Wen, Merkel visit Siemens Signalling Company in NW China

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visit Siemens Signalling Company Ltd, in Xi'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, July 17, 2010. (Xinhua/Jiao Weiping)

Trucks washed away from a road

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Trucks washed away from a road are seen in Kani, central Japan, after the Kani river nearby flooded due to heavy rain. Hundreds of thousands of people in western, southern and central Japan have been urged to evacuate their homes as heavy rains caused mudslides and flooded houses, killing three and leaving some missing.

The lawyer who hopes Baroness Ashton can free her from Gaza - Middle East, World

Fatma Sharif, a Gazan lawyer, has been barred from studying in the West Bank


AFP/Getty Images

Champion of UK burka ban declares war on veil-wearing constituents

Hollobone said the vast majority of Muslim women wore dress allowing people to see their face and claimed no Islamic scholars or clerics said wearing the burka or niqab was a religious requirement.

Olive oil shock as consumers feel effects of Greece's financial crisis

Greece's Reform Program Seems 'Broadly On Track' -IMF - WSJ.com

Besiktas to face Viktoria Plzen in UEFA Champions League qualifier

NASA - Schrödinger Impact Basin

NASA - Apollo-Soyuz: An Orbital Partnership Begins

But by the mid-70s things had changed. The U.S. had "won" the race to the Moon, with six Apollo landings between 1969 and 1972. Both nations had launched space stations, the Russian Salyut and American Skylab. With the Space Shuttle still a few years off and the diplomatic chill thawing, the time was right for a joint mission.

NASA - Giant Antenna Propped up and Ready for Joint Replacement

As the sun sets on July 8, 2010, workers prepare to pour new epoxy grout for the hydrostatic bearing assembly of the giant "Mars antenna" at NASA's Deep Space Network communications site in Goldstone, Calif. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech