Space Center hosting "Shuttlebration"

:Space Center Houston invites you to attend “Shuttlebration Weekend” in honor of the arrival of the full-size Space Shuttle replica, arriving on Friday, June 1  by barge at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) dock located at 3000 NASA Parkway on Clear Lake near the Houston Hilton NASA Clear Lake hotel. 


Following the replica’s arrival, which is estimated between 3 and 5 p.m., there will be a free celebration for the public between the dock and the hotel. The event area will open at 2 p.m.  for viewing as the replica arrives at the dock to the welcoming fanfare of a fire boat water arch. The event will include space exploration exhibits and activities, food, entertainment and a fireworks show to end the evening at 9 p.m.  Note: There will be no pets, coolers or outside food/beverages allowed in the event area. 


Public parking will be provided on NASA’s Johnson Space Center property using Gate 3 for entrance/exit located off of Space Center Blvd. with tram transportation to and from the event location. No public parking is available at the event.
On Saturday, June 2, the Space Shuttle replica will be loaded onto a mobile transfer vehicle for transport to Space Center Houston. The lakeside load-out will take a full day to complete.? There are no public events planned for this day.
On Sunday, June 3, the replica will make an estimated three-hour trek down NASA Parkway from the Hilton to its permanent home at Space Center Houston. Once on Space Center Houston property, the replica will be welcomed by JSC’s prototype planetary rovers for future solar system exploration, local scout troops and marching bands as it is rolled to its location. Following the arrival, there will be a free family-oriented public celebration in the Space Center Houston parking lot from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., offering viewing opportunities of the replica, NASA space exploration exhibits, fun activities for the entire family and much more.

For detailed “Shuttlebration Weekend” information and traffic advisories, visit http://www.spacecenter.org/shuttlebration.html

Venus to transit Sun - don't look at it.

click to enlarge

On June 5th, 2012, Venus will pass across the face of the sun, producing a silhouette that no one alive today will likely see again.

Transits of Venus are very rare, coming in pairs separated by more than a hundred years. This June's transit, the bookend of a 2004-2012 pair, won't be repeated until the year 2117. Fortunately, the event is widely visible. Observers on seven continents, even a sliver of Antarctica, will be in position to see it. 

The nearly 7-hour transit begins at 3:09 pm Pacific Daylight Time (22:09 UT) on June 5th. The timing favors observers in the mid-Pacific where the sun is high overhead during the crossing. In the USA, the transit will be at its best around sunset. That's good, too. Creative photographers will have a field day imaging the swollen red sun "punctured" by the circular disk of Venus.

Observing tip: Do not stare at the sun. Venus covers too little of the solar disk to block the blinding glare. Instead, use some type of projection technique or a solar filter. A #14 welder's glass is a good choice. Many astronomy clubs will have solar telescopes set up to observe the event; contact your local club for details.

Transits of Venus first gained worldwide attention in the 18th century. In those days, the size of the solar system was one of the biggest mysteries of science. The relative spacing of planets was known, but not their absolute distances. How many miles would you have to travel to reach another world? The answer was as mysterious then as the nature of dark energy is now.

Venus was the key, according to astronomer Edmund Halley. He realized that by observing transits from widely-spaced locations on Earth it should be possible to triangulate the distance to Venus using the principles of parallax.

The idea galvanized scientists who set off on expeditions around the world to view a pair of transits in the 1760s. The great explorer James Cook himself was dispatched to observe one from Tahiti, a place as alien to 18th-century Europeans as the Moon or Mars might seem to us now. Some historians have called the international effort the "the Apollo program of the 18th century."

› View larger
A double transit: the International Space Station and Venus on June 8, 2004. Photo courtesy of Tomas Maruska.In retrospect, the experiment falls into the category of things that sound better than they actually are. Bad weather, primitive optics, and the natural "fuzziness" of Venus’s atmosphere and other factors prevented those early observers from gathering the data they needed. Proper timing of a transit would have to wait for the invention of photography in the century after Cook’s voyage. In the late 1800s, astronomers armed with cameras finally measured the size of the Solar System as Edmund Halley had suggested.

This year’s transit is the second of an 8-year pair. Anticipation was high in June 2004 as Venus approached the sun. No one alive at the time had seen a Transit of Venus with their own eyes, and the hand-drawn sketches and grainy photos of previous centuries scarcely prepared them for what was about to happen. Modern solar telescopes captured unprecedented view of Venus’s atmosphere backlit by solar fire. They saw Venus transiting the sun’s ghostly corona, and gliding past magnetic filaments big enough to swallow the planet whole.

2012 should be even better as cameras and solar telescopes have improved. Moreover, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory is going to be watching too. SDO will produce Hubble-quality images of this rare event.

Naked unicyclist gets ticketed

KEMAH, Texas — Police say a man arrested in a Southeast Texas city for riding his unicycle in the nude was distracting drivers and creating a hazard.

Kemah (KEE’-muh) police Chief Greg Rikard (RY’-kurd) says 45-year-old Joseph Glynn Farley was not intoxicated or impaired when he was arrested Wednesday on a bridge in the city 20 miles southeast of Houston.

Rikard says Farley had been falling off the unicycle and into traffic.

Farley told officers that he liked the feeling of riding without his clothes, which were found at the base of the bridge.

Police charged Farley, of Clear Lake, with misdemeanor indecent exposure. Bond is set at $1,500.

Online jail records did not list an attorney for Farley.

By Hannah Winston
Correspondent

Published: Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 8:20 p.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, May 6, 2012 at 8:20 p.m.

Robert Oehl grew up with astronauts for neighbors. In Clear Lake City, Texas, during the Apollo space mission years, Oehl was surrounded by what he calls the pinnacle of human achievement: space flight.

“To say Neil Armstrong lived here and Buzz Aldrin lived there is amazing,” he said, remembering walking down his block as a teen.

Or even passing Jim Lovell, the Apollo 13 commander, when he walked around town, to this day tickles him.

“It was an exciting time when America was on top of the world,” Oehl said.

His father, Don Oehl, worked for Grumman Aircraft as a senior field representative in the lunar module program. He also worked on the fuel cells for the Apollo 13 mission.

The infamous flight nearly didn't make it home after an oxygen tank exploded and two of the three fuel cells lost power almost 200,000 miles from Earth in 1970, according to NASA.gov.

His father, along with others in the team, sat in the Apollo simulator to figure out the problem and eventually get the three astronauts home alive.

“Those are the real national heroes,” Robert Oehl said of those in the NASA program.

Now, Oehl, co-founder and director of the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum, gets to sit in his own simulator and teach the next generation to appreciate and understand the final frontier.

