Space news digest

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Sat 08/26	Lightning strike delays shuttle launch NASA postpones Sunday's planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis to give engineers more time to check for damage from a lightning strike to the launch pad on Friday - the strongest on record
Sat 08/26	NASA Delays Launch of Shuttle Atlantis CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA officials decided Saturday to delay the launch of space shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours to give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems....
Sat 08/26	NASA delays launch of space shuttle Atlantis The launch of space shuttle Atlantis was put off from Sunday until no sooner than Monday after one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever on the launch pad.
Sat 08/26	NASA puts space shuttle's launch on hold CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA has delayed Sunday's planned launch of space shuttle Atlantis to assess possible damage from a lightning strike on the ship's Florida launch pad, the U.S. space agency said on Saturday.
Sat 08/26	NASA Delays Space Shuttle Launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA officials decided Saturday to delay the launch of space shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours to give engineers more time to determine whether one of the most powerful lightning strikes ever at a Kennedy Space Center launch pad caused any problems....
Sat 08/26	Weather Forces Shuttle Launch Delay CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA has delayed the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis by 24 hours because of a lightning strike and other weather concerns, officials said Saturday....
Sat 08/26	Lightning strike delays space shuttle's launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA has delayed Sunday's planned launch of the space shuttle Atlantis for 24 hours to assess possible damage from a lightning strike on the ship's Florida launch pad, the U.S. space agency said on Saturday.
Sat 08/26	Lightning delays Atlantis launch Sunday's planned launch of the US space shuttle Atlantis is put back after a lightning strike, Nasa announces.
Sat 08/26	Storms Could Force Shuttle Launch Delay CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The possibility of stormy weather was a primary concern Saturday as NASA counted down for a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to resume construction of the international space station for the first time in almost four years....
Sat 08/26	Possible storms primary obstacle to Sunday launch of space shuttle The possibility of stormy weather was a primary concern Saturday as NASA counted down for a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to resume construction of the international space station for the first time in almost four years.
Sat 08/26	Weather threatens shuttle launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA pressed ahead on Saturday with plans for a Sunday launch of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis, despite mounting concerns that stormy weather in Florida could cause delays.
Sat 08/26	Weather a Concern for Shuttle Launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The possibility of stormy weather was a primary concern Saturday as NASA counted down for a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis on a mission to resume construction of the international space station for the first time in almost four years....
Sat 08/26	NASA clears space shuttle for launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - With a wary eye on the weather, NASA managers on Friday cleared the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for launch from Florida on Sunday to restart construction of the International Space Station.
Fri 08/25	Weather-wary NASA clears space shuttle for launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - With a wary eye on the weather, NASA managers on Friday cleared the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis for launch from Florida on Sunday to restart construction of the International Space Station.
Fri 08/25	Online Merchants See Green in Pluto News LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Not long after puny Pluto was stripped of its planethood, Janis Robinson started selling $25 "PLUTO IS A PLANET" T-shirts on the Internet....
Fri 08/25	Pluto Vote 'Hijacked' in Revolt from the BBC News Online: A fierce backlash has begun against the decision by astronomers to strip Pluto of its status as a planet. On Thursday, experts approved a definition of a planet that demoted Pluto to a lesser category of object. But the lead scientist on Nasa's robotic mission to Pluto has lambasted the ruling, calling it "embarrassing." And the chair of the committee set up to oversee agreement on a definition implied that the vote had effectively been "hijacked." The vote took place at the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) 10-day General Assembly in Prague. . . .Only 424 astronomers who remained in Prague for the last day of the meeting took part.
Fri 08/25	Now How Will Students Learn the Planets? WASHINGTON (AP) -- "My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas." That and variations on it are the way millions of people learned to remember the names of the planets in the solar system - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. The problem is that an international convention of astronomers decreed Thursday that tiny Pluto no longer meets the definition of a planet....
Thu 08/24	Next shuttle flight devoted to construction Every homeowner knows renovations take twice as long and cost twice as much as planned. As NASA aims to complete the International Space Station, officials hope that axiom won't apply to the work on their house in the sky.
Thu 08/24	Widow of Pluto's Discoverer 'Shook Up' ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The widow of the astronomer who discovered Pluto 76 years ago said Thursday she was frustrated by the decision to strip it of its planetary status, but she added that Clyde Tombaugh would have understood....
Thu 08/24	For Pluto, a Smaller World After All Pluto the planet is dead. The baby in the solar system's familiar nine-planet pantheon, a favorite of schoolchildren everywhere, was disowned yesterday by the world's astronomers.
