This week, the Expedition 14 crew continued to focus on preparation for their final planned spacewalk ahead of the space shuttle Atlantis’ arrival in March. This comes following Sunday’s unexpected circuit breaker trip on the International Space Station and subsequent resetting of affected equipment. As Atlantis was moved to the launch pad this week, station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin conducted leak checks of the Russian Orlan spacesuits they will wear for ... [full story]

The space shuttle Atlantis arrived at its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., Thursday on top of the giant vehicle known as the crawler transporter. The next milestone for the upcoming mission, STS-117, is a full launch dress rehearsal as the six-member crew prepares to continue building the International Space Station. The crawler transporter began carrying Atlantis out of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 8:19 a.m. It traveled just under 1 mph during ... [full story]

A new paper by a self-described hob­by phys­i­cist chal­leng­es what may be the bed­rock law of na­ture. And while skep­tics are roll­ing their eyes, the study has ap­peared in a pro­fes­sion­al jour­nal with the ap­pa­rent con­sent of lead­ing physi­cists. The principle under dispute, central to physics for at least two cen­tur­ies, is called the law of con­ser­va­tion of en­er­gy. It states that noth­ing can be cre­at­ed or de­s­t­royed: you can’t get some­thing from no­th­ing, or ... [full story]

Scientists using NASA satellites have discovered an extensive network of waterways beneath a fast- moving Antarctic ice stream that provide clues as to how "leaks" in the system impact sea level and the world's largest ice sheet. Antarctica holds about 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of the world's reservoir of fresh water. With data from NASA satellites, a team of scientists led by research geophysicist Helen Fricker of the Scripps Institution ... [full story]

Presentation may be important to help people measure risks Quickly now, which is a higher risk that you will get a disease: 1 in 100; 1 in 1,000; or 1 in 10? Choosing the correct answer depends on a person's numeracy - the ability to grasp and use math and probability concepts, according to a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The scenario was part of a series ... [full story]

NASA commemorates the 45th anniversary of Americans in orbit with a special multimedia salute to the original Mercury astronauts and new interviews with Sen. John Glenn, Scott Carpenter and Walter Schirra. On Feb. 20, 1962, an Atlas rocket successfully carried Glenn and the hopes of an entire nation into orbit aboard Friendship 7, a flight that ushered in a new era of space travel that eventually led to Americans walking on the moon by the ... [full story]

Dr. Charles Simonyi adds video and expands kids' space on his web site, offering a rare glimpse into the world of space flight Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., the fifth private space explorer, announced Tuesday that his Web site now features rich new content including training video and personal interviews. Additionally, Dr. Simonyi is pleased to fully launch "Kids' Space," an interactive, educational portion of CharlesInSpace.com designed to captivate future space travelers. Dr. Simonyi has been capturing the ... [full story]

An unexpected circuit breaker trip early Sunday caused a power outage on the International Space Station. All systems were back up by Monday morning with no impact to operations on board. The safety of the Expedition 14 crew and the complex was never an issue. The first indications of a problem came with the loss of communications between the station and mission control just after 12:00 a.m. CST Sunday when an electrical switching unit experienced ... [full story]

For the fifth year in a row, Oregon's bald eagle populations exceeded recovery goals and studies are showing that the birds have been steadily increasing at an average rate of more than one chick per nesting pair since 2001. A 3 percent increase from the state's 2005 population is being reported by Oregon State University researchers, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service closes in on a court-ordered decision on whether to remove the bird ... [full story]

Middle and high school students around the country are making a push to qualify for the Team America Rocketry Challenge and earn an invitation to the final round of competition in May. A total of 690 teams from 48 states and the District of Columbia have signed up for the fifth annual TARC, the world's largest rocket contest. The teams must successfully launch their handmade model rockets and earn a qualifying score to make it ... [full story]

With all scheduled tasks accomplished, International Space Station Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams ended a nearly seven hour spacewalk at 2:06 p.m. CST Thursday. It was the last in a series of three spacewalks in nine days from the Quest airlock. Major tasks of this spacewalk included removing and jettisoning two large shrouds and installing an attachment for cargo carriers. Lopez-Alegria and Williams moved from the airlock out to Crew Equipment Transfer ... [full story]

Few people have ever seen a vaquita porpoise. Scientists estimate that no more than 400 of the elusive marine mammals are alive today. But the world's smallest porpoise is attracting international attention. With recent news of the extinction of the baiji dolphin in China's Yangtze River, the question is whether Mexico's vaquita will be the next cetacean to vanish. Despite years of efforts to protect the vaquita, its population in the northern Gulf of California ... [full story]

In December, a 35-year-old Japanese man was found after he spent 24 days in the wild, reportedly without food or water. The man - Mitsutaka Uchikoshi - told rescuers he remembered falling asleep in a field, possibly losing consciousness after a fall. After that, nothing. When searchers discovered him, Uchikoshi appeared to be beyond sleep. His pulse was almost undetectable. His body temperature had dropped to 71 degrees - 27 degrees below normal. His organs ... [full story]