Dec. 11, 2007 Tabatha Thompson Headquarters, Washington 202-358-3895 tabatha.thompson-1@nasa.gov RELEASE: 07-275 AMAZING GRACE TEAM RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS AWARD SAN FRANCISCO - A mission that has changed the way we study Earth's gravitational forces has been recognized by a prestigious award for helping scientists better understand our home planet. NASA and the U.S. Department of the Interior presented the coveted William T. Pecora Award to the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment mission team and Stanley A. ...Continue Reading

Dec. 11, 2007 Grey Hautaluoma Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0668 grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov RELEASE: 07-274 NEW NASA MISSION TO REVEAL MOON'S INTERNAL STRUCTURE AND EVOLUTION WASHINGTON - At a Monday meeting of the American Geophysical Union, NASA's Associate Administrator for Science Alan Stern announced the selection of a new mission that will peer deep inside the moon to reveal its anatomy and history. The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, mission is a part of NASA's Discovery Program. ...Continue Reading

Dec. 11, 2007 Michael Curie Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4715 michael.curie@nasa.gov Kyle Herring Johnson Space Center, Houston 281-483-5111 kyle.j.herring@nasa.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-180 NASA ANNOUNCES TELECONFERENCE ABOUT SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH PLAN HOUSTON - NASA will host a media teleconference with Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale at approximately 2:30 p.m. CST, Tuesday, Dec. 11, to discuss the status of shuttle Atlantis' launch on the upcoming STS-122 mission. The teleconference will follow a ...Continue Reading

Dec. 10, 2007 Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov RELEASE: 07-269 INTERNATIONAL GROUP PLANS STRATEGY FOR MARS SAMPLE RETURN MISSION WASHINGTON - NASA and an international team are developing plans and seeking recommendations to launch the first Mars mission to bring soil samples back to Earth. The ability to study soil from Mars here on Earth will contribute significantly to answering questions about the possibility of life on the Red Planet. Returned samples also will in ...Continue Reading

As the near-real time users may have noticed, there is a break in the QuikSCAT data stream between Dec 6 and Dec 7 after the system was put in a receive only operational mode, in response to unexpected scatterometer subsystems power reset. There is no evidence that links this incident with the recent battery cell problem. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= User Services Office Physical Oceanography DAAC Email: podaac@podaac.jpl.nasa.gov Jet Propulsion ...Continue Reading

Dec. 10, 2007 Michael Braukus Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1979 michael.j.braukus@nasa.gov Veronica Ramirez U.S. Embassy, Guatemala City, Guatemala 011-502-2326-4483 RamirezV@state.gov MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-179 NASA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR VISITS CENTRAL AMERICA WASHINGTON - On Wednesday, Dec. 12, NASA's Deputy Administrator Shana Dale will join NASA researchers to brief reporters about the agency's Earth sciences activities in Central America and their benefits to the region. The briefing will begin at 10:30 a. ...Continue Reading

The following sections were updated since 07 December 2007. -- DUST AND SMOKE (1 updated events, 1 new images) -- HAZE ALONG THE HIMALAYA Haze hugged the southern slopes of the Himalaya in early December 2007. * http://naturalhazards.nasa.gov/shownh.php3?img_id=14651 *** MODIS(Terra) image from Dec 10 2007 (Posted on Dec 10 2007 1:18PM) -- FIRE (1 updated events, 1 new images) -- KANGAROO ISLAND BUSHFIRES Fires have been burning in and near several parks and conservation areas on South Australia's Kangaroo Island fo ...Continue Reading

Dec. 10, 2007 Grey Hautaluoma Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0668 grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov Jennifer Morcone Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. 256-544-7199 jennifer.j.morcone@nasa.gov Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass. 617-496-7998 mwatzke@cfa.harvard.edu MEDIA ADVISORY: M07-178 NASA ANNOUNCES DISCOVERY OF ASSAULT BY A BLACK HOLE WASHINGTON - Astronomers will hold a media teleconference Monday, Dec. 17, at 1 pm EST to announce the discovery of a first-of-its-kind phenomenon inv ...Continue Reading

Dec. 9, 2007 Katherine Trinidad Headquarters, Washington 202-358-3749 katherine.trinidad@nasa.gov Candrea Thomas Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-867-2468 candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov RELEASE: 07-273 NASA TARGETS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH ON JAN. 2 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station now is targeted to launch no earlier than Jan. 2 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The liftoff date depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system. Early ...Continue Reading

Dec. 9, 2007 Mike Curie Headquarters, Washington 202-358-4715 michael.curie@nasa.gov Candrea Thomas Kennedy Space Center, Fla. 321-867-2468 candrea.k.thomas@nasa.gov RELEASE: 07-272 NASA POSTPONES SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA has delayed Sunday's launch of space shuttle Atlantis on its STS-122 mission to the International Space Station. Shuttle program managers made the decision at 7:24 a.m. EST after a failure occurred in a fuel sensor system while Atlantis' external fuel tank was being ...Continue Reading