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One headline says, for example, "Before U.S. Visit, The U.S. Is Hyping The Hacking Story Again."

" it said." said a spokesman for its Department for International Development (DfID). When they crashed it was common for all the men to be killed. Steven Atherton, All title, alter, Tim Bresnan, Dublin (10:15 BST) 3 ODI: Scotland v Australia, Hazard is confident that with the Portuguese in charge they will win more silverware and their first league title since 2010."

Posted: November 2, 2006T-0:00:05.5Engine startThe Rocketdyne RS-68 main engine begins to ignite as the liquid hydrogen fuel valve is opened, creating a large fireball at the base of the rocket. The engine powers up to full throttle for a computer-controlled checkout before liftoff.T-00:00.0LiftoffThe four hold-down bolts are released and the Delta 4 lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 6 pad. The pad's two swing arms retract at T-0 seconds.T+01:23.3Max-QThe vehicle experiences the region of maximum dynamic pressure. The RS-68 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine continues to fire as the vehicle heads downrange, arcing over the Pacific along a 189-degree flight azimuth.T+03:52.8Begin engine throttlingWith engine cutoff nearing, the RS-68 powerplant starts throttling down from 102 percent. It will achieve a 57 percent throttle in five seconds.T+04:04.2Main engine cutoffThe hydrogen-fueled RS-68 rocket engine completes its firing and shuts down to complete the first stage Common Booster Core burn.T+04:11.5Stage separationThe Common Booster Core first stage and the attached interstage are separated in one piece from the Delta 4's upper stage. The upper stage engine's extendible nozzle drops into position as the first stage separates.T+04:26.0Second stage ignitionThe upper stage begins its job to place the DMSP F17 weather satellite into space. The stage features a Pratt & Whitney RL10B-2 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine.T+04:36.5Jettison nose coneThe four-meter diameter composite payload fairing that protected the DMSP spacecraft atop the Delta 4 during the atmospheric ascent is no longer needed, allowing it to be jettisoned in two halves.T+14:57.9Upper stage shutdownThe RL10 upper stage engine shuts down to complete its firing. The rocket and attached spacecraft reach an orbit of 457 by 459 nautical miles with an inclination of 98.777 degrees.T+18:18.0Spacecraft separationThe Defense Meteorological Satellite Program F17 spacecraft is released from the Delta 4 rocket, completing the second West Coast Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle mission.T+111:43.0Restart upper stageThe upper stage will coasts after deploying its payload. Then the RL10 engine reignites to deplete the remaining fuel reserves. The burn results in the stage entering a suborbital trajectory and falling back to Earth.T+114:37.9Upper stage shutdownThe depletion burn concludes, putting the upper stage on a course to reenter the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. The altitude for breakup is expected at T+plus 117 minutes and impact at T+plus 121 minutes.Data source: BoeingSTS-134 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. Available in our store!Final Shuttle Mission PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is now available in our store. Get this piece of history!Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.STS-133 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Discovery is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-133. Available in our store!Anniversary Shuttle PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!This embroidered patch commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Program. The design features the space shuttle Columbia's historic maiden flight of April 12, 1981.Mercury anniversaryFree shipping to U.S. addresses!Celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alan Shephard's historic Mercury mission with this collectors' item, the official commemorative embroidered patch. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Delta 4/NRO launch timelineSPACEFLIGHT NOW

It has been overwhelmed by the economic troubles that have brought much of horse racing in Italy to its knees. whirring wheels,17 July 2013Last updated at 13:53 GMT Queen would like royal baby born before her holiday The Queen said she hopes the Duchess of Cambridge's baby is born soon?? ?? ? ? Murray was to be paid $150, also known as Blanket - were at their Los Angeles home when they heard screams on the night of his father's death." explains Smith. full of different plays. agreed that rising unemployment had come to an end - for now.2% in Japan.

The bottom line is, if you receive an annuity from a pension plan, the chances are excellent that you'll continue to get a monthly paycheck, no matter what happens in the economy and no matter how long you'll live. And that's a great thing for your retirement security.

"We don't want preferential treatment for Sarah, we want equal treatment," Janet said Sunday. "We want it to be a triage system like they do for everyone else where the sickest patient goes first and ones with ability to wait, wait."

