NASA expected to put off shuttle’s launch until July
Cape Canaveral, Fla. – NASA managers are expected to announce today that they will delay the space shuttle’s return to flight from May until July to reduce the risk of ice debris breaking off the external fuel tank during launch.
Their decision would follow meetings Tuesday and Wednesday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, during which an 11-person board of senior shuttle managers reviewed debris issues and the rationale for Discovery’s planned May 22 liftoff.
According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration sources, officials are considering a postponement because of concern about possible ice buildup on a liquid-oxygen propellant line that runs from the tank’s midsection to its base.
If a decision to delay is made, engineers would roll Discovery back from the launch pad to Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building. There, a heater probably would be added to a joint near the top of the propellant line to prevent ice formation.
For months, the shuttle program has been assessing the risk posed by debris to prevent a recurrence of the 2003 Columbia accident.
Delaying the launch also would give NASA more time to address several other nagging technical issues.
SANTA ANA, Calif.
Man guilty in death of 5-year-old girl
A jury convicted a factory worker Thursday of kidnapping and murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, an Orange County girl whose 2002 death prompted widespread outrage and stronger efforts to rescue abducted children.
After deliberating for less than nine hours over two days, jurors convicted Alejandro Avila, 30, of kidnapping, murder and sexual assault. The jury will decide whether to recommend a death sentence or life in prison.
Samantha was abducted, kicking and screaming, from outside her home in Stanton on July 15, 2002. Her body was found the next day in mountains about 50 miles away.
HOPKINTON, R.I.
Elderly woman hauls neighbor out of fire
An 80-year-old woman rescued her 67-year-old neighbor from an apartment fire, carrying the ailing woman down two flights of stairs.
Madalene Lindill put Grace Brayman’s arms around her neck and carried her on her back out of their housing complex Wednesday after Brayman accidentally ignited a fire in her apartment.
The blaze started when Brayman, who was wearing an oxygen mask, lit a cigarette. That caused the mask to ignite, and the fire spread to a chair and carpet.
INDIANAPOLIS
Lawmakers balk at daylight-saving time
A bill to mandate daylight-saving time across Indiana failed to win final legislative approval Thursday despite a push by Gov. Mitch Daniels, who says the change would eliminate confusion and attract business.
Proponents were expected to seek another vote on the bill after its 49-48 defeat in the House; a 51-vote majority is required to pass or kill a bill outright.
Most of Indiana remains on Eastern Standard Time all year. Five counties each in the northwest and southwest pockets of the state are in the Central zone and observe daylight-saving time.
CAPE TOWN, South Africa
Farmer, worker guilty of feeding man to lion
A white South African farmer and his employee were convicted Thursday of attacking a black worker and throwing him into a lion enclosure in a case that shocked a nation still coming to terms with its apartheid past.
Judge George Maluleke in the northern town of Phalaborwa ruled that Mark Scott-Crossley and Simon Mathebula were guilty of murder in the January 2004 murder of Nelson Chisale.
Chisale, 41, had been fired two months earlier, apparently for running a personal errand during work hours. He was attacked when he returned to Scott-Crossley’s farm to collect some belongings.
Both Scott-Crossley and Mathebula had pleaded innocent and tried to blame each other for the killing. The men will be sentenced in August.
LONDON
Use of embryos OK’d to help ailing siblings
British couples can create babies through in vitro fertilization to help cure sick siblings, Britain’s highest appeal court ruled Thursday, rejecting a challenge from an anti-abortion group.
The Law Lords backed a 2003 Court of Appeal ruling that some couples undergoing the fertility treatment could have their embryos screened to find tissue matches for seriously ill children.
Advocates say the procedure will help save desperately ill children. Opponents fear it could lead to the creation of babies for spare parts.
The 2003 case centered on Raj and Shahana Hashmi, who wanted to conceive a baby with the same tissue type as their 6-year-old son Zain, who suffers from a rare blood disorder.
MEXICO CITY
Pilots protest sale of 2 national airlines
About 100 Mexican pilots protested in front of the offices of the country’s dominant airline company on Thursday, saying they feared massive job losses could follow a sale of the main national airlines.
The holding company CINTRA plans to sell one of the country’s two major airlines, AeroMexico, together with regional unit Aerolitoral. The airline Mexicana and assets of its unit Aerocaribe will also be sold, along with a new low-cost carrier.
Union representative Mauricio Lopez said the pilots were concerned that the deal could result in “a predatory war” of cost-slashing and said the pilots wanted “guarantees that we will have a source of work” after the sale.