Red the rest of the story HERE.
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Last shuttle ferry captivates nation ...

WASHINGTON -- Retired space shuttle Discovery streaked across the sky one last time Tuesday, piggybacking on a modified Boeing 747 jetliner to Washington Dulles International Airport as it headed for its final resting place: on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Caroline Boucher, who was visiting from Bangor, Pa.

Tourists and locals gathered on the National Mall, on rooftops and at other sites around the nation’s capital to see the historic shuttle in flight before it goes on permanent display at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va.


A 7-year-old boy dressed as an astronaut posed for pictures as his sister stomped on a toy air pump, firing a foam rocket into the air. Bystanders gazed with binoculars, pointing and taking photos as the conjoined crafts took a tandem flight over Washington at an approximate altitude of 1,500 feet — less than three times the height of the Washington Monument — perfect for viewing.

“Wow,” Boucher said. “That’s so cool.”
The monstrous pairing made three passes over the National Mall, where more than 100 spectators had gathered around the Washington Monument. Onlookers gasped, cheered, oohed and aahed, breaking into applause once Discovery cruised out of sight for the last time.
“I feel like I should burst into patriotic song,” exclaimed Meg Cuvellier, a nurse from Litchfield, N.H.

With more flights into space than any other craft, Discovery has circled Earth 5,628 times and carried 246 crew members to orbit. During a mission in 1998, one of those crew members was astronaut John Glenn, then 77 years old. The former senator — the first American to orbit Earth, in 1962 — became the oldest astronaut to fly into space.
The historical significance resonated for Lisa Percival of Seattle, who was in Washington on a one-day layover and staying three blocks from the Mall. Percival was in kindergarten when Glenn made his first voyage into space.

“I remember they brought the entire school into the gym and we all watched the flight on a 12-inch black-and-white TV, and here we are all these years later,” Percival said. “It’s extraordinary.”

Percival walked from her hotel to watch Discovery as it passed behind the U.S. Capitol. “I had tears in my eyes and goose bumps,” she said. “I never dreamed I would see a sight like that.”
Like giant steel Russian dolls stacked one atop the other, the 175,000-pound shuttle balanced on three struts sticking out from atop the shuttle carrier aircraft, a four-engine, intercontinental-range jumbo jet used to transport NASA spacecraft. Before takeoff, the two crafts were joined by a crane and scaffolding that hoisted the shuttle in the air, allowing its escort plane to taxi into position underneath.

“Discovery has done the full scope of human spaceflight,” said Isabel Lara, a spokeswoman for the National Air and Space Museum. “It has had every type of mission, so it fully represents what the space shuttle program accomplished.”

In 1990, Discovery deployed the Hubble telescope and played an integral role in the International Space Station’s development. The first Americans to return to space after the Challenger and Columbia disasters flew on the wings of Discovery. On March 9, 2011, the shuttle completed its 39th and final mission. It’s the first of the three active shuttles to be retired by NASA.

“The shuttle is easily the most sophisticated flying machine ever devised, and anybody who sees the flyover of Discovery is seeing a very, very historic spacecraft,” said Pat Duggins, the author of “Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program.”
NASA will officially hand over the shuttle to the Smithsonian during a ceremony Thursday at Discovery’s new home.

Glenn and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden are among the scheduled speakers.
“It is an icon and it will join its colleagues — the Apollo command module, the Wright Flyer and the Concord — in the museum’s collection,” Lara said.
The Smithsonian will celebrate its new acquisition with four days of special events, including film viewings, performances and appearances by Discovery crew members.
As the shuttle program retires, NASA is at work designing and building “the most powerful rocket ever that will take Americans deeper and farther into space than ever before,” said Michael Curie, a spokesman for NASA.

“With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the orbiters are being placed in museums, where generations of Americans will be able to learn and draw inspiration from them,” Curie said. “This now allows NASA to turn the page and look to the future, where human spaceflight will once again focus on exploration.”



Read more here:

Discovery's last flight ...

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) – You almost want to rub your eyes when you first see it. It doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t belong there. But there it is, the space shuttle Discovery mounted on top of a specially modified Boeing 747 airplane.

At first light Tuesday, Discovery flew out from the Kennedy Space Center one last time. In a salute to the past and all those who were part of the shuttle program, the aircraft flew over launchpad A, down the beach and over the space center visitor complex before heading north.

Discovery’s next stop will be its last. The oldest of the three orbiters, with more than 148 million miles clocked, is going to the Smithsonian in Washington.

“Bittersweet,” said Discovery’s last commander, Steve Lindsey, “is an overused word, but it is sad.” Lindsey and the five others who flew last February on mission 133 came out to say goodbye.
With every step toward retirement, the shuttle fleet becomes more a part of history. In 30 years of flying there were grand accomplishments and heart-wrenching tragedies. A space flying machine with wings, it was like nothing ever built.

But dwelling in that past would be a mistake, Lindsey said.
“We’ve got to move on, we’ve got to make sure that spaceflight doesn’t die in this nation,” he said. “We still have (the) space station going, but if we don’t get ourselves heavy lift, get going with exploration or part of what I’m working on — the commercial program — then we risk losing this as a nation, and I don’t want to do that.”

In some ways, the past is meeting the future here. Just a few miles to the south at Cape Canaveral, Space X is in its final preparations to launch its Dragon spacecraft. It is a hugely critical test scheduled for the end of April. Space X hopes to be the first commercial company to rendezvous and then berth with the international space station.

Next year Space X plans to start ferrying cargo to the station and, in four years, U.S. astronauts.
Alvin Drew, a mission specialist on Discovery, said these companies vying to pick up where the shuttle left off are taking a leap of faith.

“These guys who run the commercial companies will tell you with the money they could have been there in 2015 if the money was there,” Drew said. “You tie yourself to government funding, you are making a tough deal, because there’s no guarantee the succeeding administrations or congresses are going to continue your funding.”

Commercial companies say their new vehicles will be many times safer than the shuttles. It has to be that way now, Drew said.

“We had bigger budgets and a bigger tolerance for failure and loss of life back in the ’60s and early ’70s than we have in this particular generation,” Drew said. “So the shuttle was built for that generation of explorers and I’m not sure it fit well in our current society or current culture. The risks you would take for the shuttle I think are higher than most people are willing to accept in 2012.”
When Discovery gets to Washington, it will replace Enterprise, which now sits in the Smithsonian. Enterprise, a test shuttle that never flew in space, will go to New York and eventually into its new home at the Intrepid Museum.

The shuttle Endeavour will, by the end of the year, be heading to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Atlantis will take up permanent residence at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. That will be the final exclamation point to the end of an era of space exploration.

