Thursday, May 31, 2012

Dragon space capsule to splash down

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Space station nabs 'Dragon by the tail'
  • It is expected to land in the Pacific Ocean around 11:44 a.m. ET
  • Dragon launched May 22 from Cape Canaveral, Florida
  • It is bringing back experiments, research and garbage

(CNN) -- The first private capsule to dock at the International Space Station will return to Earth Thursday, nine days after it took off on its historic mission.

The capsule, known as Dragon, was released by the space station's robotic arm at 5:35 a.m. ET. A thruster burn a minute later pushed the spacecraft away from its host, according to SpaceX, the private company that built and operates the Dragon.

On Sunday, Dragon delivered to the space station more than 1,000 pounds of cargo, including food, clothing, computer equipment and supplies for science experiments and has been reloaded with everything from trash to scientific research and experimental samples.

The capsule is scheduled to splash into the Pacific Ocean around 11:44 a.m. ET, several hundred miles west of California, according to NASA.

SpaceX Dragon triumph: Only the beginning

Dragon was launched May 22 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket. NASA collaborated with SpaceX on every part of the mission and gave final authorization for the flight.

Dragon reached the station Friday and was "captured" by the station's robotic arm.

The mission, hailed by NASA Administrator Charles Bolden as a step toward a new future of private innovation in the space industry, comes as government funding of the space program decreases.

It also marked the culmination of six years of preparation to bring commercial flights to the space station after the retirement of NASA's space shuttle fleet last year, which leaves the United States with no means of independently sending humans into space. NASA relies on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit.

Without the shuttle, the United States also has limited capabilities to send supplies to the station and bring them back. Dragon fills a need in taking significant payload back and forth, International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit said.

In December 2008, NASA announced it had chosen SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station after the shuttle's retirement. The $1.6 billion contract involves a minimum of 12 flights, with an option to order more missions for additional cost, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX was created by PayPal founder Elon Musk and is one of a few of private companies receiving NASA funds to develop the commercial transport of astronauts into space.

Musk has said the commercial program -- with fixed-price, pay-for-performance contracts -- makes fiscal sense for taxpayers and fosters competition among companies on reliability, capability and cost.

Astronaut Joe Acaba, also aboard the space station, called the mission a great first step in the commercialization of spaceflight, and Pettit agreed.

"Commercial spaceflight will blossom due to its own merits, and doesn't really hinge on one mission," Pettit said. "It will hinge on the viability of launching many missions over a long period of time and being able to provide useful commercial goods and services in the low-earth orbit arena."

SpaceX is now developing a heavy-lift rocket with twice the cargo capability of the space shuttle and hopes to build a spacecraft that could carry a crew to Mars.

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German kidnapped in north Nigeria killed in failed rescue attempt, security official says - @AP

Transcript of text message exchange between Jeremy Hunt and George Osborne - @psbook

  • Jeremy Hunt has submitted over 160 pages of emails, text messages and memos to the inquiry as evidence.
  • His request to have his appearance moved forward was refused by Lord Leveson.
UPDATE (11:40) »With Hunt now returning from a break, this is the most deadly quote so far:

On the same day he replaced Vince Cable overseeing the bid, Hunt texted James Murdoch: “Great and congrats on Brussels [competition ruling]. Just Ofcom to go.”

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UPDATE (11:30) »Hunt's been practicing his excuse for putting his spad up for the chop instead of falling on his own sword:

Asked: “Any communication between Mr Michel and Mr Smith would be no different would it to communication between Mr Michel and you, because Mr Smith was your agent.”

Hunt replied: “Not in this process. Sometimes SPADS have a role which is speaking for their boss, but in this situation Mr Smiths’ role was a different one. He was a point of contact in a very complex process. He was there to advise NewsCorp about questions they had about the process, and also to reassure them that the process was fair.”

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UPDATE (11:27) »Sceptical faces in the Scrapbook office:

Hunt on his Conservative Party special adviser Adam Smith: “I would have said he’s politically fairly neutral.”

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UPDATE (11:05) »Hunt and George Osborne texts on day Cable was replaced

Hunt: “Can we chat about Murdoch’s Sky Bid. I’m seriously worried we might screw this up. Just been called by James Murdoch, his lawyers are meeting now and saying it calls into question the legitimacy of the whole process from the beginning. Acute bias.”

Osborne: “I hope you like the solution”

Hunt tells Robert Jay QC that he was the “solution”.

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This looks to be fatal. Jeremy Hunt discussed Vince Cable’s leaked “war on Murdoch” remarks with James Murdoch. Hours later he had Cable’s job. He also congratulates Murdoch by text that the bid has cleared European competition regulators, saying “Great”.

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On the subject of his phone call with James Murdoch a few days before the infamous memo to Cameron, Hunt says off minutes meetings with stakeholders were “at [his] discretion” and that a phone call would be “appropriate.”

Mr Jay asked “If a meeting is inappropriate, why is a phone call appropriate?”

In reply, Hunt seems to suggst that any meeting or phone call would have been used to “set out the ground rules.”

