The House of Representatives has approved new legislation that will give NASA a much-needed budget boost, Florida Today reports. The raise comes at a time when NASA needs it most, as the organization plans manned missions to nearby asteroids and Mars.

The bill will provide NASA with $18.9 billion for the fiscal year beginning on October 1 – $276 million more than the House granted the agency during the 2010 fiscal year. The raise matches the $19 billion that President Barack Obama granted the space organization earlier this year.

“This keeps us absolutely on course, with robust funding for NASA and support for the workers at Kennedy Space Center,” Senator Bill Nelson of Orlando told the source. “We’re just nibbling around the edges.”

The legislation wasn’t passed without contention, though. Some senators felt the money would be better suited for other causes.

NASA is planning several high-profile missions over the next few decades. The space agency plans to send astronauts to nearby asteroids by 2025, while it’s on course to send a team to Mars by 2035.

The second-largest American social network, MySpace, has admitted that it shares data with third-party advertisers that could be used to identify profile pages, but it doesn’t consider this to be an issue.
On Friday, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that MySpace transmits users’ information when they click on advertisements, which it had previously promised to stop doing in May. The social network later released a statement indicating that it didn’t believe this was a problem, as it doesn’t require users to publish any personal information on their profile pages, reports MSNBC.

The Wall Street Journal also found that some third-party applications on the social network shared user IDs, which is against MySpace’s terms of service. The social network suspended the reported application developers, though they were reinstated hours later after they adjusted their programs to comply with MySpace regulations.

With MySpace struggling to retain its existing user base, the privacy breaches are likely to turn even more consumers away from the social site. Earlier this year, Nielsen reported that while MySpace was still the second most popular social network in the U.S., other sites, such as Twitter, are poised to overtake it.

While AT&T currently has an exclusive contract to provide wireless services to Apple’s mobile product lineup, parts of the agreement are scheduled to end later this month. Verizon announced on Thursday that it would begin selling the iPad in stores on October 28, reports CNN.

Verizon is set to offer three iPad bundles, which will range from $630 to $830. The package deals will vary in accordance to the hard drive capacity, though all bundles will include a Verizon mobile hotspot device that the iPad can use to connect to the web.

Laura DiDio, principal analyst with ITIC, told CNN that the added competition will be beneficial for consumers in the long run. “Once Verizon starts to see a lot of uptick in iPad adoption, we’ll have a price war, which is good for consumers and corporations,” she said. “Apple is still giving AT&T a bit of a ‘favored nation’ status for a while, and it’ll be up to Verizon to sweeten the pot.”

The iPad may only be the first step – it has been widely reported that Verizon may also carry Apple’s iPhone in early 2011.

At the ongoing Ceatec trade show in Asia, electronics manufacturer Toshiba introduced a new line of 3D televisions, called the Regza. According to CNN, the lineup attracted a fair amount of attention because, unlike similar products from Toshiba’s competitors, the Regza TVs didn’t require users to wear glasses.
Toshiba showed off three varieties of the television: 12-inch, 20-inch and 56-inch models. While the 56-inch set was a prototype for display purposes, both of the smaller displays will be available for purchase in Japan before the end of 2010.

The Regza lineup uses an advanced technology, called the Cell Broadband Engine, that takes a 2D image and then creates nine versions of it that are displayed in different directions, giving it a 3D appearance. This advanced display hardware comes at a cost though – the 12-inch Regza will launch with the American equivalent of a $1,500 price tag, while the 20-inch model will debut at $2,900.

With many electronics companies pursuing glasses-based 3D displays, Toshiba is a front-runner in peripheral-less 3D. Nintendo is also using similar technology for its upcoming handheld device, the 3DS, which the Wall Street Journal recently reported would go on sale next year.

There is no telling what kind of business Google will embark on next. The Wall Street Journal announced that the Internet giant will start selling e-books by the middle of summer.

Google has confirmed that it will release a digital book business, called Google Editions, in July 2010. Google Editions will also be available in the form of a B2B (business-to-business) service so that third party retailers can sell e-books from their websites.

In the last few years, Google has been talking about its version of online bookselling. Over the past few months, the company has been hinting on their new service Google Editions.

According to one reporter from WSJ, the company hopes to become a distinguished bookseller for it will allow users to browse through a wide range of websites using various devices, unlike competitors that provide only proprietary devices and Internet applications.

While a spokesperson from Google did not elaborate on Editions’ features, he said that users will be able to read books from the Web browser. Thus, there will be practically no need for an e-reader device.