Book: "Dark jealousy" lead to Clear Lake high school murders

The Daily Mail: Christine Paolilla was viciously bullied in high school over the outlandish wigs and messy drawn-on eyebrows she wore to hide the fact that she went bald as a young child.

When Tiffany Rowell and Rachael Koloroutis, two of the most popular girls at suburban Clear Lake High School outside Houston, Texas, befriended her, they made Paolilla into a new woman.

They taught her to dress and do her makeup. They helped her buy more attractive wigs. When they were done with her transformation, Paolilla was voted 'Miss Irresistible' by her class.

But police say a dark jealous streak drove 17-year-old Paolilla, along with her drug-addict boyfriend, to gun down Rowell and Koloroutis, both 18, along with Rowell's boyfriend and his cousin.

The killings were committed in such a brutal fashion that police concluded they were the result of deep personal hatred. Rowell and Koloroutis were both shot multiple times, including in the crotch -- evidence of sexual envy.

When Paolilla realized Koloroutis was still alive despite being shot 12 times, she grabbed the barrel of her pistol and, holding it like a hammer, used the butt of the handle to bash in her best friend's head as she choked on her own blood.

'He was slashing and hacking, man': Speed Freak Killer describes how partner killed woman, 25, in footage of police interrogation
'They went to celebrate life but a life was destroyed': Fight at baby shower 'triggered deadly shooting of nine-month-old boy while he slept'
The cold-blooded murders remained a mystery that baffled police for three years. Investigators never suspected a 17-year-old friend could be responsible for such a horrendous crime.

A new book, 'Never See Them Again' by true crime writer M. William Phelps, exposes the gut-wrenching story of a teen plagued by drug abuse and consumed by jealousy who turned on 'the only people who wouldn’t stab me in the back.'

Revelation comes as little surprise, in retrospect, to the family of her 21-year-old boyfriend at the time, Chris Snider.

In Snider's house, Paolilla became known as 'the psycho,' according to Snider's sister Brandee for her obsessive behavior and 'crushing jealousy.' Snider called the police on Paolilla several times, Phelps wrote.

When they would fight, Paolilla would sleep on Snider's front lawn until he let her inside. She rattled the screen door and tried to break into the house.

She demanded violently rough sex from him, as if 'she wanted him to punish her.'

But Snider, for his part, was no choir boy. He was 'pushy and aggressive' and had a hard drug habit.

Rowell and Koloroutis urged Paolilla to dump him, saying she could do much better for herself.

When Paolilla confessed to her crimes three years later, she says it was Snider's idea to visit her two friends and rob them.

By this time, Rowell and Koloroutis had graduated and were pulling in large cash tips working at a local strip club. Rowell was dating Marcus Ray Precella, 19, who dealt cocaine and ecstasy.

In the afternoon on July 18, 2003, Paolilla and Snider went to visit Rowell and Kolorouti, who were home with Precella and his cousin, Adelbert Nicholas Sanchez, 21.


'I remember her being intensely jealous. There must have been some underlying jealousy between (Christine Paolilla) and (Rachael Koloroutis). When I saw photos of (Rachael), I knew instantly. She was very beautiful.'

Paolilla said Snider surprised her by thrusting a pistol into her hand before the robbery. He surprised her again during the robbery, she said, by shooting Precella.

Paolilla says the first shot triggered a rampage inside her. She claimed the gun went off on its own and she began firing blindly and sobbing.

But police say the crime scene they discovered, four bloody bodies in the living room of a home in suburban Clear Lake City, Texas, showed a clear-eyed execution.

They counted 40 shots fired. Most were directed at Rowell and Koloroutis. Paolilla shot both women in the groin -- wounds that were absent in the men.

Koloroutis was wounded in the buttocks, meaning she was likely shot trying to run away. As she choked on her own blood, Paolilla walked over, police say, and repeatedly bashed her in the head with the butt of her pistol.

Police noted distinctive 'overkill' in the female victims, meaning their killer had intense personal animosity toward them.

This behavior from Paolilla doesn't surprise Brandee Snider.

'I remember her being intensely jealous,' she said, according to the New York Post.

'There must have been some underlying jealousy between (Paolilla) and (Koloroutis). When I saw photos of (Koloroutis), I knew instantly. She was very beautiful.'

A break in the case didn't come for three years. Paolilla had just married a man she met in rehab when a TV special on the unsolved Houston murders came up on TV. She saw a sketch of the suspect. It looked just like her.

That's when Paolilla confessed to her new husband. The pair went on the run, staying in a hotel room for seven months straight without leaving.

When police, acting on a tip, caught up with Paolilla, they found a fetid room littered with more than 100 needles from heroin use and smeared with dog feces,

When officers closed in on Snider, he ran into the woods with a bottle of pills and soda. They found in dead from a deliberate drug overdose.

Paolilla never fully confessed to her part in the killings -- she always blamed most of her actions on Snider.

However, thanks to testimony from her new husband, a jury convicted her of four counts of capital murder. Because she was a minor during the killings, she was spared the death penalty and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison

STS-107 Columbia remembered ...

February 1, 2012 is the eighth anniversary Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which claimed the lives of all seven crew members.

The shuttle disintegrated during reentry after superheated gases penetrated a damaged spot on its left wing. The initial damage had occurred shortly after launch, when a briefcase-sized piece of insulating foam broke off from an external fuel tank and smashed against the wing.

Columbia disintegrated about 15 minutes before it was scheduled to touch down at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

As a result of the disaster, President Bush announced his eventual goal to retire the remaining space shuttles but assured the public that the manned space program would continue. "The cause in which they died will continue," he said. "Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on."

Late January also marks the dates of two other dark moments for NASA and the nation's manned space program.

The Columbia Space Shuttle disaster claimed the lives of Commander Rick D. Husband, Pilot William C. McCool, Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon, Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, Mission Specialist David M. Brown and Mission Specialist Laurel Clark.

READ MORE HERE

Severe weather expected today in Houston area

KRPC: You can see a wall of heavy rain," KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthony Yanez. "From 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock is the time to watch for these dangerous storms."

"Do not take these warnings lightly. Typically, whenever we get these and see a pattern like we had this morning, we'll see a handful of tornadoes," Yanez said.

Gusty winds and scattered showers moved through the area at 2 a.m., knocking out power to 30,000 CenterPoint Energy customers. As of 6:30 a.m., approximately 18,000 people remained without electricity.

"Earlier this morning, we had wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph," Yanez said. "That's what knocked down some of those trees and power lines. We could still see some 60 mph straight-line winds, hail and lots of lightning."

A low-pressure system is responsible for strong storms in central and northern Texas, which are expected to drench the Houston area most of the day.

