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<p>A Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ team will be part of a mission selected yesterday by NASA to launch a spacecraft to an asteroid and pluck samples from its surface to better understand the formation of the solar system and perhaps even the first inklings of life.</p>

<p>Two faculty members from the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, a top honor recognizing scientists and engineers for distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.</p>

<p>The Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ has been named one of two finalists to host the headquarters for the National Solar Observatory, the nation's top ground-based scientific research program studying solar physics and space weather.</p>

<p>Thousands of K-12 students will be paying close attention when NASA's space shuttle Endeavour rumbles off the launch pad April 29 from Florida on its final flight, which will be toting a payload containing spiders, flies and seeds as part of a national educational effort spearheaded by the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ.</p>

<p>DENVER – Four of the University of Colorado's faculty leaders in math, aerospace, psychiatry and internal medicine have been designated as President's Teaching Scholars for 2011, including two at CU-Boulder.</p>

<p>Faculty and students at the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ will continue to play a significant role in the development of the Dream Chaser, a commercial spacecraft that will be used to carry astronauts to low Earth orbit, thanks to a new $80 million grant from NASA to Sierra Nevada Corp.</p>

<p>Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ Distinguished Professor Carl Lineberger has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the National Science Board. The nomination has been sent to the United States Senate for confirmation.</p>

<p>The federal laboratories in Colorado together with their affiliates contributed $1.5 billion to the state economy in fiscal year 2010, and accounted for more than 16,000 direct and indirect jobs, a new survey shows.</p>

<p>NASA's MESSENGER mission, launched in 2004, is slated to slide into Mercury's orbit March 17 after a harrowing 4.7 billion mile journey that involved 15 loops around the sun and will bring relief and renewed excitement to the Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ team that designed and a built an $8.7 million instrument onboard.</p>

<p>A $28 million Â鶹Ãâ·Ñ°æÏÂÔØ instrument developed to study changes in the sun's brightness and its impact on Earth's climate is one of two primary payloads on NASA's Glory mission set to launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Feb. 23.</p>