Thu 08/24	How the Facts Align Beneath the wings of the space shuttle Enterprise in a cavernous hangar at the National Air and Space Museum's Virginia annex, space exploration took a deeper turn into the unknown yesterday with the news that Pluto will no longer be considered a planet.
Thu 08/24	Vote Makes It Official: Pluto Isn’t What It Used to Be The vote by astronomers on a sweeping reclassification of the solar system was described as a triumph of science over sentiment.
Thu 08/24	Ex-Planet’s Fans Voice Dismay and Sorrow Across the country the news that Pluto was no longer considered a full planet was met with a mix of surprise and shrugs.
Thu 08/24	Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule Pluto is no longer a planet, according to a new official definition of the term voted on by astronomers. Instead it will be considered one of more than 40 "dwarf planets."
Thu 08/24	Dinky Pluto Loses Its Status As Planet PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Pluto, beloved by some as a cosmic underdog but scorned by astronomers who considered it too dinky and distant, was unceremoniously stripped of its status as a planet Thursday....
Thu 08/24	Pluto Gets Cold Shoulder Solar system down to 8 planets, three "dwarf planets"
Thu 08/24	Astronomers: Pluto just a dwarf Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. The International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the status it has held since its discovery in 1930, now dubbing it a "dwarf planet."
Thu 08/24	Astronomers strip Pluto of its status as a planet PRAGUE (Reuters) - Pluto was stripped of its status as a planet on Thursday when astronomers from around the world redefined it as a "dwarf planet," leaving just eight major planets in the solar system.
Thu 08/24	Pluto becomes one less planet to memorize WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pluto's lost status disappointed some schoolchildren and had space museum curators scrambling but in the words of one teenager, "It's one less planet to memorize."
Thu 08/24	Pluto still a high-flyer for astrologers TORONTO (Reuters) - Scientists may have demoted Pluto to the rank of a "dwarf planet" on Thursday but astrologers foretell no major changes in the way they read the heavens because of the move.
Thu 08/24	NASA begins countdown for space shuttle launch CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Countdown clocks began ticking on Thursday for NASA's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, which is due to blast off on Sunday on a mission to deliver and install power-generating solar arrays on the International Space Station.
Thu 08/24	Pluto discoverer would understand demotion: widow WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The American astronomer who put Pluto on the solar system map would have accepted its demotion to non-planet status because he was a good scientist, his widow said on Thursday.
Thu 08/24	Lunar probe aims to crash into the Moon Europe's lunar orbiter SMART-1 will slam down on the Moon – and perhaps ricochet like a spinning stone on water – as its mission comes to a close
Thu 08/24	Astronomers strip Pluto of its planet status PRAGUE (Reuters) - Pluto was stripped of its status as a planet on Thursday when astronomers from around the world redefined it as a "dwarf planet", leaving just eight major planets in the solar system.
Thu 08/24	Pluto gets the boot as the planet count drops Astronomers voted to demote Pluto to "dwarf planet" status, leaving eight fully fledged planets – but there is still a crumb of comfort for fans of the distant, frigid world
Thu 08/24	Pluto gets the boot as the solar system shrinks Astronomers voted to demote Pluto to "dwarf planet" status, leaving eight fully fledged planets – but there is still a crumb of comfort for fans of the distant, frigid world
Thu 08/24	Pluto stripped of its planet status A vote at the International Astronomical Union in Prague has demoted the distant world - now the solar system has eight planets Presented By Geek Squad: 24/7 computer support We're an elite tactical unit of highly trained Agents focused on computer and network support. In the event your computer dies, your network goes down, your hard drive is crashing, your printer won't print, or you just need to get on to the Internet, Agents are standing by to help. www.geeksquad.com Ads by Pheedo
Thu 08/24	Astronomers say Pluto is not a planet Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. The International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the status it has held since its discovery in 1930, now dubbing it a "dwarf planet."
Thu 08/24	News: Astronomers Relegate Pluto to Dwarf Status
Thu 08/24	Commentary: Outer-Space Nurseries from the Christian Science Monitor: Chemistry that gave rise to life on Earth may have begun in outer space. An international research team recently reported the discovery of eight "biologically significant molecules" in two interstellar clouds. Team leader Jan Hollis at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., says the discovery suggests "that a universal prebiotic chemistry is at work." His colleague Phil Jewell, at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W.Va., which made the observations, adds that "the first of many chemical processes that ultimately led to life on Earth probably took place even before our planet was formed." Many astronomers would have laughed at such statements a few decades ago. They couldn't conceive of complex molecules surviving interstellar space.