"There's a couple of lines that we're tracking. The strongest one will arrive in Houston around noon. It's a concern for this morning until early afternoon. The radar is picking up a lot of twisting winds," Yanez said. "It's going to be wet from 8 o'clock all the way through 2 o'clock. By 5 p.m., this storm system will be in our eastern counties."

Yanez said south of Interstate 10 is not expected to see the strongest storms.

"It's a lot more scattered and not as well put together," Yanez said.

Power outages caused problems for some southwest Houston businesses.

Whataburger on the Southwest Freeway near Weslayan had to turn away customers when employees could not prepare food for the morning rush.

"Their lights just came back on (at 6 a.m.), but they weren't ready to serve yet," customer Carol Bennett said.

Many Houstonians were worried about flooding after severe weather left its mark on Jan. 9.

Houston firefighters performed about 140 water rescues when people became stranded in high water.

Officials warned drivers to "turn around, not drown" if they approached rising water.

Flooding is the most common hazard in Houston and many times, individuals are not able to judge the depths of water along roadways and find themselves in perilous conditions.

Officials said 6 inches of water can cause tires to lose traction and begin to slide, and 12 inches of water can float many cars. Two feet of rushing water will carry off pickup trucks, SUVs and most other vehicles.

Water across a roadway may hide a missing segment of road or a missing bridge, officials said.

In flash floods, waters rise so rapidly they may be far deeper by the time you are halfway across, trapping you in your vehicle.

Be especially cautious at night, when it's even more difficult to gauge the amount of water in a roadway.

The safest option is to simply avoid driving over water and find an alternate, safer route, or wait until the danger has passed.

Demolition crews bring down Houston skyscraper

by KHOU
KHOU
Posted on January 9, 2012 at 7:57 AM
Updated today at 8:14 AM

HOUSTON — A big boom could be heard on Sunday at the Texas Medical Center in Houston as demolition crews brought down a 20-story building that was once the home of KVUE's sister station, KHOU-TV.

Rare treat: Houstonians can watch as Space Station crosses Moon

A slice of Houston will have a chance to view a rare treat this evening.

Not only will the International Space Station make an incredibly bright, six-minute track across the sky tonight, some observers will be able to see the orbital laboratory blink across the moon.

Beginning at 6:28 p.m. the station will rise above the northwest horizon in Houston, and disappear just above the southeast horizon some six minutes later. Skies are forecast to be partly cloudy.

Along this path, for some parts of Houston all the way to Galveston, the station’s track will bring it across the face of the moon.

The following map, made by Steve Clayworth of Observable Universe, shows the approximate area from which this will be visible.

Clear Lake woman poses as Texas Workforce Commission contractor.

By FLORIAN MARTIN

A Clear Lake woman is being sued by the state of Texas for allegedly posing as a Texas Workforce Commission contractor.

The state accuses Rebecca Lynn Dauler of approaching several Clear Lake area businesses pretending to work with the TWC and selling them safety posters that they could have obtained for free from the TWC.

According to the petition, the TWC was contacted by several businesses that stated that Dauler claimed that the TWC hired her company, 4 Compliance Today, to conduct inspections of the businesses to determine their compliance with Texas workplace laws and regulations.
She would then point out safety posters that she said were not in compliance with the law and sell them posters that she claimed were for $49.99 each, according to the lawsuit.

She also allegedly told one business that it could be shut down if it didn’t comply and to another, which refused entry to her, that she would “make a note” that the company would not let her into the facility, according to the document.

In a sworn affidavit, the director of TWC’s office of investigations, Bradford Ward, said he called Dauler on Aug. 12 and told her to stop pretending to be a TWC representative or the agency would sue her. He also said Dauler denied that she told businesses that she worked with the state.

However, Ward said, he received another complaint regarding Dauler pretending to work with the TWC from a business after the conversation with her.
The state is asking the court to impose penalties over $20,000 on Dauler for each of the six alleged violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act, to order Dauler to pay back the money that she received from the businesses as well as to pay the court costs

Poster in Katy draws complaints ...

KHOU: Imagine a poster that shows a man being hanged and a couple dozen armed cowboys posing under him, with a caption that reads "Lets Play Cowboy's And IRANIANS!"

Then imagine that poster hanging in your local restaurant. Do you find this offensive? or funny?

Nonmacher's Barbecue in Katy, Texas, is fighting with that very scenario.

One customer told KTRK in Houston, "You know it's 2011, looking at it now, I see nothing really more than a display of racism and bigotry." He continues to say, "I don't think something like this should really be accepted by any community."

The owner of the restaurant, John Nonmacher, tells Desmond that the poster has been there on the wall for 30 years and he has never had a complaint. Now that the word is being spread, his phone has been ringing off the hook.

He says the poster was made by some Houstonians in 1979 as a reenactment of the Iran Hostage crisis. Iranians held more than 50 Americans for 444 days.

Nonmacher says "I laughed and I'm still laughing. I mean, they don't understand what it is. They don't care to understand, and somebody's taking it upon themselves to campaign and crusade."

If you're ever in Katy, Texas, and stop by Nonmacher's Barbeque, take a minute to find the poster. Despite requests to remove the poster, Nonmacher says, "It's my choice to have it up. It's your choice to go where you want to go. But I'm not going to take it down."

League City man faces child pornography charges.

SANTA FE, Texas — A 34-year-old League City man faces child pornography charges after investigators claimed the man downloaded illegal images to his computer, Santa Fe police said.

Santa Fe police Detective Heather Burd, who is a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, tracked a series of child pornography downloads to a League City Internet address.

James Karl Dunivan was arrested at his home in the 1200 block of Halls Bridge in League City on Monday morning.

Quake shakes South Texas ...

Click to enlarge:



A shallow, moderate earthquake struck southern Texas (TX) on Thursday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). It was the strongest earthquakes to hit the U.S. state in 45 years.

The 4.8 magnitude quake, upgraded from 4.6mb, occured at 07:25 AM local time (13:25 PM GMT) and was recorded at an extremely shallow depth of 3km (1.9 miles). It struck below Fashing, but was felt as far as Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Austin.

The epicentre of the quake was located 22 km (14 miles) NW (321°) from Pawnee, TX; 23 km (14 miles) SSW (213°) from Falls City, TX; 26 km (16 miles) WSW (249°) from Karnes City, TX; 60 km (37 miles) NW of Beeville, TX; 76 km (47 miles) SSE (154°) from San Antonio, TX; 92 km (57 miles) E of Pearsall, TX; 166 km (103 miles) SSW of AUSTIN, TX; and 463 km (288 miles) SSW (197°) from Dallas, TX.

The last time Texas experienced a tremor similar in intensity to Thursday’s quake was on July 20, 1966. The magnitude 4.8 earthquake was centred in the Panhandle, near Borger and Amarillo.

The most recent earthquake to strike the region hit on 25 April, 2010. The 4.0 magnitude earthquake was recorded 56 km west of Corpus Christi.

Houston fights NYC to get space shuttle back

Folks in Texas who are close to the space program were not happy from the get-go. Here they were, home to the Johnson Space Center, Mission Control, the Astronaut Corp., and they didn’t get one of NASA’s retired space shuttles.

They were angry. “No city in the world deserves an orbiter more than Houston, Texas,” said U.S. Representative Pete Olson from Texas.

Now, they are even angrier. “It’s a bait and switch,” U.S. Representative Ted Poe told CNN. Why does Poe say that?

At a cost of nearly $30 million dollars a piece, dozens of museums bid for one of the retired space shuttles. New York’s Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the Hudson River was one of the winners. It gets Enterprise, a test shuttle that never flew into space, currently at the Smithsonian.

That’s what got Texans angry to begin with. Poe says, “New York - God Bless them - they’re a wonderful city, but they have no connection to the space program and no connection to NASA, so why would the shuttle go to New York? It’s like putting the Statue of Liberty in Omaha.”

What set Texans off again and sparked the “bait and switch” remark is the Intrepid Museum’s plan for housing the shuttle Enterprise.

Back in May of 2010, before the shuttles were awarded, here’s what the museum’s director Susan Marenoff-Zausner told CNN: “On the west end of the pier we currently have the Concorde. And we would look to shift the placement of the Concorde and place the shuttle in that spot.”

Well, all that has apparently changed. The new plan is to construct a building for the Enterprise not on the pier but across a busy highway on land the museum doesn’t yet own. The land is now a parking lot next to a car wash, warehouses and a bagel shop. A walk bridge over the highway would connect the main museum to the Enterprise Building.

Back when the museum was still lobbying for a shuttle, officials there were more than anxious to talk with us. Now, they turned down our request for an interview. Instead, they issued a statement, “We look forward to Enterprise’s arrival at the Intrepid, which will quickly become New York City’s newest landmark and seen by millions of visitors to our great city. While we continue to be in the planning stages, we remain on track with both our logistics and our fundraising.”

But, it’s not what they promised. Says Representative Poe: “Time to re-open the bidding process again because the person that got the bid really isn’t fulfilling the obligation that they agreed to. So, re-evaluate it.”

You often hear the expression, “location, location, location.” Location is one of the primary reasons NASA selected New York. The space agency wants its retired shuttles to be seen by as many eyeballs as possible. New York has a huge advantage there.

NASA’s Administrator Charles Bolden seems fine with New York’s new plan and location saying, “I don’t tell them how to suck eggs. You know, they gave us a plan. They told us they would have the money. They gave us a schedule and everything and as far as I know, they’re on schedule and so I trust them that they’re gonna deliver what they said.”

It will be at least a year before any of the retired shuttles are delivered to museums. Atlantis will stay in Florida at the Kennedy Space Center. Endeavour goes to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The Smithsonian gets Discovery. To make room for Discovery, Enterprise has to move to New York.

If its new building isn’t ready, Enterprise would likely be housed in a climate controlled tent at the city’s JFK Airport.

Police need help finding robbery suspect

PASADENA, Texas - Police are asking for help from the public to find a suspect in three robberies reported within a two-week period in Pasadena.
The robberies took place between Sept. 12, Sept. 20, and Sept. 25.

The first robbery was reported at 12:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12 at a Shell fuel station in the intersection of Fairmont Parkway and Preston Road.

The second robbery was reported after 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20 at a Chevron fuel station also in the intersection of Fairmont Parkway and Preston Road.
The third robbery was reported before 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25 at a Mobil fuel station on Strawberry Road near Everglade Drive.

The suspect entered each store before sunset, threatened clerks on duty with a knife and demanded money, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Pasadena PD. He is described as a Hispanic man who stands at a height of between 5 feet 5-inches and 5-feet 7-inches tall, weighs between 130 and 150 pounds with short black hair, a goatee. Surveillance video captured images of the suspect wearing sunglasses, a long-sleeved blue-gray sweatshirt, possibly matching pants, and white gloves.

Police describe the vehicle a tan or gray newer model sport utility vehicle, possibly a Ford Expedition. During at least one of the robberies, the SUV was driven by a female.

Anyone with information on the identity of the suspect and/or driver in these cases is asked to contact the Pasadena Police Department by phone at 713-477-1221 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-8477 (TIPS).


Read more: http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/local/110927-pasadena-store-robberies#ixzz1ZqEt6RZn

NASA allocating 1.6B to private sector for space taxi.

NASA on Monday unveiled a plan that will allocate $1.61 billion to private companies that will transport U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station and low Earth orbit.
The program, which will run from July 2012 to April 2014, will provide funds to multiple companies, which must design and maintain spacecraft, launch vehicles, launch services, ground and mission operations, and recovery.

"This is a significant step forward in America's amazing story of space exploration," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement. "It's further evidence we are committed to fully implementing our plan—as laid out in the Authorization Act—to outsource our space station transportation so NASA can focus its energy and resources on deep space exploration."

NASA retired its space shuttle fleet over the summer and has since relied on Russian spacecraft to get its astronauts to the ISS (at a price of $50 million per person). During the most recent Soyuz landing, however, communications between the landing craft and Russia's Roscosmos space agency broke down for several minutes after the Soyuz capsule had de-orbited. Contact was re-established before landing and no one was injured, but the "space taxis" announced by NASA this week gives the agency another option for getting its astronauts to the ISS.

The effort, known as Integrated Design Contract (IDC) "will bring us through the critical design phase to fully incorporate our human spaceflight safety requirements and NASA's International Space Station mission needs," said NASA Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango. "We look forward to strong U.S. industry response."

To push development, NASA also said it will fund some optional programs negotiated as add-ons to existing Commercial Crew Development (CCDev2) Space Act Agreements (SAA) initially awarded in April. Specifically, Sierra Nevada Corp. will get $25.6 million for a total of $105.6 million, while Boeing will take home another $20.6 million for a total of $112.9 million. Space Exploration Technologies/SpaceX and Blue Origin have also been awarded contracts.

"All four CCDev2 partners are performing very well and meeting their milestones," said Phil McAlister, director of NASA's Commercial Spaceflight Development. "These additional milestones were selected because they sufficiently accelerated the development of commercial crew transportation systems to justify additional NASA investment."

NASA wants to build most powerful rocket ever - but if wishes were horses -beggars would be riders...

WASHINGTON (AP) — To soar far away from Earth and even on to Mars, NASA has dreamed up the world's most powerful rocket, a behemoth that borrows from the workhorse liquid-fuel rockets that sent Apollo missions into space four decades ago.

But with a price tag that some estimate at $35 billion, it may not fly with Congress.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and several members of Congress on Wednesday unveiled the Obama administration's much-delayed general plans for its rocket design, called the Space Launch System. The multibillion-dollar program would carry astronauts in a capsule on top, and the first mission would be 10 years off if all goes as planned. Unmanned test launches are expected from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in six years.

Calling it the "largest, most powerful rocket built," NASA's exploration and operations chief, William Gerstenmaier, said the rocket will be tough to construct. But when NASA does it, "we'll have a capability to go beyond low-Earth orbit like no other nation does here on Earth," he said in a telephone briefing Wednesday.

The rocket resembles those NASA relied on before the space shuttle, but even its smallest early prototype will have 10 percent more thrust than the Saturn V that propelled Apollo astronauts to the moon. When it is built to its fuller size, it will be 20 percent more powerful, Gerstenmaier said. That bigger version will have the horsepower of 208,000 Corvette engines.

NASA is trying to remain flexible on where it wants to go and when. The space agency is aiming for a nearby asteroid around 2025 and then on to Mars in the 2030s. There could even be a short hop to the moon, but not as a main goal. All those targets require lots of brute force to escape Earth's orbit, something astronauts have not done since 1972.

The far-from-finalized price tag may be too steep given federal budget constraints.
"Will it be tough times going forward? Of course it is," Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said in a separate news conference. "We are in an era in which we have to do more with less — all across the board — and the competition for the available dollars will be fierce. But what we have here now are the realistic costs" verified by independent experts.

Although five senators of both parties who are leaders in science issues praised the plan in a joint press release, outside experts are skeptical that Congress will agree to such a big spending project.

"In the current political environment, new spending is probably the most taboo thing in politics," said Stan Collender, a former Democratic congressional budget analyst. He put the odds of this getting congressional approval at "no better than 50-50 this year. There are going to be a lot of questions asking what kind of commitment we're going to be making here. You can find yourself with a rocket that no one wants to fire."

Nelson puts the cost of the program at about $18 billion over the next five years. But that estimate is mostly for development and design through the first test flight in 2017, and doesn't include production of later rockets, Gerstenmaier said. Gerstenmaier wouldn't give a total estimate, but it is almost double that, according to senior administration officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make the announcement.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY ON YAHOO NEWS

Bastrop is burning ...

BASTROP

- The most destructive wildfire on record in Texas showed no signs of slowing down Monday, destroying 25,000 acres in Bastrop County and 476 homes, more houses than any single wildfire before and more than all other fires this year combined, according to the Texas Forest Service.

With more than 60 new wildfires raging across the state, Gov. Rick Perry left the campaign trail Monday in South Carolina to address the public and organize requests for more federal aid.

Closer to Houston, a fire in Magnolia burned 20 homes and more than 1,600 acres, and was threatening subdivisions in Montgomery and Grimes counties late Monday. It had moved southwest into Waller County last Monday.

It was one of several fires to hit the area, straining state and local resources as officials focused on the most dangerous blazes. One firefighter was injured and one fire engine burned in blazes in the Magnolia area, said Lt. Dan Norris, spokesman for the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities did not yet know how much of the most dangerous fire had been contained Monday, but planned to continue fighting it "as long as necessary," Norris said.

Strong winds and dry conditions fanned the flames and aided the blaze's rapid growth, forcing the evacuation of more than 150 homes. Montgomery County officials were encouraging evacuations from the intersection of FM 1774 and FM 1488, about 42 miles northwest of Houston, up to the Grimes County line, an official said.

Magnolia fire

The Magnolia fire, located off FM 1774 and FM 1488, jumped FM 1488 late Monday and forced further evacuations, although some families were being allowed back to their homes. The Magnolia Independent School District canceled classes today because of the fires. Evacuation shelters were being set up throughout the area, including at Magnolia High School.

Another fire in the area had burned 100 acres and was 80 percent contained, Norris said. It had destroyed one structure and caused no injuries after 50 homes were evacuated.

A fire covering about 100 acres was burning in Oak Ridge North late Monday.

A fire near Nacogdoches that started Sunday night raged to 300 acres Monday and forced 60 families to evacuate their homes, said Ralph Cullom, a spokesman for the Texas Forrest Service. That fires grew with strong gusts of winds and fed off of dry conditions on the ground.

"This drought we're having is just unprecedented," Cullom said.

No injuries have been reported in Bastrop, but two people were reported killed in a North Texas fire Monday. A woman and her 18-month-old child died when a fast-moving fire near Gladewater, east of Dallas, set their mobile home on fire and they were unable to escape.

The Bastrop County Complex Fire, pushed by strong winds and fed by plenty of dry grasses, shrubs and trees, steadily moved south Monday and expanded throughout the day. It jumped the Colorado River twice.

"We will be working days on end," said Mike Fisher, the Bastrop County Emergency Management Coordinator. "The fire is so dynamic we really have no idea where it is."

'Lives at stake'

Perry said the wildfire burning in the central part of the state is "as mean looking" as he's ever seen.

Driest year on record plagues Texas ...

VOA: Weather forecasters and agriculture experts in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas say there is no relief in sight for what already is the worst drought year on record. The searing heat and dry conditions have caused devastating wildfires in the western part of the large state and led to crop losses, cattle deaths and water rationing in areas of east Texas that are normally wet at this time of year.

Driving through the countryside northwest of Houston, one sees dried up fields, dying trees and livestock ponds that are not much more than a puddles of fetid, algae-covered water. In some towns, farmers' markets have been cancelled because local growers have little to offer. Those with wells for irrigation are struggling with the high cost of fuel to run their pumps.

Debbie Cross, who operates a farmers' market near Cypress, Texas, says people are becoming discouraged by the lack of rain and the high temperatures, which are around 40 degrees most days.

“The drought is hurting everything. It is hurting all the crops, the cattle, the hay. There is no grass. The chickens are miserable. I mean everybody is just miserable. We need water,” Cross said.

Cross says local farmers are unable to supply much fruit and vegetables and that she is getting by with produce trucked in from other states where conditions are better.

“We are getting it from the local southern states and southwestern states are kicking in -- Arizona, New Mexico, Louisiana, Oklahoma. Everybody knows that the Texas market is a great consumer market, so they are helping out a lot here,” Cross said.
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One of the hardest hit agricultural sectors is livestock. Texas is the biggest cattle producer in the United States and ships beef to many foreign markets. Earlier this year, ranchers endured one of the worst winters on record, with several days of subzero temperatures in a region where freezes are rare. The drought has made it even harder, driving up the cost of hay and leaving some areas so dry that cattle have died of thirst in their pastures.

One rancher who has managed to get through this crisis with most of her stock in fairly good condition is Dorie Damuth, owner of the Flying D ranch near Magnolia, Texas.

Damuth raises prize-winning Texas Longhorns for breeding and she has managed to find hay and enough water to keep them alive. She says she has seen dry spells before, but nothing that compares to this year.

“The drought is something I, as a cattle woman, and all of my fellow cattlemen and cattlewomen have never experienced before. This is probably the 100-year drought, just like you can have a 100-year flood. It is very devastating for all of us ranchers who work so hard to provide beef for our country as well as for around the world,” Damuth said.

In a dried up lake on her property, there is a Longhorn skull sitting on top of cracked earth that is muddy and soft underneath.

“We have had lakes and stock ponds on the ranch that have dried up because of no rain, no rainfall. They will dry down to a little mucky place in the middle that is still wet and the cattle will sometimes go down and try to get water and they can't. And they step into that mucky mud and it is kind of like quicksand, and they can't get out.”

Lately, there have been beautiful fluffy clouds floating over the area. But ranch hand Chris Quinters is not encouraged by them.

“Those are some nice clouds, but it don't look like they are going to bring any rain,” Quinters said.

Tough water restrictions in League City ...

LEAGUE CITY, Texas – Severe drought conditions have prompted city officials here to order the strictest water restrictions in Southeast Texas.
At Kelley’s Country Cookin in League City, diners are finding something unusual.
"This is the first year that it’s ever happened," says manager Jennifer Salas.
The city called her last week and told her stage 5 water restrictions were in effect.
That means restaurants can no longer offer water. They can only serve it if customers specifically ask.

While Salas said she’s received no complaints from customers, some of them wondered Sunday whether the restriction was necessary.
"It’s probably a little much," Yessika Katcham said. "Because we’re used to drinking water at restaurants."
Still, Salas agreed with the city’s conservation efforts due to the record-breaking drought.

The water rationing means League City residents can’t water their lawns at all.
"My yard is looking horrible," Adrian Keith said. "My trees - it looks like fall at my house."

Businesses like professional carwashes can use water only between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The city has also closed its pool and won’t maintain the water level.
Violations could cost up to $500.

League City may have the toughest water restrictions. But they are certainly not the only ones in place around Houston.

Galveston has also banned all outdoor watering – although it hasn’t gone as far as League City with other restrictions. Residents in the Woodlands can only soak their lawns on certain days. Katy and Sugar Land have voluntary restrictions.
Houston’s mayor says the city will likely move to mandatory restrictions by the end of this week.

Clear Lake to host water quality conference

By Texas State University

CLEAR LAKE — The Texas Stream Team, based at Texas State University-San Marcos, and the Houston-Galveston Area Council will host the Meeting of the Monitors Conference Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 in Clear Lake at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake.

Attendees can network with staff from more than 15 environmental organizations such as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Water Environment Association of Texas and the Galveston Bay Foundation.

The conference will provide educational and networking opportunities for resident water quality monitors and professionals working in the environmental field.

It also will provide opportunities for the public to learn about relevant water quality issues in Texas.

Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in trainings and workshops on macroinvertebrate identification; fish dissection; data analysis; the monitoring of nutrients, turbidity, streamflow, mussels, invasive species and phytoplankton.

“A collaborative approach to watershed planning is essential,” said Kerry Niemann, the TCEQ nonpoint source program manager.

“That is why it is so important to actively engage citizens by bringing them together to help in information gathering, such as volunteer monitoring efforts and decision making.

The forecast?

Drought uncovers space shuttle Columbia debris

(CNN) -- The recent drought has ruined millions of acres of farmland in Texas, turning lakes into mud puddles, and has many praying for rain.
But in the East Texas city of Nacogdoches, authorities say, the drought may have done something good by helping unearth a piece of the space shuttle Columbia.

The object, which is about 4 feet in diameter, was found in a local lake. NASA says it is a tank that provides power and water for shuttle missions.
"It's one of ours," said Lisa Malone, a spokeswoman for the agency.
Malone added that NASA is trying to develop a plan to recover the item,
But it could take weeks to get it, she said.

"We're looking into whether we'll send a team out or local authorities can," Malone said.

Authorities say the object was found after the drought caused the waters to recede in Lake Nacogdoches, and they notified representatives from NASA on Friday.

"The lower water level has exposed a larger than normal area on the northern side of the lake," said Sgt. Greg Sowell of the Nacogdoches Police Department.
The item is full of mud and is in a remote area near a private shoreline, Sowell said.

Nacogdoches made headlines in 2003 when debris from the shuttle Columbia disaster was found there.

The spacecraft broke up while re-entering Earth's atmosphere near the end of its mission on February 1, 2003.

"We want to remind everyone that the rules are the same as they were back in 2003. If this object is indeed a part of the shuttle, it is government property, and it is a criminal offense to tamper with it," Sowell said.

Wells Fargo robbers sought ...

By MARY ALYS CHERRY

A team of four robbers — three toting shotguns — are being sought by Houston Police and the FBI after they held up the Wells Fargo in the Randalls grocery store at the intersection of Space Center and Clear Lake City Boulevards Monday morning.

The masked men entered Randalls about 10:55 a.m. Monday and then walked to the far end of the store to rob the Wells Fargo branch bank, which is in the store. They arrived in a silver SUV, later found to be stolen, and initially parked it out in front of the store.
As they left, they fled in the SUV, but ditched it in back of the store after driving it into a guard rail. A fourth man may have been waiting for them in a black car, which drove off with the robbers shortly before HPD officers arrived, but this could not be verified.

One of several 9-1-1 calls from Randalls shoppers and employees came in at about 10:55 a.m., HPD spokeswoman Jodi Silva said. The first caller reported that an armed man in a mask was robbing the bank.

When police and deputies from the Precinct 8 Constable’s Office arrived, they found a silver SUV, believed to have been stolen, that had crashed into a guard rail behind Randalls. Thinking the trio may have fled on foot, they called in the HPD helicopter and began searching the area by car and on foot.
An hour later, employees at both the bank and the grocery store were clearly still upset over what they had just witnessed.
THIRD HOLDUP
It is one of three robberies in the past three days.

