Telescope Dispute Settled: The European Southern Observatory has reached an agreement with the Chilean government over the construction of four large telescopes on a mountaintop in the Atacama Desert. The site has become the focus of a dispute when a Chilean family claimed that the mountaintop had been taken from them illegally. The agreement allows construction of the four 8-m (315-inch) telescopes to continue at Cerro Paranal. The agreement also clarified ESO's legal status in Chile and guaranteed that Chilean astronomers would get 10 percent of the telescope time at all ESO facilities in Chile.

On the Move: The headquarters of the National Space Society is on the move, shifting a few blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue from its old building, which has been sold. The new address of NSS Headquarters is 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 201, Washington, DC 20003. Phone (800/376-ORBIT and 202/543-1900) and fax (202/546-4189) numbers have stayed the same, as well as their e-mail addresses and Web site.

Hanks, Apollo, and HBO: Tom Hanks has agreed to produce a 13-hour series on the Apollo program for HBO, the Daily Variety reported last week. Hanks will write and/or direct at least two parts of the series, but has no plans to act in the series. The series will air in late 1997... If cyberspace is more interesting than television, be on the lookout for a special feature next month on "Mungo Park", a travel/adventure Webzine produced by the Microsoft Network. The feature will follow the STS-81 shuttle/Mir docking mission as it happens. Technothriller author Tom Clancy will file reports from Cape Canaveral, while shuttle astronaut John Grunsfeld will provide daily reports from the shuttle during the mission.

Other News: The French Space Agency has set up a panel of inquiry to study the loss of the SPOT-3 remote sensing satellite, contact with which was lost November 14. The panel, established earlier this month, will concentrate on problems with the attitude control system on the satellite... A Russian-European launch consortium struck a deal December 5 to launch 12 satellites as part of Loral's Globalstar communications network. The launches will use three "SOYUZ-ICARE" rockets launched from Baikonur in late 1998... The Charged Particle Instrument (CPI) on the Pioneer 10 spacecraft is expected to be shut down later this month when electrical power on the aging spacecraft drops too low. Only the Geiger Tube instrument will remain operating, and it will be shut down next March along with the rest of the Pioneer project, according to project manager Fred Wirth.

Parting Shot: "They're not scientists, they're second-rate actors!" -- Tim Burton, director of the movie Mars Attacks, joking about the scientists who announced the discovery of possible past life on Mars, and the coincidence of that discovery with the release of Burton's film.