ASA has announced a plan to map accurately 40 million of the stars in our galactic neighbourhood. The Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer (FAME) satellite is to be launched in 2004. "FAME will provide a rich and unprecedented database. It will be the most accurate astrometric catalogue in history," according to Dr Kenneth Seidelmann, the Director of Astrometry at the US Naval Observatory and Chairman of the FAME team. FAME aims to determine the positions, distances, motions, brightness and colours of stars. This information will better our understanding of the size of the universe and determine the sun's activity levels.