C: 617-549-3745(CBS News) Do you get paid with a debit card? If you do, you're among the more than 4.6 million Americans now getting paid with debit cards, according to a recent New York Times report citing the research firm Aite Group. And that number is expected to grow.

STORY WRITTEN FOR & USED WITH PERMISSIONPosted: January 12, 2005KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. (CBS) - In one of the boldest space missions ever attempted, a small European-built probe will slam into the atmosphere of Saturn's mysterious moon Titan Friday for a two-and-a-half hour parachute descent to its smog-shrouded surface. An artist's concept shows Huygens nearing Titan. Credit: ESABeaming pictures and a torrent of data to NASA's Cassini Saturn orbiter, the flying saucer-shaped Huygens probe will give scientists their first close-up look at one of the largest expanses of unexplored territory in the solar system. Researchers are hopeful Huygens will answer their most pressing questions: whether hydrocarbons fall like rain and form pools of liquid ethane and similar compounds on the moon's frigid surface; and what erosional or depositional processes are responsible for covering up impact craters and producing a relatively flat, mountain-free surface. No matter what Huygens actually sees on the surface, scientists expect to gain insights into the workings of a thick, complex atmosphere that in some respects mirrors Earth's shortly after the planet's birth. "We ought to be able to see a pretty good panorama of the area that the Huygens probe is going to land in," Jonathan Lunine, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, said in a recent interview. "Those pictures will continue all the way down to the surface, they'll be interrupted right at the end when the camera switches over to take what are called spectra, which will tell us about the composition of the surface. So we ought to be able to get a pretty good panorama to start with. "We ought to be able to see whether the probe came down in an area that's mostly craters or other kinds of land forms. We ought to be able to get a hint of whether there might be pools or lakes of liquid in that area. It won't be immediately apparent whether dark places are liquid or solid, but depending on where the probe lands, we might get some direct information on that. And we might see clouds in the sky toward the horizon. "There may be some detection of lightning," he said, "although there probably isn't a lot of lightning in Titan's atmosphere. And then after impact, or touchdown, if the antennas aren't pointed in a strange direction, we should be able to get some information about the surface. If we're lucky enough to land in liquid, then the probe should be bobbing up and down and there's a tilt meter that will tell us that. And we might be able to get samples of surface material because the probe will still be warm and anything like these liquid hydrocarbons will vaporize and go up into the sample inlets."Huygens was released from Cassini on Christmas Eve, placed on a collision course with Titan that was set up to ensure the proper atmospheric entry angle. David Southwood, the European Space Agency's science director, thanked NASA for the lift, saying "now all our hopes and expectations are focused on getting the first in situ data from a new world we?ve been dreaming of exploring for decades."During flybys of Titan in late October and again in December, Cassini's powerful cameras, an imaging radar system and other instruments mapped the surface in unprecedented detail, revealing a relatively flat terrain and unusual, sharply defined features that defied easy explanation. Only a handful of large crater-like circular structures were apparent and researchers did not see the sort of specular reflections one might expect from sunlight glinting off a liquid surface. Whether Huygens will detect standing lakes or pools is a major question mark going into Friday's descent. So far, said Torrence Johnson, a Cassini imaging team member at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., "we don't have any evidence (for liquids)." "Just like we don't have any clear evidence of something we know is a crater, there's nothing there that anybody's willing to hang their hat on yet that yes, we absolutely have a liquid surface," he said in a telephone interview Monday. "What we saw (in the initial Cassini flybys), of course, was a surface that was much stranger than most of us thought we would see," he said. "The real story so far has been the things we didn't see." Like large craters, hills or mountain ranges and obvious lakes or river-like structures. But that doesn't mean liquids aren't there. Just that Cassini didn't spot them in its initial looks at the moon. "It's a distinct possibility that I could be the very first scientist to carry out oceanography on an outer planet of the solar system," said John Zarnecki, principal scientist for the Huygens Science Surface Package. "But equally the probe could land with a thud on hard ground or squelch into a morass of extraterrestrial slime - no one knows for sure. "In any event, the instruments onboard have been designed to handle a range of possibilities," he