According to a recent AP article, Space Shuttle Discovery is “ready to launch on July 13th”:http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/science/20050628-1403-spaceshuttle.html. Perhaps even more interesting is a little blurb at the end of the article:

_The Iran Non-Proliferation Act would effectively bar U.S. astronauts from staying on the space station after April 2006. The bill, passed in 2000, had aimed to prevent Russia from helping Iran expand its nascent nuclear program._

Whoops. That might be something to look into…

Cosmos 1, the solar-sail probe launched yesterday by the “Planetary Society”:http://www.planetary.org/, has apparently “failed on launch”:http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/11958311.htm. The failure was in the first-stage rocket launching the probe into orbit, not the probe itself, so it seems that the thing to do is to build the same thing over and try it again.

~5 days ago… no post yet?

Now this is science. Next time I sink all four wheels of my car into deep sand in the desert near Blythe (as I have done twice in the past), maybe they’ll have published the amazing driving techniques I can use to drive away without getting out of the car, digging under the car with my hands, jacking up the car, digging to get the wheels uncovered, and putting stuff under the wheels to drive away. OTOH, I’ve done it in about four hours, versus five weeks. (Note: Adam Houston was along for one of these adventures.)

Opportunity, one of the Mars Exploration Rovers, has gotten “stuck on a sand dune”:http://space.com/missionlaunches/050428_rover_update.html and it’s not certain that they’ll be able to free it. (All six wheels are pretty “deeply buried”:http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/f/447/1F167871674EFF55DIP1214R0M1.JPG.)

I’m sure they’ll think of something and the Little Rover That Could will be on its way. Still, send good vibes to Opportunity whenever you can.

How about some Chinese space program propaganda?

Edited to Add: Oh my God. Scroll all the way down. Seriously.