An Ariane 5ECA rocket has successfully launched two satellites. The European carrier rocket lifted off from ELA-3 (Launch Area 3) at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, South America, at 21:47 GMT this evening, carrying the ProtoStar-1 and Badr-6 spacecraft.
ProtoStar-1 is the first satellite to be operated by ProtoStar Corporation, a Bermuda-based US/Asian communications company. It will be positioned at 98.5° East longitude, in a geosynchronous orbit, around 36,000 kilometres above the Equator. It was built by Space Systems Loral, base
Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been under house arrest since 2004 for his alleged involvement in exporting nuclear technology to North Korea, Iran, and Libya, says that North Korea's shipment of gas centrifuges in 2000 was under the supervision of Pakistan's army.
In a phone interview with the Associated Press, Khan said that the centrifuges, which are used in the process of enriching uranium, were loaded in a North Korean plane under supervision of Pakistani security officials. He claims the shipment must have had the
Christine Comer, former director of the science curriculum for the Texas Education Agency (TEA), is suing the Commissioner Robert Scott for wrongful dismissal. Comer alleges that she was "illegally fired for forwarding an e-mail about a lecture that was critical of the teaching of intelligent design in science classes." Her suit alleges she was "terminated for contravening an unconstitutional policy" which required "employees to be neutral on the subject of creationism – the biblical interpretation of the origin of humans."
The Dallas Morning
The Ulysses spacecraft has been retired from service today, following a successful 17-year mission. The probe was launched aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, in October 1990. Following separation from Discovery, Ulysses was boosted into a Heliocentric orbit by an Inertial Upper Stage, and a Payload Assist Module.
Ulysses was a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA), and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Its primary mission was to study the Sun. It made several significant discoveries, including
Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal signed a controversial bill hailed by intelligent design supporters, such as the Discovery Institute, and Louisiana Family Forum, a creationist group. Critics of the bill, including several major science organizations, say it allows for the teaching of "creationism" in public schools.
The law, Louisiana Science Education Act, allows teachers to use "supplemental materials" when discussing evolution, but it does not state what the materials would be.
Citing the 1987 Supreme Court ruling in Edwards v.
After 33 years of managing software giant Microsoft, founder Bill Gates will retire from day-to-day management today.
Gates will retain the title of Chairman but without executive functions and will only report for work once a week.
The man who took a gut feeling of seeing personal computers in every household, each requiring a stable operating system will now pursue philanthropic activities under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Microsoft did not announce any major event to mark the day when its founder steps down but internal private
A CNN producer reported that the North Korean authorities did indeed destroy the cooling tower of the Yongbyong nuclear facility and admitted on global television that they did extract plutonium in the said facility to build nuclear weapons.
Five television networks from countries party to the six-nation talks that constructively engaged North Korea to disengage in its nuclear weapons program were invited into the country to cover and televise the destruction of the cooling towers.
Specialists in nuclear science confirmed that the implosion o
Even though the USB 3.0 standard, with transmission speeds nearing 5Gbit/s (600MB/s), has not yet matured and is not expected until 2009 or 2010, technology leaders Intel, AMD, and nVidia are battling to take the lead on the USB 3.0 specifications.
The USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) was founded in 1995 by Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Texas Instruments, NEC, and NXP Semiconductors. These companies are also promoting the new standard of USB 3.0.
But AMD, nVidia, and VIA Technologies have jointly made an attempt to develop another "USB 3.
A team of scientists from the United States, United Kingdom and the Netherlands have determined that chemicals that form the building blocks of DNA and RNA found in a meteorite had formed before the meteorite fell to Earth. In a paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters on June 15, the team documents an examination of molecules found in the Murchison meteorite, fragments of which landed near the village of Murchison, Victoria in Australia in 1969.
Previous studies had identified amino acids and sugars in the meteorite that were b
The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM), or Jason-2, satellite, has been launched into low Earth orbit. A Delta II rocket carrying the satellite lifted off from Space Launch Complex 2W at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, United States, at 07:46 GMT this morning. Spacecraft separation occurred around an hour later, and the solar panels on the satellite have deployed.
OSTM is a collaboration between the American space agency, NASA, and the French space agency, CNES. It will study and map the surface of the oceans from space. The
The "2008 Research @ Intel Day" showcased conceptual innovations in the fields of visual computing, wireless, health care, environment, and life sciences.
Last Wednesday, Intel said it is investing some of its $6 billion research budget in the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
Technology related to mobile computing, green technology, WiMAX and wireless networking, solutions for healthcare with SHIMMER and BioMOBIUS technology, an intelligent identification robot named "BarKeep", and Platform Power Management, were showcase
Six Orbcomm satellites have been launched by a Russian Kosmos-3M carrier rocket. Lift-off, from Site 107 at the Kapustin Yar launch site in South-West Russia, occurred at 06:36:28 GMT. This is the first orbital launch to occur from Kapustin Yar since April 1999.
Orbcomm is an American company which operates a constellation of communications satellites in low Earth orbit. The satellites launched today were five Quick Launch satellites, and a technology demonstration spacecraft which will be operated in conjunction with the United States Coastgu
