1. Space News Update - October 5, 2012 - In the News Story 1: Story 1: NASA's Infrared Observatory Measures Expansion of Universe Story 2: Story 2: Curiosity gets the scoop on Mars Story 3: Story 3: NASA Aims to Trim Giant Deep-Space Rocket's Cost Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities NASA-TV Highlights Space Calendar Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

2. NASA's Infrared Observatory Measures Expansion of Universe >

3. Curiosity gets the scoop on Mars

4. NASA Aims to Trim Giant Deep-Space Rocket's Cost

5. The Night Sky Friday, October 5 · Lots of Jupiter happenings late tonight! Jupiter comes up over the east-northeast horizon around 9 or 10 tonight (depending on where you live), followed a half hour later by the nearly last-quarter Moon. They climb the sky together as night grows late, as shown here. · Jupiter's satellite Ganymede slowly disappears into eclipse by Jupiter's shadow at 12:32 a.m. EDT tonight, a little west of the planet. It then emerges from eclipse at 2:31 a.m. EDT even closer to the planet's edge, and finally disappears behind the edge at 5:29 a.m. EDT — just as Io is now fading into eclipse! Subtract 3 hours to get PDT. A small telescope will be all you need. Before all this, Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian around 11:47 p.m. EDT. For all of Jupiter's satellite events and Great Red Spot transits this month, good worldwide, see "Action at Jupiter" in theOctober Sky & Telescope, page 53.

6. The Night Sky Saturday, Oct. 6 · The bright eclipsing variable star Algol should be in one of its periodic dimmings, magnitude 3.4 instead of its usual 2.1, for a couple hours centered on 11:32 p.m. EDT (8:32 p.m. PDT). Algol takes several additional hours to fade and to rebrighten. Click on the chart at right. Glance up at Algol at any random time, and you have a 1 in 30 chance of catching it at least 1 magnitude fainter than normal. Sunday, October 7 · Vega remains very high in the west after nightfall this week. Look for fainter stars of the little constellation Lyra extending to its left, by roughly a fist-width at arm's length. · Jupiter's Great Red Spot should cross the planet's central meridian tonight around 1:25 a.m. EDT. Monday, October 8 · Even as the stars begin to come out in twilight, Cassiopeia is already higher in the northeast now than the sinking Big Dipper is in the northwest. Cassiopeia's broad W pattern is standing on end.

7. ISS Sighting Opportunities Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting InformationSatellite Sighting Information For Denver: SATELLITELOCALDURATION MAX ELEV APPROACHDEPARTURE DATE/TIME(MIN)(DEG)(DEG-DIR) ISSFri Oct 05/05:46 AM22222 above SSW10 above S ISSMon Oct 08/07:58 PM11811 above S18 above S ISSMon Oct 01/05:45 AM33912 above NW34 above ENE ISSFri Oct 05/05:46 AM22222 above SSW10 above S

8. NASA-TV Highlights Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to NASA website.NASA website October 6, Saturday 3 p.m. - NASA Science Briefing - KSC (All Channels) 6 p.m. - SpaceX CRS-1/Dragon Pre-Launch Briefing - KSC (All Channels) October 7, Sunday 7 p.m. - Launch Coverage for the SpaceX/Dragon CRS-1 Mission to the International Space Station (Launch scheduled at 8:35 p.m. ET) - KSC (All Channels) 10 p.m. – SpaceX/Dragon CRS-1 Post-Launch News Conference – KSC (All Channels)

9. Space Calendar Oct 05 - Moon Occults Jupiter Oct 05 - European Southern Observatory's (ESO) 50th Birthday (1962) Oct 05 - Robert Goddard's 130th Birthday (1882) Oct 06 - Mercury Passes 3.5 Degrees From Saturn Oct 06 - Comet 76P/West-Kohoutek-Ikemura Closest Approach To Earth (1.806 AU) Oct 06 - Asteroid 2009 TK Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU) Oct 06 - Asteroid 1604 Tombaugh Closest Approach To Earth (1.784 AU) Oct 06 - Asteroid 3317 Paris Closest Approach To Earth (4.312 AU) Oct 07 - [Oct 04] Dragon CRS-1/ Orbcomm 2-1/ CU-Sat 1 & 2 Falcon 9 Launch (International Space Station) Oct 07 - Moon Occults Asteroid 1 Ceres Oct 07 - Comet P/2005 T2 (Christensen) Perihelion (2.209 AU) Oct 07 - Comet C/2011 S1 (Gibbs) Closest Approach To Earth (6.158 AU) Oct 07 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults HIP 80159 (8.4 Magnitude Star) Oct 07 - Asteroid 241 Germania Closest Approach To Earth (1.791 AU) Oct 08 - Comet C/2009 F4 (McNaught) Closest Approach To Earth (5.536 AU) Oct 08 - Asteroid 2975 Spahr Closest Approach To Earth (1.470 AU) Oct 08 - 20th Anniversary (1992), Pioneer Venus' Burnup in Venus' Atmosphere JPL Space Calendar SpaceX Dragon at Cape Canaveral launch site. Launch is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 7, 6:35 p.m. MDT.

10. Food for Thought 1,000 mph Land Speed Record Car Fires Up Its Engines

11. Space Image of the Week Credit and copyright: Stefan Christmann.Stefan Christmann