End of an Era: FCC to Drop Morse Testing for All Amateur License Classes
... In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission today adopted, but hasn't yet released, the long-awaited Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235, the "Morse code" proceeding...the FCC only issued a public notice at or about the close of business today and not the actual Report & Order, so some details — including the effective dates of the two orders — remain uncertain. Currently, Amateur Radio applicants for General and higher class licenses have to pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to operate on HF. Today's R&O will eliminate that requirement all around.

Solar B, built by teams from Britain, America and Japan... Its three instruments will try to find out what happens on the sun's surface just before solar flares erupt. One of them, a telescope built by a team from University College London (UCL), will watch the sun's atmosphere for signs suggesting the surface is building up to an explosion....Next month two more probes, the so-called Stereo mission, should follow Solar B into space...It also means the spacecraft will be able to generate high-quality three-dimensional "movies" of solar flares. If these are good enough they could be turned into Imax-style films and put on general release.

Anousheh Ansari is a "Go" as First Female Civilian Space Traveler (Aug 25, 2006) — It's official! Iranian-American businesswoman Anousheh Ansari, 39, will travel to the International Space Station next month as part of the Russian Soyuz TMA-9 "taxi mission," Space Adventures Ltd announced today. Ansari, an eleventh-hour stand-in for Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto as the fourth civilian to fly to the ISS, would be the first female civilian "spaceflight participant." Enomoto was removed from the Soyuz flight roster for medical reasons.

American businesswoman Anoushe Ansari may be the eleventh-hour stand-in for Daisuke "Dice-K" Enomoto, 34, as the next civilian to fly to the International Space Station. Ansari, who would be the first female civilian space adventurer, has indicated she's ready and eager to make the trip..."During a recent evaluation it was determined that Mr. Enomoto has a medical condition that will exclude him from participating as a crew member of Soyuz TMA-9," Space Adventures said in a news release...Ansari was the winner of the 2000 National Entrepreneurial Excellent Award sponsored by Working Woman magazine. Her family made a major contribution to the X Prize — now known as the Ansari X Prize — which offered a $10 million prize for the first successful private reusable space vehicle.

An innovative space transmission system built by volunteers has started sending down pictures from the international space station to the whole wide world...The equipment and the software was sent to the station last September on a Progress cargo craft, and since then the space station astronauts have been working off and on to get the system running. On July 30, they sent the first still image ...