In this photo released by China's official Xinhua news agency, the carrier rocket Long March 3-A blasts off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, on Friday June 1, 2007. China on early Friday morning launched "SinoSat-3," a communications satellite for radio and television broadcasting, aboard a Long March-3A carrier rocket, marking the 100th flight of its Long March series
A Boeing-built Delta II rocket lifts off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Thursday, June 7, 2007. The rocket carried into orbit the COSMO satellite, the first of a constellation of four Italian-built observation satellites that will use radar to image the Earth for commercial and military uses
A Russian Dnepr booster, based on the RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) ballistic missile, with a German TerraSAR-X satellite aboard, lifts off from the Russian-rented Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, Friday, June 15, 2007. The launch has been conducted successfully, Russian Space Agency said. TerraSAR-X is a new-generation, high resolution Earth remote-sensing satellite to provide a continuous stream of Earth observation data for at least 5 years, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported
An Atlas V rocket lifts off from launch pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Friday, June 15, 2007, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The rocket carrying an intelligence-gathering payload for the Pentagon launched Friday, a day after being delayed for technical problems. The rocket is hauling a payload from the National Reconnaissance Office, a division of the Department of Defense that builds and operates spy satellites
This photo provided by NASA shows a view of part of space shuttle Atlantis' underside thermal protection system and part of the port side cabin, including the hatch, as well as a section of the open payload bay cover
This photo provided by NASA shows the international space station's Russian cosmonaut Fyodor N. Yurchikhin, as he participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA)
In this image from NASA TV mission specialist Steve Swanson is shown at center left, as mission specialist Patrick Forrester is seen as center right partially inside the quest air lock as they prepare to complete another task on their space walk outside the international space station, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
In this image from NASA TV, mission specialist Steve Swanson is shown working on the retraction of the starboard solar array on the international space station, Wednesday, June 13, 2007
In this image made available by NASA, astronauts Steven Swanson and Patrick Forrester (out of frame) participate in the mission's second planned session of extravehicular activity (EVA) on Wednesday, June 13, 2007, as construction resumes on the International Space Station. Among other tasks, Forrester and Swanson removed all of the launch locks holding the 10-foot-wide solar alpha rotary joint in place and began the solar array retraction
In this image made from NASA TV, astronaut Danny Olivas is at the end of the shuttle arm outside the space shuttle Atlantis to make repairs while orbiting Earth, Friday, June 15, 2007. Olivas is planning to staple down the thermal blanket that peeled back during Atlantis' launch. The blanket, covering an engine pod, protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry. While engineers don't believe it would endanger the spacecraft during landing, it could cause enough damage to require repairs on the ground
This image made from NASA TV on Saturday June 9, 2007 shows a 4-inch (10-centimeter) gap in a heat-protecting blanket on shuttle Atlantis. The crew of the space shuttle Atlantis, satisfied that the gap in a heat-protecting blanket would not cause any problems, readied themselves for what NASA called a delicate ballet with the international space station.
In this image made from NASA TV, astronaut Danny Olivas pushes in pins to repair a thermal blanket tear on the outside of the Space Shuttle Atlantis while orbiting Earth, Friday, June 15, 2007. Olivas is repairing the thermal blanket that peeled back during Atlantis' launch. The blanket, covering an engine pod, protects part of the shuttle from the blazing heat of re-entry. While engineers don't believe it would endanger the spacecraft during landing, it could cause enough damage to require repairs on the ground