Thu 08/24	Pluto Is No Longer a Planet, Astronomers Say from the Washington Post (Registration Required): PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is - and isn't - a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.
Thu 08/24	The Lighter Side of the Moon from the San Diego Union-Tribune (Registration Required): Since ancient times, sky watchers have known that if you look at the crescent moon on a dark night, you see not only its sunlit portion, but also a ghostly shadow image of the rest of its disk. That's because the dark portion is illuminated by "earthshine," the lunar equivalent of bright moonlight, here on Earth. Italian Renaissance thinker Leonardo da Vinci figured this out centuries ago, but until more recently it was merely a curiosity: the solution to an ancient mystery, but of no apparent practical use. Now, though, astronomers have discovered that by tracking changes in the faint glow of earthshine on the moon, they can monitor an important, previously ignored aspect of global climate change.
Thu 08/24	Pluto loses planet status After a heated debate, 2,500 scientists and astronomers voted at the International Astronomers Union General Assembly that Pluto, which has been called a planet since being discovered in 1930, would be put into a category of planets called "dwarf planets".
Thu 08/24	Pluto loses status as a planet Astronomers meeting in the Czech capital have voted to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
Thu 08/24	Pluto's fate is balanced on a knife edge After days of heated wrangling, astronomers will today decide on the definition of a planet – will Pluto be left out in the cold?
Thu 08/24	Astronomers Say Pluto Is Not a Planet Forget what you learned in third grade. Pluto is no longer one of the nine planets of the solar system.
Thu 08/24	NASA names new moon spaceships Orion CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. spaceships that NASA wants to build to carry astronauts back to the moon will be called Orion, an agency official said on Wednesday.
Thu 08/24	Astronomers Attempt to Define Planets PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Pity poor Pluto: After decades of being confused with a cartoon dog and enduring ridicule as a puny poser, the solar system's consummate cling-on is now in danger of losing its status as a planet....
Wed 08/23	Astronaut walking on air over new mission When astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper walks out the door of the International Space Station next week and into the vacuum of space, she will be one of few women who have walked in space. Since the U.S. first sent an astronaut on a walk in orbit in 1965, only six of the 157 NASA spacewalkers have been female.
Wed 08/23	Blog: Farewell, Pluto
Wed 08/23	Pluto Is Demoted to ‘Dwarf Planet’ The vote by astronomers on a sweeping reclassification of the solar system was described as a triumph of science over sentiment.
Wed 08/23	It's official: IAU demotes Pluto The world's astronomers have removed Pluto's planetary status.
Wed 08/23	Blog: Sending Science to Pluto
Wed 08/23	Space station lined up for golf stunt A Russian cosmonaut will whack a golf ball from the international space station in a publicity stunt on Thanksgiving Day, NASA officials said Tuesday. Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin will show off his swing to promote a Canadian golf club manufacturer during a spacewalk on Nov. 23.
Wed 08/23	NASA faces spacecraft communications crunch Nine satellites that communicate with the space shuttle and other craft in low-Earth orbit are feeling their age and will have trouble meeting future demand, a new report finds
Wed 08/23	NASA dubs space shuttle replacement 'Orion' The moniker, announced accidentally by an orbiting astronaut, has a storied history – it was the name of a US nuclear propulsion project and a fictional space plane in 2001
Wed 08/23	Space station golf stunt approved by NASA Two golf balls will soon be hit into Earth orbit from the International Space Station for a television commercial – the longest drives in history
Wed 08/23	Space station golf stunt rubber-stamped by NASA Two golf balls will soon be hit into Earth orbit from the International Space Station for a television commercial – the longest drives in history
Wed 08/23	NASA rubber-stamps space station golf stunt Two golf balls will soon be hit into Earth orbit from the International Space Station for a television commercial – the longest drives in history
Wed 08/23	Astronomers in a Quandary Over Pluto's Status from the New York Times (Registration Required): Pluto was looking more and more like a goner yesterday as astronomers meeting in Prague continued to debate the definition of a planet. . . .Under fire from other astronomers and the public, a committee appointed by the International Astronomical Union revised and then revised again a definition proposed last week that would have expanded the number of official planets to 12, locking in Pluto as well as the newly discovered Xena in the outer solar system, as well as the asteroid Ceres and Pluto's moon Charon. The new definition offered yesterday would set up a three-tiered classification scheme with eight "planets"; a group of "dwarf planets" that would include Pluto, Ceres, Xena and many other icy balls in the outer solar system; and thousands of "smaller solar system bodies," like comets and asteroids.
