NASA was forced to delay the launch of shuttle Atlantis from Florida until January 2008, due to several issues on the shuttle -- NASA wanted to launch last Thursday, but needed more time to evaluate major problems aboard the shuttle. 

Two fuel gauges in the fuel cut-off sensor system were causing problems, and the fuel sensor again malfunctioned yesterday.  Known to engineers as the Engine Cut-Off (ECO) sensors, the gages are responsible for ensuring the engines aboard a shuttle shut down before the hydrogen completely drains.  The problem has been consistent ever since the shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

A new NASA study indicates Martian clouds do not contain as much water as was originally thought, the U.S. space agency said recently.  Even though some clouds over Mars are water ice similar to Earth, it is not uncommon for them to form when it is minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit.  It was originally thought clouds over Mars needed 100 percent relative humidity, but must be even more supersaturated with moisture.  

"We want to understand the climate of Mars and how the Martian water cycle operates," said Tony Colaprete, NASA Ames Research Center planetary scientist.  "Clouds are integral to this system, just as on Earth.  However, assuming the clouds form or behave the same as on Earth, may be a bad assumption."

The European Space Agency P80 prototype rocket motor was successfully tested from the Guiana Space Center, located in Kourou, French Guiana.  The ESA also recorded 600 parameters from the 111 second test, and everything went as expected, scientists reported.  The motor measures about 12 meters in height and three meters in diameter, and is able to contain up to 88 tons of solid propellant in it.

“The qualification of the P80 motor is a cornerstone. It is the biggest mono-segment, filament-wound-case solid-fuel rocket motor ever developed and this takes us a step closer to the Vega maiden flight,” said an ESA flight manager.