WSJ added that the Internet services company did not give any details as to building software that can make the e-book reading experience easier on devices like the iPhone and iPad.

American Honda Motor Co announced on Tuesday that it will recall about 1,850 Acura ZDX models to repair problems related to their passenger side airbags. The carmaker said that the airbags of affected vehicles do not properly deploy. Honda said no incidents have been reported thus far.

The defect was unraveled during a manufacturing quality check. The car manufacturer said that some vehicles do not have the necessary laser-cut underscoring that should be found on the underside of the dashboard. The frontal airbag on the passenger side will not be released properly without this scoring.

The company will inform owners about the recall through mail. The defective dashboards of the approximately 1,850 Acura ZDX cars will be replaced.

This incident follows Honda’s recall of some 410,000 Element small trucks and Odyssey minivans. The previous recall was made to correct problems with the braking system.

Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp, Honda’s Japanese peer is facing a penalty of $16.375 million for knowingly hiding information about the defective gas pedals in its cars.

Toyota ordered the return of more than 8.5 million vehicles from all over the world starting last fall. Most of the recalled vehicles are in the United States. The vehicle problems included uncontrolled acceleration and brake problems in some models.

The United States publicly released a once top secret information last May 5, 2010 as the Pentagon revealed that the country has 5,113 nuclear warheads in stock.

This revelation is only the second time in the country’s history that the government disclosed confidential information regarding its number of warheads. The release of this number was done in light of the announcement from the Obama administration regarding the country’s nuclear arsenal.

The 5,113 warheads include both inactive and active ones, a senior defense official said.

According to Pentagon statistics, the stockpile was actually reduced by 84% since its peak of over 31,255 in 1967. The information released included annual statistics regarding short range and long range weapons used from 1962 to present.

Previously disclosed information about the US nuclear arsenal showed statistics that covered 1945 to 1961.

The senior defense official added that giving out these numbers shows how the United States can be transparent.

It is believed that disclosing data about the US nuclear stockpile puts a lot of pressure on other countries with nuclear weapons. Russia, for example, has an arsenal that is more difficult to evaluate.

The 5,113 warheads do not include those that are retired and ready to be dismantled. If the retired ones were added, the US would have a total of about 9,600 warheads.

NASA is proud to announce the successful completion of one of their newest research aircraft. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) named the Global Hawk soared the sky Tuesday, April 13, to accomplish a 24-hour long mission of studying the atmosphere of the Earth.

The aircraft is a robotic plane designed to fly way up in the air at very high altitudes for a long period of time.

While the Global Hawk soars the skies, its pilot remains seated in a chair inside a windowless room located in the Mojave Desert. Monitoring the UAV is done through numerous computer screens.

Originally, Global Hawks were used by the Air Force to perform surveillance procedures to gain information from thousands of feet from the ground. Three versions of this aircraft were turned over by the military to NASA.

The American space agency, for the first time, has put one of the three to use in line with their goal of testing the usefulness of these unmanned aircrafts.

David W. Fahey, one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research physicists, said, “It’s never been used by a civilian agency, and it’s never been used for Earth science.”

The Global Hawk has a wingspan of 116 feet – almost similar to that of the latest Boeing 737s. Measuring 44 feet in length, the aircraft is distinguished by its whale-shaped nose, V-tail and top-mounted engine.

Parsippany, NJ, May 26, 2010 – GSK Consumer Healthcare today announced it will update the alli product label to alert consumers to certain symptoms that have been associated with rare instances of severe liver injury reported in people taking orlistat, the active ingredient in alli. This update follows FDA’s completion of its safety review of orlistat and is being implemented in conjunction with Roche, the manufacturer of the prescription dose of orlistat (Xenical). The agency stated that a cause and effect relationship has not been established.

The updated alli label will advise consumers to: “Stop use and ask a doctor if you develop itching, yellow eyes or skin, dark urine or loss of appetite. There have been rare reports of liver injury in people taking orlistat.”

“GSK is committed to ensuring that consumers and physicians understand the safety profile of orlistat and alli. Although reports of serious liver injury in people taking orlistat are rare, GSK takes all adverse events reports seriously. Reaching and maintaining a healthier weight is one of the most important things people can do for their health. GSK wants people to have the information they need to choose the right weight loss aid for their situation,” said Howard Marsh, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for GSK Consumer Healthcare.

alli is the only FDA-approved over-the-counter weight loss aid. Since alli was made available over-the-counter in 2007, more than 10 million people worldwide have used the product. With more than 100 clinical studies involving 30,000 patients, orlistat is the most extensively studied weight loss drug in the world and continues to be a safe and effective product when used as directed to help people lose weight. More than 40 million people have used orlistat since it first became available in 1998.

