A new private supply ship for the International Space Station remained stuck on the ground Saturday after rocket engine trouble led to a last-second abort of the historic flight.

All nine engines for the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life Saturday morning. But with a mere half-second remaining before liftoff, the onboard computers automatically shut everything down. So instead of blasting off on a delivery mission to the space station, the rocket stayed on its launch pad amid a plume of engine exhaust.

Even NASA’s most seasoned launch commentator was taken off-guard.

“Three, two, one, zero and liftoff,” announced commentator George Diller, his voice trailing as the rocket failed to budge. “We’ve had a cutoff. Liftoff did not occur.”

SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said that high combustion chamber pressure in engine No. 5 was to blame. During an inspection later in the day, engineers discovered a faulty valve and worked into the evening to replace it.

Tuesday is the earliest that SpaceX can try again to send its cargo-laden Dragon capsule to the space station. The California-based company _ formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. _ is targeting every few days for a launch attempt to save fuel in case of rendezvous problems at the space station. Wednesday also could be a launch option.

This was the first launch attempt by the several private U.S. companies hoping to take over the job of……………. continues on STLtoday.com

A U.S. mission to send the first unmanned commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station was aborted with a half second left in the countdown.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Falcon 9 rocket, carrying the company’s Dragon capsule, attempted to lift off at 4:55 a.m. yesterday from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A computer detected an engine pressure problem, grounding the rocket and delaying the flight for a new attempt May 22.

The closely held company, known as SpaceX and led by billionaire Elon M……………. continues on Bloomberg

VALPARAISO | The Valparaiso University Department of Physics and Astronomy will host a viewing of the partial annular solar eclipse predicted to occur from 7:22 p.m. to about 8:05 p.m. today.

The viewing will take place from the top floor of the parking garage on the north side of the VU campus.

Several telescopes with solar filters and some solar eclipse glasses will be available for general viewing., according to VU officials.

The public is invited to attend, and parking is available in the parking ramp and in surrounding lots.

This event will be an annular eclipse of the sun, in which it is not totally covered due to the fact that the moon is a little further away from Earth than average and thus does not quite cover the full disk of the sun. That will results in what will look like a bright ring around the dark moon, according to VU officials.

The shadow of the total annular eclipse moves from the coast of China, through Japan, across the North Pacific Ocean and through northern California to western Texas.

Since Northwest Indiana is not in this shadow region, residents here will see only a partial eclipse, according to VU officials.

VU officials warn that no one should stare directly at the sun, even during an eclipse, and especially with binoculars or a telescope.

This will be the first annular solar eclipse visible in continental U.S. since May 10, 1994, and the next one will not be until Oct. 14, 2023. H……………. continues on nwitimes.com

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SpaceX’s historic launch to the International Space Station was aborted in the pre-dawn hours at Cape Canaveral, Fla., when computers detected an anomaly in one of the rocket’s nine engines and automatically shut down.

Countdown to the launch, which was webcast on NASA TV, hit T-0 at 4:55 a.m. EDT when the rocket engines seemed to briefly light before the technical problem hit.

Elon Musk, SpaceX founder and CEO, tweeted shortly afterward: “Launch aborted: slightly high combustion chamber pressure on engine 5. Will adjust limits for countdown in a few days.”

The next window for the Hawthorne company to launch to the space station is May 22 at 3:34 a.m. EDT.

SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is due to launch its Falcon 9 rocket in a demonstration for NASA. The unmanned docking mission to the space station is intended to prove to

This is a reconstruction of Carbonemys preying upon a small crocodylomorph. CREDIT: Artwork by Liz Bradford

A turtle the size of a small car once roamed what is now South America 60 million years ago, suggests its fossilized remains.

Discovered in a coal mine in Colombia in 2005, the turtle was given the name Carbonemys cofrinii, which means “coal turtle.” It wasn’t until now that the turtle was examined and described in a scientific journal; the findings are detailed online today (May 17) in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

The researchers say C. cofrinii belongs to a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The turtle’s skull, roughly the size of an NFL football, was the most complete of the fossil remains.

In addition to its colossal size, the turtle would have been equipped with massive, powerful jaws, meaning it could’ve eaten just about anything in its range, from mollusks (a

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – An Obama administration plan to cut the cost of spaceflight services faces a key test on Saturday when a privately owned rocket lifts off for a practice run to the International Space Station.

If successful, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, would become the first private company to reach the $ 100 billion outpost, which flies about 240 miles above Earth.

“It is, by all accounts, an important step, bordering on a giant leap, for commercial space,” said Michael Lopez-Alegria, a former NASA astronaut and space station commander who now heads the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington-based industry association.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule are scheduled for launch at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT) on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

If everything goes as planned, it would reach the space station on Tuesday.

Since the space shuttles were retired last year, NASA is dependent on partners Europe, Japan and especiall……………. continues on Reuters

A turtle the size of a small car once roamed what is now South America 60 million years ago, suggests its fossilized remains.

