GSC Update:

*China plans to launch Shenzhou 6 with two or more taikonauts within a few months, and a space station in 10 years or less.

*NASA recieves about 2,000 applications every few years for a few select positions in the elite Astronaut Corps. This year's crew features three teachers, as well as nine pilots, scientists, engineers and doctors.

*Voyager 1, the interstellar probe launched back in the 1977, may have reached the "termination shock boundary," or the edge of our solar system (8.4 billion miles away, or about 100 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun). Voyager 1 is the most distant manmade object ever, and carries a golden record of images and sounds of human and Earth life.

*A 9.7 million dollar grant has been awarded to the Colorado State University to study the effects of space radiation and cancer. Current astronauts, no matter what gender or age, are limited to no more than three 180-day missions (any more and the exposure could cause an increased risk for cancer).

*Sunspot 486, a patch of the Sun about 15 times the size of Earth, has released what is believed to be the most massive solar flare ever- classified as an X28. This flare, as well as recent solar activity, may cause severe problems for satellites and communications here on Earth.