space shuttle discovery

To anyone who's ever pondered what urine looks like in space -- c'mon, don't be shy -- we say: wonder no more, because photos of the phenomenon have finally hit the internet.

Last Wednesday, a number of skygazers were lucky to sight a mysterious flare in the night sky, that, as it now turns out, was a 150-pound cocktail of astronaut urine and waste water released from the shuttle Discovery.

As the space shuttle Discovery was on its way to the International Space Station, China successfully launched its first lunar probe.

The Chang'e-1 spacecraft, named after a mythical Chinese goddess, should begin orbiting the Moon on November 1. It will spend a year studying the lunar surface. China says that this latest mission is part of a program that will place an unmanned vehicle on the Moon by 2012. You can watch a video of the launch here.—Gregory Mone

Lisa Marie Nowak and William Oefelein, before the fall

No one ever said Cupid worked gently—the guy carries a bow and arrow, after all—but lately his orchestrations have been downright violent. In the month leading up to Valentines Day, three macabre love triangles have burst into the media: one involving residents of Second Life, one concerning skydivers, and today, perhaps the most gripping scenario, which entangled a trio of astronauts.

In July, the space shuttle Discovery is slated to deliver two tons of hardware and supplies to the partially built International Space Station. This mission is paid for. As for the 16 more needed to finish assembly, as mandated by President George W. Bush two years ago in his Vision for Space Exploration policy, NASA is short by as much as $5 billion.

CAPE CANAVERAL The space shuttle Discovery roared into space Tuesday, piercing a Florida morning sky today and launching seven astronauts on NASA's first orbiter mission since the Columbia disaster.

Convinced that no one on Earth will buy your musty old futon? Feeling alone in the universe? Why not try

It's arguably the most powerful scientific instrument ever created, adept at inspecting exploding stars and glimpsing billions of years back in time. Yet the Hubble Space Telescope is really just a giant orbiting lens, only as good as the camera within. This month, astronauts will deliver an even better internal eye, the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The upgrade will allow Hubble to operate 10 times more quickly. Here is a brief history of the telescope that changed the way we think about the universe.

HUBBLE IN FOCUS




April 1990