debris could land in North or South America, the space agency is assuring the public that there is no reason to be alarmed.

"Satellites re-entering is actually very commonplace," Nick Johnson, chief scientist of the Orbital Debris Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said at a news briefing today (Sept. 9). "Last year, for example, we averaged over one object per day falling back uncontrolled into the atmosphere." [Photos: Space Debris & Cleanup Concepts]

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), a school bus-size spacecraft, will re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime in late September or early October, agency officials said. Debris from the satellite could fall over a swath of land stretching more than 500 miles (804 kilometers) anywhere between northern Canada and southern South America.

Narrowing down the area of impact will not be possible until much closer to when the pieces will hit, said Air Force Maj. Michael  Duncan, deputy chief of the U.S. Strategic Command's space situational awareness division.

Johnson stressed that these incidents are not so rare. In 2010 alone, some 400 pieces of space debris were cataloged by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network, he said.

On average, one moderate-size object, which could be an old, intact spacecraft or rocket body, falls to Earth every week. The majority of the debris disintegrates upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, but some of the vehicle components do reach the surface, Johnson said. These pieces of space junk typically fall over broad ocean areas or desolate regions like the Australian outback or the Canadian tundra.

Regarding larger objects such as the nearly 12,500-pound (5,668 kilograms) UARS, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network typically sees one of these re-entering the atmosphere per year.

The spacecraft is about 35 feet (10.7 meters) long and 15 feet (4.5 m) wide. And while agency officials said UARS is the largest NASA satellite to make an uncontrolled fall back to Earth in years, Johnson clarified that re-entry events of this size are "certainly not unknown or unprecedented." [Related: Space Junk FAQ: Falling Space Debris Explained]

"Last year there were 75 metric tons of spacecraft and rocket bodies falling back to Earth in an uncontrolled manner," Johnson explained. "In perspective, UARS is less than 6 metric tons, so it's a very small percentage of the annual re-entry of satellites into Earth's atmosphere."

Even when pieces of defunct satellites and rocket bodies do reach the ground, the chances of them posing a risk to people and their property is very remote, NASA said.

NASA officials estimate that there is a 1-in-3,200 chance that a person somewhere on Earth will be hit by UARS debris, and the odds of the dead satellite re-entering over a densely populated area is very small. [Video: The Expanding Danger of Space Debris]

NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network has closely studied the satellite to determine the potential risks during its re-entry. Current projections show that 26 large pieces, totaling approximately 1,170 pounds (532 kg), will survive the trip through Earth's atmosphere.

Still, the chances of the UARS satellite causing any real harm is very small, officials said.

"Throughout the entire 54 years of the Space Age there has been no report of anyone being injured or impacted by any re-entering debris," Johnson said.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Alone in Space on 9/11: An Astronaut's Photographs and Memories (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | September 11 is a day that is indelibly etched upon the mind of most Americans that were old enough to experience it (and even some who weren't), a traumatizing event that has become a part of America's collective conscious memory. It would difficult to imagine what it would have been like on that fateful day had there not been someone to turn to, someone with which to talk and discuss and lament and mourn. But one man did just that: NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson. On 9/11 he was an American alone, cut off from not only his home country, which was under attack, but from his world, which had been forever altered by the day's tragic events. On Friday, the astronaut released through NASA both photographs and letters of his 9/11 experience.

"I was flabbergasted, then horrified," he wrote, recalling that the first he heard of the attacks was from a radio transmission from a NASA flight surgeon. "My first thought was that this wasn't a real conversation, that I was still listening to one of my Tom Clancy tapes. It just didn't seem possible on this scale in our country. I couldn't even imagine the particulars, even before the news of further destruction began coming in."

The particulars were horrifying. The September 11 terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one of the world's foremost architectural achievements and symbolic of the economic might of the United States, was reduced in a matter of hours to a smoking pile of concrete, steel, glass, and rubble. Nearly 3,000 people would die in the attacks (including those killed at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C.). Over 400 first responders would also die helping search for, aid, and treat survivors as well as trying to restore order and contain fires. Evidence suggests that many are dying still, slowing succumbing to the carcinogenic dust and debris that pervaded the air in Manhattan after the towers fell.

The tenth anniversary of 9/11 has produced a plethora of testimonies, documentaries, human interest stories, histories, and memorials. Of them all, Culbertson's is profoundly different. He was roughly 300 miles above the Earth, circling like the major character in the hit David Bowie song "Major Tom":

"... am I sitting in my tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do..."

He was a lone American aboard the International Space Station, forced to deal with the trauma of the day's events without the aid of physical companionship with other Americans. Except for live radio and television feeds from down below, Culbertson was cut off from much of the emotional and psychological support afforded to most that were experiencing the trauma of the attacks.

Culbertson was alone and he knew it. "Other than the emotional impact of our country being attacked and thousands of our citizens and maybe some friends being killed, the most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation."

He also showed signs of helplessness, as was evidenced through his thoughts of a post-9/11 world. From a second letter: "It's difficult to describe how it feels to be the only American completely off the planet at a time such as this. The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming. I know that we are on the threshold (or beyond) of a terrible shift in the history of the world. Many things will never be the same again after September 11, 2001."

Still, unlike "Major Tom," Culbertson knew he would eventually go home. Hope soon overcame the shadows of doubt and uncertainty.

From a third letter: "I hope the example of cooperation and trust that this spacecraft and all the people in the program demonstrate daily will someday inspire the rest of the world to work the same way. They must!"

Frank Culbertson's photos and letters provide the world with an insight into how humans deal with tragedy through gradual acceptance and the determination to overcome the tragic event(s). His is a testament of the hope for a better future born of the lessons learned from that late summer day.

On the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, it should be hoped that the present is part of the realization of that better future.

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9/11 Tributes Reach All the Way to Space, to Mars and Back (SPACE.com)

Ten years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, tributes to the thousands who lost their lives have extended into space, from Earth's orbit to the surface of Mars.

Mementos were carried into space for the families of the victims, flags were flown as memorials to the fallen first responders and metal recovered from Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center buildings in New York, was incorporated into rovers sent to explore the Red Planet.

American astronauts have also radioed down from space their own tributes, starting the day of the attacks to this week, pausing to remember those who died on the tenth anniversary of their loss.

"The crew of the International Space Station stands united in paying its respects to the victims of 9/11, those who perished that day and those who lost families and friends in New York City, Shanksville, Pa., and Washington, D.C.," astronaut Ron Garan said in a video recorded with his fellow Expedition 28 crewmate Mike Fossum. [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]

"We also want to remember the sacrifices made by the first responders who ignored the dangers and ran toward the destruction and the devastation that was visible even from here, the International Space Station by commander Frank Culbertson and the crew of Expedition 3," Fossum said.

Culbertson, who was the only American in space on Sept. 11, 2001, reported that day that he could see smoke rising from where the World Trade Center buildings had stood.

"We flew past New York City and saw the effects of that attack on that city," he said.

Culbertson later paid specific tribute to one of the victims, his friend Charles 'Chic' Burlingame, who was the pilot of the plane that hit the Pentagon. Using a trumpet that he had on the station, Culbertson played "Taps" from space.[Video: Culbertson Recalls 9/11 From Above]

"Playing taps gave me a sense of connection with Chic. It was a terrible loss, but I'm sure Chic fought bravely to the end. And tears don't flow the same in space," Culbertson later wrote.

Flags for heroes and families

In addition to sharing their thoughts, astronauts have also carried thousands of flags into space in honor of the 9-11 victims, including the loss of one of their own.

Four months after the attacks, space shuttle Endeavour launched to the station on a mission to bring Culbertson and his Russian crewmates home. On board the orbiter was a flag recovered from the World Trade Center site and almost 6,000 small U.S. flags that were flown as part of NASA's "Flags for Heroes and Families" campaign.

"The 'Flags for Heroes and Families' campaign is a way for us to honor and show our support for the thousands of brave men and women who have selflessly contributed to the relief and recovery efforts," then-NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin said.

"NASA wanted to come up with an appropriate tribute to the people who lost their lives in the tragic events of Sept. 11," he said. "America's space program has a long history of carrying items into space to commemorate historic events, acts of courage, and dramatic achievements. 'Flags for Heroes and Families' is a natural extension of this ongoing outreach project."

Among the victims was Charles "Chuck" Jones, a retired Air Force officer who trained for a Department of Defense dedicated shuttle mission that was canceled in the wake of the January 1986 loss of shuttle Challenger. Jones was a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it was piloted by hijackers into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

On National Flag Day, June 14, 2002, NASA began the distribution of the flags, which were mounted on memorial certificates. They were given to the survivors and families of the victims in New York and the Pentagon, and to the families of the heroes killed on United Airlines flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.

At a ceremony held that day in New York City, Culbertson helped present the Ground Zero-recovered flown flag to then-New York Governor George Pataki.

"This precious flag symbolizes the sacrifice and courage of the thousands of New Yorkers and Americans who perished that fateful day. On behalf of all New Yorkers, I am proud to welcome the flag back to the New York City to honor the innocent men and women who were working in the towers on September 11, and the countless heroes whose spirit and strength has helped carry us through this horrific ordeal," Pataki said.