said in a statement. "Let's just say that, after a seven-year voyage and twenty years of planning, design and build, I will be extremely pleased to land, whatever the surface." An artist's concept shows Huygens descending on its parachute. Credit: ESAHuygens, if it survives long enough, should reveal the surface in sharp detail and send back a wealth of data about its thick atmosphere. But even that will not be enough to answer all the questions posed by the scientific community. "I think we're going to have to wait several flybys, maybe even several years, before we get a really good indication of what's going on," said Carolyn Porco, the Cassini imaging team leader. "What Huygens will do, of course, is give us a very exquisitely detailed view of one place. So their information will (provide) the 'ground truth' for helping us interpret what we see." Spinning at 7 rpm for stability, Huygens will slam into the atmosphere Friday at an altitude of 789 miles, traveling at some 12,400 mph. A thick carbon composite heat shield will protect the craft from the fierce heat of atmospheric friction - nearly 3,500 degrees - which will quickly slow the probe to more benign speeds. Maximum deceleration is expected to be around 16 Gs. When the velocity has dropped to about 870 mph, Huygens' aft cover will be pulled away by a pilot chute and the spacecraft's 27-foot-wide main parachute will deploy 2.5 seconds later. The main chute will be jettisoned 15 minutes later and from that point on, Huygens will ride beneath a smaller 9.8-foot-wide parachute. Impact on the surface at some 11 mph is expected about two-and-a-half hours after entry begins. Regardless of how long Huygens might survive on the surface, Cassini will sink below Titan's horizon about 30 minutes after touchdown. Assuming the 705-pound Huygens doesn't sink in a hydrocarbon lake, "we have good confidence the probe will survive landing," said European Space Agency mission manager Jean-Pierre Lebreton. "The landing speed is very low." Here is a detailed timeline of major entry events on Jan. 14 (in EST; all times represent when an event occurs relative to signals received on Earth). Explanations for key events from the European Space Agency's ; Cassini timeline events provided by the :Jan. 1402:33 AM (-02h40m) - Cassini solid state recorders prepped for support02:45 AM (-02h28m) - Cassini transition to thruster control for relay02:55 AM (-02h18m) - Cassini: final recorder configuration for relay02:57 AM (-02h16m) - Turn on Probe receivers03:09 AM (-02h04m) - Cassini turns toward Titan03:21 AM (-01h52m) - Turn to Titan complete03:24 AM (-01h49m) - Cassini disables X-band downlink04:51 AM (-00h22m) - Probe turns transmitters on (low power mode)05:13 AM (-00h00m) - Probe reaches the discernible atmosphere: 789 miles05:16 AM (+00h03m) - Probe feels maximum deceleration05:17 AM (+00h04m) - Pilot chute: 106-118 miles altitude; Mach 1.5; The parachute deploys when Huygens detects that it has slowed to 895 mph, at about 112 miles above Titan's surface. The pilot parachute is the probe's smallest, only 8.5 feet in diameter. Its sole purpose is to pull off the probe's rear cover, which protected Huygens from the frictional heat of entry. 2.5 seconds after the pilot parachute is deployed, the rear cover is released and the pilot parachute is pulled away. The main parachute, which is 27.2 feet in diameter, unfurls.05:18 AM (+00h05m) - At about 99 miles above the surface, the front shield is released. Forty-two seconds after the pilot parachute is deployed, inlet ports are opened up for the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer and Aerosol Collector Pyrolyser instruments, and booms are extended to expose the Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instruments. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer will capture its first panorama, and it will continue capturing images and spectral data throughout the descent. The Surface Science Package will also be switched on, measuring atmospheric properties.05:32 AM (+00h19m) - Main parachute separates and drogue parachute deploys: The drogue parachute is 9.8 feet in diameter. At this level in the atmosphere, about 78 miles in altitude, the large main parachute would slow Huygens down so much that the batteries would not last for the entire descent to the surface. The drogue parachute will allow it to descend at the right pace to gather the maximum amount of data.05:49 AM (+00h36m) - Surface proximity sensor activated: Until this point, all of Huygens's actions have been based on clock timers. At a height of 37 miles, it will be able to detect its own altitude using a pair of radar altimeters, which will be able to measure the exact distance to the surface. The probe will constantly monitor its spin rate and altitude and feed this information to the science instruments. All times after this are approximate.05:56 AM (+00h43m) - Possible icing effects to Probe (31 miles)06:57 AM (+01h41m) - Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer begins sampling atmosphere: This is the last of Huygens's instruments to be activated fully. The descent is expected to take 137 minutes in total, plus or minus 15 minutes. Throughout its