A TV-sized probe adorned with a painted Indian flag is set to crash on the moon Friday as part of New Delhi's first unmanned lunar mission, Indian space officials said.
The Phoenix Mars Lander has entered a state of suspended operation called "safe mode" due to low power, mission managers said Thursday. And while they hope to recharge batteries and reactivate the spacecraft in the coming days, they say the rapid onset of the Martian winter means Phoenix's days are severely numbered.
India launched its first lunar mission on Wednesday, with hopes of achieving high-resolution images of the moon's topography and diving into the international space race.
Engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland have hit a snag in their efforts to bring the Hubble Space Telescope back on-line after a major equipment failure in space last month, according to Goddard spokeswoman Susan Hendrix.
Space tourist Richard Garriott has arrived at the International Space Station for a 10-day stay for which he paid the Russian government an estimated $30 million.
An U.S. spacecraft was scheduled to beam hundreds of photos of Mercury back to Earth on Tuesday after a close encounter with the planet closest to the sun.