For more information about the safety and efficacy of alli, consumers and health care professionals may call 1-800-671-2554 or visit www.myalli.com.

About alli

About GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is one of the world’s largest over-the-counter consumer healthcare products companies. Its more than 30 well-known brands include the leading smoking cessation products, Nicorette®, NicoDerm® CQ and Commit® as well as Abreva® and many medicine cabinet staples, including, Aquafresh®, Sensodyne,® Tums® and Breathe Right®.

A British newborn baby was the first ever to receive xenon gas, a treatment used to prevent brain injury. This medical breakthrough was developed by the University of Bristol’s Professor Marianne Thoresen and was performed at St. Michael’s Hospital – a component of the University of Bristol NHL Foundation Trust.

Riley Joyce did not have a pulse and was not breathing when he was delivered through emergency Caesarian section at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. Due to a 50:50 chance of suffering from brain injury for life, he was transferred to St. Michael’s Hospital in Bristol.

Although the xenon gas treatment was experimental, Riley’s parents agreed to the procedure. Fortunately, the infant survived and is now doing well.

Every year in the UK, over 1,000 newborn babies die or suffer from brain injury because of insufficient supply of oxygen or blood. If a baby does survive, he or she may suffer from lifelong problems like cerebral palsy.

Since 1998, St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Bristol have been developing treatments for brain injury in newborns. It started when Professor Thoresen cooled babies due to a lack of oxygen. This technique has proven helpful in reducing the risks of damage in the newborn brain.

London – With a remote-controlled submarine, scientists recently found the deepest volcanic vent in the world. It is also said that the intensely heated waters in the vent could contain undiscovered underwater species and even provide evidence of the existence of early life forms on earth.

A team of experts who were aboard the RRS James Cook found the underwater volcanic vent located more than three miles (five kilometers) under the surface of the Caribbean. This area is called the Cayman Trough, an underwater canyon that was used as the setting of James Cameron’s movie “The Abyss.”

According to the submarine’s pilot, geologist Bramley Murton, exploring this previously undiscovered submerged area was “like wandering across the surface of another world,” and had several formations of multi-colored mineral deposits. There were also massive numbers of fluorescent blue microorganisms living around the cooler waters in the area.

Volcanic vents are openings on the surface of the earth. They penetrate deep into the surface and some of them can reach down to more than one mile or two kilometers. These openings can carry extreme temperatures since they are the vessel through which volcanic materials can spill out. The temperature there can go up to 750˚Fahrenheit or 400˚Celsius – hot enough to melt lead.

On March 8, 2010, Monday, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer talked to an audience at the University of Washington and told them that cloud computing is becoming the center of attention for every technology company. He said that the global technology industry is putting its bet on the said method.

Cloud computing is regarded as a growing trend in information technology, and Ballmer perceived this as an opportunity to reinforce Microsoft’s optimum competency in the field.

As reported by eWeek, Microsoft’s scheduled update of its Office productivity suite will have cloud computing as its main focus. Although MS Office 2010 users can make use of the software version of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access on their computers, Microsoft is preparing trimmed editions of these programs to contend with Google and its Docs suite.

Although Google Docs is hardly teeming with features, many still prefer it because of its main features: it is free of charge and it can be obtained as a link via Gmail or through Google’s homepage. Microsoft will have to persuade Office users to either go to a site in order to utilize the online editions of its programs or to purchase the software’s desktop versions.

Cloud computing is a result of the accessibility to computing sites provided by the Internet, sharing resources as a substitute for using software or storage on a local PC. The said method is a shift from the use of PCs, whereby details are extracted from the users who no longer have need of, capability in, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them.

Cloud computing usually involves the supply of dynamically scalable resources that are often virtualized as a service on the Internet.

The term “cloud” is a metaphor that is used to describe the Internet. The idea of using this metaphorical connotation came from a cloud drawing that represented the telephone network.

Magnesium, an element most commonly found in fruits and dark leafy greens, has been tested and may prove to be a good brain enhancer. The element is important for strengthening the immune system. Magnesium is known to lessen a person’s risk for asthma, allergies and heart ailments. A dose of 400 milligrams a day is all that is needed in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

In a test conducted by researchers at the Center for Learning and Memory at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, a newly-formulated magnesium compound is found to boost the brain of mice used as test subjects. The mice were observed to have better working and long term memory and a greater learning rate. The only obstacle left is whether or not the magnesium compound and extra doses of it is safe for consumption among humans.

