Shuttle launch delayed till Monday

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- The launch of space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday was scrubbed for 24 hours because of lightning striking the launch pad Friday and other weather worries, NASA announced.

Meet the first female space tourist

DALLAS, Texas (AP) -- An Iranian-born U.S. woman said Friday she will become the world's first female space tourist on September 14, joining a Russian crew on a mission to the international space station.

Engineers: Overhaul levee system in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- The catastrophe caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans could happen again unless the city's hurricane protection system is massively overhauled, an engineering panel said Friday.

Shuttle launch countdown begins

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- Countdown clocks began ticking on Thursday for NASA's launch of the space shuttle Atlantis, which is due to blast off on Sunday on a mission to deliver and install power-generating solar arrays on the international space station.

Dinosaur CSI

HELL CREEK FORMATION, Montana (CNN) -- In a desolate landscape, under a hot sun, college students are on their hands and knees poking and brushing away at the ground. They are here to solve a mystery buried for 65 million years, trapped in rock and layers of sediment. They are dinosaur detectives.

New safety rules for rocket launches

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Columbia space shuttle accident has prompted the government to come up with new safety rules for unmanned rocket launches.

China-Russia plan joint mission to Mars

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China and Russia plan to launch a joint mission to Mars in 2009 to scoop up rocks from the red planet and one of its moons, a Chinese scientist said on Wednesday.

Pluto faces possible planetary pink slip

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- The ninth rock from the sun faces the prospect of being demoted to a "dwarf planet" on Thursday if the International Astronomical Union approves new planetary definitions.

Telescope set to reveal 'Big Bang'

(CNN) -- An ambitious project to build the world's largest radio telescope high in the Chilean Andes looks set to give astronomers their best ever view of deep space -- and provide them with a dramatic window back through time to the formation of the universe itself.

Farmers: Cows mooo with a twang

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Cows have regional accents, a group of British farmers claims, and phonetics experts say the idea is not as far-fetched as it sounds.

Aztecs butchered, ate invaders

CALPULALPAN, Mexico (Reuters) -- Skeletons found at an unearthed site in Mexico show Aztecs captured, ritually sacrificed and partially ate several hundred people traveling with invading Spanish forces in 1520.

Ancient biblical waterworks discovered

RAMAT RACHEL, Israel (Reuters) -- Archaeologists in Israel have unearthed an ancient water system which was modified by the conquering Persians to turn the desert into a paradise.

Kangaroo Pill to thin numbers

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) -- Scientists are hoping to develop an oral contraceptive for female kangaroos that will keep pouches empty as they hop around the national capital's grassy fringes.

Cosmonaut 'go' for golf stunt

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- A Russian cosmonaut will whack a golf ball from the international space station in a publicity stunt on Thanksgiving Day, NASA officials said Tuesday.

Spaceman spills the beans

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week.

Scientists: 'Hobbit' was ancestor of pygmy

HONG KONG, China (Reuters) -- Skeletal remains of a hominoid nicknamed "hobbit" and found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island are from an ancestor of human pygmies still living there today, scientists say.

Russian solves historic math problem

MADRID, Spain (AP) -- A reclusive Russian won an academic prize Tuesday for work toward solving one of history's toughest math problems, but he refused to accept the award -- a stunning renunciation of accolades from his field's top minds.

Scientists: Dark matter exists

(SPACE.com) -- New observations of a great big cosmic collision provide the best evidence yet that invisible and mysterious dark matter really does exist.

Space tourist fails medical test

MOSCOW (AP) -- A Japanese businessman seeking to become the world's fourth space tourist has failed a medical test and cannot fly to the international space station next month, a Russian space agency official said Monday.

Astronomer: Magic lost in planet definition

PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) -- Few planet hunters stand to gain as much as Michael Brown if our solar system balloons to 12 planets under a new definition. He's spotted more than a dozen objects that might qualify as planets.