According to Flight Global, The Government wants to develop a rocket, dubbed "LauncherOne," to sit on the back of WhiteKnightTwo and when the craft reaches the proper altitude, lauch off on its own to begin orbit. The microsatellites would be under 200kg in weight, though it's unclear exactly what the satellites will do. But with all these add-ons, WhiteKnightTwo is starting to remind me of The Centurions or something. [Flight Global via The Register]

The rockets of the aeroshell—a protective armor that will protect the MSL and guide it through its descent—will fire to steer the capsule towards the desired angle. When this is achieved, a long parachute will open to slow down the Mars Science Laboratory as it enters zooms down the Martian atmosphere. As soon as the capsule slows down, the heat shield will eject leaving the rover exposed inside the aeroshell, attached to the floating crane mechanism.

That's when the whole landing process gets weird: The floating crane's rockets will fire up to further slow the descent. The top part of the aeroshell will then detach completely, leaving the sky crane alone holding the MSL rover, slowly descending towards the planet's surface. A few hundred meters above the terrain, the floating sky crane will start lowering the rover down using "a trio of bridles and one umbilical cord" until it touches down. At that time, the sky crane will detach from the rover and fly away, probably to fall over the home of some poor old Martian grandma.

I don't know about you, but the whole operation mesmerizes me to no end.

According to Aviation Week, the X-37B test will use a launch slot previously reserved for another Atlas V, which would have carried NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite. This mission would have to be posponed to February-March 2009.

At first sight, it looks like the US military is starting to feel the heat of the May 2010 deadline for the space shuttle program—which will limit their capacity to service military satellites as well as their secret orbital base, with all those nuclear heads and chemical lasers capable of blowing up Teheran in a millisecond. However, the reality is that an "end-of-2008" launch was announced back in 2006. The spacecraft—as well as the X-40, its predecesor—has already been tested numerous times, one of them flying underneath the White Knight from Mojave Spaceport. [Aviation Week]

It is hoped that sails many times larger (we're talking football fields) will eventually propel long-range missions into deep space, with the help of lasers here on Earth firing light into their sails. The NanoSail-D is sticking in near-Earth orbit to perform its tests, which will inform later uses of the tech.

One caveat is that the launch is scheduled for July 29 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket, which like to go ka-boom and have yet to deliver a payload into orbit successfully. Our fingers are crossed for the little sailor. [Technology Review]

The primary goal of the mission is to drill a few inches into Martian soil, where scientists think they may find red "water-ice," known on earth as strawberry Slushee, which could provide compelling evidence that life once did (or one day could) exist there. Digging is expected to start soon, but for now there's plenty of terrain pr0n at the Phoenix official website [Phoenix via NY Times] -by John Herrman

As with most lofty goals, there are major obstacles to contend with. First and foremost, the designers are going to have to figure out how to power such an aircraft over the course of these long missions. Oh, and it will have to do it while carrying a 1000 pound payload in the fearsome winds at a 60,000—90,000 feet. No problem right? As for the design, the Vulture will most likely draw on NASA designs like the one pictured above, but there is no definitive time table on when we might actually see a working craft. [Flight Global via CNET via DVICE]

The Ulysses was the first spacecraft to ever pass over the north and south poles of the Sun, but amazing feats of pole to pole traveling were nothing compared to the three comet tails it successfully navigated. The lessons scientists have learnt regarding solar wind and interstellar dust have proven to be invaluable. Unfortunately then, the circuitry has now become defective, which means there is no way to supply power to the machinery that prevents the hydrazine power source from freezing. Once the hydrazine falls below the 2° Celsius freezing point, it's going to be game over for old Ulysses, as there will be no way to control the sky skipper. We imagine it's showing a RROD as we speak, which makes us unbearably sad. We just wanted to say thanks for all the indispensable scientific information, great times, good laughs and the terrific name. Cheers, you will be missed, Ulysses. [New Scientist]

Oh, well. Back to the old drawing board. Looks like something that might have happened in the late '50s. – Charlie White

Satellite-Strapped Rocket Explodes on Platform [Popular Mechanics]