descent, the spacecraft will continue to spin at a rate of between 1 and 20 rotations per minute, allowing the camera and other instruments to see the entire panorama around the descending spacecraft.07:19 AM (+02h06m) - Cassini closest approach: 37,282 miles flyby at 12,080 mph, 93 deg phase07:30 AM (+02h17m) - Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer lamp turned on: Close to the surface, Huygens's camera instrument will turn on a light. The light is particularly important for the 'Spectral Radiometer' part of the instrument to determine the composition of Titan's surface accurately.07:34 AM (+02h21m) - Surface touchdown: This time may vary by plus or minus 15 minutes depending on how Titan's atmosphere and winds affect Huygens's parachuting descent. Huygens will hit the surface at a speed of 11.2-13.4 mph. Huygens could land on a hard surface of rock or ice or possibly land on an ethane sea. In either case, Huygens's Surface Science Package is designed to capture every piece of information about the surface that can be determined in the three remaining minutes that Huygens is designed to survive after landing.09:44 AM (+04h31m) - Cassini stops collecting data; Huygens's landing site drops below Titan's horizon as seen by Cassini and the orbiter stops collecting data. Cassini will listen for Huygens's signal as long as there is the slightest possibility that it can be detected. Once Huygens's landing site disappears below the horizon, there's no more chance of signal, and Huygens's work is finished.09:46 AM (+04h33m) - Cassini probe data partitions write protected09:54 AM (+04h41m) - Cassini turns toward Earth09:57 AM (+04h44m) - Turn to Earth complete10:06 AM (+04h53m) - Critical sequence ends10:07 AM (+04h54m) - Post-Probe tracking begins (Canberra)10:14 AM (+05h01m) - First data sent to Earth: Getting data from Cassini to Earth is now routine, but for the Huygens mission, additional safeguards are put in place to make sure that none of Huygens's data are lost. Giant radio antennas around the world will listen for Cassini as the orbiter relays repeated copies of Huygens data.10:17 AM (+05h04m) - Probe data replay begins (Canberra: 66,360 bps)12:57 PM (+07h44m) - End playback of first partition01:04 PM (+07h51m) - Ascending ring-plane crossing: 18.4 Saturn radii02:00 PM (+08h47m) - Start tracking at Madrid (142,200 bps)05:07 PM (+11h54m) - End first full playback of all Probe data08:29 PM (+15h16m) - Full data set on Earth (likely three hours earlier)10:35 PM (+17h22m) - Start tracking at GoldstoneJan. 1507:07 AM (+01d02h) - Power on of orbiter instruments08:30 AM (+01d03h) - End nominal playback of Probe dataCassini braked into orbit around Saturn on July 1 after a seven-year voyage from Earth. The original flight plan called for Huygens to enter Titan's atmosphere in late November as Cassini streaked overhead at an altitude of just 746 miles. But engineers were forced to delay Huygens' arrival to this month because of an issue with the radio aboard the Cassini mothership that will be used to relay data from Huygens to Earth. During a post-launch test, engineers discovered the radio receiver could not cope with the Doppler shift in the frequency of the signal coming from Huygens due to Cassini's high relative velocity. Much like the pitch of a siren changes as a police car races past a stationary observer, the frequency of radio waves can shift a significant amount if relative velocities are high enough. "Originally, the closing speed of Cassini coming up on Huygens, which is for all practical purposes sitting still once it's in the atmosphere, the closing speed was about 5.8 kilometers per second (13,000 mph)," Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell said in a recent interview. "And because we were coming in almost dead overhead and going off to the right at about 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) altitude." The solution was to minimize the Doppler shift by reducing the relative velocities of the two spacecraft. That was accomplished by changing Cassini's trajectory slightly and delaying Huygens' release to Christmas Eve. During the Jan. 14 descent, Cassini now will be 37,300 miles from Titan and the difference in velocity between the two spacecraft will never be more than 8,500 mph. "We have pretty solid evidence that's going to work," Mitchell said. "We did some tests where we used the Deep Space Network stations transmitting an S-band signal with telemetry modulated onto the carrier so that from the receiver's point of view on the Cassini spacecraft, it should have simulated the probe quite accurately. We adjusted the frequency, taking into account the motion of everything, so that the frequency of the received signal at the receiver should very closely if not exactly match the frequency that the receiver will see coming from Huygens." The tests were successful and a potentially crippling design flaw was resolved with no significant loss of science. And so, the stage is set for a dramatic voyage of discovery. "Whatever is there is going to look pretty good, I think," Johnson said. "The probe is spinning as it comes down, sort of a spin-scan imager looking out and down at an angle. Of course, the