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Discovered in a coal mine in Colombia in 2005, the turtle was given the name Carbonemys cofrinii, which means “coal turtle.” It wasn’t until now that the turtle was examined and described in a scientific journal; the findings are detailed online today (May 17) in the Journal of Systematic Paleontology.

The researchers say C. cofrinii belongs to a group of side-necked turtles known as pelomedusoides. The turtle’s skull, roughly the size of an NFL football, was the most complete of the fossil remains.

In addition to its colossal size, the turtle would have been equipped with massive, powerful jaws, meaning it could’ve eaten just about anything in its rang……………. continues on Christian Science Monitor

History of the Conflict Between Religion and Science
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Precise placement of rod that passed through Phineas Gage’s skull and brain. CREDIT: Van Horn, et.al, 2012, PLoS ONE

The brain of Phineas Gage recently got a second look by scientists, who were able to analyze how the rod that found its way into his skull would have done such irreparable damage to his personality, but still let him live.

The researchers used brain imaging data that was lost to science for a decade to look at the damage to Gage’s white matter “pathways” that connect brain regions, building on earlier research studying the brain’s “connectome.”

“What we found was a significant loss of white matter connecting the left frontal regions and the rest of the brain,” study researcher Jack Van Horn, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. “We suggest that the disruption of the brain’s ‘network’ considerably compromised it.”

“This may have had an even greater impact on Mr. Gage than the damag……………. continues on LiveScience.com

Student-designed mission patches, including those pictured, will fly with students’ experiments on SpaceX’s first Dragon capsule to launch to the International Space Station. CREDIT: NCESSE/SpaceX/collectSPACE.com

Students’ science experiments are about to make history, launching to space on the first attempt by a U.S. commercial company to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS).

And like many other historic space projects, the students’ payloads packed on board SpaceX’s Dragon capsule have their own specially-designed mission emblems, which are also flying to the orbiting laboratory.

Set to launch before dawn on Saturday (May 19) from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the students’ experiments, along with other cargo, will fly with SpaceX’s Dragon unmanned cargo craft as it tries to do what only government-owned vehicles have accom……………. continues on Space.com

On Jan. 4, 2011, the moon passed in front of the sun in a partial solar eclipse – as seen from parts of Earth. Here, the joint Japanese-American Hinode satellite captured the same breathtaking event from space. The unique view created what’s called an annular solar eclipse. CREDIT: Hinode/XRT

A solar eclipse will blot out part of the sun this weekend, and astronomers in Colorado are organizing what they hope will be the world’s largest viewing party in one place. Their venue: an entire football stadium.

The eclipse will occur in the afternoon and early evening on Sunday (May 20), during which time the moon will pass between Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on the planet. This weekend’s event is called an annular solar eclipse (from the Latin word “annulus,” meaning “little ring”, because the moon will not completely cover the sun, but will leave a fiery ring around its circumference.

At its peak, the moon will block roughly 94 percent of the sun’s……………. continues on Space.com

Science in the Kitchen.
Science in the Kitchen. is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Mrs. E. E. Kellogg is …

Science in Seconds for Kids: Over 100 Experiments You Can Do in Ten Minutes or Less
Make lightning in your room! Keep paper dry under water! Lose weight by going upstairs! See colors that aren’t there! Experience t…

HAMPTON, Va., May 15, 2012 – /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A team from NASA’s Langley Research Center will have its eyes, cameras and telescopes trained on the skies for the launch of the first commercial spaceflight carrying cargo to the International Space Station.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The SCIFLI (Scientifically Calibrated In Flight Imagery) team, based at NASA Langley, is preparing to capture visual and thermal snapshots of the SpaceX launch as the Falcon 9 rocket and its Dragon capsule climb through the atmosphere on their way to the ISS. The launch is scheduled for Saturday, May 19.

The team will have sophisticated optical systems stationed on the ground in northern Florida and for the first time ever on board a ship, the Freedom Star. The Freedom Star and its sister ship, Liberty Star, originally built to recover space shuttle solid rocket boosters, will also monitor the spacecraft during the mission using NASA diagnostic radar systems. Both ships will be off the coast of the northeastern United States. They are normally home ported at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station adjacent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

“We’re looking at getting very high spatial resolution, high definition quality visual imaging during the launch as well as high spatial resolution thermal……………. continues on Sacramento Bee

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Three-man Soyuz crew departs for space station

By PETER LEONARD, Associated Press – 9 minutes ago 

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — A three-man crew blasted off from a space center in southern Kazakhstan Tuesday morning on board a Russian-made Soyuz craft for a four-and-half-month stay at the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin set off from the Baikonur facility as scheduled at 9:01 a.m. local time (0301 GMT).

Russia’s space agency says the craft is due to dock with the space station Thursday morning Moscow time and will join the three astronauts currently staying at the orbiting laboratory.

