In Brief:

Russia: China should join space station party

May 1, 2001
Web posted at: 11:03 a.m. EDT (1503 GMT)

(CNN) -- China could take part in building the international space station, a $95 billion venture of the United States, Russia, Canada, Europe and Japan, according to Russian space officials.

The announcement in Moscow of China's possible participation in the station venture took place after a Russian spacecraft took U.S. space tourist Dennis Tito into orbit.

"Today there are preliminary talks on this, and one should not rule out China's participation in this program," the head of the Russian space agency told reporters on Saturday, according to Reuters news agency.

China has successfully launched many large satellites into orbit and conducted two unmanned test flights of a prototype spacecraft for humans, but its national space program has yet to send someone into space.

Mars-bound probe survives solar storm

(CNN) -- A probe heading to Mars experienced an unexpected technical problem last week, possibly caused by intense radiation from a solar flare, according to NASA.

Flight controllers for the $300 million mission of the Mars 2001 Odyssey reported last week that the spacecraft is doing well after one of its onboard computers was reset Tuesday.

The reset sent the computer into "safe mode," but the spacecraft returned to normal operations one day later, said engineers at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Launched April 7, the probe should begin orbiting the red planet in October. The satellite will scan Mars for evidence of underground water and geologic hot spots.

Want more? Go to previous In Brief

See related sites about Space

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.