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An inflatable lifeboat could one day ferry stranded astronauts back to Earth, if a prototype's test flights are successful next month.

The latest prototype will launch on a rocket from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea off Murmansk. At about 200 kilometres up (the equivalent of a low-Earth orbit) the ship will detach and inflate, then spend 20 minutes or so falling to Earth, eventually landing, the team hopes, on Russian soil in Kamchatka.

The demonstration vehicle is shaped like a shuttlecock, and is just over 3 metres across. It carries pressure sensors and other equipment to monitor its descent. It will inflate using tanks of nitrogen, but RRSS hope eventually to use the same chemical reaction used in car airbags, which generates nitrogen gas from a powder.

Nature has this story.

The Apache Software Foundation, developers of the popular open-source Apache web server, said on Thursday that it wouldn't support the proposed anti-spam standard Sender ID, because the licensing terms set by Microsoft Corp. are too strict.

"We believe the current license is generally incompatible with open source, contrary to the practice of open Internet standards, and specifically incompatible with the Apache License 2.0," the foundation wrote to the committee of the Internet Engineering Task Force. "Therefore, we will not implement or deploy Sender ID under the current license terms."

Sender ID combines two standards that create a system for positively identifying whether an e-mail's source address is actually the originator of the message. Microsoft contributed its Caller ID specification, while the other, Sender Policy Framework, came from Meng Wong, founder of e-mail service provider Pobox.com.

Internet Week is carrying this piece.

Tata-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) has launched its Internet over cable broadband offering in Mumbai. Considered to be a soft launch, the service is expected to be available to about 30 cities in India over the next two years.

VSNL's service is being offered at Rs. 360 per month at a speed of 512 kbps.

According to Tata, the new wave of broadband is being pursued with the objective of providing total connectivity. "We will pursue the triple play voice, data and video in this changing scenario," he explained. Tata described the telecom scene in India as "vicious" and said it was necessary for VSNL to offer high quality services at the best price.

I'll believe it when I see it. ZDNet India has this report.

New Scientist has a report on the growing viability of Space Tourism, and on plans by an American hotelier to expand his business.. off-planet.

Adapted from TransHab, a never-used NASA design for an inflatable space station, Bigelow's Nautilus space station module will provide 330 cubic metres of living space for space tourists or industrial researchers.

The inflatable multilayered polymer hull of the "hab" will be around 30 centimetres thick and will contain layers of Kevlar - as used in bullet-proof vests - to provide some protection against micrometeorites and space debris.

Nautiluses could be flown as independent space stations or connected with a docking mechanism to make bigger hotels. Bigelow sees economies of scale as one of the keys to profitability, and plans to sell space hotels to rivals for $100 million each.

The full report is available here.

The radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, as part of the SETI project, has detected a radio signal on three separate occasions, which thus far has defied any scientific explanation.

Named SHGb02+14a, the signal has a frequency of about 1420 megahertz. This happens to be one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, readily absorbs and emits energy.

Some astronomers have argued that extraterrestrials trying to advertise their presence would be likely to transmit at this frequency, and SETI researchers conventionally scan this part of the radio spectrum.

SHGb02+14a seems to be coming from a point between the constellations Pisces and Aries, where there is no obvious star or planetary system within 1000 light years.

An interesting read. New Scientist has this story.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL) said its US unit had received a license from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allowing it to operate as a US international telecommunications carrier.

The license allows VSNL to provide telecommunications services to US multinationals looking to penetrate emerging markets such as India, said Vinod Kumar, head of VSNL's international business group.

VSNL is steadily expanding its global presence. It has operations in neighbouring Sri Lanka and Nepal and is in the process of setting up operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, UK and the United States.

ET has this story.

Microsoft launched a preview version of its new service for downloading digital music late Wednesday, placing it squarely in competition with Apple's rival iTunes music service.

He said MSN has licensed some one million music tracks from all the major record labels and over 3,000 independent labels for the service. Around 500,000 tracks will be initially available with the preview launch and the company plans to add additional songs weekly.

The service is available through Microsoft's MSN Web site, as well as through the latest version of the company's Windows Media Player, it said.

Users can listen to music purchased on the new Microsoft service on a range of devices, the company said. Microsoft said there are over 70 devices that are compatible with Windows Media Player and the new service.

The full story is available here.

Patni Computer Systems has announced plans to expand it's Chennai centre to eventually accomodate 10000 seats.

As part of this initiative the company will set up a center across 20 acres of acquired land in the Siruseri IT Park, of SIPCOT - a state government body.

To be developed at a total cost of about Rs 450 crore, the proposed center adds to the company's multiple delivery facilities in Anna Salai (Chennai), Bangalore, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Gandhinagar and Noida.

The complete article can be reached here. A news article is also available on the PCS site.

Third party BPO service provider, ICICI OneSource has acquired Chicago based research and consulting firm, Pipal Research Corporation.

As a privately held company, the fund amount raised and dilution of equity was not divulged, however inorganic expansion, new geographies, accumulating new skills and expertise for offering new services were some of the areas the funds are to be utilized.

The acquisition of Pipal Research paves way for ICICI OneSource for research and consulting in the US market. Software giant, Infosys Technologies is the other Indian company, which has debuted in the US shores eyeing the consulting market.

CIOL has this article.

Orion Multisystems Inc., says its Orion Cluster Workstation packs the power of a PC cluster into a desktop-size package using low-power chips and an innovative motherboard design.

Scientists looking for floating-point performance who don't want to spend millions on a supercomputer have resorted to clustering technology, Hunter said. Clusters are an inexpensive way of amassing supercomputing power, but they are difficult to maintain and they force scientists to coordinate with colleagues to schedule time on the cluster, he said.

The Orion Cluster Workstation takes the idea of a cluster and puts it inside a desktop machine. The company's first product, the DT-12, is a 12-node cluster that measures 18.4 in. long by 24 in. wide by 3.8 in. high -- which is about the same size as a conventional desktop PC.

This Computerworld article is available here. The official press release is also available.