This year, NASA continued its tributes to September 11 with two flag-related activities. In February, flags flown at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida were used to help mend the damaged remains of "The National 9/11 Flag," which was hanging on a scaffolding across the street from the World Trade Center when the south tower collapsed.

And then in July, NASA flew the U.S. Honor Flag aboard the final space shuttle mission, STS-135. Since shortly after the attacks, the Honor Flag has served as a traveling memorial to all American heroes who have lost their lives in the line of duty. [Video: U.S. Honor Flag in Space]

Roving tribute

NASA launched two more 9-11-connected flags but unlike the others they won't be returning to Earth.

The twin Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, each have a U.S. flag-adorned component that was cut from debris from the fallen towers.

An aluminum cuff serving as a cable shield on each of the rovers' rock abrasion tools was constructed from material recovered from the destroyed World Trade Center.

"It's gratifying knowing that a piece of the World Trade Center is up there on Mars," Stephen Gorevan, founder and chairman of Honeybee Robotics that built the rovers' rock abrasion tools, said. "That shield on Mars, to me, contrasts the destructive nature of the attackers with the ingenuity and hopeful attitude of Americans."

An early hurdle to the idea was acquiring an appropriate piece of material from Ground Zero. Through Gorevan's contacts, a parcel was delivered to Honeybee from the New York mayor's office on Dec. 1, 2001, with a twisted plate of aluminum inside and a note: "Here is debris from Tower 1 and Tower 2."

The shields were produced and launched without fanfare. Neither Honeybee Robotics nor NASA spoke of the tribute until after the rovers were on Mars.

"It was meant to be a quiet tribute," Gorevan told the New York Times in November 2004. "Enough time has passed. We want the families to know."

Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @robertpearlman. Copyright 2011 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

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New Photo of Moon's North Pole Reveals Spiral Illusion (SPACE.com)

Here's a view of the moon you'll never see from Earth.

NASA scientists created this mosaic by stitching together 983 images of the moon's North Pole region taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO robotic probe, which has been mapping the moon from above since 2009, has acquired thousands of wide-angle camera shots of its polar regions. [Photo of the moon's north pole]

Because the mottled moon only tilts on its access at an angle of 1.54 degrees (as compared to Earth's 23.5 degree tilt) some of its surface never sees sunlight. One goal of the LRO mission is to identify these regions of permanent shadow. The probe took the photos in the composite image above at the height of summer in our satellite's northern hemisphere — the time when the pole is best illuminated. Thus, dark areas, such as those along the inside rims of deep craters and the immediate vicinity of the pole, are probably permanently dark.

The craters around the pole appear to spiral out from it. According to Mark Robinson, principle investigator of the LRO team based at Arizona State University, this is an optical illusion. [The Most Amazing Optical Illusions (and How They Work)]

"Imagine a series of very narrow pie slices collected 12 times each day, one after another," Robinson told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com. "It takes roughly 360 slices to fill in the whole pie. Each day the sun direction is progressing around the moon, thus the direction that the sun is striking the surface changes. So the shadow directions slowly progress around the moon, thus leading to the illusion."

This story was provided by Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to SPACE.com. Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.

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How to Preserve the Apollo Lunar Landing Sites (ContributorNetwork)

Recently, NASA released some Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images of some of the Apollo moon landing sites. While this would seem to be the final nail in the coffin of the "we never went to the moon" conspiracy theory, they raise another question.

NASA is expressing interest in protecting the Apollo landing sites from contamination from future lunar landers. The motive is as much scientific as it is cultural and historical. According to an article by Chris Bergen at NASA Space Flight, there is concern that future lunar landers, such as are being developed for the Google Lunar X Prize will damage not only the footprints and treads left on the lunar surface by the Apollo astronauts, but the hardware.

Nevertheless there is some interest in revisiting some of the Apollo sites to ascertain how four decades of micrometeorite bombardment and exposure to lunar weathering have affected the descent stages and other hardware left behind. How to do this and not damage the landing sites is a vexing question.

Protocols will no doubt be developed to allow for the traversing of lunar rovers on or at least near the landing sites. However there is a longer view question that has to be answered, especially as humans sooner or later begin to return to the moon.

The Apollo landing sites are historical and cultural areas, where history was literally imprinted on the soil by the footsteps of astronaut explorers and the tread tracks of lunar rovers. When people start living and working on the moon, same care has to be made to keep from contaminating the sites while at the same time eventually facilitating the desire of people on the moon to visit them.

The desire to preserve the sites down to the very footprints make preserving them a more daunting task than the equivalent, say a famous battlefield, on Earth. The disturbance caused by future lunar explorers, kicking up dust, might damage the sites irreversibly.

One idea might be to set up barriers around the landing sites, beyond which future lunar visitors will not be able to traverse. No doubt with careful mapping and the deployment of walkways that avoid the footprints and tread marks, future lunar tourists will be able to enter the sites, to a certain extent, and stand near where the first explorers of the moon stood so many decades before.

That's not an immediate problem, of course. The United States is still wrestling over what sort of space exploration program it should have or whether it should have one at all. But China, India, and perhaps other countries are interested in eventually sending their astronauts to the moon. The question thus arises, if the personnel of other countries are on the moon and Americans are not, will the United States have any say in how the Apollo landing sites are treated?

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

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Ozone in smog damages health even at current level

By Alina Selyukh

WASHINGTON | Fri Sep 2, 2011 6:34pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health experts lamented a move by U.S. President Barack Obama to halt rules on limiting smog pollution, saying the decision could endanger many people already susceptible to respiratory problems.

Under pressure from businesses and Republican lawmakers, the Environmental Protection Agency had delayed issuing a rule on ozone limits several times. On Friday, Obama unexpectedly told the EPA to withdraw the clean-air initiative.

Even at current levels, doctors and public health groups warn that ozone, a key smog ingredient, is harmful, especially for those already suffering from lung diseases.

"We don't really know what level of ozone is truly safe," said Dr. Monica Kraft, director of the Asthma, Allergy and Airway Center at Duke University and president-elect of the American Thoracic Society.

"We are concerned that there won't be any change (in standards) until 2013, even though the levels we have now already can actually worsen lung disease and cause more symptoms, visits to the emergency departments and deaths."

Under the proposed rule, factories and oil, natural gas and power generators would have been forced to cut emissions of ozone, nitrogen oxides and other chemicals, which form smog when they react with sunlight.

Ozone, of all air pollutants, is the most dangerous as it has direct effects on lung tissue. Its irritating activity can cause coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath even in healthy people, and is especially damaging for those already ill, the elderly, children and people predisposed for lung problems such chronic allergies.

"Ozone is basically putting your lungs on display for suntanning. It burns the airways the same way sun burns your skin," said Dr. Albert Rizzo, a pulmonary specialist and an American Lung Association national board chairman.

Ozone exposure peaks on hot and humid sunny days and can increase flair-ups for people with chronic asthma or bronchitis. For people with heart problems, ozone can inhibit the release of oxygen into the bloodstream and increase the chance of heart attacks or strokes.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, supported by a broad range of environmental groups, has said the ozone rules would save as much as $100 billion in health costs, and help prevent as many as 12,000 premature deaths from heart and lung complications.

Jackson said in a statement the EPA would revisit the ozone standard, in compliance with the Clean Air Act, but she shied away from commenting on the White House's decision.

"It's a huge loss for public health because what this means is that we're not setting a standard to protect public health," said Paul Billings, national policy and advocacy vice president at the American Lung Association.

(Additional reporting by Christopher Doering; editing by Carol Bishopric)

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Two-million-year-old South Africa fossils show links to man

One of the two Sediba skeletons is displayed at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg September 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Stringer

By Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG | Fri Sep 9, 2011 5:27pm EDT

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - A well-preserved set of 2-million-year-old fossils shows a part-human, part-ape species had hands similar to man, sophisticated ankles that helped in movement and a surprisingly tiny but advanced brain, a report released Thursday said.

The fossils, discovered in a sunken cave north of Johannesburg, may change views of the origins of humans. They show a combination of anatomical features never seen before, demonstrating close links to the species and humans.

"The many very advanced features found in the brain and body, and the earlier date make it possibly the best candidate ancestor for our genus, the genus Homo, more so than previous discoveries," said Lee Berger, at the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Berger and a team of experts examined fossils from the site, and in findings to be published in the prestigious periodical Science said they found the most complete hand on the species called hominins, the most complete, undistorted hip bone and well-preserved ankle bones.

"This is giving us insight, that isn't guesswork into an area of anatomy that is crucial and critical in how human walking evolved," Berger said of the foot and ankle bones.

The hand, which was described as a human-like at the end of an ape-like arm, had a precision grip that could have aided in making tools, said team member Tracy Kivell, a researcher at Germany's Max Planck Institute.

Its elongated thumb differs from that of apes and allows for it to grasp objects more firmly.

