April 4, 2011 - Scouting Odyssey

Published in cooperation with The Planetary Society

Spend the year in space, one week at a time

Recent Weeks

May 14, 2012 - Monkey Nebula

May 7, 2012 - Getting a Grip on INTELSAT

April 30, 2012 - Dust in the Wind

April 23, 2012 - Celebrate Astronomy Day

April 16, 2012 - Rover Rides Again

April 9, 2012 - Mercury’s Marvelous Morphology

April 2, 2012 - A Matter of Truss

March 26, 2012 - Hubble Bubble

March 19, 2012 - Rocket Pioneer Centennial

March 12, 2012 - Southern Lights on Saturn

March 5, 2012 - A New Star in Town

February 27, 2012 - Hubble Upgrade

February 20, 2012 - Sideways Supernova

February 13, 2012 - Auroras Gone Wild

February 6, 2012 - Hubble Telescope Tune-Up

January 30, 2012 - Lunar Orbiter Liftoff

January 23, 2012 - Magellan Turns up the Stereo

January 16, 2012 - Southern Sibling Sees Stars

January 9, 2012 - Hitching a Ride Home

January 2, 2012 - Transforming the Space Frontier

December 26, 2011 - These Laws Can't Be Broken

December 19, 2011 - Long and Winding Road

December 12, 2011 - Blast from the Past

December 5, 2011 - It’s Just Like Folding a Map

November 28, 2011 - A Warmer, Wetter Mars

November 21, 2011 - Spy in the Sky

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Weekly photo essay
Daily Moon phases
Night sky events
Space trivia
Holidays
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The Week in Space

April 4-10, 2011

Scouting Odyssey Ten years ago this week, the Mars 2001 Odyssey orbiter began its six-month journey to Mars. Odyssey then spent several months grazing the Martian atmosphere (a fuel-saving process known as aerobraking) to circularize its path into a two-hour mapping orbit. Mars Odyssey examines the composition of the planet’s surface, looks for water and shallow buried ice, and studies the radiation environment of Mars. Odyssey completed its primary mission in 2004 but continues to uncover surprises (like caves on Mars) and support other Mars missions. Mission planners are relying on imagery from Odyssey to help choose a possible 2012 landing site for Curiosity, the roving Mars Science Laboratory. One possible location is Holden Crater, seen in this false-color Odyssey image.

Image credit: NASA / JPL / ASU

Weekly Calendar

April 4-10, 2011

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 4

1930: American Rocket Society founded
1968: Apollo 6 launched
1983: STS-6 Challenger launched
1997: STS-83 Columbia launched
2000: First commercial mission to Mir

Tuesday 5

1973: Pioneer 11 launched
1975: Soyuz 18-1, first in-flight abort
1990: Pegsat launched
1991: STS-37 Atlantis launched
2010: STS-131 Discovery launched

Wednesday 6

Jupiter in conjunction with Sun

1965: Early Bird (Intelsat 1) launched
1984: STS-41C Challenger launched

Thursday 7

1991: Compton Gamma Ray Observatory deployed
2001: Mars Odyssey Orbiter launched
2007: ISS Expedition 15 crew launched

Friday 8

1964: Gemini I launched
1966: OAO-1 launched
1993: STS-56 Discovery launched
2002: STS-110 Atlantis launched
2008: ISS Expedition 17 crew launched