They say they're ready for a July launch. At least, the new NASA boss is optimistic about it.
Also reported is how there needs to be law changes in order for NASA to work with the Russian space agency more closely.
The request was made in a letter to Congress, Griffin told a congressional committee on Tuesday. The Iran Nonproliferation Act prohibits NASA from buying space-related services and goods from Russia as long as Moscow sells weapons and missile technology to Tehran.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will need to use Russian space services starting April 2006 but would not be able to pay for them under the act, Griffin told the House of Representatives' Science Committee.
NASA will need Russia's help to use the International Space Station, he said.
"For the next several years, as the space station development and its partnership go forward, the United States is in the position where we cannot effectively utilize the space station without our Russian partners," Griffin said.
So... I guess I'm back to business here writing space news observations.
Tempel 1 Spits the Dummy At Deep Impact
...or so it seemed as the comet spewed forth a burst of ice particles, days before Tempel 1 slammed a probe into it.
The outburst, which occurred June 22 and was announced today, was larger than
one photographed recently by the Hubble Space Telescope.The latest eruption temporarily expanded the size and reflectivity of the cloud of dust and gas, called a coma, that surrounds the comet nucleus.
"This most recent outburst was six times larger than the one observed on June 14, but the ejected material dissipated almost entirely within about a half day," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, who leads the Deep Impact mission. An animation of the June 22 eruption is available here.
Heh. Check the link to the animation while it's still there. Won't be there for long.
Cassini Probe Sees a Lake
Here's an update on the Cassini mission.
You might have thought Saturn's moon Titan was a somewhat dead issue after the Cassini spacecraft did not find convincing evidence for methane seas that scientists had predicted would exist.
But the smoggy moon is back in the news today as a new Cassini image reveals a dark feature that scientists speculate might be a lake. The feature is "remarkably
lake-like," according to a NASA statement that noted the appearance of smooth, shore-like boundaries unlike any seen previously on Titan."I'd say this is definitely the best candidate we've seen so far for a liquid hydrocarbon lake on Titan," said Alfred McEwen, imaging team member and a professor at the University of Arizona.
The feature is 145 miles long by 45 miles wide (230 by 70 kilometers), or about the size of Lake Ontario on the U.S. Canadian border. The possible lake is under the densest clouds on Titan. Scientists speculate methane rains might have fallen there recently. "It's possible that some of the storms in this region are strong enough to make methane rain that reaches the surface," Cassini imaging team member Tony DelGenio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.
"Given Titan's cold temperatures, it might take a long time for any liquid methane collecting on the surface to evaporate. So it might not be surprising for a methane-filled lake to persist for a long time."
It's also possible the feature was once a lake, but has since dried up, leaving behind dark deposits, said Elizabeth Turtle, Cassini imaging team associate at the University of Arizona. Or the region is simply a broad depression filled by dark, solid hydrocarbons falling from the atmosphere onto Titan's surface. In this case, the
smooth outline might be the result of a process unrelated to rainfall, such as a sinkhole or a volcanic caldera.A previous image of Titan revealed what scientist believe to be a volcano. "It is already clear that whatever this lake-like feature turns out to be, it is only one of many puzzles that Titan will throw at us as we continue our reconnaissance of the surface over the next few years," said Carolyn Porco, imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
Officials plan 39 more Titan flybys.
No ruins of alien civilizations though... Just joking. :)
Star-Gazing Of Far A Less Profound Kind
Somebody sent me this article. It's hysterical.
Paranoid about Scientology yet? Katie says she 'digs' it espcially after having her brain washed.Holmes was busy during that first week in April. On April 7, she was photographed at the Fragrance Foundation's FiFi event. Four days later, Holmes was still in New York and was photographed at VH1's "Save the Music" concert. She still had not met Cruise.
Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in "Mission: Impossible 3." The meeting took place after April 11. The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise's girlfriend and love of his life. Where was she during those 16 days?
Somewhere during that time, she decided to fire both her manager and agent, each of whom she had been with for years and who were devoted to her. The manager, John Carrabino, also handles Renée Zellweger and is beloved by his clients.
Holmes also acquired a new best friend, Jessica Feshbach, the daughter of Joe Feshbach, a controversial Palo Alto, Calif., bond trader. The Feshbach family, according to published documents, has donated millions to the Church of Scientology. Jessica's aunt even runs a Scientology center in Florida. According to Richard Behar's now famous 1991 story in Time magazine about Scientology, the Feshbachs were the subject of congressional hearings in 1989.
Behar wrote: "The heads of several companies claimed that Feshbach operatives have spread false information to government agencies and posed in various guises — such as a Securities and Exchange Commission official — in an effort to discredit the companies and drive the stocks down. "Michael Russell, who ran a chain of business journals, testified that a Feshbach employee called his bankers and interfered with his loans. Sometimes the Feshbachs send private detectives to dig up dirt on firms, which is then shared with business reporters, brokers and fund managers."
The risk-taking Feshbachs, known the world over for making their fortune "shorting" stocks, and the level-headed, conservative Holmeses would be a difficult mix at a dinner table. Katie's father, Martin Holmes, is the senior partner in a large and respected Toledo, Ohio, law firm. His son, Martin Jr., has recently joined the firm. He's a Harvard graduate. Katie's mom, Kathy, is frequently cited in Toledo for her charity work.
There is some fear among Holmes' close circle that her instant romance with Cruise is not as organic as portrayed. For one thing, Holmes was raised a strict Catholic. Also, gone from the picture are two close Holmes friends who used to be with her when she did publicity for a film. One of these is Meghann Birie, a childhood friend who has suddenly disappeared from Holmes' world. Another, a local TV producer here in New York, was too afraid to discuss the situation with me.
We know that Cruise auditioned several actresses for this role before settling on Holmes. This column reported a story about Jennifer Garner. There have been published stories about Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba being approached. A newer one involves Scarlett Johansson, who ran for her life when presented with a fait accompli dinner at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. And history has been rewritten since the April 27 unveiling.
Curiously, since the Cruise-Holmes situation popped up, we have heard over and over again that Cruise was the young actress' idol when she was growing up.
That's certainly interesting because all of the publicity that used to run on Holmes — still found all over the Internet — lists another Tom as her favorite actor.
Anyway, just for kicks, I typed in 'Tom Cruise is gay' and I get like 13 pages+ of the stuff.
And this particularly weird one from a former scientologist.
- Art Neuro
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