Guosong Liu, the director for the Center for Learning and Memory, says that if MgT is proven effective and safe for humans, the public will benefit greatly as this will be beneficial for their health. The new magnesium compound, called magnesium-L-threonate, was tested on animals and showed positive results.

Liu adds that the use of the new compound have led to significant increase in the animals’ spatial and associative memory in both young and old-aged rats. The magnesium-L-threonate was shown to increase the plasticity between synapses and the connections of neurons.

Also, the compound was said to boost the density of synapses in the brain’s hippocampus, the region of the brain that serves as the body’s learning and memory machinery.

The research was published in the January 28 edition of the journal Neuron and was funded by China’s National Institute of Health and the National Basic Research Program of China, among others. With this discovery, Liu says that the problem of age related cognitive illnesses can be significantly slowed or even lowered.

Months of speculation finally ended on Wednesday, January 27, 2010, when Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced the release of the company’s latest gadget offering on the market: the iPad. Apple, the company that introduced revolutionary gadgets like the MacBook and the iPod, hopes that the new iPad will be the next big thing in the technology market. A slender tablet computer, the iPad looks like a crossover between the laptop and the smart phone.

However, the biggest question still remains as to whether or not this new gadget will duplicate the success that other Apple gadgets have had with consumers and the over-all market. The iPhone, another very popular gadget released by Apple a few years back, has the distinction of transforming the telecom landscape and forcing other mobile phone companies to catch up with its technology.

The device will be available worldwide this March and it is being positioned by the company as a “pioneer in a new genre of computing.” Steve Jobs admits that the bar has been set pretty high, and that is why the iPad should do better than its competitors in the key areas where it is expected to deliver.

The device is 0.5 inch in thickness and weighs around 1.5 pounds, making it very sleek and easy to carry around. The iPad will accommodate eBooks, newspapers, web pages and videos; all in its 9.7 inch glass touch screen. The release of the iPad opens up a new market for publishers to enter, especially since print media has been steadily declining through the years.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iBook application integrated into the newly-launched gadget, he added that five of the world’s largest publishing houses have already agreed and promised to provide eBook content for the new Apple tablet. These publishers include the HarperCollins Publishers, Hachette Book Group, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan.

Treating cancer, one of the most dreaded human diseases, has just taken a very huge step forward as a team of scientists from the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California in Los Angeles completed the first genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell.

The said findings can greatly help scientists in identifying new molecular targets to be able to manufacture more effective and less dangerous drugs. This can also lead to more personalized treatments for cancer since genomic sequencing is different for individual patients.

The monitoring of brain cancer recurrence is also boosted by this big finding. Genomic sequencing will be able to correctly determine whether cancer cells, in the brain or anywhere, have been completely destroyed or not. This can help doctors better diagnose their patients and avoid overtreatment, especially with anti-cancer drugs that can become harmful and cause long term problems when taken too often.

The research was done by sequencing a glioblastoma cell line named U87, which has been and still is being studied by various laboratories around the world. The underlying principle for using this certain cell line by the UCLA team is mainly because whatever result they may find will benefit not only their research, but also other researches being conducted in other laboratories. The sequencing of U87 can help other researchers in their studies and allow them to reinterpret their own conclusions or even better, move into new research directions with it.

“This is very exciting because we, as scientists, can now move forward with revealing complete cancer genomes,” says Dr. Stan Nelson, the study’s senior author and professor of human genetics at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Gene Expression Shared Resource.

PLoS Genetics, at its online journal, wrote that the study was done using the latest and most advanced technologies. The brain cell sequencing was finished in less than a month and believed to have cost around $35,000.

Nelson further added that cancer cells are bottom line genetic and have acquired mutations that have made it very hard for doctors to solve, even in this advanced age and technology. Since cancer cells can be a subject that is too complicated to study, this genomic sequencing of a brain cancer cell is a very huge advancement in the fight to destroy cancer.

Just outside the solar system, a planet not unlike ours exists. So goes the findings published on Dec. 16, 2009 in the science journal Nature.

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics have located the planet 42 light years away. They have categorized it as a “Super-Earth,” insofar as it shares unusually similar characteristics with this planet, only far larger.

Designated as GJ 1214b, the planet is about six times as massive as the Earth and three times as large. It is one of the smallest exoplanets — worlds discovered near the solar system — but it is the most Earth-like of them all.

