August 2004 (Newstream) -- A Proton rocket launched by International Launch Services (ILS) successfully carried the Amazonas satellite into orbit today.

Kazakhstan, Thursday morning on a mission managed by International Launch Services (ILS) of MCLean, Va. The rocket carried the Amazonas satellite, built for Hispasat of Spain to provide communications on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the 30th Proton mission for ILS, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin of the U.S. and Khrunichev of Russia.

The launch vehicle was built by Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, a partner in the ILS joint venture along with Lockheed Martin Corp. [NYSE:LMT]. This was the third Proton launch of the year for ILS, and the seventh mission overall for the company in 2004.

The United States will soon embark on a mission to the small planet Mercury, its first since 1973. A spacecraft named Messenger will lift off from Florida to begin a six-and-a-half year journey to a planet slightly larger than our moon and the one closest to the Sun. This proximity requires special protections for the spacecraft so it will not burn up in Mercury's extreme heat. But the planet can become extremely frigid, too.

On Launch Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Boeing workers complete the installation of the fairing around the MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) spacecraft. The fairing is a molded structure that fits flush with the outside surface of the upper stage booster and forms an aerodynamically smooth joint, protecting the spacecraft during launch. MESSENGER is scheduled to launch Aug. 2 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket and is expected to enter Mercury orbit in March 2011. MESSENGER was built for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. Image credit:  KSC, NASA.

The only spacecraft to make the trip was the U.S. Mariner 10, which flew by three times in the mid-1970s. But it mapped only half of the surface, so Mercury still remains the least explored of the rocky, inner worlds that include Earth, Venus, and Mars.

Scientists have many questions

"How did Mercury end up mostly metal?" asks Sean Solomon of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the mission scientists.

He notes that Mercury is mostly iron, making it the densest planet. He wonders why it has less rocky crust than Earth, Venus, and Mars, even though scientists believe they formed the same way from a giant cloud of gas and dust swirling around the Sun.

"We do not know whether that is because closer to the Sun there was more metal than other materials, or it is possible Mercury started out more Earthlike in composition and lost its rocky fraction because of extreme heat or because of mechanical disruption by a giant impact," adds Mr. Solomon.

Finland has become the eleventh member state of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The formal accession procedure was carried through as planned and has now been completed. Following the signing of the corresponding Agreement earlier this year, acceptance by the Finnish Parliament and ratification by the Finnish President of the Agreement as well as the ESO Convention and the associated protocols in June [2] and the deposit of the instruments of accession today, Finland has now officially joined ESO.

ESO warmly welcomes the new member country and its scientific community that is renowned for their expertise in many frontline areas. The related opportunities will contribute to strenghtening of pioneering research with the powerful facilities at ESO's observatories, to the benefit of Astronomy and Astrophysics as well as European science in general. ESO also looks forward to collaboration with the Finnish high-tech industry.

For Finland, the membership in ESO is motivated by scientific and technological objectives as well as by the objective of improving the public understanding of science. The Finnish Government is committed to increasing the public research funding in order to improve the quality, impact and internationalisation of research.

Membership in ESO offers unique facilities for astronomical research which would not otherwise be available for Finnish astronomers. Finland is also very interested in taking part in technological development projects in fields like ICT, optics and instrumentation. For young scientists and engineers, ESO is a challenging, international working and learning environment.

Finland has already taken part in the educational programmes of ESO, and as a member this activity will be broadened and intensified. In Finland there are also several science journalists and a large community of amateur astronomers who will be very happy to take part in ESO's outreach activities.

Scientists are being dazzled by the sharp, detailed images of the rings of Saturn transmitted to Earth soon after the U.S. Cassini spacecraft began orbiting the giant planet. They say that understanding the rings can expand our knowledge of the evolution of the solar system and other planetary systems.

After becoming the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini sent back this image of a portion of the planet's rings. It was taken by the spacecraft's narrow angle camera and shows the dark, or unlit, side of the rings. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Saturn's shimmering rings have intrigued astronomers for centuries, but no one has seen them as closely and sharply as Cassini has just seen them.

After successfully entering orbit around Saturn, the spacecraft immediately began taking pictures from above the rings as they were backlit by the sun. Then it descended through them for images from the illuminated side. It was the best opportunity the spacecraft will get in its four year mission because it will never be any closer.

A deputy chief of the U.S. space agency NASA, Ed Weiler, revealed the photographs just hours after Cassini began transmitting them.

"Citizens of Earth, I would like to present the majestic rings of Saturn," he said.

The highly detailed images have stunned Saturn ring specialists like Carolyn Porco, the head of the Cassini imaging team from the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. In her words, they are utterly remarkable in their beauty and clarity.