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Hunt says that he was advised not to interfere with the quasi-judicial process when Vince Cable had responsibility. So why did he send a memo to Cameron supporting the BSkyB bid?

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Robert Jay asked Hunt to confirm Ian Martin’s story that Hunt had obscured himself in foliage to stop reporters spotting him going into a dinner also attended by Rupert and James Murdoch. Hunt says “There may or may not have been trees.”

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Hunt says the only email account he has is his personal one. This is the way Michael Gove used to avoid disclosure of correspondence under FOI.

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UPDATE (10:06) »It hasn't got off to a good start:

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Governor Charles 'Buddy' Roemer suspends presidential campaign - Statement via @NBCNews

UN Secretary General says massacre of civilians like in Houla could plunge Syria into a catastrophic civil war - @Reuters

Obama and Romney deadlocked in 3 key presidential battleground states, new @NBCNews / Marist polls show

President Obama phones Mitt Romney to congratulate him for locking up the GOP nomination. NBC's Steve Handelsman reports.

By Mark Murray, Senior Political Editor, NBC News

President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are deadlocked in three key presidential battleground states, according to a new round of NBC-Marist polls.

In Iowa, the two rivals are tied at 44 percent among registered voters, including those who are undecided but leaning toward a candidate. Ten percent of voters in the Hawkeye State are completely undecided.

In Colorado, Obama gets support from 46 percent of registered voters, while Romney gets 45 percent.

And in Nevada, the president is at 48 percent and Romney is at 46 percent.

These three states are all battlegrounds that Obama carried in 2008, but George W. Bush won in 2004.

“These are very, very competitive states,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted these polls. “Everything is close.”

Results from NBC-Marist polling in three other battleground states released last week – Florida, Ohio and Virginia – showed Obama with narrow leads in each state.

Optimism, pessimism and enthusiasm
In Colorado, Iowa and Nevada, a more optimistic attitude about the U.S. economy is working in Obama’s favor. Majorities in each of the three states believe the worst is behind us, rather than yet to come.

In addition, majorities in these states say that the president mostly inherited the current economic conditions. 

But what seems to be hurting Obama – and helping Romney – is a sense that the nation is on the wrong track, with 54 percent in Iowa, 55 percent in Nevada and 56 percent in Colorado sharing that belief.

First Thoughts: Still fighting on GOP turf

Asked which candidate would do a better job on the economy, respondents in Colorado (45 percent to 42 percent) and Iowa (46 percent to 41 percent) picked Romney over Obama. But the two men were tied in Nevada (44 percent to 44 percent). 

What’s more, Romney leads Obama in Colorado and Iowa among those expressing a high level of enthusiasm, while the president leads among those voters in Nevada.

Obama’s approval rating, Nevada’s Senate race
The NBC-Marist poll also shows that Obama’s approval rating is above water in Iowa (46 percent approve, 45 percent disapprove), and it’s underwater in Colorado (45 percent to 49 percent) and Nevada (46 percent to 47 percent)

And in Nevada’s competitive Senate contest, the survey finds incumbent Republican Sen. Dean Heller in a tight race with Democrat Shelley Berkley, with Heller getting 46 percent among registered voters and Berkley getting 44 percent.

These NBC-Marist polls were conducted May 22-24 by landline and cell phone of 1,030 registered voters in Colorado, 1,106 registered voters in Iowa and 1,040 registered voters in Nevada. The margin of error in all three surveys is plus-minus 3.0 percentage points.

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International Space Station crew releases SpaceX Dragon capsule for return to earth - NASA via @Reuters

Italy's PM says he does not believe responsibility for growth should be included in European Central Bank mandate - @Reuters

BAE Systems plans to axe more than 600 UK jobs and close historic Vickers-Armstrong factory site in Newcastle Upon Tyne - PA

10:38am, Thu 31 May 2012 Last updated Thu 31 May 2012 BAE systems set to axe 600 jobs and close its historic factory in Newcastle upon Tyne BAE systems set to axe 600 jobs and close its historic factory in Newcastle upon Tyne Credit: Reuters

BAE Systems is planning to axe more than 600 jobs and close its historic factory in Newcastle upon Tyne, which made tanks for the World War I, the company announced today.

Update: 2 US citizens in Egypt were kidnapped by Bedouin in order to gain the freedom of a man from the tribe caught with drugs - @NBCNews

Two people asked to leave court after interruptions from public gallery during house fire hearing in Derby - @SkyNewsBreak

Alaska's rodent-free Rat Island gets new name

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The remote Aleutian site known for two centuries as Rat Island, notorious as the first spot in Alaska despoiled by rats, has a new, more dignified name to celebrate its hard-won rodent-free status - but it may be harder for some to pronounce.

The 10-square-mile island will now be known as Hawadax (pronounced "How-ah-thaa"), the traditional Aleut name it was given before a Japanese sailing ship ran aground there in the late 1700s and triggered Alaska's first rat invasion, state and federal officials said on Wednesday.

Hawadax has multiple meanings, including "entry" and "welcome," said Alaska State Historian Jo Antonson. "It sounds better than 'Rat,'" she said.

