October 2005 in science

Other events in October 2005
World - Sci-Tech - Sports
Britain and Ireland - Canada - Hong Kong and Macao - Australia & NZ - India - US

[edit] October 31, 2005

Scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope announce two new possible moons circling the planet Pluto. (Reuters/YahooNews)
The launch of the Venus Express spacecraft is rescheduled to take place on November 9, 2005. (AP/CNN)

The world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, makes its first appearance at a commercial airport, with a successful test landing in Germany on Frankfurt International's north runway, in front of 10,000 spectators. The A380 is scheduled to enter commercial operation at the end of 2006. (AFP/EUbusiness)

NASA releases a new version of the virtual globe mapping tool called World Wind by now providing high resolution pictures of the Moon taken by the Clementine orbiter. (Spaceflight Now)
NASA announces that the launch of New Horizons is still on schedule, despite slight damage to its Atlas V rocket by Hurricane Wilma. (Reuters/CNN)

Satellite launches:
- Iran's first satellite, the Sinah-1 reconnaissance satellite, built jointly with Russia, is launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia at 10:52 local time (06:52 UTC). (Iran-daily.com) (Spaceflight Now)
- Also part of the payload on the same Cosmos-3M rocket are several microsatellites, among which are the European Space Agency's SSETI—a project with students from 21 universities—and China's Beijing-1, carrying the British-built China Mapping Telescope. (BBC)
The first light pictures taken by the Large Binocular Telescope on October 12 are released to the public. (SpaceRef.com)

First results based on the first phase of the HapMap data are announced, and will be published in Nature. (YahooNews)

A way to produce hydrogen inside an ordinary car, by using metals such as magnesium and aluminium to break down water catalytically, is developed by an Israeli company. In a few years the system should cost the same as existing conventional cars to run, according to the inventors. (IsraCast)
MySQL AB releases version 5.0 of their open-source database management software MySQL. (Macworld)
Improved pictures taken of the suspected crash site of NASA's Mars Polar Lander show that the features seen previously are of natural origin. The fate of the lander remains unknown. (BBC)

Taiwan announces its intention to produce Tamiflu for non-commercial use, without waiting for the final approval by the patent holder Hoffmann-La Roche. (BBC)

The launch of ESA's Venus Express is delayed due to the discovery of contaminants inside the launcher's fairing. (ESA) (BBC)
A preview version of Flock, a new web browser based on Mozilla Firefox is released. (Zdnet)

Engineers working with the Russian satellite Monitor-E lose contact after its orientation became unstable on October 18. (AP/CNN)

The reentry module of the Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou 6 lands safely in Inner Mongolia, China. (People's Daily).

The People's Republic of China launches the manned Shenzhou 6 spacecraft. Fèi Jùnlóng and Niè Hǎishèng will spend five days in orbit in their Shenzhou spacecraft. (People's Daily)
Mission engineers of the lost ESA Demonstrator IRDT-2R spacecraft believe that it might have plunged into the Pacific ocean. (space.com/YahooNews)

The launch of Shenzhou 6 is tentatively set for the morning of October 12. (XinhuaNet)

Five autonomous robots have completed the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, the winner travelling the 132 mile/212 kilometer course in less than 7.5 hours. (SFGate)
ESA satellite CryoSat fails to reach orbit. First indications seem to point to a rocket engine failure or a failed separation of the satellite. (BBC) (XinhuaNet) It was found later that a software error in the on-board flight control system of the upper stage led to the failure. (BBC)

Scientists publish first results of studies on the re-created live Spanish flu virus, produced and stored at a lab of the CDC. (AP/YahooNews)
Chinese officials confirm that the launch date for Shenzhou 6 is scheduled for October 13. (AFP/YahooNews)
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards Yves Chauvin, Robert H. Grubbs, and Richard R. Schrock the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, "for the development of the metathesis method in organic synthesis". (Nobelprize.org) (BBC)

The 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded with one half to Roy J. Glauber and with one half jointly to John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch, "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique". (Nobelprize.org) (BBC)