Category: Space-Earth

NASA: Space Shuttles Could Fly Longer With Extra Funds (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com – WASHINGTON — The chief of NASA’s space shuttle program said Tuesday that the agency could technically continue to fly its three aging orbiters beyond their planned 2010 retirement if ordered to do so by President Barack Obama and lawmakers. All it would take would be the extra funding needed to pay for it.

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NASA: Space Shuttles Could Fly Longer With Extra Funds
(SPACE.com)

NASA: Money key to more space shuttle flights (AP)

AP – NASA’s space shuttle manager says it wouldn’t be hard to add more shuttle flights. The real question is money.

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NASA: Money key to more space shuttle flights
(AP)

Congress tries to alter Obama’s plans for NASA (The Christian Science Monitor)

The Christian Science Monitor – Pushback on President Obama’s plans for NASA’s human spaceflight program is moving out of testy congressional hearings and into Capitol Hill’s legislative inbox.

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Congress tries to alter Obama’s plans for NASA
(The Christian Science Monitor)

Space Station Wins Prestigious Collier Trophy (SPACE.com)

SPACE.com – The International Space Station program has won a prestigious aviation award — the 2009 Collier Trophy — in recognition of its strides in advancing aeronautics.

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Space Station Wins Prestigious Collier Trophy
(SPACE.com)

Buried alive: Half of Earth’s life may lie below land, sea (McClatchy Newspapers)

McClatchy Newspapers – WASHINGTON — While astronomers scour the skies for signs of life in outer space, biologists are exploring an enormous living world buried below the surface of the Earth.

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Buried alive: Half of Earth’s life may lie below land, sea
(McClatchy Newspapers)

Court to consider NASA employee background checks (Reuters)

Reuters – The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether NASA background investigations, required of scientists, engineers and all other employees at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, violated their privacy rights.

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Court to consider NASA employee background checks
(Reuters)

Obama to push White House vision for NASA in April (Reuters)

Reuters – President Barack Obama will outline his administration’s vision for space agency NASA and an eventual trip to Mars during a conference in Florida in April, the White House said on Sunday.

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Obama to push White House vision for NASA in April
(Reuters)

Obama sets conference on future of space program (AP)

AP – President Barack Obama plans to host a conference in Florida next month on his administration’s approach to the next step in space exploration.

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Obama sets conference on future of space program
(AP)

Former head of Johnson Space Center dies in Texas (AP)

AP – Aaron Cohen, the former director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center who helped create the space shuttle program, has died in College Station after a long fight with cancer.

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Former head of Johnson Space Center dies in Texas
(AP)

Indian Festival Goers Warned About Water Wastage

A water shortage in Mumbai, India could prove to pretty much ruin Holi, a Hindu festival which is celebrated with rain dances and colored powder paint fights.

Due to the water shortage, authorities in Mumbai have ordered those celebrating Holi to not squander the city’s precious drinking water. Authorities have also threatened to arrest those caught doing otherwise.

Holi, also referred to as the Festival of Colors, marks the end of the winter season, heralding the advent of spring. Holi is very popular in the northern parts of India as well as with Hindu populations living across the world.

In 2009, India experienced the worst of monsoon rains recorded after 1972 – which saw water levels in six major lakes responsible for supplying water to Mumbai plunging to alarming levels. The situation was so bad, that, officials at one instance warned residents that certain suburbs would only have water for twenty days.

June is when the annual monsoons are scheduled to take place. Authorities are worried that another disastrous monsoon could occur again, and have already taken measures to conserve water in such a case. This includes turning off the water supply completely in selected areas once a week.

Anil Diggikar, a local government official stated that since the city is suffering from water supply issues, residents should avoid using precious drinking water for non potable reasons like rain dances and other activities during Holi and other instances as well.

The municipal authorities are in the process of forming teams to carry out strict inspections during Holi celebrations. Shraddha Jadhav, mayor of Mumbai said that even though most of the Holi celebrations are organized by cooperative housing societies which will not provide water for rain dances; it was a necessity to have special teams to ensure water is preserved. The Mayor also remarked that the misuse of water should be made a criminal offence.

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