With this size and density in mind, the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre’s scientists can confirm that the planet has an atmosphere — and very thick to boot. Moreover, the planet could be rich in helium and hydrogen.

According research leader David Charbonneau, the discovery will be the first super Earth that has a confirmed atmosphere, and it does not matter if the atmosphere will not be hospitable to and good for life.

The astronomers think GJ 1214b is mostly covered with water. With its low density, the planet could be submerged in three-fourths water, around 50% by mass. As for the water’s state, no one could identify it just yet.

For sure, GJ 1214b can be very hot. Although it revolves around a red dwarf, a manifold smaller star than the Sun, the planet may have temperatures hovering at 248 to 536°F (120 to 280°C).

Yet scientists bet the water would not be in a gaseous state. The planet’s thick atmosphere may contrive enough pressure — 20,000 times the Earth’s own — to liquefy water. Other scientists speculate that water in such environment could exist as “superfluid.”

Whether or not this planet sustains life as we know it remains to be seen. From the outset, life may not flourish in a highly pressurized realm. Worse, the planet is not situated within the star’s ’Goldilocks zone,’ where life is deemed possible. Granted, the hefty atmosphere would screen light from an otherwise small star.

GJ 1214b excites astronomers nonetheless; the exoplanet is relatively near. For a point of comparison, television signals from Earth have traveled way beyond the planet.

GJ 1214b was pinpointed using eight ground-based telescopes.

Texas’ health department will destroy millions of controversial blood samples as part of a lawsuit settlement approved Dec. 21, 2009.

Its defendants, who include the Department of State Health Services’ David Lakey and Texas A&M Health Science Center’s Nancy Dickey, are due to surrender more than 5.3 million samples. Extracted from babies without parental consent, the samples collectively have until April 13, 2010 to be destroyed.

Texas Civil Rights Project Director Jim Harrington was “very pleased with the way it worked out.” His Austin-based nonprofit organization led parents in filing the suit in San Antonio’s federal district court.

Dickey’s office, meanwhile, was “saddened” over the loss of such a “superb database.” The samples have been stores as blood spot cards in the Texas A&M Health Science Center for the past seven years.

“This database could have continued to shed light on causes of congenital birth defects and potentially led to preventive measures saving thousands of infants and their families the distress these defects cause,” her office said in a statement.

According to defendants, the samples were identified using codes, not the babies’ names. However, the state legislature passed a law on May 27 ordering health care providers to inform caregivers and parents of any blood extractions from newborns. The law gave impetus to parental protests.

Since the signing of the law, nearly 6,900 Texans have affixed their signatures on requests to destroy the blood spot cards. The Department of State Health Services continues to get hundreds of them each week.

Under the terms of the settlement, the department must destroy samples 60 days from receipt of the request. Otherwise, the owner of the sample could request it when he or she comes of age.

In addition, the department is bound by law to reveal relevant data regarding the blood samples on its website. They must include info on any research projects the samples benefited.

More than 240,000 children have been born in Texas since the department started extracting the samples in 2002.

Routine space travel continues to outgrow its sci-fi connotations. In a pivotal point for space tourism, construction of the world’s first ever private spaceport has formally begun.

Set on the desolate tracts of New Mexico, the spaceport would give ordinary civilians bragging rights as astronauts. The facility, billed Spaceport America, will open in December 2010.

For this project, architects Foster and URS Corporation essentially updated the concept of airports for the space era. Like an airport, Spaceport America comes complete with terminals and hangars, where aerospace firms can lease space.

And space it has — the spaceport will sprawl for more than 10,000 m² on the desert floor. Gigantic planes can alight on its 10,000-foot runway.

New Mexican taxpayers would bear the project cost, estimated to reach $200,000 (£122,000). With year-long sunny days, the state should be a great host for the spaceport. The adjacent White Sands testing range additionally assures no-fly airspace over it.

Spaceport America’s anchor tenant is Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space travel company. At present, Virgin Galactic is readying its spacecraft called SpaceShipTwo in time for a 2010 maiden voyage from the spaceport.

Burt Rutan, the aerospace designer, is developing SpaceShipTwo from his California facility. Rutan had developed SpaceShipOne, the first commercially-built manned craft to fly into space.

To date, private space conveyances like SpaceShipOne are made for suborbital flights. These crafts are designed to reach space, insofar as they can briefly escape the earth’s atmosphere and gravitational field.

En route to that, passengers have to hurtle above the planet at almost three times the speed of sound. After two hours, they would experience six minutes of weightlessness as the spacecraft flies through the zero-gravity of space.

