astroid [5Ast[rCid]小行星
Though it took two years to get there，the asteroid is among the closestneighbors to Earth other than the moon（.NBC）
astronaut [5Astr[9nC：t]宇航员The Discovery astronauts strapped into their space shuttle Wednesday for a countdown dress rehearsal more than two months before the scheduledlaunch，and the victims of the last mission were on their minds（.CNN）
atmosphere [5Atm[9sfi[]大气、空气atmospheric [9Atm[s5ferIk]大气的The Venus Express probe will travel through space for around 163daysand once it is captured by Venusian gravity，it will orbit the planet andanalyze its atmosphere and clouds（.Reuters）
Discoveries of submerged icebergs and atmospheric methane refuelspeculation of microbial life（.NBC）
biology [bai5Cl[dVI]生物学biological [bai[5lCdVIk[l]生物学的The district，under pressure to offer a class specifically designed to help students pass the new science portion of AIMS in 2007，wants to replace Earth and space education with investigative science for freshmen.Assophomores，students would take biology（.The Arizona Republic）U.N.satellite imagery experts have determined that material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles has been removed from 109sites in Iraq，U.N.weapons inspectorssaid in a report obtained Thursday（.NBC）
blast off 点火起飞、发射（火箭、导弹）
One of the largest and most powerful commercial satellites ever built isset to blast off on Saturday（.BBC）
capsule [5kApsju：l]太空舱A capsule carrying Brazil‘s first astronaut，along with a Russian and an American，landed safely in the freezing Kazakh steppe early Sunday after separating from the international space station and hurtling through theEarth’s atmosphere（.CNN）
celestial [sI5lesti[l]天空的；天体的celestial body 天体The Kansas rock was found in the same area that in 1949produced a 1，000-pound （450-kilogram）meteorite now on display at the CelestialMuseum in Greensburg（.NBC）
More than a week after the Huygens probe plunged through Titan‘s atmosphere，researchers continue to pore over data collected for clues to how the only celestial body known to have a significant atmosphere other thanEarth came to be and whether it can provide clues to how life arose here（.AP）
Challenger [5tFAlIndV[]挑战者号（宇宙飞船）NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe declared that the last Thursday in every January be set aside as a Day of Remembrance within the space agency to honor the memory of the crews of Columbia，Challenger andApollo 1（.NBC）
Columbia [k[5lQmbi[]哥伦比亚号（宇宙飞船）With the first anniversary of the Columbia tragedy just a few days away，NASA employees throughout the country paused Thursday to remember the17astronauts who lost their lives over the years“because we failed”（.AP）
communication satellite 通信卫星An artist‘s conception shows the DART spacecraft pulling up to the Multiple Beam Beyond Line-of-sight Communication satellite，or MUBLCOMM.During a test，DART actually collided with MUBLCOMM.（NBC）
countdown [5kauntdaun]倒数The announcement，culminating years of fierce lobbying and months of secrecy，was made at a nationally televised gala at a Beijing sports arena，marking the 1，000-day countdown to the event（.AP）
Hundreds of thousands of New Year’s Eve revelers ignored the sleet and snow and packed into Times Square with their“2006”glasses，balloons and noisemakers for the famous ball drop and countdown of the final minutes of2005（.CNN）
delay [dI5lei]推迟、延期NASA has decided to delay launch of shuttle Discovery on the first mission since the 2003Columbia accident until July to allow more time toaddress lingering issues with the shuttle‘s fuel tank，officials said on Friday.（The Discovery Channel）
develop [dI5vel[p]开发When scientists developed an efficient device for emitting light，they hadn’t realised that butterflies have used the same method for 30millionyears（.BBC）
Discovery [dIs5kQv[rI]发现号（宇宙飞船）Discovery will fly to the international space station，to deliver suppliesand replacement parts to the two men on board（.CNN）
environment [In5vai[r[nm[nt]环境“This（study in Endurance Crater）will tell us what came before the salty water environment the Eagle Crater（study）told us about.We want to see how the environment changed.Is it gradual？Is it abrupt？”（The Discovery Channel）equator [I5kweit[]赤道The announcement of the discovery Wednesday comes just a day after a team of European researchers said they found blocks of ice just under the surface of Mars near the equator.The Europeans said the ice，between 2million and 5million years old，could serve as storehouses for life（.NBC）
explore [Iks5plC：]探索exploration [9eksplC：5reiF[n]探索、考察Russian space officials also postponed the launch of an ESA probe intended to explore Venus from last Wednesday to an unspecified date nextmonth after pre-launch checks had revealed a problem with thermalinsulation in the booster‘s upper stage（.AP）
The Telerobotic Construction Challenge is linked to NASA’s new lunar exploration program，which aims to land astronauts on the moon by 2020.（The Discovery Channel）
galaxy [5gAl[ksI]银河galactic [g[5lAktIk]银河的The new finding，based on observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory，confirms the theory that black holes can help form massive stars and gives more support to the idea that black holes play a big role ingalaxy formation（.NBC）
Astronomers have stumbled onto a runaway star inbound to our galaxy that might have been kicked out of our nearest galactic neighbor by asupermassive black hole（.The Discovery Channel）
gravity [5grAvItI]地心吸力Jiang Fang，president of a Hong Kong company that acts as the China agent for U.S.-based space tourism firm Space Adventures，would experience zero gravity on one of the company‘s sub-orbital flights due forlaunch in 2007，the China Daily said（.Reuters）
information [9Inf[5meiF[n]情报、资料