Yahoo has a rather ludicrous story that they picked up from the Weekly World News. I don’t believe the alibi for a moment, nor am I convinced the man actually exists, but it’s just far too entertaining to ignore.

According to this Yahoo! News article, NASA is exploring ways to keep the remaining three shuttles in service until 2022. Apparently the next generation space vehicle won’t make its first test flight for 12 years.

I’d say write your congressperson, but it’s too late for that now. NASA is so far behind in development, that no amount of budget increases would help them. Well, write your congressperson anyway. They’re not busy.

Contact with the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost as it was coming in for a landing this morning. Story at CNN.com. This was the mission with the first Isreali astronaut.

It what is probably our first (and only) public service announcement, we say: Go Outside! Get some fresh air. Turn off the computer.

More to the point: Go watch the Leonid meteor shower tonight. Experts predict it will be one of the most spectacular celestial events for quite a while.

[Update 11.18.2002-18:35 EST] Here’s a whole mess of info on the Leonids from SlashDot.

Space.com has the video (scroll down to Multimedia) from the new camera mounted atop the shuttle’s external fuel tank.

It’s pretty cool to see the launch from the shuttle’s perspective.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has spotted the largest object in the solar system since Pluto was discovered in 1930. Though officially named 2002 LM60, the science team that found it are calling it Quaoar, after the creation force of the Tongva tribe of the Los Angeles basin. The new body is 1/10 the size of the Earth and about 1/2 the size of Pluto.

This has stirred up the debate as to whether or not Pluto is a planet or simply one of many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) on the outskirts of our solar system.

She’s scheduled for lift-off today (Oct 7) at 3:46pm EDT. NASA’s giving updates throughout the day. Space.com’s NASA TV usually shows the launch live, if you can get in.

Given out every year from Harvard, these awards recognize some of the more dubious (and just plain weird) scientific studies published in the last year.

Space.com is running this fun little article detailing the five biggest myths about how we view space.

It was posted on SlashDot, but I just couldn’t pass up this little bit of Sci-Fi come true.