Chile telescopes
Britain has finally joined the European Southern Observatory. The move will give British astronomers access to some of the world鈥檚 most advanced telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope and the Atacama LargeMillimetre Array, both in Chile.
Near neighbours
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German astronomers sifting through data from a survey of near-infrared radiation have detected two new neighbours of the Sun: faint red dwarfs that are 20 and 26 light years away.
Comet mission
NASA鈥檚 latest mission to study comets was ready for a 3 July launch, as New Scientist went to press. CONTOUR will orbit Earth till mid-August, then fire its main engines and take-off for a fly-by of Comet Encke in 2003 and Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 in 2006.
Space shuttle Columbia
Israel鈥檚 first astronaut is preparing for his trip. Israeli air force colonel Ilan Ramon is a crew member for a 16-day science mission on the shuttle Columbia. His presence has raised concerns that the shuttle might be a terrorist target.
Weapons in space
China and Russia have submitted a joint proposal to the Conference on Disarmament for an international treaty to ban weapons in outer space, in a direct challenge to the Bush administration鈥檚 plans for a missile defence shield. The US has rejected the idea of such a treaty.
NASA hacked
Polish hackers have been accused of hacking into NASA鈥檚 computer system. According to the Polish news agency PAP, they caused around $1 million of damage to NASA鈥檚 computers and could face up to 8 years in prison.
They鈥檝e got mail
A Russian cargo ship successfully docked with the International Space Station on Saturday. Launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, it carried food, medicine and mail to the one American and two Russians on the ISS.
