Initial efforts to undock were abruptly called off Sept. 25 because of a communications error

Scientists examining data from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover have concluded that imagery from three sites on the floor of Gale Crater represents rocks deposited there by water flowing down from the crater wall, probably billions of years ago.

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HOUSTON — The already delayed departure of the European Space Agency’s ATV-3 cargo capsule from the International Space Station has been reset for Sept. 28 at the earliest to accommodate a potential station maneuver to steer clear of Russian satellite and Indian rocket debris. The avoidance maneuver of the station and its three-person crew was scheduled for Sept. 27 at 8:12 a.m. EDT, or about 2 1⁄2 hr. ahead of the projected closest approach of the satellite debris.

An industry team says that a protected satellite communications family of terminals has been developed at no cost to the U.S. Defense Department and is ready for production once a government agency certifies its cryptological system.

TOURS, France — The European Space Agency remains on the hunt for an alternate method of launching the Experimental Re-Entry Testbed (Expert) followin...

Full-scale wind tunnel tests of the European hypersonic technology demonstrator are poised to get under way in France

KAZAKH SATS: EADS space subsidiary Astrium has established Ghalam, a joint venture with Kazcosmos’ subsidiary Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary, to assemble, integrate and test satellites at a purpose-built facility in Astana, Kazakhstan, according to Kazcosmos chairman Talgat Musabayev. The venture will help fulfill Kazcosmos’ requirement for technology transfer and know-how as Astrium develops a pair of Earth observation satellites for the agency (Aerospace DAILY, May 6, 2011).