The grapefruit-sized brain of the hominins with a shape close to that of humans and may challenge theories about brain enlargement in human development, they said.

Since the discovery of the site in August 2008, 220 bones have been found of the early hominins, representing at least five individuals. The paper in Science is based on a detailed analysis of two of the individuals.

(Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

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Twin NASA craft launched to study insides of moon (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core.

"I could hardly be happier," said the lead scientist, Maria Zuber. After two days of delays and almost another, "I was trying to be as calm as I could be."

NASA launched the near identical probes — named Grail-A and Grail-B — aboard a relatively small Delta II rocket to save money. It will take close to four months for the spacecraft to reach the moon, a long, roundabout journey compared with the zippy three-day trip of the Apollo astronauts four decades ago.

Grail-A popped off the upper stage of the rocket exactly as planned 1 1/2 hours after liftoff, followed eight minutes later by Grail-B. Both releases were seen live on NASA TV thanks to an on-board rocket camera, and generated loud applause in Launch Control.

The spacecraft are traveling independently to the moon, with A arriving on New Year's Eve and B on New Year's Day.

Once they were safely on their way, Zuber announced a contest for schoolchildren to replace the "working-class names" of Grail-A and Grail-B.

"Grail, simply put, is a journey to the center of the moon," said Ed Weiler, head of NASA's science mission directorate, borrowing from the title of the Jules Verne science fiction classic, "Journey to the Center of the Earth."

The world has launched more than 100 missions to the moon since the Soviet Union's Luna probes in 1959. That includes NASA's six Apollo moon landings that put 12 men on the lunar surface.

NASA's Grail twins — each the size of a washing machine — won't land on the moon but will conduct their science survey from a polar lunar orbit.

Beginning in March, once the spacecraft are orbiting just 34 miles above the moon's surface, scientists will monitor the slight variations in distance between the two to map the moon's entire gravitational field. The measurements will continue through May.

"It will probe the interior of the moon and map its gravity field 100 to 1,000 times better than ever before. We will learn more about the interior of the moon with Grail than all previous lunar missions combined," Weiler said.

At the same time, four cameras on each spacecraft will offer schoolchildren the opportunity to order up whatever pictures of the moon they want. The educational effort, called MoonKAM, is spearheaded by Sally Ride, America's first spacewoman. As of Saturday, more than 1,100 schools had signed up.

The entire Grail mission costs $496 million.

Zuber, the mission's principal investigator and a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the precise lunar gravity measurements will help her and other planetary scientists better understand how the moon evolved over the past 4 billion years. The findings also should help identify the composition of the moon's core: whether it's made of solid iron or possibly titanium oxide.

Another puzzle that Grail may help solve, Zuber said, is whether Earth indeed had a smaller second moon. Last month, astronomers suggested the two moons collided and the little one glommed onto the big one, a possible explanation for how the lunar highlands came to be.

Knowing where the moon's gravity is stronger will enable the United States and other countries to better pinpoint landing locations for future explorers, whether robot or human. The gravity on the moon is uneven and about one-sixth Earth's pull.

"If you want to land right next to a particular outcrop (of rock), you're going to be able to do it," Zuber said. "There will be no reason to do another gravity experiment of the moon in any of our lifetimes."

Zuber said the Grail findings should eliminate cliffhangers like the Apollo 11 landing in 1969 by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. They overshot their touchdown site in part because of the subtle gravity changes in the moon's surface below; they almost ran out of fuel before safely touching down on the Sea of Tranquility.

"It will be easier next time," Zuber promised.

For now, NASA has no plans to return astronauts to the moon, Earth's closest neighbor at approximately 240,000 miles away. That program, called Constellation, was canceled last year by President Barack Obama, who favors asteroids and Mars as potential destinations in America's future without the shuttle.

This is the second planetary mission for NASA since the space shuttle program ended in July, and attracted a large crowd to Cape Canaveral. NASA counted nearly 1,000 guests at Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, nowhere near the 12,000 on hand for the Juno launch to Jupiter at the beginning of August.

Grail was supposed to soar Thursday, but high wind interfered. Then NASA needed an extra day to check the rocket after engine heaters stayed on too long. High wind almost stopped NASA again Saturday; the launch team had to skip the morning's first opportunity, but the wind dissipated just in time for the second.

The year's grand finale will be the launch of the biggest Mars rover ever the day after Thanksgiving.

"NASA is still doing business even though the shuttles stopped flying," Weiler told reporters earlier in the week.

Grail is the 110th mission to target the moon, according to NASA records. Missions have been launched by the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, China and India.

The previous moonshot was two years ago: NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Just last month, the moon-circling probe beamed back the sharpest pictures yet of some of the Apollo artifacts left on the moon from 1969 through 1972 — and even moonwalkers' tracks. NASA released the photos earlier in the week.

Ride and Zuber will help pick the winning names for the Grail twins later this year, well before the spacecraft reach the moon.

Zuber said she has her own pet names, "but I think I'll keep those to myself because I don't want to influence the contestants." Some of the names used by members of her team over the four-year life of the project: Fred and Ginger, Castor and Pollux, and Tom and Jerry.

___

Online:

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/main/index.html

Sally Ride Science: http://moonkam.ucsd.edu/

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Defunct 6-ton satellite crashing back to Earth (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – A defunct NASA science satellite dispatched by a space shuttle crew in 1991 will come crashing back to Earth this month, with debris most likely landing in an ocean or unpopulated region, officials said Friday.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, was turned off in 2005, becoming another piece of space junk loitering in Earth orbit. The 6.5-ton spacecraft is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere later this month, although exactly when and where is unknown.

"The atmosphere changes on a daily basis. It's impossible to say how that's going to impact this re-entry," Michael Duncan, deputy chief of space situational awareness at the U.S. Strategic Command, told reporters during a conference call.

Satellites and rocket bodies falling back to Earth are nothing new. Last year, about 400 small pieces of trackable debris returned to the atmosphere.

Spent rocket bodies re-enter at a rate of about one per week. Large spacecraft, like the 35-foot long, 15-foot diameter (10-6-metres long, 4.5-metres diameter) UARS, fall back to Earth about once a year.

Most of UARS will burn up in the atmosphere, but up to 26 individual pieces, with a combined mass of about 1,100 pounds (500 kg), will survive the fall, said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The largest chunk, part of the spacecraft's structure, is expected to be about 331 pounds (150 kg), he added.

The debris most likely will land in an ocean or in an uninhabited region of Earth.

The satellite's orbit takes it over most of the planet, from as far north as northern Canada to the southern part of South America.

"It's highly unlikely it's going to strike a populated area, just from a statistical standpoint," Johnson said.

"Throughout the entire 54 years of the space age, there's been no report of anybody in the world being injured or severely impacted by any re-entering debris," he said.

The chance that even one person will be struck by a piece of UARS debris is one in 3,200, NASA says.

The satellite is so big, its plunge through the atmosphere will be visible -- if anyone is around to see it.

"This should be quite a nice show," Johnson said. "Odds are though, it's going to happen over an ocean, unlikely to be seen unless it's by an airliner. We've had reports like that before.

"We just will not know precisely where it's going to come down until it comes down."

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)

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NASA Sets Sights on Mars After Unmanned Moon Shot (SPACE.com)

NASA successfully launched a set of twin spacecraft into orbit today (Sept. 10) to study the moon's gravity, but the new mission isn't the first — or the last — robotic planetary expedition for the space agency year.

The two Grail spacecraft launched toward the moon from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to begin a 3 1/2-month trip to lunar orbit. The liftoff came just one month after another NASA observatory launched toward Jupiter to study the gas giant's composition and atmosphere. That flight, the Juno mission to Jupiter, is also expected to beam back the best photos yet of the solar system's largest planet.

"Today we had the second of NASA's planetary science launches in what we've been calling the 'Year of the Solar System,'" Jim Adams, deputy director of the planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., told reporters in a post-launch news briefing. "Just over a month ago, Juno was thrust on its way off to Jupiter, and today we sent a set of twin spacecraft off to the moon." [Photos: NASA Launches Grail Probes to the  Moon]

The $1.1 billion Juno mission is expected to arrive at the giant planet in July 2016.

And NASA's not done yet.

Mars is next

In late November, NASA will launch the sophisticated Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission toward the Red Planet. The centerpiece of the ambitious MSL mission is a Mini Cooper-size rover named Curiosity, which will roam the surface of the planet searching for clues of its wet past and potential habitability.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity rover will land in Gale Crater, a 96-mile (154-kilometer) wide scar in the Martian surface that has a central peak which rises higher than Mount Rainer near Seattle. The states of Rhode Island and Connecticut could fit inside it.

The Mars Science Laboratory is expected to land on Mars in August 2012. Once on the surface, Curiosity will explore Gale Crater in hopes of determining if the region could have once supported some form of primitive life on Mars. [Photos: Last Look at Mars Rover Curiosity Before Launch]

But Curiosity needs to launch into space first before even contemplating its Mars mission. So for today, all NASA eyes were on Grail moon probes.

