* Astronomy

NASA is developing small, cheap "smart balloons" to monitor weather conditions around rocket pads on launch days. The announcement comes only a few months after a space shuttle fuel tank was severely damaged during a sudden and unexpected hailstorm before a launch.
NASA's Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) has fast-tracked a team from the technology company ENSCO, based in Melbourne, Florida, US, to build the balloons using technology developed for smart dust tiny devices capable of sensing their environment and transmitting the data home.

"We were working on a 10- to 15-year timescale for smart dust.  Then they asked us what we could do in nine months" - ENSCO team leader Mark Adams.

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