Space Shuttle Update (53)

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Atlantis Gets Replica Engine
NASA – In Orbiter Processing Facility-1 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians sitting on the Hyster forklift monitor the progress as technicians in the aft portion of space shuttle Atlantis connect replica shuttle main engine RSME number 2. Three RSMEs will be installed on Atlantis. The work is part of the Space Shuttle Program’s transition and retirement processing of the space shuttle fleet. A groundbreaking was held Jan. 18 for Atlantis’ future home, a 65,000-square-foot exhibit hall in Shuttle Plaza at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Atlantis is scheduled to roll over to the visitor complex in November in preparation for the exhibit’s grand opening in July 2013. Photo credit: NASA, Glenn Benson

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The Supreme Court’s unusual moment in the spotlight

By Robert Barnes – Calculating who will write the final decision of the Supreme Court’s term is a game that usually interests only a small band of lawyers, professors, reporters and politicos who obsess over the justices’ every footnote.

But this year, the likelihood that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is preparing the court’s judgment on President Obama’s health-care overhaul is worthy of headlines and a whirl of Internet spin. more> http://tinyurl.com/7utnam5

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Merkel rebuffs pleas for debt action on summit eve

By Noah Barkin and Julien Toyer – On the eve of a crucial summit that could determine the future of the euro zone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed aside increasingly shrill calls from Spain and Italy on Wednesday (June 27) for emergency action to lower their soaring borrowing costs.

“Joint liability can only happen when sufficient controls are in place,” she said in a less definitive rejection of common euro zone bonds than she made behind closed doors on Tuesday, when she told lawmakers she did not expect to see total shared debt liability in her lifetime. more> http://tinyurl.com/cj96ddm

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NBN Hits A Wall

By Oonagh Reidy – [Australia] Construction woes hit NBN as contractors are said to be no longer interested in working on the project.

That’s according to AFR, who report major contractors Silcar and Transfield are to pull out of the next round of contracts for National Broadband Network, worth $1.6 bn in total, citing delays that have plagued the project rollout. more> http://tinyurl.com/8858sod

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Speedo Redesigns Banned Record-Breaking Swimsuit

By Beth Stackpole – Dial back to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Michael Phelps grabbed headlines for breaking an unprecedented number of records. His performance was undoubtedly amazing, but his swimsuit, the Speedo LZR Racer, got its share of fanfare as a must-have for record-breaking swimmers.

Phelps and many of his competitors embraced the LZR Racer (which we covered at the time) because of material and construction breakthroughs that resulted in less drag and, consequently, more record-setting performances. Laminated panels of a low-friction, water-repellent polyurethane membrane were placed strategically on the suit.

What was interesting about the suit was that its development was more akin to aerospace engineering than any kind of fashion design. more> http://tinyurl.com/7uqhfal

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