In Brief:
Mir space station investors plan IPO
MOSCOW -- Western investors who bought the commercial rights to the
Russian Mir space station announced plans this week for a $117 million
stock market flotation that would value their company at $1.3 billion.
The Holland-based group has to first convince the Russian government
not to turn their only asset into a fireball. Last week top Russian
officials warned that Russia was planning to let the 14-year-old
station fall out of orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.
MirCorp said the Russians have agreed to send a vital resupply mission
to Mir next week, on credit. The group's private and institutional
investors have promised to come up with the cash after the launch
takes place.
The MirCorp investors hope to turn Mir into a destination for wealthy
tourists, with round trip tickets costing some $20 million. A U.S.
stock market manager could go up sometime next year, followed by the
winner of a "Survivor"-like television contest.
The initial public is planned for early next year, the company said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Golf club technology swings into gear to catch solar wind
(CNN) -- The first mission designed to collect and return samples of
fast moving particles from the Sun is moving closer to launch.
Scheduled to launch in February, the Genesis probe will help
scientists understand how the solar nebula, a large cloud of gas and
dust, gave rise to the solar system, according to NASA.
The agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission,
said this week that the Genesis has received its final piece of
science equipment: a solar wind collector made of a new formula of
bulk metallic glass, composed of the same type of material as high-
tech golf clubs.
Collector tiles on the spacecraft will gather samples of the solar
wind as the spacecraft floats in the oncoming solar stream. On its
return to Earth in 2003, the ship's samples will be retrieved in
midair by helicopters.
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