 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Atlantis, carrying a crew of four and food and other supplies critical for the International Space Station, is set to vault into orbit on Friday on the final flight in the 30-year U.S. shuttle program. | |
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - It's been 28 years since NASA launched a four-person shuttle crew, but that will be the number of astronauts slated to fly on Atlantis for the program's last flight, a 12-day cargo run to the International Space Station. | |
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - As the clock ticks down to this week's final space shuttle launch, there is a mounting sense of uncertainty about future U.S. dominance in space. | |
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Four veteran astronauts landed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday to prepare for the launch of NASA's last space shuttle on a cargo run to the International Space Station. | |
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - I have watched as space shuttles nosedive toward the runway more than 100 times, knowing that there are no engines available to carry them back into the sky if something goes wrong. | |
| U.S. looks to private sector as shuttle program ends Tue,5 Jul 2011 08:05 AM PDT Reuters - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - After the U.S. space shuttle program ends this month, NASA will rely on Russia and its Soyuz craft to deliver Americans to the International Space Station -- at a cost of more than $50 million a seat. Full Story1 | |
 TOKYO (Reuters) - Vast deposits of rare earth minerals, crucial in making high-tech electronics products, have been found on the floor of the Pacific Ocean and can be readily extracted, Japanese scientists said on Monday. | |
 LONDON (Reuters) - Smoke belching from Asia's rapidly growing economies is largely responsible for a halt in global warming in the decade after 1998 because of sulfur's cooling effect, even though greenhouse gas emissions soared, a U.S. study said on Monday. | |
| Plastic solar cells in 5-10 years, new step forward Mon,4 Jul 2011 08:16 AM PDT Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - Plastic solar cells may be commercially available in five to 10 years, said a British scientist whose group announced on Monday a new understanding of how to produce the cheaper alternative to silicon solar panels. Full Story1 | |
 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India (Reuters) - Investigators plan to pry open the final vault hidden deep under a centuries-old Indian Hindu temple as police guarded round the clock the shrine where billions of dollars worth of treasure has been discovered. | |
 MIAMI (Reuters) - When the United States embarked on its shuttle program decades ago, it set out to build a workhorse vehicle that would make space travel routine and beat the Soviets during the Cold War struggle for dominance in space. | |
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction. | |
| Japan experts design superelastic alloy, may resist quakes Thu,30 Jun 2011 11:09 AM PDT Reuters - HONG KONG (Reuters) - Researchers in Japan have developed a superelastic alloy, which can spring back to its original form in extreme temperatures, they said in a report on Friday, adding that they hope it may be used in buildings to absorb shocks from earthquakes. Full Story1 | |
 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel wants to harvest salt from the bottom of the Dead Sea in hopes of protecting its southern shore, but a $2 billion price tag has pitted the government against one of the country's largest companies. | |
 ASPEN, Colorado (Reuters) - The bacteria behind food poisoning worldwide, the mighty E.coli, could be turned into a commercially available biofuel in five years, a U.S. scientist told technology industry and government leaders on Tuesday. | |
