"The Cape" Kaput: The syndicated drama "The Cape" about shuttle astronauts will not be renewed for a second season. MTM Productions, which distributes the show, cited low ratings for the show and the high cost of production -- an estimated $1 million per episode -- as the reasons for not renewing the series. The show, which stars former "L.A. Law" actor Corbin Bernsen, is set at the Kennedy Space Center and follows the lives and careers of a number of astronauts, astronaut candidates, and other NASA employees. Producers of the show gained access to much of KSC for filming scenes for the show. Former astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Bruce Melnick served as technical advisors for the show.

Wisconsin's Space Station: To see part of the Mir space station will no longer require a trip to orbit, or even just to Russia. Just follow the tourists to Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, where a replica of the Mir core module will soon be on display. Visitors to Tommy Bartlett's Robot World and Exploratory will soon be able to crawl inside the 16.7-m (55-foot), 20-ton module, which the tourist attraction purchased from a Moscow museum along with a replica of the first Sputnik satellite and a space suit. The replica passes a test of authenticity from former astronaut Norman Thagard, the first American to stay on Mir: "It looks like the Mir station to me," he said. Wisconsin Dells, a small town 185 km (115 mi.) northwest of Milwaukee, attracts over 3.5 million tourists a year to amusement parks and golf courses.

NASA Awards: Astronaut Shannon Lucid received the National Aviation Club's first annual Achievement Award March 12. Lucid received a trophy that would have been given to Amelia Earhart had she completed her around-the-world flight in the 1930s. The trophy will be on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum... George Abbey, director of the Johnson Space Center, received the National Space Trophy from the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation. The trophy is given annually to a person that displays outstanding leadership and personal commitment to space exploration. The foundation also gave astronaut John Young a Corona award for lifetime achievement.

In Brief: NASA's gone dizzy with spinoffs: in a the course of just a few days NASA officials released announcements about efforts to develop aerogel, the lightest solid known, into a useful material for windows; and efforts to create rescue blankets from recycled plastic milk containers using NASA technology. Hey folks, don't forget you've got a shuttle, space station, and science projects to run... Hackers broke into the computer that hosts the main NASA Web site on March 5 and posted a political manifesto. "We the members of H4G13 will be launching an attack on corporate America. All who profit from the misuse of the Internet will fall victim to our upcoming reign of digital terrorism," the message said. Why the group would announce an attack on "corporate America" from a government computer is unclear. Maybe they knew about all those spinoff announcements...