Inside the moon

NASA's new mission to the moon continues in the footsteps of previous robotic and manned lunar expeditions, but the Grail probes are expected to greatly expand our knowledge of Earth's natural satellite.

"Six miles from where we launched this morning was the pad where Apollo 11 launched," said Maria Zuber, Grail principal investigator at MIT. "Grail now continues the story of exploring the moon." [Related: 20 Most Marvelous Moon Missions]

The $496 million Grail mission will precisely and accurately map the moon's gravitational field. The probes will also peer inside the moon and examine its composition, from crust to core, and attempt to piece together its evolutionary history.

Observations from the Grail spacecraft will also help researchers understand how other large, rocky planets in the inner solar system formed and evolved.

The probes, called Grail-A and Grail-B, are embarking on a circuitous and energy efficient path to the moon. The spacecraft are expected to arrive at their lunar destination by New Year's Day.

The three-month science mission will begin in early March, when Grail-A and Grail-B begin collecting data.

In the meantime, students of all ages across the U.S. are invited to enter a contest for more creative names for the lunar probes. NASA will announce additional details about the naming contest soon, but Zuber explained that students will be invited to submit essays explaining their choice of names. The contest will run from Oct. 14 to Nov. 11, and the winning names will be announced before the Grail spacecraft reach lunar orbit.

Today's launch came after windy weather and a technical glitch postponed Grail's liftoff by two days. Even this morning's success was not without its share of suspense. The probes blasted off at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT) from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, but high-altitude winds forced the agency to stand down during an initial attempt earlier this morning.

"That was the most drama, I think, of the entire day," Zuber said. "It was such a relief once we got the 'go' to launch … that I was extremely calm during the launch."

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA Hopes to Launch Delayed Moon Gravity-Mapping Probes Today (SPACE.com)

After two days of delay caused by bad weather and a technical glitch, NASA is once again ready to launch two probes toward the moon to unlock the secrets of lunar gravity.

The twin Grail spacecraft are expected to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today (Sept. 10) at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT), with a second opportunity available at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT), if needed, NASA officials said.

The $496 million moon probes were initially slated to launch atop their unmanned Delta 2 rocket on Thursday (Sept. 8), but unacceptable high-altitude winds forced NASA to delay the liftoff.

Another chance on Friday was called off to give engineers time to assess the rocket's propulsion system after a potential glitch was detected.After a series of reviews, the team concluded that there are no issues with the rocket or its propulsion system, NASA officials said. [Photos of NASA's Grail Moon Gravity Mission]

Today's weather forecast is more optimistic, and current predictions show a 60 percent chance of acceptable conditions at the time of launch, agency officials said.

NASA has specific limits for acceptable launch weather conditions, with high winds, rain, thunder and lightning all present potential safety risks. For example, high upper level winds can affect the way rockets fly through Earth's upper atmosphere as they blast into orbit. 

The agency will closely monitor weather conditions overnight in preparation for tomorrow's attempt. The Grail mission (whose name is short for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) has a 42-day launch window that extends through Oct. 19, officials have said. [Video: Grail's Mission to Map Moon Gravity]

The twin Grail spacecraft, called Grail-A and Grail-B, will closely examine the composition of the lunar interior, and will make detailed and precise maps of the moon's gravitational field. The three-month mission is expected to help scientists solve mysteries of the moon's origin and its evolution since the natural satellite was formed 4.6 billion years ago.

Researchers are also hoping to use Grail's observations to better understand how other large, rocky bodies in the inner solar system were formed.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

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Weight Watchers works, scientific study finds

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Thu Sep 8, 2011 10:29am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Overweight patients told by their doctors to go to Weight Watchers lose around twice as much weight as people receiving standard weight loss care over 12 months, according to the findings of a study published on Thursday.

In the first randomized controlled trial -- considered the gold standard of scientific analysis -- to directly compare a commercial weight-loss program with standard care by family doctors, Weight Watchers was found to be more than twice as effective.

More people stuck to the Weight Watchers diet, they lost more weight and fat mass, and also shaved more off their waist measurements than those assigned to standard care.

Susan Jebb of Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Nutrition Research Unit, who led the study, said the results showed Weight Watchers is "a robust intervention that is generalisable to other economically developed countries."

"This kind of research is important so that we can identify clinically effective interventions to treat obesity," she said.

The study, published in the Lancet medical journal, comes in the wake of research last month which said obesity is a global epidemic that is fast replacing tobacco as the single most important preventable cause of costly chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Worldwide, around 1.5 billion adults are overweight and another 0.5 billion are obese, with 170 million children classified as overweight or obese. Obesity takes up between 2 to 6 percent of healthcare costs in many countries.

In the weight loss study, which was funded by Weight Watchers International but run as an investigator-led trial with all data collection and analysis conducted by the independent research team, researchers assessed 772 overweight and obese adults in Australia, Germany and Britain.

Patients were randomly assigned to receive either 12 months of standard care as usually offered by the primary care team, or referred to and given a 12-month free membership for a Weight Watchers group in their neighborhood.

As well as losing twice as much weight as those in the standard care group, patients referred to Weight Watchers were also more than three times as likely to lose 10 percent or more of their initial body weight. Some 61 percent of patients in the Weight Watchers group lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, compared with 32 percent in the standard care group.

The average weight loss at 12 months was 5.1 kg (11.2 lbs) for those using Weight Watchers versus 2.2 kg for those on standard care. For those who completed the full 12 months, average weight loss was 6.7 kg on Weight Watchers versus 3.3 kg on standard care.

"These important findings show that obesity treatment is effective and structured commercial programs can enhance outcomes," said Nick Finer a consultant endocrinologist and bariatric physician at University College London Hospitals, who was not involved in the research.

In a commentary on the study, Kate Jolly and Paul Aveyard of the school of health and population sciences at Britain's Birmingham University said cost-effectiveness was a key factor in determining whether commercial programs like Weight Watchers become part of publicly funded health care.

They added that "the low cost of these programs -- at present about 50 to 60 pounds ($80 to $95) for 12 weeks -- makes the case for incorporation intuitively appealing."

David Kirchhoff, CEO of Weight Watchers International said the Lancet study "proves that Weight Watchers is part of the solution to help transform the health of nations."

"There is a clear need for practical treatment solutions that are proven effective, affordable and scalable to have a population-wide impact," he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Paul Casciato)

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NASA: UARS Satellite Debris Poses 1 in 3,200 Chance of Hitting Someone (ContributorNetwork)

NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will fall to Earth sometime during late September or early October, NASA told reporters today in a teleconference. Atmospheric changes that take place on a daily basis making it impossible to predict exactly where or when it will come down with any real accuracy even as close as two hours prior to the re-entry.

Satellites the size of UARS, on average fall to Earth about once every year and are the subject of detailed break-up analyses by NASA scientists. In this case, NASA expects that UARS will break up in such a way that 26 pieces will strike the ground at speeds ranging from tens of miles per hour to hundreds of miles per hour, according to Nick Johnson of NASA's Orbital Debris Program. In fact, said Johnson, NASA has calculated the odds of any piece of the debris striking a person as 1 in 3200. A number which he says is very, very low and is simply based on the area of possible landfall and global population density.

The re-entry of UARS should be very visible even if it occurs in daylight said Johnson. However, it will b impossible to give enough advance information about where it will re-enter to advise people where and when to look for it. Based on the amount of water versus the amount of land in possible impact field, it is most likely that it will take place out over an ocean and may only be incidentally visible to passing aircraft or ocean vessels.

UARS made a number of important scientific observations over its 14 year effective lifespan including detailed measurement of Earth's atmosphere and of solar radiation. Since 2005, other satellites have replaced its full suite of observational capabilities.

Factbox:

* UARS was built in the 1980's and launched in 1991 at a total cost of $750 million.

* Intact, UARS masses 5.7 metric tons and completely fills the cargo bay of a space shuttle.

* Without NASA intervention, UARS would have remained in orbit until 2025, but its orbital decay was intentionally accelerated by using up all remaining onboard maneuvering propellants in 2005 when it had exhausted its scientific usefulness.

* UARS was the first satellite to record solar flux data over and entire 11 year solar cycle.

* The largest piece of UARS expected to reach the ground masses a little over 300 pounds.

* Other than being struck by fallen debris, NASA says, the biggest risk from the debris is a person getting cut by sharp edges if they try to handle the debris after is has landed. There are absolutely no toxic materials on board, according to Paul Hertz of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

* All pieces of UARS remain the property of the U.S. government and their location should be made known to local law enforcement officials. Possession or sale of any of the debris by private individuals in the United States is illegal and subject to prosecution.

* In a typical year, 400 pieces of tracked man-made debris re-enters Earth's atmosphere.

* One piece of man-made space debris survives to reach the ground, on average, each week.

* In 2010, approximately 75 metric tons of man-made space debris fell from orbit Earth.

Read more:

Meteorite Men Star Turns Space Rocks into Career

China's Great Wall of Steel in the Blue Sky

Virgin Galactic CEO: What NASA Should be Doing

Follow @Space_Matters on Twitter or 'like' the Space Matters Fan Page on Facebook for more of this author's space-related writing.

