In Brief:

NASA thinks 'found' Mars lander is camera glitch

(CNN) -- NASA and a military intelligence mapping service will continue their joint search for the lost Mars Polar Lander.

Researchers with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency suggested last week that while scouring satellite images they had spotted the lander, which disappeared and presumably crashed on the red planet in December 1999.

But NASA cautioned Monday that the preliminary analysis is "extremely challenging" and that the search "so far produced no definitive conclusions."

Using high-resolution pictures taken by a NASA satellite orbiting Mars, the NIMA researchers speculated that they had identified the $165 million lander and its protective aeroshell.

An alternative view is that the features could be a random abnormality caused by the camera system, said NASA, which will keep studying the data with NIMA.

Future space station crews selected

(CNN) -- Future U.S. inhabitants of the international space station have started formal training, NASA said this week. But they must wait their turn to fly.

Already four space station crews of astronauts and cosmonauts have been selected. The second group arrived earlier in March, replacing the original three residents, who stayed four months in the orbiting outpost.

NASA on Monday named six astronauts and eight backups to represent the United States on later missions, beginning in 2002. Their Russian counterparts should be named soon.

The Expedition Five crew will consist of astronaut Peggy Whitson and two cosmonauts, one of whom will be the mission commander. Navy Capt. Kenneth Bowersox will command the sixth mission, which includes astronaut Donald Thomas and a Russian cosmonaut.

Astronaut Ed Lu, a Russian commander and a Russian flight engineer make up the Expedition Seven crew. Expedition Eight commander Michael Foale with serve will Army Col. William McArthur and a Russian cosmonaut.

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