Privately built spacecrafts need to launch mid-air from aircrafts. In SpaceShipTwo’s case, a titanic aircraft called WhiteKnightTwo would take it to high altitudes. WhiteKnightTwo, still undergoing test glides, will be unveiled at a Wisconsin air show this July.

Passengers must cough up $200,000 a head for Virgin Galactic’s cosmic trips. Three-hundred people have so far booked the flights, dubbed as the “most incredible experience of their lives.”

Awe-inspiring in every respect, fossils of three new dinosaur species have recently been unearthed from the Australian outback. The finds effectively end Australia’s longtime drought in large fossil discoveries.

Two of the primordial monsters were massive herbivore sauropods, the other a meat-eating theropod that could reportedly surpass those in the Jurassic Park films. All were entombed 98 million years ago deep beneath a billabong near Winton, Queensland.

Paleontologists commissioned by the Queensland Museum and the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum found the enormous fossils. Led by Queensland Museum’s Scott Hocknull, the team dug three feet of stubborn topsoil and thick layers of sandy clay to get through the dinosaurs.

Of the finds, scientists marveled most at the lone carnivore, the Australovenator wintonensis. At 1,100 pounds, its fossils are the biggest ever for a flesh-eating dinosaur in Australia. The team nicknamed it Banjo in honor of Australian bush poet A.B. “Banjo” Paterson.

Banjo’s diggers define him as equal parts cheetah and monster. Like the former, Banjo was an agile predator. It was also a 16-foot long tower of doom that hunted Australia in the mid-Cretaceous epoch. Hocknull even likened it to the Jurassic Park velociraptors, but many times bigger. Banjo additionally had bigger forelimbs than an average Tyrannosaurus rex.

When diggers found Banjo, it was embracing one of the herbivores, suggesting a prehistoric lockdown. That herbivore is the 52-foot long Diamantinasaurus matildae, nicknamed Matilda after Paterson’s 1885 song.

Where Matilda evoked a hippo, the other herbivore resembled a giraffe. Wintonotitan wattsi, also known as Clancy, measures 52 feet and eats plants too. Both Clancy and Matilda come from the mighty titanosaur family, one of the largest creatures ever to roam on earth.

Their discovery was made public by science journal PLos One in a 51-page document. Hocknull’s group hopes to discover more fossils as he excavates other parts of Winton.

Hocknull’s finds elevate Australian paleontology alongside those of North America, Europe, South America, and Africa. Scientists believe Australia has untapped vestiges of prehistory beneath its largely geologically stable ground.

Europe’s space conquistadors successfully hoisted the world’s largest commercial satellite into orbit on July 1, 2009. The behemoth satellite, called TerreStar-1, was launched from the space base in French Guiana.

Owned by American telecommunications company TerreStar Networks, the satellite weighs 15,233 pounds (6.9 tons). Due to its mass, TerreStar-1 was the single payload aboard its vehicle, an Ariane-5 heavy rocket designed to bear two telecommunications satellites at a time.

Launching firm Arianespace used an Ariane 5 ECA rocket for TerreStar-1. The rocket and its freight departed from the spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at approximately 1:52 PM. Hours later, TerreStar-1 hovered above the planet in geostationary orbit.

At its fullest, TerreStar-1’s wingspan would stretch for 106 feet once it spreads its solar wings, which await deployment. The satellite would also unfurl its 60-foot S-band antenna in weeks’ time.

TerreStar should have launched in June. However, the inauspicious weather in French Guiana caused the launch to be delayed for the fourth time.

Arianespace has planned seven launches for Ariane 5 ECA in 2009 alone. The TerreStar-1 sendoff was third, 189th overall since the introduction of Ariane in 1979.

“Today’s launch is just the beginning of the TerreStar story,” said Jeff Epstein, TerreStar Networks’ president.

Although TerreStar Networks is based in Reston, Virginia, TerreStar-1 was developed in California by Space Systems/Loral. The satellite should give North Americans portable voice/data communications through handsets that use S-band.

Arianespace has other significant launches in the pipelines. According to Arianespace executive Jean-Yves Le Gall, the company is launching Vega, a new rocket, toward the end of 2009. Vega will be saddled with payloads of up to 1.5 tons.

ArianeSpace has also entered into a business deal with Russia to launch Soviet-era Soyuz rockets in 2010. The firm will be launching Soyuz 2, a leviathan that can carry payloads of up to three tones. In comparison, rockets launched from the Russian spaceport Baikonur could only transport 1.7-tonne payloads.