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/ 12 January 2006
After a seven-year journey, United States space probe Stardust is scheduled to deliver to Earth on Sunday samples of rare dust it has collected from stars and comets that scientists believe could offer vital clues about the solar system’s origins.
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/ 23 November 2005
A millennium has passed, but the massacre is still chilling: a king and queen of ancient Cancuen, more than 30 nobles and pregnant women, are overwhelmed by their attackers and murdered with spears and axes. Deep in Guatemala’s Peten rainforest, the ruins of the sprawling palace in the old royal city have revealed skeletons and the last-minute panic that overtook Cancuen before it was overcome by marauders.
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/ 21 September 2005
Plans by the United States to return to manned space exploration, with the moon as the first step in 2018, reflect a desire to maintain US leadership in the scientific world and, some day, to set foot on other planets in the solar system. The US space agency on Monday unveiled a billion project to send astronauts to the moon by 2018 with a design inspired by the Apollo programme of the 1960s, which put the first men on the lunar surface.
The crew of the United States space shuttle Discovery focused on Sunday on transferring cargo to and from the International Space Station after two astronauts walked in space and tested repair techniques. Discovery will spend an extra day in orbit, Nasa announced on Saturday.
Nasa set Tuesday as the tentative launch date for the shuttle Discovery, after saying it was confident the technical glitch that delayed the original July 13 launch has been overcome. ”Right now we think we have eliminated all possible causes” related to the glitch, said shuttle programme director Bill Parson.
A controversial constitutional amendment banning homosexual marriage is very likely to be defeated in the United States Senate on Wednesday, forcing Republicans to circle their wagons and hope the political fall-out will not affect the upcoming presidential election. Republicans were hoping for a boost among conservative voters.