Since its announcement earlier this year, President Barack Obama's new space exploration vision for NASA has met with a firestorm of outcry, confusion and misunderstanding.Some of the most common misconceptions are that the plan would take NASA out of the business of human spaceflight, that the President has introduced an untenable gap in U.S spacefaring ability, and that NASA's budget has been
BEIJING Chinese rescue teams scrambled to shore up flood defences Friday as a swollen river threatened a major city, after heavy rains across the nation's south and centre left more than 230 people dead.Workers and soldiers were patching up dykes in Hunan province after water in the Xiang river, which passes through Changsha city, where over six million people live, surged to its highest level
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana High seas and rough winds were forecast Friday for the Gulf of Mexico, posing a new threat as oil from the massive BP spill slopped ashore in Florida, closing down popular beaches at the height of the summer tourist season. This will be the first time and there is no playbook, Coast Guard commandant Thad Allen told CNN of the tropical wave moving into the southern Gulf
MILWAUKEE A great wooden steamship that sank more than a century ago in a violent Lake Michigan storm has been found off the Milwaukee-area shoreline, and divers say the intact vessel appears to have been perfectly preserved by the cold fresh waters.Finding the 300-foot-long L.R.Doty was important because it was the largest wooden ship that remained unaccounted for, said Brendon Baillod, the pre
LONDON Shares in BP crashed to a 13-year low point on Friday after the group ramped up the costs so far of its oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico to 2.35 billion dollars (1.9 billion euros).But this is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of dollars wiped off the oil giant's capitalisation and in unknown liabilities, turning it from a sure income generator into a risky bet, in the v
VENICE, La. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill entered its 67th day on Friday with BP's New York share price at year lows and bad weather looming that could hamper clean-up and containment efforts. The Obama administration was pursuing its legal options after a setback on Thursday when a judge refused to put on hold his decision lifting a ban on deepwater oil drilling imposed in response to the spill,
CAYENNE, French Guiana A technical problem Thursday delayed for the second day running the scheduled launch of an Ariane rocket carrying two satellites, the Arianespace company said. We once again had a no-go linked to a problem of the pressurization of the lower stage of the launch vehicle, Jean-Yves Le Gall, Arianespace president said at the European Space Agency's launch center in Kourou, F
SALT LAKE CITY Utah's Hogle Zoo has a new big man on campus.Husani, a 340-pound gorilla, made his official debut at the zoo on Thursday.Although he's large, zookeepers say the 18-year-old silverback has been a big teddy bear since arriving from a zoo in Alabama.The western lowland gorilla shares his food with keepers and loves to people watch.His favorite activity seems to be wrapping a cardboar