The rats that jumped ashore from a shipwreck in 1780 and their successive generations wiped out nearly all the island's native seabirds and wreaked other ecological destruction on the island, located about 1,300 miles southwest of Anchorage.

In the fall of 2008, wildlife managers succeeded in eradicating the rampaging rodents by dropping rat poison onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets.

The $2.5 million, U.S. government-backed project was declared a success in 2010, and seabird populations decimated by the rats have begun returning.

The U.S. Geological Survey's Board on Geographic Names this month approved the island's new name, which had been championed by indigenous Aleut organizations, state and federal officials said.

Geographic name changes are very rare, Antonson said. "There really needs to be a good reason and/or local support to change a name," she said.

But the rat legacy lingers on the map in another form. The cluster of Aleutian islands to which Hawadax belongs is still known collectively as the "Rat Islands," and some of Hawadax's neighbors continue to be plagued by the bird-eating rodents.

One of those neighboring islands is Kiska. The rat infestation there is blamed on World War Two, when the island was briefly occupied by the Japanese, then retaken by U.S. forces.

Kiska is home to a huge colony of auklets, but the cliff-nesting birds are in danger of being devoured by the island's voracious rats, according to biologists.

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Church paid "unassignable priests" to go

(CBS/AP) MILWAUKEE - The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has confirmed it paid suspected pedophile priests to leave the ministry.

The acknowledgement comes after a document surfaced in the archdiocese's bankruptcy case discussing a 2003 proposal to pay $20,000 to "unassignable priests" who accept a return to the laity. The policy was crafted under then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who now leads the New York archdiocese.

A spokesman for the archdiocese told The New York Times, meanwhile, that the payments were made to "a handful" of priests "as a motivation" not to contest their removal from their positions.

"It was a way to provide an incentive to go the voluntary route and make it happen quickly, and ultimately cost less," spokesman Jerry Topczewski, told the Times. "Their cooperation made the process a lot more expeditious."

Milwaukee Archdiocese faces 550 sex abuse claims
Video: High-ranking Church official testifies in abuse trial
Philly monsignor: I lacked power to move priests

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests characterizes the payments as payoffs to priests who molested children. The group told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it's calling on the archdiocese to release all records involving the payments.

An archdiocese spokeswoman disputes that characterization. She told The Associated Press late Wednesday that the money was meant to quickly remove the men from the priesthood and help them transition into lay life.

The Catholic Church is currently fending off a number of scandals. In addition to the ongoing sexual abuse investigations, Pope Benedict XVI's private communications have been leaked to the press by at least one mole from within his closest circle of aides.

And CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports the Pontiff is also feeling a backlash from American Catholics over his crackdown on America's 57,000 nuns.

A letter from the Vatican warned them that a group representing most of the nuns in the U.S. is straying from church teachings on abortion and homosexuality. As Andrews reports, the nuns are going about their work, in spite of the backlash.

Truck hits students at high school; 9 hospitalized

By NBC4 and msnbc.com news services

HEMET, Calif. - A high school student in a pickup truck ran into a group of teenagers who were crossing a street outside a California high school Wednesday, leaving nine people injured and backpacks and clothing strewn across an intersection, officials said.

The accident occurred shortly after school ended for the day at Hemet High School, Riverside County fire officials said in a statement.

Three people were in critical condition, five more were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, and one refused treatment, they said.

The driver, a student at the school, named by police a David Carrillo,18,ran into a group of eight people who were in an intersection headed toward the student parking lot and the school's football stadium, principal Emily Shaw said.

"The kids were in the crosswalk doing everything right," Shaw said.

Seven of the people struck were students, and the eighth person was a 60-year-old woman, Shaw said. Her relationship to the school was not clear.

Three of those victims were in critical condition, including 15-year-old Helen Richardson, who was in a "conscious coma" and intubated, according to her mother Trisha Telezinski.

Read more at NBC4 Southern California

Witnesses reported hearing Carrillo yell out, "My brakes have gone out," Telezinski said.

NBC4 News said highway patrol officials believe the truck may have had a mechanical problem and has been impounded for inspection.

Drugs and alcohol have been ruled out as a factor, officials said, adding that criminal charges against the driver, if any, will be determined after the evidence has been examined.

A statement released by California Highway Patrol Officer Darren Meyer said the truck was travelling "at a speed greater than the 25 MPH school zone speed limit”.

"The driver stopped immediately after the collision to assist the victims," Meyer said.

Parent Rick Chavez witnessed the accident while waiting at the red light just after picking up his son, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported.

“The guy went through the red light. …I saw the truck and started screaming out ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa!’” Chavez told the newspaper. “He plowed right into the kids. Two girls were really bad. I thought they were gone. I was in shock.”

NBC4's Olsen Ebright, Samantha Tata and Beverly White, msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Motorists face increased road tax as UK Treasury considers clawing revenue from those using 'green' cars - @telegraph

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Syrian government releases 500 prisoners who were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the 14-month-old revolt, state TV says - @Reuters

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