Space Programs

Nearly four decades after astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his boot on the surface of the moon, the U.S. is about to take the first small step toward colonizing Earth's tag-along satellite. On Wednesday, NASA is scheduled to launch a robotic mission aimed at finding the best site for Earth's first off-world colony, the centuries-old dream of science fiction writers and utopians.

Rising over the battered surface of the moon, Earth loomed in a shimmering arc covered in a swirling skin of clouds. The image, taken in 1966 by NASA's robotic probe Lunar Orbiter 1, presented a stunning juxtaposition of planet and moon that no earthling had ever seen before. It was dubbed the Picture of the Century. "The most beautiful thing I'd ever seen," remembered Keith Cowing, who saw it as an 11-year-old and credited it with eventually luring him to work for NASA.

In what might embarrass less adventurous souls, astronaut Koichi Wakata is returning to Earth with the pairs of underwear he wore for a solid month during his space station stay so that scientists can check them out. They are experimental high-tech undies, designed in Japan to be odor free. The Japanese astronaut described his underwear test Thursday as shuttle Endeavour and its crew aimed for touchdown this morning.

Forty years after the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon, the business of space has yet to experience the renaissance many once thought possible. "It's 2009, and we thought we'd be going to the moon on PanAm by now," said John Pike, an analyst who follows the industry at think tank GlobalSecurity.org. "We thought the number of rockets that would be launched each year would be more and more and it would get cheaper and cheaper, but it didn't happen that way."

NASA rescinded a directive Tuesday that would have forced millions of dollars in cuts from the popular Mars rover program, saying the budget reductions had not been cleared with NASA Administrator Michael D. Griffin. James Green, head of NASA's Planetary Science Division, last week sent a private communication to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ordering $16 million in cuts to the Mars program, including $4 million in rover operations this year.

A new European cargo ship flew up to the International Space Station and docked Thursday, delivering food, water and clothes in its orbital debut. The unmanned cargo ship, called Jules Verne, was operated by flight controllers at a European Space Agency center in Toulouse, France. NASA's Mission Control in Houston and Russia's control center outside Moscow kept close tabs on the operation, which culminated in the morning linkup more than 200 miles above the Atlantic.

NASA said Friday that it terminated its contract with a Houston company selected in June to supply the space agency's next-generation space suit. NASA said it determined that an unspecified compliance issue required it to halt its contract with Oceaneering International Inc., best known for providing deep-water services and products to the oil and gas industry.

In an unprecedented step, a space shuttle was moved to the launch pad Friday for a trip NASA hopes it will never make -- a rescue mission. The shuttle Endeavour is on standby in case the seven astronauts on Atlantis next month need a safer ride home. Atlantis is headed for one last repair job on the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. The venture was canceled when first proposed a few years ago because it was considered too dangerous.

Space shuttle Endeavour and its crew of seven blasted into clear tropical skies under a spectacular moon Friday night, heading for the International Space Station. The mission: extreme interior redecoration, with a little outdoor lighting work. Endeavour rumbled off its launch pad on time, just before 8 p.m. EST. As the engines and rocket boosters illumined Cape Canaveral, night briefly turned into day. The shuttle crew, commanded by Navy Capt. Christopher J.

India's space agency said an orbiting capsule had returned to Earth, a major step toward the development of a manned space program. The capsule was launched Jan. 10, 60 miles north of the city of Chennai. It splashed down in the Bay of Bengal on Sunday, and the space agency reported the arrival Monday.