Brad Sylvester writes about the space program for the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Watching the Apollo missions through the static on a small black and white television sparked a lifelong interest in the space sciences for him. Since then, he has spent 40 years watching improvements in the technologies of space travel and our understanding of the universe.

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Young, nearby supernova dazzles scientists

The Pinwheel Galaxy is pictured a few days ago as a supernova (PTF11kly) heads towards peak brightness.

Credit: Reuters/BJ Fulton (Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope) and the Palomar Transient Factor

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES | Thu Sep 8, 2011 11:42am EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California astronomers have found the closest, brightest supernova of its kind in 25 years, catching the glimmer of a tiny self-destructing star a mere 21 million light years from Earth and soon visible to amateur skywatchers.

The discovery, announced on Wednesday, was made in what was believed to be the first hours of the rare cosmic explosion using a special telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego and powerful supercomputers at a government laboratory in Berkeley.

The detection so early of a supernova so near has created a worldwide stir among astronomers, who are clamoring to observe it with every telescope at their disposal, including the giant Hubble Space Telescope.

Scientists behind the discovery at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley say the extraordinary phenomenon -- labeled by the rather obscure designation PTF 11kly -- will likely become the most-studied supernova in history.

"It is an instant cosmic classic," said Peter Nugent, the senior scientist at UC Berkeley who first spotted it.

PTF 11kly occurred in the Pinwheel Galaxy, located in the Ursa Major constellation, better known as the Big Dipper. At a distance of roughly 21 million light years, that puts it, on a cosmic scale, practically "in our backyard," Nugent said.

By comparison, most supernova found with the 48-inch Palomar telescope are about 1 billion light years away and far too faint for the general public to see, Nugent said.

Initially detected on August 24, the PTF 11kly has literally grown brighter by the minute and was already 20 times more luminous in just one day.

It is expected to reach its peak sometime between September 9 and 12, when it will become visible to stargazers using a good pair of binoculars or small telescope.

It will appear, blueish-white, just above and to the left of the last two stars in the Big Dipper handle.

"There are billions of stars in a galaxy. This supernova will outshine them all this weekend," Nugent told Reuters.

Supernovae of this type, classified as a "Type 1a" event, occur when a super-dense white dwarf star, about the size of Earth but containing somewhat more mass than our own sun, explodes like a gargantuan thermonuclear bomb.

The blast hurls matter in all directions at nearly one-tenth the speed of light -- matter that ultimately will form the building blocks of other stars and planets.

Such events, accounting for about one in five of all supernovae, are also used by scientists in measuring the expansion of the universe.

Similar supernovae are known to have occurred in the Pinwheel Galaxy at least three times before -- in 1909, 1951 and 1970. But instruments available to observe this one are far more sophisticated, and its early detection is giving scientists an unprecedented glimpse of such phenomena.

For astronomers, the royal straight flush of supernovae are those occurring in our own galaxy, which last happened in 1572 and was visible with the naked eye for months, Nugent said.

Records from antiquity indicate that an even more spectacular supernova in the Milky Way lit up the sky in 1006 A.D., Nugent said.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Scientists find gene that controls chronic pain

By Kate Kelland

LONDON | Thu Sep 8, 2011 2:01pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British scientists have identified a gene responsible for regulating chronic pain, called HCN2, and say their discovery should help drug researchers in their search for more effective, targeted pain-killing medicines.

Scientists from Cambridge University said that if drugs could be designed to block the protein produced by the gene, they could treat a type of pain known as neuropathic pain, which is linked to nerve damage and often very difficult to control with currently available drugs.

"Individuals suffering from neuropathic pain often have little or no respite because of the lack of effective medications," said Peter McNaughton of Cambridge's pharmacology department, who led the study.

"Our research lays the groundwork for the development of new drugs to treat chronic pain by blocking HCN2."

Pain is an enormous health burden worldwide, estimated to cost more than 200 billion euros ($281 billion) a year in Europe and around $150 billion a year in the United States.

Studies show that around 22 percent of people with chronic pain become depressed and 25 percent go on to lose their jobs. A 2002/03 survey by a group called Pain in Europe estimated that as many as one in five Europeans suffers chronic pain.

Scientists have known about the HCN2 gene, which is found in pain-sensitive nerve endings, for several years, but had not yet fully understood its role in regulating pain.

Because a related gene called HCN4 plays a critical role in controlling electrical activity in the heart, McNaughton's team suspected that HCN2 might have a similar function and regulate electrical activity in pain-sensitive nerves.

For the study, published in the journal Science on Thursday, the researchers engineered the removal of the HCN2 gene from pain-sensitive nerves and then used electrical stimuli on these nerves in lab dishes to find out how the nerves had been changed by the removal of HCN2.

The scientists then studied genetically modified mice in which the HCN2 gene had been deleted. By measuring the speed the mice withdrew from different types of painful stimuli, the scientists were able to show that deleting the HCN2 gene took away neuropathic pain.

They also found that deleting HCN2 appeared to have no effect on normal acute pain -- such as the type of pain caused by accidentally cutting yourself or biting your own tongue -- a factor they said was important since this type of pain acts as a useful warning signal to the body.

"What is exciting about the work on the HCN2 gene is that removing it -- or blocking it pharmacologically -- eliminates neuropathic pain without affecting normal acute pain," McNaughton said in a statement about this work. "This finding could be very valuable clinically because normal pain sensation is essential for avoiding accidental damage."

Neuropathic pain, which is distinguished from inflammatory pain, is seen in patients with diabetes -- a condition which affects an estimated 280 million people around the world -- and as a painful after-effect of shingles and of chemotherapy in cancer patients. It is a also common factor in lower back pain and other chronic painful conditions.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, Editing by Sitaraman Shankar)

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Rover probes role water may have played on Mars

The arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is seen extended toward a light-toned rock, ''Tisdale 2'', during the 2,695th Martian day, or ''sol'', of the rover's work on Mars, in this picture taken by the rover's front hazard-avoidance camera on August 23, 2011. The rock, ''Tisdale 2'', is about 12 inches (30 cm) tall. The rover used two instruments on the robotic arm, the microscopic imager and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, to examine Tisdale 2. In this image, the turret at the end of the arm is positioned so that the microscopic imager is facing the rock.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Fri Sep 2, 2011 8:13am EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity is uncovering new details about the role water may have played on what is now a cold, dry planet, scientists said on Thursday.

Opportunity is one of two small rovers that landed on opposite sides of Mars in January 2004 for what were expected to be 90-day studies to look for signs of the past presence of water on the planet. Water is believed to be a key ingredient for life.

Sister probe Spirit succumbed to the harsh Martian environment last year, leaving Opportunity to go solo until the U.S. space agency's next rover, Curiosity, arrives in August 2012.

Opportunity originally touched down near the equator in an area called Meridiani Planum and almost immediately discovered evidence the plain was once covered by shallow, salty and highly acidic water. It later spent two years studying exposed bedrock and other features in a small crater named Victoria.

At a new destination, a 14-mile- (22-km) wide crater named Endeavour, Opportunity has discovered a different type of terrain with a chemical makeup unlike anything previously encountered.

"We may soon be able to study clay minerals and rock types that formed in low-acid, wet conditions, which may tell us more about a potentially habitable environment," Dave Lavery, who oversees the Mars Exploration Rovers program at NASA headquarters in Washington, told reporters during a conference call.

The first rock probed by Opportunity at Endeavour Crater shows very high levels of zinc, which on Earth is commonly found in rocks that have been exposed to hot water, such as thermal springs.

"This rock doesn't look like anything else we've ever seen before," said Cornell University planetary scientist Steve Squyres, the lead rover scientist. "We are thinking very hard over what this means."

The rock is basically basalt, a common volcanic rock, which was cemented together from fragments of other rocks shattered by an impact, for example.

"We may be dealing with a situation where water has percolated or flowed -- somehow moved through these rocks, maybe as vapor, maybe as liquid, don't know yet -- but has enhanced the zinc concentration in the rock to levels far in excess of anything that we have seen on Mars before," Squyres said.

Scientists plan to look for other zinc-rich rocks to see if the concentrations are the same, as well as probe for other minerals likewise tied to water.

Opportunity is on the hunt for bedrock, in particular, which is rock that has not been moved by impacts or other processes.

"We've got some strange stuff going on, but we're not ready to draw any firm conclusions," Squyres said.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Peter Cooney)

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Full Harvest Moon of September Is Peaking Now (SPACE.com)

If you're located in the Northern Hemisphere, you might have the opportunity to spot a special full moon in the sky this weekend: the Harvest Moon.

This month's special full moon gets its name because its appearance low in the southeastern sky for several nights historically afforded farmers extra time for harvesting crops. Before the invention of electricity, farmers relied on bright moonlight in the late summer to gather their ripening crops after sunset.

The moon typically rises about 50 minutes later each night, but during several nights around the Photos: Our Changing Moon]

For the past couple nights the moon has been well positioned in the sky as it heads into the full moon Sunday night (Sept. 11), with the peak coming on Monday (Sept. 12) at 5:27 a.m. EDT (0927 GMT).

