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February 2nd, 2003 Reaching for the Stars - Israel's First Astronaut In November 1995, former US President Bill Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres agreed that an Israeli astronaut would participate in a NASA space mission. During this period, the IAF displayed interest in space research due to the growing significance of the field in the following areas: meteorology, communications, navigation, forewarning and intelligence. As such, the IAF presented NASA with a candidate. In addition, the continued cooperation with NASA was an important goal of its own. The criteria by which candidates were chosen was set by NASA...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Countless clues left investigators with few answers as they probed what caused the breakup of space shuttle Columbia after the deadly disaster spewed debris across hundreds of miles. In addition to examining the wreckage, NASA was analyzing transmissions from the crew, records from the shuttle's sensors and data from military, government and commercial satellites. "We will be poring over that data 24 hours a day for the foreseeable future," NASA shuttle project manager Ron Dittemore told a Houston news conference Saturday, hours after the tragedy. The space agency put a hold on all shuttle launches...

Israel's first astronaut - Air Force Col. Ilan Ramon - is scheduled to take part in the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia's next mission. STS-107 is a 16-day research mission that is slated to be launched on January 16, 2003. The mission is a multi-discipline microgravity and Earth science research mission with a multitude of international scientific investigations to be conducted continuously during the planned 16 days on orbit. Ilan Ramon: "Being the first Israeli astronaut - I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis. I'm also the son of a Holocaust survivor - I carry on the suffering...

BEIJING, Dec 31 (AFP) - 08:08 GMT - China could send a human into orbit in the second half of 2003, according to an official with the country's space program, state media said Tuesday. Yuan Jie, director of the Shanghai Spaceflight Bureau, said Shenzhou V or Divine Vessel V, has reached the "main assembly and main testing stage," the Shanghai-based Liberation Daily reported.It is estimated the space craft will be launched in the latter half of 2003, "realizing our country's historic breakthrough in manned spaceflight," the newspaper quoted Yuan as saying. The Shanghai Spaceflight Bureau is part of the central...

Title: PRC BJB Discusses Planned Space Exploration Document Number: FBIS-CHI-2001-1204 Document Date: 03 Dec 2001 Sourceline: CPP20011204000017 Beijing Jiefangjun Bao (Internet Version-WWW) in Chinese 03 Dec 01 p 10 Language: Chinese Subslug: Article by Zuo Saichun: "Soon we will land on the moon. Outline of China's Aerospace Development in the 10th Five Year Plan." [FBIS Translated Text] Article on Development of China's Aerospace Industry during the 10th Five Year Plan Soon We Will Land on the Moon. Outline of China's Aerospace Development in the 10th Five Year Plan When can Chinese astronauts travel in space on the "Shenzhou?" When...

Inspections Reveal Location of Debris Inside Columbia Cooling Line By Jim Banke Senior Producer, Cape Canaveral Bureau posted: 05:00 pm ET 15 March 2002 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Inspections Thursday discovered the location of the debris that clogged a cooling line and briefly threatened shuttle Columbia's just-completed Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. "The first place we looked we found something," said Jack King, spokesman for United Space Alliance, the company responsible for taking care of NASA's space shuttle fleet. The clog jeopardized the mission during its first few days as the shuttle's cooling system is critical for ridding the orbiter...

China is readying an unpiloted Shenzhou 3 spaceship for flight, a key step toward claiming a prestigious position in the heavens - becoming the third nation after Russia and the United States to attain an independent ability to launch humans into Earth orbit. lt;![if !supportEmptyParas]gt; lt;![endif]gt;Sending people into space, and eventually to the Moon, is a piece of a much grander Chinese agenda. lt;![if !supportEmptyParas]gt; lt;![endif]gt;China's all-purpose space schedule not only entails increasing use of satellites for weather watching, resource monitoring, and communications purposes. lt;![if !supportEmptyParas]gt; lt;![endif]gt;A military space war-fighting strategy is also being put in place, some China-watchers claim....