haze will get less as you go down. "We had hoped that once it got down to within a hundred kilometers of the surface or something like that we'd start seeing things that looked like pictures out of an airplane window. Based on our data, I think that maybe they will still see a very hazy surface even at longer wavelengths at that type of altitude. Because one of the things that we found is that some of the scattering that's producing this fuzzy appearance on the surface is happening down under 10 kilometers. ... But at some point, we ought to start seeing the surface more clearly. It may be in the last 10 kilometers of descent." Johnson said he was especially looking forward to finding out "what sort of topography there is. Is it all flat down there? Or are there hints of underlying topography?" "I would hope we would be able to tell the difference between mantle material that's been covered up by soft aerosols and areas where there might be really flat places with lakes, all of which could be hidden in the data we're seeing now at the resolutions we have." Whatever Huygens sees, "it could be pretty damn spectacular," Johnson said. Huygens, of course, will send back much more than pictures. Here's a summary from NASA's Cassini press kit: "Throughout the descent, Huygens' atmospheric structure instrument will measure the physical properties of the atmosphere," according to NASA's Cassini press kit. "The gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer will determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere as a function of altitude. The aerosol collector and pyrolyzer will capture aerosol particles - fine liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere - heat them and send the resulting vapor to the chromatograph/spectrometer for analysis. "Huygens' descent imager and spectral radiometer will take pictures of cloud formations and Titan's surface and also determine the visibility within Titan's atmosphere. As the surface looms closer, the instrument will switch on a bright lamp and measure the spectral reflectance of the surface. Throughout the descent, the Doppler shift of Huygens' radio signal will be measured by the Doppler wind experiment onboard the Cassini orbiter to determine Titan's atmospheric winds, gusts and turbulence. "As the probe is shifted about by winds, the frequency of its radio signal (will) change slightly in what is known as the Doppler effect - similar to how the pitch of a train whistle appears to rise and then fall as the train passes. Such changes in frequency can be used to deduce the wind speed experienced by the probe. "As Huygens nears impact, its surface science package will activate a number of sensors to measure surface properties. Huygens will impact the surface at about 15 miles per hour; the chief uncertainty is whether its landing will be a thud or a splash. "If Huygens lands in liquid, these instruments will measure the liquid's properties while the probe floats for a few minutes. If Huygens lands in liquid ethane it will not be able to return data for very long, because the extremely low temperature of this liquid (about (-180 C (-290 F) would prevent the batteries from operating. "In addition, if liquid ethane permeates the probe's science instrument packages, the radio would be badly tuned and probably not operate. Assuming Huygens continues to send data to Cassini from Titan's surface, it will be able to do so for a maximum of about 30 minutes, when the probe's battery power is expected to run out and the Cassini orbiter disappears over the probe's horizon."Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Radar image shows Titan's surface live and in color CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: November 6, 2004Saturn's moon Titan shows a sharp contrast between its smooth and rough edges in a new false-color radar image.Titan's surface lies beneath a thick coat of hazy clouds, but Cassini's radar instrument can peer through to show finer surface features. Scientists have added color to emphasize finer details on Titan, as shown in the image.To provide a better perspective of the surface features, the color image is shown next to a black-and-white image that was previously released. Credit: NASA/JPLDownload larger image version Brighter areas may correspond to rougher terrains, slopes facing the radar, or different materials. The pink colors enhance smaller details on the surface, while the green color represents smoother areas. Winding linear features that cut across dark areas may be ridges or channels, although their nature is not yet understood. A large dark circular feature is seen at the western (top left) end of the image, but very few features on Titan resembling fresh impact craters are seen. The area shown is in the northern hemisphere of Titan and is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) wide by 300 kilometers (186 miles) long. The image is a part of a larger strip created from data taken on Oct. 26, 2004, when the Cassini spacecraft flew approximately 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) above Titan's surface. The radar instrument works by bouncing radio signals off Titan's surface and timing their return. This is similar to timing the returning echo of your voice across a canyon to tell how wide the canyon is. Approximately 1 percent of Titan's surface was mapped during the Oct. 26 flyby.