Free Republic

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA is weighing the risk of adding astronauts to the first flight of its new megarocket, designed to eventually send crews to Mars. The space agency's human exploration chief said Friday that his boss and the Trump administration asked for the feasibility study. The objective is to see what it would take to speed up a manned mission; under the current plan, astronauts wouldn't climb aboard until 2021— at best. The Space Launch System, known as SLS, will be the most powerful rocket when it flies.

WASHINGTON - Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so. The Illinois Democrat said he could no longer stand by the statements he made after his 2004 election and earlier this year that he would serve a full six-year term in Congress. He said he would not make a decision until after the Nov. 7 elections. "That was how I was thinking at that time," said Obama, when asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" about his previous statements. "Given the response I've been getting...

<p>June 17 (Bloomberg) -- When I read an article last week called ``The Effects of Obesity, Smoking, and Drinking On Medical Problems and Costs,'' I thought it was the creepiest thing I'd read in a long time.</p> <p>Roland Sturm, senior economist at the RAND research group, published the study last year in the journal Health Affairs, and since then it's been making the rounds of the public health lobby.</p>