National Aeronautics And Space Administration

Intriguing new close-ups of Jupiter's icy companion Europa sent back by the Galileo spacecraft suggest that a huge watery underworld may lie beneath the moon's frozen crust, offering a possible habitat for life, researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena said Tuesday. In the wake of last week's dramatic discovery of possible ancient life on Mars, NASA chief Dan Goldin warned against jumping the gun.

The U.S. space program, struggling for two decades to lay down a compelling case for exploring the universe, is suddenly riding the crest of extraordinary public and political enthusiasm over the potential discovery of past life on Mars. In the last two days, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration appears to have struck a chord with the public unparalleled since the era of the moon landings a quarter-century ago.

Space pilots, long the masters of powerful machines that fly into Earth orbit, are nervously facing a future in which they may go the way of elevator operators. In a controversial departure from tradition, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is planning a new generation of launch vehicles that are likely to be controlled in large part by computers.

Boeing Co., which has been attempting to expand its presence in the space launch industry, has exited a partnership with McDonnell Douglas Corp. to bid on a NASA reusable launch system. The Boeing move, which was first reported by the trade publications Space News and Aerospace Daily, is widely seen as a vote of no confidence in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration effort to induce private industry to invest in the new X-33 reusable space vehicle. NASA's plan would require U.S.

With the space shuttle program being cut sharply while the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is preparing for its critical role in building an international space station, President Clinton on Friday ordered a comprehensive review of shuttle safety. In a letter directing NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to conduct the review, White House officials warned that rapid management changes in the shuttle program may "inadvertently create unacceptable risks to safety."

The big guns from the space programs at Rockwell International Corp., McDonnell Douglas Corp. and Lockheed Martin are converging on Huntsville, Ala., this week for a shootout over a $900-million NASA contract to produce a prototype for a reusable launch vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet. Teams of executives and engineers from all three companies will be pitching their proposals for the last time before NASA officials make their decision--expected to be announced at the end of the month.

For the past few months, NASA pilot Dana Purifoy has been zooming through the skies north of Edwards Air Force Base in an F-16 jet loaded with what amounts to a space-age vacuum cleaner. As he races along a restricted military flight corridor, the machine cranks to life, sucking air through millions of tiny, laser-drilled holes in a titanium panel covering most of the jet's left wing.

Equipment trouble forced NASA to delay the launch of a spacecraft toward an asteroid Friday. Managers halted the countdown with less than an hour remaining because of problems with the safety system used to track ascending rockets. They said they would try again today to launch the unmanned Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Frustrated NASA and Italian Space Agency managers were searching Monday for reasons why a tether broke late Sunday, sending an Italian satellite spinning into space, taking with it high hopes for the multimillion-dollar mission. NASA officials refused to speculate on what went wrong. But astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman reported that the frayed end of the cord aboard Columbia looked charred and melted.

The head of NASA's space shuttle program resigned after expressing concern to space agency officials about cost-cutting measures that will change the program's management structure. Bryan D. O'Connor, 49, a former astronaut and Marine Corps pilot, said he will leave the program at the end of the month "to pursue other interests."