Space News Archive - March 07, 2006

Mars plays a mean defense. The red warrior has overwhelmed nearly two-thirds of all international spacecraft that have sought its mysteries. For NASA's latest encounter with Earth's testy neighbor, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team will be going into battle armored with discipline, training and experience.

Backyard astronomers, grab your telescopes. Jupiter is growing a new red spot. Christopher Go of the Philippines photographed it on February 27th using an 11-inch telescope and a CCD camera.

Japan's space agency said Tuesday it had re-established partial contact with a problem-plagued probe sent to collect samples from an asteroid, but a fuel leak could cut communications again.

The components of life may have been under attack in the hostile environments of the universe's first galaxies, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

Space shuttle Discovery has a fuel tank sensor that isn't working properly and a dent in a robotic arm, potentially delaying its planned launch in May.