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Chile telescopes

Britain has finally joined the European Southern Observatory. The move will give British astronomers access to some of the world’s most advanced telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope and the Atacama LargeMillimetre Array, both in Chile.

Near neighbours

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’s latest mission to study comets was ready for a 3 July launch, as New ÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ 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’s 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’s 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’s computer system. According to the Polish news agency PAP, they caused around $1 million of damage to NASA’s computers and could face up to 8 years in prison.

They’ve 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.