Space Station Hit By Debris? - Early Wednesday morning the US/Russian crew of the Space Station heard a grinding noise, like the sound of a tin can being crushed against it's outer surface. According to Russian space officials on Thursday, the men were safe and there was no immediate sign of damage, The station is manned by US Astronaut Michael Foale and Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri.

A space official said the sound could have been made by equipment on the station and the Russian Space Forces said the noise could have been made by the space station brushing against floating space junk. Space Forces monitor thousand of debris from space which orbits around the Earth to make sure there is no threat to the space station or to satellites. If they thought there was a piece of space junk large enough to cause damage, the spacecraft would be directed to a safer orbit. A spokesman who spoke to the Associated Press said that "Space Forces had detected an object along the stations orbit." They had determined the object was very small and would pose no threat of danger to the craft. (Let;s hope they are right this time, especially after the Columbia accident when the same thing was said after they saw the piece of foam hit the shuttles wing. This resulted in the loss of the craft and it's crew of 7.)

A spokesman for Mission Control outside Moscow, Valery Lyndin said that "All the station's outer surface by outside cameras found no sign of damage" and Sergel Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Russian Aerospace Agency said on NTV television that a check had found no trace of impact. The check which was made by the crew found no changes either in the equipment section of the atmosphere of the station. This would have changed instantly if the station's skin had been punctured.

$280 Million To Fix Shuttle - At Cape Canaveral a team of outside experts are investigating whether the inspection programme by NASA was good enough to ensure the shuttles external fuel tanks and vehicle are safe. The safety reviews at Kennedy Space Centre and Louisiana tank factory were not part of the changes demanded by the board that investigated the Columbia accident which took place on the 1st February this year. U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Duane Deal said"(1 of the boards 13 members) did not feel the Columbia report would not prevent another disaster taking place."

On Monday, NASA released a new version of it's plan to get the shuttles back into space. Dozens of extra actions are to take place. Nasa will spend at least $280 million in 2003 and 2004 to make the changes the board have ordered. The fuel tank foam is to be fixed,creating a new safety and engineering centre. According to Nasa officials the estimates shown to member of Congress were only preliminary and do not include the cost of several important and potentially expensive fixes. The return-to-flight plan which is now updated focuses heavily on activities at Kennedy Space Centre, notably the quality control and inspections done while workers ready the shuttles for launch. 200 shuttle workers were interviewed by the accident board and observations about the number and quality of inspections Nasa does to double-check work by contractors such as United Space Alliance. Tougher pre-flight inspections, and also it will be harder to remove items from the list of components and procedures must be checked by agency inspectors prior to launch. Three specific shuttle system failures were addressed too, They are:-

Metal rings that connect the two solid rocket boosters to the 15-story orange fuel tank might lack the strength to do the job.

Failures in the thick posts that hold shuttles to the launch pad which could cause the shuttle to break up shortly after lift off.

Salty, corrosive moisture at the shuttles ocean front home cause hidden damage to critical parts such as heatshield panels that protect the front of the orbiter wings.

All these items have been noted before and no remedy taken. Few of these changes are included in the $280 million worth of return to flight costs in the report. That preliminary budget was focused by changes already in the works. The biggest costs are eliminating the problem of foam insulations from the external fuel tank during launch and the biggest item of the $65 million pegged for redesigning the tank. $44 million is planned for improving ground cameras scattered across the Cape. Also High definition television cameras are planned. It also could cost $57 to develop ways to inspect and repair heat shield tiles in orbit. A new safety and engineering centre at Langley Research Centre in Virginia will also cost $45 million.

Photographs Of Mars Beamed Back From Mars Express - The British probe, Beagle 2 is due to land on Mars on Christmas Day and search for life. The latest images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express have just been received and were taken from a distance of 3.36 million miles. They were taken to test the high resolution camera onboard. Once the Mars Express begins orbiting the planet if will take close-up pictures of the Martian surface. This is one of the checks and rehearsals before the critical manoeuvres on the 19th December. The Beagle 2 will be "spun out" from the craft to start independently heading to the planet. Gaele Winters, director of technical operations at ESA,s control centre in Germany said "We will have to carry out some very precise navigational operations. There is a certain level of tensions in the centre." Both space craft will arrive at their destinations on Christmas Day. The Mars Express will fire it's main engine to go into Martian orbit and Beagle 2 will head for Isidis Planitia, a landing site within a a large impact basin, which is near the planets equator. The Isidis Planitia region may once have been covered by water and is therefore a good place to look for evidence of previous life on Mars and maybe life still exisitng. Beage 2 is to collect rock, soil and air samples and analyse them onboard it's laboratory for chemical signs of life. Mars Express will also carry out a detailed survey of the planet from the sky using powerful radar to see if it can detect any water underground. Due to the solar storm caused by high ]e eruptions on the Sun the Mars Express computer's were temporarily disrupted but soon returned to normal once the storm had passed. It also suffered a drop in the electrical power of about 70%.

Japan's Mission To Mars Abandoned - The probe on it's 5 year mission to the planet Mars drifted off course and the scientists have been unable to get it back. The Nozomi probe, which was Japans first interplanetary explorer was set to reach Mars anytime now, but Junichi Moriuma, of JAXA , Japans Space Agency said the operation had failed, all of the probes fuel had gone. During Nozomi's journey faults had altered its trajectory raising concerns it might crash into, and contaminate, the planet's surface. It was already 4 years behind schedule and the probe was limping, nearly out of fuel and it's electrical and communications equipment was badly damaged by solar flares. Despite the failure, JAXA officials have said that the probability of the probe hitting the planet is now close to zero. Nozomi, which means "Hope" was due to circle Mars at an altitude of 550 miles in a 2 year mission to see if Mars has a magnetic field. It was also to examine the atmospheres interaction with the solar wind and examine the 2 moons, Phobos and Deimos.