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A Year in Review...
News story originally written on December 30, 1997
1997 was a great year in space. Let's journey back and look at the top discoveries and missions that took place in 1997!
To start off with, there were eight successful shuttle missions launched by NASA. These missions did microgravity research and fixed the Hubble Space Telescope.
The new and improved Hubble telescope sure had a fantastic year! The astronomers kept the telescope busy photographing Mars.
Possibly the most successful mission of the year was the Mars Pathfinder mission. Did you watch the Mars rover cross the surface of Mars? Did you buy a Mattel Hot Wheels JPL Sojourner Rover action pack?
The Cassini satellite was also launched. It is on its way to Saturn, a 2.2 billion-mile journey!
This year, the Mir space station seemed to have its share of trouble. The most biggest event was the day a cargo ship crashed into the Mir station. The crew members lost their power and their life support systems!
1997 is certainly a year to be remembered!
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The orbiter Columbia was launched July 1, 1997. This begins a 16-day mission. The purpose of this mission is to study the micro-gravity of space. Micro-gravity means there is less gravity than on Earth.
...more Astronauts Mark Lee and Steve Smith of the space shuttle Discovery completed their fifth and last spacewalk in the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spacewalk lasted 5 hours, 17 minutes.
...moreCassini is on its way to Saturn. It will take the Cassini spacecraft over 6 years to get to Saturn. Cassini was launched on a rocket early in the morning on October 15. The Cassini spacecraft is a big
...moreThings on the Mir space station have been very hard. Russian flight commander Vasily Tsibliev said he was having heart problems. Tsibliev said his heartbeat feels strange. He is not in danger. Tsibliev
...moreThe movie Apollo 13 showed how hard it can be to live in space. Right now, there are three men living on the Mir space station in space. They just had an accident that has made living there very hard.
...moreIt was another exciting and frustrating year for the space science program. It seemed that every step forward led to one backwards. Either way, NASA led the way to a great century of discovery. Unfortunately,
...moreThe Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on October 29th at 2:19 p.m. EST. The sky was clear and the weather was great. This was the America's 123rd manned space mission. A huge
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