Wed 08/23	China, Russia plan joint mission to Mars Russia will launch the spacecraft, while China will provide the survey equipment to carry out the unmanned exploration, Ye Peijian, a senior scientist at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, told a meeting in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Wed 08/23	Nasa names new spacecraft 'Orion' The US space agency (Nasa) has named its new manned exploration craft Orion.
Wed 08/23	Nasa names new craft 'Orion' The US space agency gives the name Orion to the manned exploration vehicle it intends to send to the Moon.
Tue 08/22	NASA Chief Blasts Advisors Griffin memo says scientists who disagree with mission of agency should step down
Tue 08/22	Astronomers in a Quandary Over Pluto’s Status A new definition of a planet offered Tuesday would set the number of “planets” at eight and would put Pluto in a group of “dwarf planets.”
Tue 08/22	Asteroid fly-by eludes study Astronomers rue the one that got away.
Tue 08/22	Astronomers in a Quandary Over Pluto’s Planet Status A new definition of a planet offered Tuesday would set the number of “planets” at eight and would put Pluto in a group of “dwarf planets.”
Tue 08/22	Pluto's planetary status is up in the air Pluto's status as a planet "could go either way" after a stormy day of debate over a newly proposed planet definition. At the International Astronomical Union meeting in Prague, astronomers voted Tuesday on a handful of amendments to revise a proposal that would make 12 planets in the solar system.
Tue 08/22	Astronaut Lets New Moonship Name Slip CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week....
Tue 08/22	Astronaut reveals name of new moonship, Orion, ahead of announcement The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week. But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, through no fault of his own, let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion.
Tue 08/22	Moon chemistry confirms violent origin The European Space Agency's lunar-orbiting craft called SMART-1 has completed the first detailed chemical mapping of the lunar surface. The detected chemicals give a boost to the longstanding theory that the Moon formed from the debris flung into space after a collision between early Earth and a Mars-size planet.
Tue 08/22	Photo in the News: Martian Geysers Spew Ice, Dust The spring thaw forms geysers that send ice and sand flying hundreds of feet into Mars's air, scientists say.
Tue 08/22	Quieter Aircraft to Take Cues From Birds, NASA Expert Says Emerging noise-reduction technologies such as the chevron nozzle are being modeled after birds, bringing planes closer in structure to Mother Nature's designs.
Tue 08/22	Astronaut Reveals Name of New Moonship CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week....
Tue 08/22	Astronomers lean towards eight planets After a heated public debate and subsequent closed-door negotiations, astronomers settle on a draft planet definition that would demote Pluto
Tue 08/22	Astronomers lean toward eight planets After a heated public debate and subsequent closed-door negotiations, astronomers settle on a draft planet definition that would demote Pluto
Tue 08/22	Einstein's Man in Beijing: A Rebel With a Cause from the New York Times (Registration Required): BEIJING - The first time he was purged, Xu Liangying was 27, an up-and-coming physicist, philosopher and historian and a veteran of the Communist underground. He had to divorce his wife, leave his sons and go live on his mother's farm in the country. Three decades later, only a heart attack saved him from imprisonment or worse during the massacre that ended the democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. During the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards stole the Einstein translations that Dr. Xu had labored over during his farm exile. ...For seven decades, Xu Liangying has been Albert Einstein's man in China, intertwining revolution and physics to speak up for political freedom and the value of scientific curiosity in a land where the rulers have often had a different agenda.
Mon 08/21	Pluto Seems Poised to Lose Its Planet Status A group of astronomers offered a new definition that would reclassify Pluto as a “dwarf-planet.”
Mon 08/21	Scientist at Work \| Xu Liangying: Einstein’s Man in Beijing: A Rebel With a Cause For decades, Xu Liangying has been Albert Einstein’s man in China, intertwining revolution and physics to speak up for the value of scientific curiosity.
Mon 08/21	Cosmic smash-up provides proof of dark matter A collision between two galaxy clusters separated normal matter from dark matter, allowing the mysterious matter's gravitational influence to be measured for the first time
Mon 08/21	NASA set to resume space station construction CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA is set to launch the shuttle Atlantis on Sunday to kick off a four-year building marathon aimed at completing construction of the International Space Station.