Traditionally, the designation "Harvest Moon" is given to the full moon that happens closest to the autumnal (or fall) equinox, which occurs on Sept. 23 this year. While the Harvest Moon typically occurs in September in the Northern Hemisphere, it can occur in early October about once or twice each decade, according to Rao. [Infographic: Phases of the Moon Explained]

Skywatchers and amateur astronomers should hope for clear skies that will offer them nice views of the Harvest Moon. But, in addition to marveling at the bright sight, many detailed features on the moon can be seen with the ordinary binoculars or small telescopes.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of September's Harvest Moon and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a possible story or gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcomand on Facebook.

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Dazzling Northern Lights Display Possible This Weekend (SPACE.com)

The first wave in a volley of solar storm particles from the sun hit Earth Friday (Sept. 9), setting the stage for what could be a striking weekend light show for observers at high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, skywatching experts say.

The charged solar particles were expelled by the sun during a series of sun eruptions (called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs) this week. They arrived at Earth Friday, were funneled toward the poles by the planet's magnetic field and began interacting with the upper atmosphere in what scientists call a geomagnetic storm.

That interaction, when solar particles hit bits of the atmosphere and cause them to glow, can create spectacular northern lights displays, also known the aurora borealis. [Amazing Aurora Photos of Summer 2011]

"This could be the first of several hits from a series of CMEs to reach Earth during the weekend," the space weather and skywatching website Spaceweather.com wrote in an alert. "High-altitude sky watchers should b e alert for auroras after nightfall."

The sun erupted with three major solar storms this week between Sept. 5 and Sept 7. The third and largest of the storms was an X2-class solar flare, placing among the strongest types of storms the sun experiences. The coronal mass ejections from the flares were not aimed directly at Earth, so they were not expected to interfere with satellites, power grids or other infrastructure, space weather experts said.

Major solar flares have already created dazzling northern lights for skywatchers throughout this summer. In August, a series of solar events set the stage for an amazing weekend display, according to some observers.

On Aug. 5, skywatcher and photographer Colin Chatfield witnessed an impressive aurora display just outside Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada.

"We don't actually see the aurora too often here, even though we are more north than lots of your audience," Chatfield told SPACE.com in an email, adding that while this year's auroras were a bit dimmer than those of August 2010, he did manage to catch a meteor streaking across the sky this time. "Even though the ones [on Aug. 5] were not as impressive as last year, they were still amazing to watch them develop, then dance overhead."

Editor's Note: If you snap an amazing photo of the northern lights displays this weekend and would like to share it with SPACE.com for a possible story or image gallery, please contact managing editor Tariq Malik at: tmalik@space.com.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Winds Delay Launch of Twin NASA Moon Probes Again (SPACE.com)

Windy weather has once again thwarted NASA's attempt to launch two gravity probes to the moon today (Sept. 10) on a mission to study the inside of the moon and its gravity field.

The two Grail spacecraft were scheduled to launch on an unmanned Delta 2 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida this morning at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT), but stubborn high-altitude winds – the same thing that forced NASA to stand down during initial launch attempts on Thursday (Sept. 8) – caused yet another delay.

A second opportunity to launch the Grail mission this morning is available at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT), but if weather conditions do not improve, NASA will have to wait until tomorrow before they can try again. [Photos of NASA's Grail Moon Gravity Mission]

Another chance on Friday (Sept. 9) was called off to give engineers time to assess the rocket's propulsion system after a potential glitch was detected. After a series of reviews, the team concluded that there are no issues with the rocket or its propulsion system, NASA officials said.

The $496 million Grail mission will closely analyze the composition of the lunar interior, and the twin probes will make detailed and precise maps of the moon's gravitational field. The three-month expedition is expected to help scientists uncover clues of the moon's origin and evolution.

Grail's observations should also shed light on how other large, rocky bodies in the inner solar system were formed.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA Launches Twin Spacecraft to Probe Inside the Moon (SPACE.com)

Two identical space probes are on their way to the moon, after launching today (Sept. 10) on NASA's newest lunar science mission aimed at unlocking mysteries of the moon that are hidden beneath its surface.

The two Grail spacecraft blasted off this morning on an unmanned Delta 2 rocket at 9:08 a.m. EDT (1308 GMT) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, after windy weather and a technical glitch delayed the mission's launch by two days and threatened to again. A first try earlier today at 8:29 a.m. EDT (1229 GMT) was called off due to high-altitude winds, but weather conditions improved, and the agency was able to take advantage of the day's second launch opportunity.

The $496 million Grail mission (short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) will closely study the interior of the moon, from crust to core, and will map the moon's gravitational field in unprecedented detail. The three-month mission is expected to help scientists better understand the composition of Earth's natural satellite and its evolutionary history since it was formed 4.6 billion years ago. [Photos of NASA's Grail Moon Mission]

"We've used gravity science before, however these have been very primitive attempts compared to what Grail will be able to accomplish," Robert Fogel, Grail program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a news briefing on Wednesday (Sept. 7).

Understanding how the origin of the moonand how it evolved will shed light on how other rocky planets in the inner solar system formed, said Maria Zuber, Grail principal investigator at MIT.

"We have orbital reconnaissance of the surface, we have lunar samples which we can analyze in Earth labs," Zuber said. "The piece of the puzzle that has been missing in trying to reconstruct lunar evolution is understanding of the lunar interior." [Related: 20 Most Marvelous Moon Missions]

The two spacecraft, called Grail-A and Grail-B, are flying on an energy-efficient path to the moon, and are expected to arrive at their lunar target around New Year's Day (Jan. 1).

The twin probes will then enter into tandem orbits around the moon, separated from each other by a distance of about 75 to 225 miles (121 to 362 kilometers). The spacecraft will circle the moon about 34 miles (55 km) above the surface.

As the Grail spacecraft chase each other around the moon, regional differences in the lunar gravitational field will cause the probes to speed up or slow down, changing the distance between them, explained Sami Asmar, Grail deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Microwave signals bounced back and forth between Grail-A and Grail-B will measure this distance, which will help researchers construct accurate maps of the moon's gravity. The instruments onboard the Grail probes are so precise they will be able to calculate the distance between them to within less than the width of a human red blood cell, Asmar said. [Video: Grail's Mission to Map Moon Gravity]

Understanding how the moon formed and evolved will help scientists piece together clues of how other large objects in the inner solar system came to be.

"The moon is a fantastic body … in terms of learning about early planets," Zuber said. "It's nearby, it's accessible, and it preserves the record of what early planets are like. Other planets in the inner part of the solar system have gone through the same processes that the moon has gone through."

The Grail mission is also expected to raise public awareness about the moon, and special cameras aboard the probes will be used to encourage middle school students to participate in lunar science and follow along with the Grail expedition.

The so-called MoonKam project, which will capture pictures of the lunar surface for students on Earth, is being led by former NASA astronaut Sally Ride and her educational company Sally Ride Science.

As part of their public outreach efforts, NASA also invited 150 Twitter fans to attend the launch and share their experiences with the public through social media.

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Month-end target mooted for finding "no Higgs"

A scientist holds a glass of champagne after the first successful collisions at full power at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experience control room at the Large European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva, March 30, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse

By Robert Evans

GENEVA | Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:17am EDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S.-based physicists said on Monday they hope to have enough data by the end of this month to establish if the elusive Higgs boson, a particle thought to have made the universe possible, exists in its long-predicted form.

If the answer is no, scientists around the globe will have to rethink the 40-year-old Standard Model of particle physics which describes how they believe the cosmos works.

The physicists, at the Fermilab research center near Chicago which operates the Tevatron collider, have been in friendly competition with colleagues at CERN near Geneva whose giant LHC machine is also seeking the Higgs.

In an e-mail to Reuters in Geneva, Fermilab communications director Katie Yurkewicz said Tevatron was on track to have by September 30 the information "to rule out the existence of a Higgs boson with a mass within the most likely range."

Both Tevatron, operating for the past 28 years, and CERN's Large Hadron Collider, started up on March 30 2010, have been trying to find the boson -- postulated as the particle that gave mass to matter after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago -- within that range.

If it is not there, scientists say, then the multi-national research teams at both centres will have to start looking in the data gathered and more to come for something else -- a different sort of Higgs or some other particle.

But if it is somewhere there, Yurkewicz and her Fermilab colleague Robert Roser say, the Tevatron would not have enough data to confirm its existence before September 30 -- when the U.S. collider, denied necessary funds, closes down for good.

MULTIPLE SIGHTINGS NEEDED

Scientists at both centres say there will have to be multiple sightings of the Higgs -- each of which will have to be minutely scrutinized to ensure they are what they appear to be -- before a discovery can be announced.

Reaching the conclusion that it is not where it should be is much easier.

In the two machines -- the LHC oval-shaped and the Tevatron circular but smaller -- particles are smashed together at near the speed of light, recreating the primal chaos of flying matter a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

The result of those collisions -- and there have been trillions of them -- are recorded on computer disc and studied by scientists around the world for any trace of the Higgs, a key element of the Standard Model, and of any new phenomena.

Scientists at CERN, formally the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have themselves been gathering data from collisions at an ever-growing rate but have yet to spot more than a fleeting hint that it might exist.

"The Higgs boson has been rather elusive so far and no-one really knows what it will look like," wrote CERN scientist Paulime Gagnon in her blog on Monday.

"But if it exists, and if it is the one predicted by the Standard Model, then we know how to set traps to catch some."

CERN's director-general Rolf Heuer has said he expects proof one way or another to emerge in 2012, at the end of which the $10 billion LHC will shut down for a year to be prepared for collisions at twice the present force.

But some CERN researchers have suggested that the vast amount of data they are collecting could allow them to come to at least a preliminary conclusion -- Higgs or no Higgs -- by the end of this year.

(Reported by Robert Evans; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Rocket lifts off with satellites to probe moon (Reuters)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An unmanned U.S. rocket blasted off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver twin robotic probes to the moon in the hope of learning what is inside.

The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit.

Less than two hours later, both probes were flying freely from the rocket's upper-stage motor and were communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network.

"I couldn't be more pleased," Jim Adams, deputy director of NASA's planetary division, told reporters after the launch.

Liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket occurred two days later than planned due to high winds at the launch site and because of time required to review data on the rocket after its tanks were drained of fuel following an earlier launch scrub on Thursday.

The twin satellites on board are headed to a point in space 932,0570 miles away where gravitational pull from the Sun and Earth balances out.

From there, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, satellites will make a long, slow approach to the moon, arriving on December 31 and Jan 1.

The twin GRAIL probes are designed to precisely map the moon's gravity so scientists can learn what lies beneath the lunar crust and whether the moon's core is solid, liquid or some combination of the two.

Combined with high-resolution imagery, ongoing analysis of rock and soil samples returned by the 1969-1972 Apollo missions and computer models, the gravity maps are expected to fill in the biggest missing piece in the puzzle of how Earth's natural satellite formed and evolved.

MAPPING MOON GRAVITY

The small boxy probes are designed to fly single file over the lunar poles, mapping the dips and swells in lunar gravity.

Linked by radio waves, the spacecraft will be able to detect changes in the tug of lunar gravity as small as one micron -- about the width of a red blood cell.

Pockets of terrain with more mass will cause first one and then the second satellite to speed up slightly as they fly over, changing the distance between the two probes in minute, but measurable amounts. Less dense regions will cause the probes to slow slightly.

The measurements are so precise that scientists have to factor out a myriad of other forces, including the pressure of sunlight and the gravitational influences of all other planets in the solar system, even the dwarf planet Pluto, currently about 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) away.

Scientists believe the moon's building blocks were large chunks of debris jettisoned from Earth after a collision with an object as big as Mars.

The moon's ancient face reveals a history of impacts over the eons and other events, such as flowing rivers of molten lava. The GRAIL researchers' job is to determine how all these processes impacted the moon internally.

"Large impacts deposit a great deal of energy into a planet. They heat the interior. They potentially could cause the convection pattern to change. They can contribute to the way a planet de-gasses," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Maria Zuber, lead researcher and manager of the $496-million GRAIL mission.

Besides unraveling the moon's history, GRAIL scientists expect to extrapolate their findings to other rocky bodies, both in our solar system and eventually to those beyond.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, manufacture and provide launch services for the Delta 2 rocket. Lockheed Martin also is the prime contractor on the GRAIL satellites.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sandra Maler)

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Two Commercial Space Companies Are Working to Put Americans Back into Space (ContributorNetwork)

There has been a lot of news lately about "Commercial Space" efforts -- since several companies are working on capsules that promise to be able to lift people into space. These efforts would help to replace a few of the Space Shuttle's capabilities. Recently I have seen some of the hardware from many of the commercial developers and wanted to share some thoughts about two of them.

Two developers stand out -- SpaceX (a company started by Elon Musk) and Boeing. In many ways these two remind an experienced space guy of the story of the tortoise and the hare. Is SpaceX the glamorous hare, getting a fast start? One of the advantages they have is Ken Bowersox, a retired Shuttle commander who knows exactly what has to be done to fly a reliable system. In this effort, is Boeing the cautious tortoise -- moving slowly but deliberately? They have not flown a capsule yet, and have recently decided to use the experienced Atlas rocket team to lift their capsule. Maybe due to their experience, they have an effort that is getting much less publicity.

SpaceX has already flown a version of their capsule and so has leaped ahead in the eye of the public. It is also a new company, started by a young entrepreneur who came out of the Internet business. Based in Los Angeles, it certainly has the star power. Since SpaceX is a company that is the project of a person -- Elon Musk -- what would happen if he is distracted? He also has a car company, Tesla Motors, that has taken a lot of his attention. Even his personal life and his recent expensive divorce could affect the priority that he could give to SpaceX. That company is spread very thin -- they are developing a series of rockets (the Falcon) as well as two versions of their Dragon capsules -- one for cargo and one for people. The Falcon rocket has had all of the developmental troubles that we have seen with similar complex systems, and could also delay SpaceX. Recently they have been working on a launch pad in California as well. The company has already started talking about possibly sending the Dragon capsule as far as the Moon -- an ambitious goal. SpaceX has the reputation of not wanting advice from any of the people who have the experience in spaceflight.

Boeing is using a capsule design that is intended to be as simple as possible -- it is designed to just go to the Space Station. As we have seen many times with aerospace systems, simplicity is the best assurance we have of reliability. They also have the resources of a company that has developed many space systems as well as innovative aircraft; so their pool of talent is very deep. The concern that observers have is -- could problems in their other businesses cause them to pull back from a risky investment? Are they too cautious, and too reliant on the government? Their recent decision to use the Atlas rocket, a system that has flown reliably for years and probably has few surprises left in it, gives them a strong rocket to lift their capsule into space. It also has a well proven launch team in Florida, they have flown that rocket many more times that SpaceX has flown Falcon.

The next few years, as both companies fly their capsules and rockets, will be very interesting. This is a exciting time for the space business, as we watch two totally different companies approach a very difficult and merciless task with different philosophies.

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On 9/11 Anniversary, NASA Stresses International Cooperation (SPACE.com)

As the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks approaches, NASA is stressing the role that cooperative space exploration can play in making the world a better place.

Projects such as the International Space Station help blur the differences that can pit nations and peoples against each other, highlighting instead what humanity can accomplish when it works together, NASA officials said.

"We will never forget 9/11, but we are nevertheless optimistic about the future," NASA administrator Charlie Bolden said in a statement Friday (Sept. 9). "It is a bright future for the kind of cooperative exploration that will inspire humanity and lift our thoughts to the higher potential of which we are capable." [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]

Lessons of 9/11

The United States had one citizen off-planet on Sept. 11, 2001 — NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, who was commanding the International Space Station at the time.

Culbertson had a bird's-eye view as the terror attacks on New York City's World Trade Center went down.

"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad, because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan," Culbertson recalled in a NASA video marking the 9/11 anniversary. "It was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends."

The attacks had a profound influence on Culbertson, and he said it's vital that the nation and the world continue to learn lessons from that fateful day. A veteran of the war in Afghanistan who was impressed that Culbertson had commanded the space station stressed one such lesson to the astronaut when the two men met.

"The first thing he said to me was, 'That's one of the best things we're doing. We have to work together internationally, or we'll never solve all these problems,'" Culbertson said.

Bolden voiced similar sentiments, emphasizing the bridge-building potential of the space station and other cooperative space efforts.

"Frank Culbertson returned to a different world than that from which he launched," Bolden said. "But all of the space station's international crews have demonstrated how space exploration can bring our world together, erase borders and improve the lives of people across the world."

NASA commemorates 9/11

NASA scientists and satellites were called into action in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, helping search for aerial contaminants near Ground Zero and monitoring the unfolding situation from above.

Over the years, the agency has also marked the tragedy and honored its victims in various ways. For example, astronauts aboard the space station have radioed tributes down to Earth, beginning on 9/11 itself and continuing to the present day. [Related: NASA 9/11 Tributes Reach Out to Mars & Back]

And the space shuttle Endeavour carried nearly 6,000 miniature American flags on its STS-108 mission to the orbiting lab in December 2001 — the first shuttle flight after 9/11. After the flags came back down to Earth, they were distributed to relatives of the terror strike's victims.

Further, NASA sent pieces of metal from the fallen Twin Towers to Mars. The New York-based company Honeybee Robotics, which helped build the twin Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, fashioned small pieces of aluminum from Ground Zero into dust covers for the rovers' rock abrasion tools.

Spirit and Opportunity landed on the Red Planet in January 2004. Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Defunct 6-ton satellite crashing back to Earth

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Fri Sep 9, 2011 3:44pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A defunct NASA science satellite dispatched by a space shuttle crew in 1991 will come crashing back to Earth this month, with debris most likely landing in an ocean or unpopulated region, officials said Friday.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, was turned off in 2005, becoming another piece of space junk loitering in Earth orbit. The 6.5-ton spacecraft is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere later this month, although exactly when and where is unknown.