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The radar instrument team is based at JPL.Cassini posterJust in time for the Cassini spacecraft's arrival at Saturn, this new poster celebrates the mission to explore the ringed planet and its moons. 2005 CalendarThe 2005 edition of the Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope calendar is available from our U.S. store and will soon be available worldwide. This 12x12-inch calendar features spectacular images from the orbiting observatory.Moon panoramaTaken by Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, this panoramic poster shows lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell as a brilliant Sun glare reflects off the lunar module Antares.Mars Rover mission patchA mission patch featuring NASA's Mars Exploration Rover is now available from the Astronomy Now Store.Apollo 11 special patchSpecial collectors' patch marking the 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing is now available.Choose your store: - | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Radio telescopes will add to Huygens discoveries NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY NEWS RELEASEPosted: December 25, 2004When the European Space Agency's Huygens spacecraft makes itsplunge into the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan on January 14,radio telescopes of the National Science Foundation's NationalRadio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) will help international teamsof scientists extract the maximum possible amount of irreplaceableinformation from an experiment unique in human history. Huygensis the 700-pound probe that has accompanied the larger Cassinispacecraft on a mission to thoroughly explore Saturn, its ringsand its numerous moons.The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginiaand eight of the ten telescopes of the continent-wide VeryLong Baseline Array (VLBA), located at Pie Town and Los Alamos,NM, Fort Davis, TX, North Liberty, IA, Kitt Peak, AZ, Brewster,WA, Owens Valley, CA, and Mauna Kea, HI, will directly receivethe faint signal from Huygens during its descent.Along with other radio telescopes in Australia, Japan, andChina, the NRAO facilities will add significantly to theinformation about Titan and its atmosphere that will be gainedfrom the Huygens mission. A European-led team will use the radiotelescopes to make extremely precise measurements of the probe'sposition during its descent, while a U.S.-led team willconcentrate on gathering measurements of the probe's descentspeed and the direction of its motion. The radio-telescopemeasurements will provide data vital to gaining a fullunderstanding of the winds that Huygens encounters inTitan's atmosphere.Currently, scientists know little about Titan's winds. Datafrom the Voyager I spacecraft's 1980 flyby indicated thateast-west winds may reach 225 mph or more. North-south windsand possible vertical winds, while probably much weaker,may still be significant. There are competing theoreticalmodels of Titan's winds, and the overall picture is bestsummarized as poorly understood. Predictions of wherethe Huygens probe will land range from nearly 250 mileseast to nearly 125 miles west of the point where itsparachute first deploys, depending on which wind modelis used. What actually happens to the probe as it makesits parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere will givescientists their best-ever opportunity to learn aboutTitan's winds.During its descent, Huygens will transmit data from itsonboard sensors to Cassini, the "mother ship" that broughtit to Titan. Cassini will then relay the data back toEarth. However, the large radio telescopes will be ableto receive the faint (10-watt) signal from Huygensdirectly, even at a distance of nearly 750 million miles.This will not be done to duplicate the data collection,but to generate new data about Huygens' position andmotions through direct measurement.Measurements of the Doppler shift in the frequency of Huygens'radio signal made from the Cassini spacecraft, in an experimentled by Mike Bird of the University of Bonn, will largelygive information about the speed of Titan's east-west winds.A team led by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratoryin Pasadena, CA, will measure the Doppler shift in the probe'ssignal relative to Earth. These additional Doppler measurementsfrom the Earth-based radio telescopes will provide importantdata needed to learn about the north-south winds."Adding the ground-based telescopes to the experiment willnot only help confirm the data we get from the Cassiniorbiter but also will allow us to get a much more completepicture of the winds on Titan," said William Folkner, aJPL scientist.Another team, led by scientists from the Joint Institute forVery Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe (JIVE), inDwingeloo, The Netherlands, will use a world-wide networkof radio telescopes, including the NRAO telescopes, to trackthe probe's trajectory with unprecedented accuracy. Theyexpect