NASA Funds Space Life Study

Continuing its program of space life sciences, NASA awarded $5 million Friday to three San Diego institutions to further the study of exobiology, or life on other planets.

Researchers at UC San Diego, Scripps Research Institute and the Salk Institute will work five years as a consortium, officials said Friday.

The consortium will be headed by the California Space Institute, directed by former astronaut Sally Ride, who is also a member of the Scripps faculty.

Stanley Miller, a professor of chemistry at UCSD, will act as director of the NASA Specialized Center of Research and Training, called NSCORT.

The consortium is meant to train young scientists in the relatively new field of exobiology. A number of summer fellowships will be awarded each year, officials said.