Space Exploration

Fifty years ago tomorrow, the United States launched its first satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit. Its success may seem to be a footnote in space history, a second-place finish to the Soviet Union's Sputnik. After all, wasn't it Sputnik, launched four months earlier, that represented the real scientific breakthrough and sent Americans cowering in fear at the shiny Russian ball orbiting overhead? Not exactly.

Europe's shiny new $2-billion science laboratory, Columbus, was anchored to the International Space Station on Monday by a team of astronauts laboring inside and out. "A great day for Europe," said the European Space Agency's station program manager, Alan Thirkettle. "She looks just beautiful." French astronaut Leopold Eyharts announced its arrival. Installation was an exhausting daylong affair that took more time than expected.

Mars' north pole, like a French parfait, comes in layers. Scientists analyzing radar images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft have found as many as seven distinct layers of ice and dust beneath the north pole. Roger J. Phillips, a scientist with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., said the layering was probably caused by changes in the planet's orbit over the last 4 million years.

Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts thundered through a blue Florida sky Saturday afternoon on a mission to deliver a Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station and to help fix some nagging plumbing problems on board. The start of NASA's 123rd shuttle mission went smoothly; it is expected to dock with the station Monday. Some of the details of the two-week mission: The crew Veteran astronaut Navy Cmdr. Mark E. Kelly, who is married to Rep.

For all but a few select humans, the way to outer space -- the real outer space, not the one where the Cylons live -- has been through a TV screen. You can climb to the top of Mt. Everest, or trek to the South Pole or go down under the sea and see it for yourself, but space is still the province of professionals: We know it only by the pictures they take.

Images from NASA's Phoenix lander released late Thursday appeared to confirm the presence of buried ice, the first evidence that the spacecraft landed in the right spot last month to find water on Mars. Pictures taken of a trench dug earlier in the week by the lander's nearly 8-foot-long robotic arm showed that eight small, whitish chunks of material at the base of the trench had disappeared by Thursday.

The first chemistry results from Mars' northern plain reveal an environment more hospitable to life than some scientists had predicted, one that might allow future colonists to grow crops as familiar on Earth as asparagus and green beans. Strawberries, though, might be tougher, Phoenix mission scientists said Thursday. "We're flabbergasted by this data," said Sam Kounaves, the lead scientist for the wet chemistry experiment on the Phoenix spacecraft, which landed May 25 on Mars.

We know how John McCain and Barack Obama are polling in the red states, the blue states, Europe, the Middle East, China and around the world. But how are the presidential candidates polling on Mars? Red Planet policy turns out to be one of the areas in which McCain and Obama present bright, clear policy differences.

After weeks of testing the soil in the Martian arctic, NASA's Phoenix lander has for the first time confirmed through chemical analysis the presence of water on another planet, scientists said Thursday. Several weeks ago, Phoenix uncovered convincing visual evidence that it had landed on an ice field when it set down on Mars' northern plain May 25.

The latest forecast on Mars calls for morning fog and swift-moving clouds -- along with light snow. The surprising weather report was part of the latest scientific findings from NASA's Phoenix lander, which has been taking measurements at the Martian north pole since May 25.