The crew, which is being commanded by retired 53-year old Russian Air Force Col. Padalka, will immediately get to work preparing for the arrival next week of privately owned SpaceX’s Dragon Capsule. It will be the first time a private company has launched space station supplies.

The space station is currently occupied by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Holland’s Andre Kuipers.

Padalka is a seasoned space traveler, having spent a total of 585 days in space on three previous missions on board the now-defunct Mir station and the current International Space Station. Inglewood, California-native Acaba, who turns 45 on Thursday, on the day that Soyuz is due to dock, makes……………. continues on The Associated Press

SpaceX announced that it is gearing up to launch its Dragon capsule toward the International Space Station on Saturday. If successful, the trip will mark the first time a private spacecraft has ever docked at NASA’s habitable artificial satellite.

Spaceflight company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) will be sending the robotic capsule attached to its Falcon 9 rocket into orbit on a test mission to the orbital outpost. The launch date is now set for nearly three weeks after the capsule was originally slated to soar into space.

The rocket will fly on Saturday, May 19 from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 4:55 a.m. ET. It was originally scheduled to launch on Monday, April 30 but delays related to the spacecraft’s docking software pushed back the launch date.

Although no one will be on board the Dragon, two astronauts at the International Space Station will open a hatch to attach the capsule to the site. According to SpaceX, this will take “extreme precision.”

“After launching from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Dragon will begin its journey to the space station,” SpaceX said in a press release. “Just under 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit, deploy its solar arrays and begin a carefully……………. continues on Mashable

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British and American scientists have discovered a previously unknown sub-glacial basin nearly the size of New Jersey beneath the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) – and say it puts this area of the ice sheet at risk of collapse.

The team discovered the basin Using ice-penetrating radar instruments flown on aircraft, and say its location, shape and texture may put the region at a tipping point.

It covers 7,700 square miles – nearly the size of New Jersey – and is well below sea level, as much as 1.2 miles deep in places.

“If we were to invent a set of conditions conducive to retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, this would be it,” says Don Blankenship, senior research scientist at the University of Texas.

“With its smooth bed that slopes steeply toward the interior, we could find no other region in West Antarctica more poised for change than this newly discovered basin at the head of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. The only saving grace is that losing the ice over this new basin would only raise sea level by a small percentage of the several meters that would result if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet destabilized.”

The seaward edge of the newly discovered basin lies just inland of the ice sheet’s grounding line, where streams of ice flowing toward the sea begin to float.

Two features of the basin, which is entirely below sea level, have the scientists worried. The basin’s sides slope down steeply, which means that if the gr……………. continues on TG Daily

By Eddie Wrenn and Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 09:57 EST, 12 May 2012 | UPDATED: 10:18 EST, 12 May 2012

A mysterious ocean ‘blob’, recorded by a deep-sea remote-controlled underwater camera, has been identified as a jelly fish.

When a Youtube video of the creature was posted last month speculators suggested it was everything from the remains of a whale placenta to a fishing net.

However, experts have now confirmed that the ‘sea monster’ is, in fact, a rarely studied jelly fish known as Deepstaria Enigmatica.

For the first time, an international team of researchers has used satellites to track the movements of manta rays, providing valuable new information about the massive rays, which are considered “vulnerable” to extinction  by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The preliminary findings for the Atlantic mantas showed that they traveled as far as 680 miles over a one- to two-month period searching for food, sticking close to the coastline. They also spent considerable time in shipping lanes, which rendered them vulnerable to being hit by freighters.

The manta ray, Manta birostris, is the largest of the rays, reaching as big as 25 feet across. Although they are closely related to sharks and are often called “devilfish” because of their frightening appearance, they are actually harmless to humans. The animals are filter feeders, straining large volumes of water through their mouths to extract zooplankton and fish eggs. They are considered vulnerable because fisherman often capture them to use as bait for sharks. Their gill rakers (fingerlike structures that filter out prey) are also used in traditional Chinese medicine.

A team headed by Rachel T. Graham of the Wildlife Conservation Society in Punta Gorda, Belize, attached transmitters to six individuals — four females, one male and one juvenile — off the coast of

AUSTIN, Texas | May 11, 2012

The finding of a deep basin under part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet suggests it may be at a greater risk of collapse than previously thought, scientists say.

Using ice-penetrating radar instruments flown on aircraft, U.S. and British researchers have discovered a previously unknown sub-glacial basin nearly the size of New Jersey beneath the ice sheet near the Weddell Sea.

The ice over the basin may be at a tipping point close to collapse, study co-author Don Blankenship from the University of Texas said.

“If we were to invent a set of conditions conducive to retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, this would be it,” he said.

“With its smooth bed that slopes steeply toward the interior, we could find no other region in West Antarctica more poised for change than this newly discovered basin at the head of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf.”

The basin covers 7,700 square miles and is well below sea level, nearly 1.2 miles deep in places……………. continues on Disaster News Network

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