Mon 08/21	NASA replaces short bolts on shuttle Atlantis Workers successfully swapped out two short bolts holding a communications antenna to the shuttle, which is due to launch in less than a week
Mon 08/21	Devon Island Like No Place on Earth from the Chicago Tribune (Registration Required): DEVON ISLAND, Nunavut - They call this place "Mars on Earth," and, for at least another generation, this barren, cratered island not far from the North Pole is as close to the Red Planet as any human being is going to get. . . .Which is why, every summer for the last 10 years, a handful of geologists, astronomers, engineers and NASA researchers have been camping atop the frozen arctic ground here, along the rim of the giant 23 million-year-old Haughton asteroid crater, to begin figuring out how astronauts can one day survive on Mars.
Sun 08/20	Three NASA advisers resign Whether by choice or because they were asked, three science committee members have parted ways with NASA.
Sun 08/20	Telling NASA's Tales With Hollywood's Tools Every once in a while when a new movie with mind-blowing special effects or oh-my-gosh-it-looked-so-real animation opens, a nondescript office at NASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt will mysteriously empty of employees during matinee hours.
Sun 08/20	Ice geysers 'discovered on Mars' Geysers spewing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the air have been discovered on Mars, scientists say.
Sun 08/20	Ice geysers 'found on Mars' Geysers spewing sand and dust hundreds of feet into the air have been discovered on Mars, scientists say.
Sat 08/19	NASA starts delicate job changing bolts on shuttle CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - NASA workers at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida began a risky repair job on Saturday to replace faulty bolts on the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis a week before its scheduled launch.
Sat 08/19	NASA awards seed money to two rocket companies Space-X and Rocketplane-Kistler will each receive more than $200 million to develop their rockets – they might be chosen to launch cargo or crew to the space station after the shuttle retires in 2010
Sat 08/19	Group hopes to reinvigorate Russian space exploration Georgy Polishchuk, head of the Lavochkin Association, has hopes for an unmanned mission that will travel to a Martian moon, search for signs of life on the red planet and try to unlock the universe's secrets. The project is the cornerstone of Russia's bid to relcaim a leading role in planetary exploration.
Fri 08/18	Scientists debate Pluto's fate Planetary scientists discussing a proposed definition for "planet" warmed to an alternative that would leave Pluto out in the cold.
Fri 08/18	Tales written in the sand Ripple patterns help scientists gauge erosion in the Grand Canyon, and even how water flowed on Mars.
Fri 08/18	2 Firms Picked for Private Spaceship Job WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA on Friday picked two companies - both recovering from different failures - to develop a new commercial spaceship that would eventually resupply the international space station....
Fri 08/18	NASA orders risky launch pad repair on shuttle CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - The U.S. space agency NASA on Friday decided to go ahead with a risky and unprecedented launch pad repair on the space shuttle Atlantis to replace bolts that might come loose during liftoff.
Fri 08/18	Pluto may yet lose planet status A second definition that says a planet is "by far the largest body in its local population" has been proposed at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union
Fri 08/18	NASA Techs to Swap Out Bolts on Atlantis CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA managers decided Friday to change out two bolts they fear may not be secure enough in attaching an important communications antenna to space shuttle Atlantis' payload bay....
Fri 08/18	Hubble Glimpses Faintest Stars from BBC News Online: Researchers peering at the Universe's first-born stars have uncovered the key to predicting a star's destiny. Stars that don't have enough mass never shine, dying billions of years before their bigger counterparts. But astronomers have never been able to measure the exact mass limit, because the lightest stars that do shine can be simply too faint to detect. Now, new images show for the first time how big a star must be to avoid impending doom. Reporting in the journal Science, astronomers have viewed high quality pictures of some of the faintest stars in our galaxy for the first time. The images come from the dimmest members of the NGC 6397 cluster - ancient stars that orbit the Milky Way's centre in a close-knit group.
Fri 08/18	Flybys may be key to Pioneer anomaly The unexpected changes in acceleration seen in NASA's Pioneer probes could actually point towards new physics
Thu 08/17	NASA fears fatigue factor in shuttle crews As NASA races to finish the International Space Station, flight managers worry about overworking the astronauts. To complete the station, space shuttle crews will have to carry out some of the most jam-packed missions in the shuttle's 25-year history. Crews also have to perform new safety tasks.
Thu 08/17	3 Critics of NASA Cuts Quit Panel CAPE CANAVERAL, Aug. 18 -- Three NASA advisers who spoke out against budget cuts to the space agency's science programs turned in their resignations this week, officials said Thursday.

U.S. astronomical observatories:

International observatories: