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The Atlantis astronauts have uncovered a long stretch of nicks on their space shuttle, the result of launch debris. They were inspecting their ship Tuesday for signs of launch damage when they came across the nicks. Mission Control informed the crew that it's a 21-inch stretch of nicks over four to five thermal tiles on the right side of Atlantis. The damage is where the right wing joins the fuselage. Mission Control says it could be related to debris that came off the fuel tank almost two minutes after liftoff. NASA says the damage does not appear to be serious,...

What Won't Nasa Invent Next? By Tim Swanson Posted on 1/2/2007 [Subscribe at email services, tell others, or Digg this story.] Could you imagine if any press outlet reported on the successful landing of each domestic or international flight? The resulting product would most likely resemble the smorgasbord of numbers and symbols typified by stock quotes and would take up an entire section of the daily newspaper. Yet NASA and the entire socialized space establishment are given a free pass whenever they succeed. Take for instance STS 116, the most recent shuttle mission into low-earth orbit.[1] Space shuttle Discovery landed...

First commercial Moon landing gets go-ahead Small step for commercialization of Moon surface. The first private Moon landing has won government authorization. The decision opens the door to the commercialization of the Moon's surface. The US State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have granted TransOrbital, Inc. of La Jolla, California, permission to send its TrailBlazer probe to map the surface of the Moon and photograph Earth. The launch is scheduled for June 2003 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. "The Moon is ripe for commercial development," says Dennis Laurie, head of TransOrbital. "It's a lot closer than...