"The atmosphere changes on a daily basis. It's impossible to say how that's going to impact this re-entry," Michael Duncan, deputy chief of space situational awareness at the U.S. Strategic Command, told reporters during a conference call.

Satellites and rocket bodies falling back to Earth are nothing new. Last year, about 400 small pieces of trackable debris returned to the atmosphere.

Spent rocket bodies re-enter at a rate of about one per week. Large spacecraft, like the 35-foot long, 15-foot diameter (10-6-metres long, 4.5-metres diameter) UARS, fall back to Earth about once a year.

Most of UARS will burn up in the atmosphere, but up to 26 individual pieces, with a combined mass of about 1,100 pounds (500 kg), will survive the fall, said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist of NASA's Orbital Debris Program office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The largest chunk, part of the spacecraft's structure, is expected to be about 331 pounds (150 kg), he added.

The debris most likely will land in an ocean or in an uninhabited region of Earth.

The satellite's orbit takes it over most of the planet, from as far north as northern Canada to the southern part of South America.

"It's highly unlikely it's going to strike a populated area, just from a statistical standpoint," Johnson said.

"Throughout the entire 54 years of the space age, there's been no report of anybody in the world being injured or severely impacted by any re-entering debris," he said.

The chance that even one person will be struck by a piece of UARS debris is one in 3,200, NASA says.

The satellite is so big, its plunge through the atmosphere will be visible -- if anyone is around to see it.

"This should be quite a nice show," Johnson said. "Odds are though, it's going to happen over an ocean, unlikely to be seen unless it's by an airliner. We've had reports like that before.

"We just will not know precisely where it's going to come down until it comes down."

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)

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Rocket lifts off with satellites to probe moon

1 of 4. These undated NASA images show the various stages of pre-launch preparations of NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft at Space Launch Complex 17B on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, which were released September 7, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Handout

By Irene Klotz

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:20pm EDT

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned U.S. rocket blasted off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver twin robotic probes to the moon in the hope of learning what is inside.

The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit.

Less than two hours later, both probes were flying freely from the rocket's upper-stage motor and were communicating with NASA's Deep Space Network.

"I couldn't be more pleased," Jim Adams, deputy director of NASA's planetary division, told reporters after the launch.

Liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket occurred two days later than planned due to high winds at the launch site and because of time required to review data on the rocket after its tanks were drained of fuel following an earlier launch scrub on Thursday.

The twin satellites on board are headed to a point in space 932,0570 miles away where gravitational pull from the Sun and Earth balances out.

From there, the NASA Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, satellites will make a long, slow approach to the moon, arriving on December 31 and Jan 1.

The twin GRAIL probes are designed to precisely map the moon's gravity so scientists can learn what lies beneath the lunar crust and whether the moon's core is solid, liquid or some combination of the two.

Combined with high-resolution imagery, ongoing analysis of rock and soil samples returned by the 1969-1972 Apollo missions and computer models, the gravity maps are expected to fill in the biggest missing piece in the puzzle of how Earth's natural satellite formed and evolved.

MAPPING MOON GRAVITY

The small boxy probes are designed to fly single file over the lunar poles, mapping the dips and swells in lunar gravity.

Linked by radio waves, the spacecraft will be able to detect changes in the tug of lunar gravity as small as one micron -- about the width of a red blood cell.

Pockets of terrain with more mass will cause first one and then the second satellite to speed up slightly as they fly over, changing the distance between the two probes in minute, but measurable amounts. Less dense regions will cause the probes to slow slightly.

The measurements are so precise that scientists have to factor out a myriad of other forces, including the pressure of sunlight and the gravitational influences of all other planets in the solar system, even the dwarf planet Pluto, currently about 2.9 billion miles (4.7 billion km) away.

Scientists believe the moon's building blocks were large chunks of debris jettisoned from Earth after a collision with an object as big as Mars.

The moon's ancient face reveals a history of impacts over the eons and other events, such as flowing rivers of molten lava. The GRAIL researchers' job is to determine how all these processes impacted the moon internally.

"Large impacts deposit a great deal of energy into a planet. They heat the interior. They potentially could cause the convection pattern to change. They can contribute to the way a planet de-gasses," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology planetary scientist Maria Zuber, lead researcher and manager of the $496-million GRAIL mission.

Besides unraveling the moon's history, GRAIL scientists expect to extrapolate their findings to other rocky bodies, both in our solar system and eventually to those beyond.

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, manufacture and provide launch services for the Delta 2 rocket. Lockheed Martin also is the prime contractor on the GRAIL satellites.

(Editing by Pascal Fletcher and Sandra Maler)

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Remembering 9/11: An Astronaut's Painful View From Space (SPACE.com)

The 9/11 terrorist attacks 10 years ago this week sent shockwaves not just around the planet, but into space as well.

The only American not on Earth on that day in 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, had a unique vantage point on the attacks. From the International Space Station, Culbertson snapped a photo of smoke streaming from the World Trade Center wreckage that day after two hijacked planes crashed into the Manhattan towers.

"I didn't know exactly what was happening, but I knew it was really bad because there was a big cloud of debris covering Manhattan," Culbertson said in a new video released by NASA for the 10th anniversary of the attacks. "That's when it really became painful because it was like seeing a wound in the side of your country, of your family, your friends." [9/11 Remembered in Space Photos]

Overwhelming isolation

Culbertson, a retired U.S. Navy captain, was commanding the orbiting laboratory's Expedition 3 mission and was living on the outpost with Russian cosmonauts Vladimir Dezhurov and Mikhail Turin at the time.

"My crewmates have been great," Culbertson wrote in a letter published the day after the attacks. "They know it's been a tough day for me and the folks on the ground, and they've tried to be as even keeled and helpful as possible. Michael even fixed me my favorite Borscht soup for dinner," he added, referring to Turin.

Ultimately, though, the NASA astronaut couldn't help but be affected by his position as the only American in space. [Video: Astronaut Frank Culbertson Recalls 9/11 From Above]

"The most overwhelming feeling being where I am is one of isolation," Culbertson wrote. "The feeling that I should be there with all of you, dealing with this, helping in some way, is overwhelming."

Culbertson was told of the event, which killed about 3,000 people, when NASA flight surgeons radioed the station.

"I had just finished a number of tasks this morning, the most time-consuming being the physical exams of all crew members," Culbertson recalled. "In a private conversation following that, the flight surgeon told me they were having a very bad day on the ground. I had no idea."

Culbertson described being "flabbergasted, then horrified" by the news. He noticed the space station was just about to pass over New England, and rushed to try to see.

"I zipped around the station until I found a window that would give me a view of NYC and grabbed the nearest camera," Culbertson wrote. "The smoke seemed to have an odd bloom to it at the base of the column that was streaming south of the city. After reading one of the news articles we just received, I believe we were looking at NY around the time of, or shortly after, the collapse of the second tower. How horrible."

Mourning a friend

Culbertson said he understood early on that the attacks would change history.

"I know that we are on the threshold (or beyond) of a terrible shift in the history of the world," he wrote. "Many things will never be the same again after September 11, 2001. Not just for the thousands and thousands of people directly affected by these horrendous acts of terrorism, but probably for all of us. We will find ourselves feeling differently about dozens of things, including probably space exploration, unfortunately."

The astronaut learned that day that his friend and U.S. Naval Academy classmate Charles "Chic" Burlingame was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon.

"What a terrible loss, but I'm sure Chic was fighting bravely to the end," Culbertson wrote. "And tears don't flow the same in space."

Despite the emotional difficulty, Culbertson served out the rest of his mission successfully. After spending 129 days in space, he landed on Dec. 17, 2001, aboard the space shuttle Endeavour.

Culbertson is now retired from NASA and serves as senior vice president for human spaceflight programs at the commercial spaceflight company Orbital Sciences.

In the new video, Culbertson said he hopes the country won't forget the attacks, or the lessons they taught.

"I think it's important for people to continue to learn the lessons from this and make sure that we are in fact making ourselves a better country as a result of it, not regressing or turning inward, or changing ourselves into a society that we won't be proud to pass on to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren," Culbertson said.

Honoring the victims

In September 2001, the International Space Station was still young; its first module was launched in 1998. The outpost is now about the size of a football field and has been home to a continuous human presence for more than 10 years. [Photos: Building the International Space Station]

In the years since the attacks, NASA has honored the victims in various ways.

In December 2001, the agency launched 6,000 U.S. flags aboard the space shuttle Endeavour for the families of Sept. 11 victims in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. That mission also flew flags recovered from the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Pennsylvania sites of the attacks.

In January 2010, NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, a native New Yorker, dedicated an American flag flown on the space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009 to the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum under construction at the ground zero site.

Even the two Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, currently on the Red Planet, each carry a piece of the American flag cut from debris at the World Trade Center. The flags are on dust covers built by New York City robotics firm Honeybee Robotics.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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