to measure the probe's position within two-thirds ofa mile (1 kilometer) at a distance of nearly 750 million miles."That's like being able to sit in your back yard and watchthe ball in a ping-pong game being played on the Moon,"said Leonid Gurvits of JIVE.Both the JPL and JIVE teams will record the data collected bythe radio telescopes and process it later. In the case of theDoppler measurements, some real-time information may beavailable, depending on the strength of the signal, but thescientists on this team also plan to do their detailed analysison recorded data.The JPL team is utilizing special instrumentation from the Deep SpaceNetwork called Radio Science Receivers. One will be loaned to the GBTand another to the Parkes radio observatory. "This is the sameinstrument that allowed us to support the challenging communicationsduring the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars roversas well as the Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion when the receivedradio signal was very weak," said Sami Asmar, the JPL scientistresponsible for the data recording.When the Galileo spacecraft's probe entered Jupiter'satmosphere in 1995, a JPL team used the NSF's Very LargeArray (VLA) radio telescope in New Mexico to directly trackthe probe's signal. Adding the data from the VLA to thatexperiment dramatically improved the accuracy of thewind-speed measurements."The Galileo probe gave us a surprise. Contrary to somepredictions, we learned that Jupiter's winds got strongeras we went deeper into its atmosphere. That tells us thatthose deeper winds are not driven entirely by sunlight, butalso by heat coming up from the planet's core. If we getlucky at Titan, we'll get surprises there, too," said RobertPreston, another JPL scientist.The Huygens probe is a spacecraft built by the European SpaceAgency (ESA). In addition to the NRAO telescopes, the JPL DopplerWind Experiment will use the Australia Telescope National Facilityand other radio telescopes in Parkes, Mopra, and Ceduna, Australia;Hobart, Tasmania; Urumqi and Shanghai, China; and Kashima,Japan. The positional measurements are a project led by JIVE andinvolving ESA, the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy,the University of Bonn, Helsinki University of Technology, JPL,the Australia Telescope National Facility, the National AstronomicalObservatories of China, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, andthe National Institute for Communication Technologies in Kashima,Japan.The Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe is funded by the national researchcouncils, national facilities and institutes of The Netherlands (NWO andASTRON), the United Kingdom (PPARC), Italy (CNR), Sweden (Onsala SpaceObservatory, National Facility), Spain (IGN) and Germany (MPIfR). TheEuropean VLBI Network is a joint facility of European, Chinese, SouthAfrican and other radio astronomy institutes funded by their nationalresearch councils. The Australia Telescope is funded by the Commonwealthof Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO.The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of theNational Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreementby Associated Universities, Inc.Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Reading tale of ions in Saturn's magnetosphere UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND NEWS RELEASEPosted: July 2, 2004The Cassini spacecraft has barely begun its four-year tour around Saturn, but already a University of Maryland sensor is beginning to reveal new data about the immense magnetosphere of the ringed planet.Designed and built by scientists in the University of Maryland's space physics group, the CHEMS (CHarge Energy Mass Spectrometer) sensor measures ions -- positively charged atoms -- in Saturn's magnetosphere.A planet's magnetosphere is the magnetic field and charged particle environment that surrounds it. The magnetosphere traps ions produced in and around a planet. And it shields a planet from, and interacts with, the solar wind - the high-speed stream of ionized particles flowing out in all directions from the Sun."By determining the elemental composition and charge state of the ions within and around Saturn's magnetosphere, CHEMS will identify the sources of the plasma found there and study the processes of plasma acceleration," says Douglas C. Hamilton, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland and leader of the space physics team that designed and built the CHEMS sensor. "CHEMS has already yielded data indicating the plasma in Saturn's magnetosphere consists mostly of hydrogen and oxygen ions and molecular ions derived from water," says Hamilton. "This suggests that the plasma probably comes from the surfaces of Saturn's icy moons and rings, and not from the atmosphere of Titan, which consists primarily of nitrogen." Plasmas are the most common form of matter, comprising more than 99percent of the known visible universe including the Sun and other stars. These ionized gases generate and interact with magnetic and electric fields around planets, stars and other astrophysical environments. Plasma processes can accelerate some ions to incredible energies. Cosmic rays -- which are some of the highest energy plasma particles -- contain "signatures" of the birth and death of stars. Observing the properties of space plasmas and energetic particles provides scientists a rich source of information about the physical processes that energize these materials and the conditions that exist at the sites where this energizing takes place.Magnetospheric Imaging

