Russia launches new space program
MOSCOW -- Russia has launched a project to create a new generation of spacecraft and boosters, the head of national space administration said on Friday, making clear that they would not appear on orbit before 2020. "A tender to design a new booster and spaceship has been announced," Itar-Tass news agency quoted Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov as saying.
Rays linked to black holes
CHICAGO -- Ultra-high energy cosmic rays -- particles that pack the punch of a rifle shot -- make their way to Earth from massive black holes in nearby galaxies, scientists said on Thursday, in a finding that may solve a mystery that has puzzled physicists for decades. This sub-atomic matter, they believe, likely breaks free just before stars, gas and dust are gobbled up by the gravitational pull of black holes so dense that not even light can escape.
Spacewalk a success
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida -- The commander of the International Space Station and her Russian flight engineer completed a 6-1/2-hour spacewalk on Friday to finish a handful of tasks postponed from space shuttle Discovery's recent mission to the orbital outpost. The shuttle returned to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Wednesday after a hectic 15-day flight. The astronauts delivered and installed a new vestibule to the station so laboratories owned by Europe and Japan can be hooked on beginning next month.
Doctors want vaccines:
HONG KONG -- Doctors in Macau are urging the government to introduce another vaccine to protect children against pneumococcal diseases, which kill more than a million children worldwide a year, mostly in poorer states. Dubbed the "infant killer," pneumococcal diseases are caused by the common bacteria, Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Dieting hard for emotional
CHICAGO -- Emotional eaters -- people who eat when they are lonely or blue -- tend to lose the least amount of weight and have the hardest time keeping it off, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They said the study may explain why so many people who lose weight gain it all back.