Space Shuttle Update (9)

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STS-135: Final Voyage – Atlantis’ Final Rollover
NASA – Shuttle Atlantis makes its final planned move from Orbiter Processing Facility-1 to the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The move, called “rollover,” is a major milestone in processing for the STS-135 mission to the International Space Station, targeted for early July. Inside the VAB, the shuttle will be attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters.

Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim were on hand for the move. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller

STS-134: Endeavour’s Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver
NASA – At 5:15 a.m. EDT today (5/18/11), Endeavour began the nine-minute Rendezvous Pitch Maneuver, or ‘backflip,’ on its last visit to the Inernational Space Station. With Commander Mark Kelly at the controls, Endeavour rotated 360 degrees backward to enable space station astronauts Dmitry Kondratyev, Paolo Nespoli and Cady Coleman to take high resolution pictures of the shuttle’s heat shield.

Kelly then flew the shuttle through a quarter circle to a position about 400 feet directly in front of the station. Docking occurred about an hour later at 6:14 a.m. Image Credit: NASA

More than Half of U.S. Energy Goes to Waste

By Tina Casey – Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimate that the U.S. loses more than half the energy it generates. That doesn’t include heating and cooling loss from buildings,  just energy that vanishes into the atmosphere from machines, industrial processes and electronic equipment.

The ORNL team is developing a device that is only about one millimeter square, and each one delivers only 10 milliwatts – at best. That sounds like a drop in the bucket but it’s nothing to sneeze at when you attach hundreds of these devices to, say, a tiny object such as a computer chip. The principle is based on pyroelectricity, which refers to the ability of some materials to produce a temporary charge when they are heated or cooled. more> http://twurl.nl/50gh4h

North Carolina broadband bill would eliminate level playing field

By Josh Levy, Free Press/ars technica – Kempinski is not alone. Millions of people across the country lack access to broadband Internet because big companies like Time Warner Cable, CenturyLink and AT&T don’t find it profitable to reach into their areas. And even those with access to those services often find them unreliable or too expensive. The result of this lack of access to affordable high-speed broadband is more stories like this: businesses that can’t compete, students who struggle to get online, and entire communities that are left behind. more> http://twurl.nl/1cmovo

Verizon sues FCC on data-roaming rule

By Cecilia Kang – The wireless giant filed its appeal last Friday (5/13/11) to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the same court where it filed a lawsuit to overturn the FCC’s so-called net neutrality rules. The court overturned Verizon’s appeal in that case mostly on a technicality — the FCC hadn’t put the rules in the national Federal Register, a step necessary before appeals can be fought. more> http://twurl.nl/71cdia

related>

• Where the lawsuits roam: Verizon sues FCC over data roaming rules, Jacqui Cheng, ars technica
• Verizon Sues FCC Over Data Roaming Rules, Chloe Albanesius, PCMag.com

Fear Companies Lurking In Financial Shadows

By Simon Johnson – What Glencore’s rivals are really worried about is competitive advantage. It’s about to sell $11 billion in shares through an initial public offering in London and Hong Kong. That fresh capital will allow Glencore to expand at a time when its Wall Street competitors’ hands are tied. Glencore doesn’t face the same limits that banks do in proprietary trading, capital reserves, leverage and compensation.

The real question regulators should ask is this: How much of a risk would Glencore pose to the world’s financial system? To use the terminology proposed by Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, is Glencore “too important to fail” — meaning that its bankruptcy would bring down other significant parts of the financial system or real economy? more> http://twurl.nl/b21x74