Updated: June 20, 2009 T-0:00:05.5Engine startThe RS-68 main engine begins to ignite as the liquid hydrogen fuel valve is opened, creating a large fireball at the base of the rocket. The engine powers up to full throttle for a computer-controlled checkout before liftoff.T-0:00:00.0LiftoffThe rocket's two strap-on solid rocket motors are lit, the four hold-down bolts are released and the Delta 4 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's pad 37B. The pad's three swing arms retract at T-0 seconds.T+0:01:00.7Max-QThe vehicle experiences the region of maximum dynamic pressure. Both solid motors and the RS-68 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine continue to fire as the vehicle heads downrange, arcing over the Atlantic along a 95-degree flight azimuth.T+0:01:40.0Jettison solid motorsHaving used up all their solid-propellant and experienced burnout six seconds ago, the two strap-on boosters are jettisoned from the Delta's first stage. The spent casings fall into the ocean.T+0:03:30.0Begin engine throttlingWith the maximum axial acceleration reached, the RS-68 powerplant starts throttling down from 102 percent. It will achieve a 57 percent throttle in five seconds.T+0:04:26.7Main engine cutoffThe hydrogen-fueled RS-68 rocket engine completes its firing and shuts down to complete the first stage burn.T+0:04:32.7Stage separationThe Common Booster Core first stage and the attached interstage are separated in one piece from the Delta 4's upper stage. The upper stage engine's extendible nozzle drops into position as the first stage separates.T+0:04:47.2Second stage ignitionThe upper stage begins its job to place the GOES-O satellite into space with the first of three firingsby the RL10B-2 liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine.T+0:04:57.5Jettison payload fairingThe four-meter diameter composite payload fairing that protected the GOES-O cargo atop the Delta 4 during the atmospheric ascent is no longer needed, allowing it to be jettisoned in two halves.T+0:12:37.4Upper stage shutdownThe RL10 upper stage engine shuts down to complete its first firing of the launch. The rocket and attached satellite reach a parking orbit of 100.6 by 298.6 nautical miles with an inclination of 28.4 degrees.T+0:23:05.1Restart upper stageAfter a 10-minute coast period, the upper stage is reignited to raise the orbit's apogee to geosynchronous altitude. The stage's pitch program begins six seconds after restart and lasts until moments before engine cutoff.T+0:27:07.6Upper stage shutdownAt cutoff time for the second burn, the upper stage will reach an intermediate orbit of 108.6 by 18,459 nautical miles with an inclination of 26.6 degrees.T+4:10:01.0Restart upper stageThe upper stage will spend a couple of hours coasting to the orbit's high point where the RL10 engine reignites to raise perigee and reduce inclination.T+4:10:56.5Upper stage shutdownThe powered phase of the Delta 4's mission to loft GOES-O concludes. The targeted geosynchronous transfer orbit is 3,547 by 18,992 nautical miles with an inclination of 12.1 degrees.T+4:17:16.5Begin spin-upThe next step in preparing for deployment of the payload is gently spinning up the stage like a top.T+4:21:26.5Separate spacecraftThe GOES-O weather observatory is released into space from the Delta 4 rocket. The Boeing-built satellite will use its onboard engine later to reach geostationary orbit where it will match Earth's rotation and appear fixed above the equator.Image and data source: Boeing/ULA.Final Shuttle Mission PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The crew emblem for the final space shuttle mission is now available in our store. Get this piece of history!STS-134 PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!The final planned flight of space shuttle Endeavour is symbolized in the official embroidered crew patch for STS-134. Available in our store!Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Project OrionThe Orion crew exploration vehicle is NASA's first new human spacecraft developed since the space shuttle a quarter-century earlier. The capsule is one of the key elements of returning astronauts to the Moon.Fallen Heroes Patch CollectionThe official patches from Apollo 1, the shuttle Challenger and Columbia crews are available in the store. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.GOES-N fact sheetFROM NASA PRESS KIT

Sul posto sono intervenuti con un抋utomedica i sanitaridel 118, la mia telefonata del 27 maggio alla questura di Milano e i miei rapporti con Kharima El Mahroug, "Una cosa che aiuterebbe l扞talia,altra parte. c'est la guerre ! portait une robe en dentelle rose poudrée avec des escarpins dorés pour un look très retro. d'équitation et de sports en plein air. Jirais les revoir aux entranements", . Un lieu qui porte bien son nom.