One was at a bank in Dickinson Saturday morning and another was the holdup of an armored car just outside the Bank of America near Gulfgate about 8 a.m. Monday. The armored car driver reportedly exchanged gunshots with one of the robbers but no one was injured.
Wells Fargo Service Manager Michael Sprott declined to comment about the holdup at his bank as he locked the door, and HPD Sgt. G.A. Llanez referred any questions to the FBI.

TWO SOUGHT
Police also are looking for two men who held up the Texas First Bank in Dickinson shortly after the bank opened at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 23.

The suspects, who robbed the tellers at gunpoint, were described as young, possible in their mid to late 20s, and dark skinned. The suspects were wearing masks and were armed with handguns, Dickinson Police said. They fled the bank in a late model Toyota.
The Toyota was later recovered on Oleander just west of Highway 3, less than one mile from the bank. The vehicle had been stolen earlier in the day during a reported carjacking in Galveston, officers said.

An undetermined amount of cash was taken from the bank. No injuries were reported.

Space Shuttle Atlantis home - end of an era.

USA TODAY:

Atlantis is home," said NASA control moments after its arrival at 5:56 a.m. ET. "Its journey complete. A moment to be savored."

In its final act before beginning the long journey home, Atlantis sent a small payload into orbit on Thursday.

As an era comes to a close, nearly 200 satellites, probes and spacecraft have emerged from the cargo bays of NASA's five space shuttles since the Columbia launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 12, 1981.


"We really wish we could share with everybody this really cool glow," Commander Chris Ferguson radioed as he and his crew entered the Earth's atmosphere in a plasma of heated air before touching down. "We're doing fantastic."

The perfect landing is bittersweet. As sorrowful employees greeted the fabulous flying machine for the final time, plans for NASA's next grand venture remain largely on the drawing board. United Space Alliance, one of the space program's largest employers, will lay off about 2,000 employees on Friday.

President Obama has charged NASA with finding a way to transport astronauts into deep space, either to Mars or an asteroid, but that flight could be a generation away.
Most of the nation's baby boomers can remember the thrilling moment Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, inspiring a generation of kids who idolized astronauts and devoured space science.

The Generation X grew up on the space shuttle, which astronomer and former NASA historian Steven Dick says provided little in the way of ground-breaking exploration and discovery, but great engineering breakthroughs.

"It's definitely the end of the era," Dick said. "The shuttle has been a magnificent flying machine, an engineering marvel, but it has consigned Americans for two generations to low-Earth orbit. I think that's a negative."

Without the excitement of a heart-pounding launch of astronauts blasting toward the stars, America's space program seems destined for a decade of obscurity. American astronauts will hitch rides to the International Space Station on the Russian Soyuz until commercial space companies develop the rockets and capsules to transport humans.

"I hope we won't lose a whole generation. Kids get excited by exploration," Dick said. "I think NASA, in some ways, is doing the right thing by off-loading the routine work of the space shuttle. The only problem is we're a long way from getting something that will take us out of low-Earth orbit."
Until then, NASA is hoping to capture American imagination with telescopes, probes and and unmanned spacecraft.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY HERE

End of shuttle program hurts Houston in more than lost jobs ...

GULFNEWS

The end of the space shuttle programme is hitting its Florida launch home in the pocketbook with some areas practically becoming economic ghost towns. But Houston, home of Mission Control, is getting hit somewhere else: prestige.

Aerospace ranks only fourth among booming industries, far, far behind king oil, Mayor Annise Parker said. It's a pride thing for a city whose baseball team is the Astros and whose basketball team is the Rockets.

Space is "part of our psyche here", Parker said. "It's how we view ourselves as a city."
This is a metropolis of four million people that has tied its identity to space and to the shuttle specifically. But that identity has taken three hard hits and the loss of thousands of jobs is just one of them.

The first blow came in 2004, when then-President George W. Bush announced the end of the space shuttle programme. His plan was to replace it with a return-to-the-moon programme run out of Houston.

Then in 2010, President Barack Obama cancelled that over-budget Houston-centric shuttle replacement programme. He proposed going to an asteroid in a plan that at the moment is less detailed, especially when it comes to Houston's role.

The concept relies on private companies to take Nasa's place when it comes to shuttling people to Earth's orbit and the International Space Station, with Nasa buying rides on these private ships. Many of those private companies — including the acknowledged leader, SpaceX, have little connection to Houston.

Then in April came what some in this city consider the cruellest blow: Houston would not be getting one of the retired shuttles to display.
Many locals, from hotel housekeepers to the mayor, are angry.
"We need space because space was the heart and soul of Houston," says Bob Mitchell, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. "We've got the knowledge and skilled people to move forward."

Last year, 16,613 people in Houston had jobs because of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Nasa's economic impact in Texas was $6.5 billion (Dh24 billion) last year with $2 billion of that because of the space shuttle, the space agency calculated in a recent report. Most of that is in the area around Clear Lake, south of downtown. But Harris County, which includes Houston, has more than 2 million people employed.

And while Nasa means a lot of money, it represents just a fraction of 1 per cent of the state's gross domestic product.

The Houston area has already lost about 2,000 space shuttle jobs — government and private contractors — in the past several months, Mitchell said. Another 1,800 or so lay-offs will come after space shuttle Atlantis lands, ending the programme.
Harris County's May unemployment rate of 8.2 per cent is almost a full percentage point below the national average and looks robust compared to the 10.8 per cent jobless rate on the Florida Space Coast.

The space shuttle's work force nationwide peaked in 1991 at 32,000 government and private contract workers. In 2006, that number was about half that, and now is about 6,300 and shrinking, according to Nasa.

Houston has always been the brains of the space shuttle programme while Florida has been the muscle, the technicians who refurbish, prepare and launch the spacecraft.

Tribute ... last shuttle flight.

God's speed Atlantis! Last shuttle blasts into orbit.

Atlantis' journey to the International Space Station is NASA's 135th and final mission in the space shuttle program, which began 30 years ago.

(CNN) -- The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off Friday morning on the final mission of America's 30-year space-shuttle program.

The four-member crew blasted off on a 12-day mission just before 11:30 a.m. The four -- all shuttle veterans -- are on their way to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

The possibility of storms had raised doubt about whether the launch would take place as planned, but NASA gave the shuttle a "go" for launch a few minutes before liftoff.
Thousands of people, including some who came to Kennedy Space Center three decades ago for the first launch, were gathered to watch. Almost a million people were expected to be on hand to witness the historic event.

One onlooker flew in with a friend Thursday from New York. Unable to find a hotel, the men went to a Walmart and picked up a tent, air mattresses and some tortilla chips and camped out on a nearby spit of land to wait for the launch. Seeing the shuttle blast off, they said, will let them check an item off their things-to-do-before-you-die bucket list.