Goodnight Stardust
After a seven-year mission to gather comet dust, NASA鈥檚 Stardust spacecraft is finally getting some sleep. The probe jettisoned its sample return capsule on 15 January over Utah and went back to orbiting the sun. On Sunday, NASA shut down all systems on the craft except for its solar panels and receiving antenna so Stardust could be reawakened for future missions.
Hail the inhaler
Advertisement
People with diabetes may soon be able to abandon injections thanks to the world鈥檚 first insulin inhaler, which lets people simply squirt the drug into their mouths. Pfizer received approval to sell its Exubera inhaler in Europe on 26 January and in the US a day later.
Shuttle plea
鈥淢y dad died a 100 times a day on TV.鈥� That was the poignant message from Kathy Scobee, speaking at a Florida ceremony on 28 January to commemorate the loss of the shuttle Challenger 20 years ago. In a plea for TV news to be more considerate, shuttle Commander Dick Scobee鈥檚 widow June said 12 children have repeatedly seen footage of the accident that claimed one of their parents.
Give us your money
Wanted: $9 billion for TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention. And all donations are welcome, especially from the G8 nations. That was the message of a 10-year plan launched on 27 January by the Stop TB Partnership, an alliance of 400 bodies including the World Health Organization.
Best dressed satellite
On 3 February, cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut Jeffrey Williams will hurl an empty Russian spacesuit into space from the International Space Station. Dubbed SuitSat, it has been modified to act as a crude radio satellite, beaming back information on its temperature, battery life and mission time as it falls towards Earth and burns up in the atmosphere.