Cape Canaveral

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery and its U.S.-Russian crew returned safely to earth yesterday after a symbolically important but operationally unsuccessful mission.Announcing its approach with a trademark double sonic boom, the shuttle landed smoothly at the Kennedy Space Center at 2:19 p.m., ending an eight-day, 3.4 million-mile flight."You've paved the way for a new era of cooperation in human space flight," Mission Control told Discovery's five American astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut.

Tom Jones was a fifth- or sixth-grader at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School in Essex when the two-man Gemini capsules were being launched into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Fla. His teachers used to wheel a television into class so the students could watch.On April 7, Thomas D. Jones -- planetary scientist and space shuttle mission specialist -- expects to be blasted into space himself, from the same spaceport. He will join five other astronauts aboard the shuttle Endeavour on a scientific mission to study air pollution and test new radar mapping equipment.

To a generation for whom the term "moon walk" has far more to do with Neil Armstrong than Michael Jackson, a trip to Florida's Kennedy Space Center offers the chance to relive those heady days of space exploration, when everything seemed possible and each day saw science fiction changed to science fact.2 Visitors to the space center should keep a fewfacts in mind. Because this is a working facility, there's no such thing as unrestricted access -- tour buses ferry visitors through the NASA complex and keep to a fairly tight schedule.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- With high hopes for her future, marine scientists returned Inky the whale to her Atlantic Ocean home yesterday -- after her recovery from an overdose of pollution.The well-traveled whale, rescued from a New Jersey beach on Thanksgiving and nursed back to health in a five-month stay at Baltimore's National Aquarium, was taken into deep water about 35 miles east of Cape Canaveral by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel and given her freedom.Inky immediately dispelled the fears of aquarium officials that she would be slow to adapt and simply swim around in circles waiting for a food handout.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- With high hopes for her future, marine scientists returned Inky the whale to her Atlantic Ocean home yesterday -- after her recovery from an overdose of pollution.The well-traveled whale, rescued from a New Jersey beach on Thanksgiving and nursed back to health in a five-month stay at Baltimore's National Aquarium, was taken into deep water about 35 miles east of Cape Canaveral by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel and given her freedom.Inky immediately dispelled the fears of aquarium officials that she would be slow to adapt and simply swim around in circles waiting for a food handout.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The space shuttle Columbia was poised yesterday to begin the longest flight of the shuttle program, a two-week mission dedicated to medical experiments involving seven astronauts and 48 rats.Officials at the Kennedy Space Center said no technical problems stood in the way of today's launch of Columbia, at 10:53 a.m., on its 15th mission into space.The main concern was the weather. While predicting a 90 percent chance of good weather at launching time, Air Force forecasters said conditions at three overseas emergency landing sites raised the possibility of a delay.

Amid the green pastures of Prince George's County, architect Joseph Boggs has taken a brave stab at putting a face on the future.In a new office park just off the Capital Beltway, Mr. Boggs has forged a turbo-charged time machine for the information age, a gleaming metal Robo-Building that not only gives occupants a taste of the next century but looks as if it belongs there as well.This $22 million adventure in cyber-tecture is the headquarters of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- In some eyes, she was slighted last year by the good old boys at NASA, a victim of the vestiges of sexism. But this week, space walker Kathy "KT" Thornton is the star of the astronomical show.Perched like an eagle above the ailing Hubble Space Telescope, Dr. Thornton already has sculpted the mission's most enduring moment, when she majestically held aloft a damaged panel, then let it go. The panel floated into space -- "like a bird," she said. The scene entranced viewers.

A. Isabella Clarke, who painted in oils and wrote poetry, died Monday at a Cape Canaveral, Fla., hospital of complications from a broken hip. She was 96.A Mass of Christian burial for Mrs. Clarke, who had lived in Cape Canaveral since 1990, will be offered at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Willow Avenue and Belair Road in Overlea.She is survived by three sons, Emerson V. Clarke Jr. of Pylesville, Carroll Anthony Clarke of Cape Canaveral and Edward Jefferson Clarke of Baltimore; 16 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Everyone in his mid-30s and up has been asked the question -- "Where were you when President Kennedy was shot?"The deed was a national trauma, one that burned into the memory of all who were old enough to comprehend it.The mass mourning during those dark days of November 1963 tended to wash out the memory of what was going on at the time, the other events that occupied the national and local consciousness immediately before and after the president's assassination....

Wallops Island, Va. - - There isn't much to see yet at the grandly named Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, just the skeleton of an old launch gantry on a piece of oceanfront leased from the federal government. But promoters expect something remarkable to blossom on this sun-baked spit of sand and scrub on the Eastern Shore. David Smith, a state official from Virginia, which joined with Maryland six years ago to operate a commercial spaceflight center with the lofty acronym MARS, says the area is on track to become "the Cape Canaveral of the North."

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA has delayed space shuttle Atlantis' planned March 15 launch until at least late April to fix hail damage to the ship's external fuel tank. A ferocious thunderstorm packing 62-mph gusts pelted Launch Pad 39A with golf-ball-size hailstones Monday, carving an estimated 7,000 divots in the foam insulation that covers the giant tank. Engineers must repair hundreds of the worst gouges and minor damage to about 27 heat-resistant tiles on Atlantis' left wing before the shuttle is allowed to fly. "This constitutes, in our evaluation, the worst damage that we have ever seen from hail on the external-tank foam," said Wayne Hale, NASA's space shuttle program manager.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Discovery could return home today to an unusual sort of white Christmas that NASA managers want to avoid. Only once in 114 previous landings has the shuttle touched down at the White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, a blanched desert of gypsum sand so desolate that the first atomic bomb was detonated there. White Sands' Northrup Strip traditionally has been viewed by NASA as a shuttle runway of last resort, available in case circumstances prevented a return to primary landing sites at the Kennedy Space Center or Southern California's Edwards Air Force Base.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Space shuttle Atlantis is heading home this morning after a late inspection of the ship's heat shielding yesterday found nothing wrong. The inspection was prompted by Tuesday's sighting of an unknown object that apparently shook loose from Atlantis during prelanding checkouts of the shuttle's body flaps and steering thrusters. Eight hours of surveys using cameras on Atlantis' robot arm and a sensor-laden 50-foot boom did not detect any sign the object was dislodged from the ship's critical heat armor.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A problem with the system that provides power to the shuttle caused NASA yesterday to once again delay the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. Space agency managers were scheduled to meet today in hopes of clearing the way for a launch tomorrow. The launch was only hours away yesterday morning when engineers reported a short in one of three fuel cells that supply electricity for all the onboard systems, including the crew compartment. Although the systems are redundant, the launch was scrubbed out of fear that a problem in one generating system could appear in others.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- For the second time in 10 days, shuttle Atlantis' six astronauts flew into the Kennedy Space Center yesterday to prepare for a scheduled launch this week. The countdown toward Wednesday's planned 12:28 p.m. liftoff is set to begin at 8 a.m. this morning. Forecasters are predicting typical summer weather at Cape Canaveral on launch day: high temperatures in the upper 80s with partly cloudy skies and a 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms. Nature has been uncooperative with NASA's attempts to launch the shuttle on an important 11-day construction mission to the International Space Station.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA's efforts to put the International Space Station program back on track took a major step forward yesterday with the safe return of the shuttle Discovery after a near-flawless 13-day mission. Astronauts accomplished every objective during their visit to the $100 billion space station, including the deliveries of a new resident and 3 tons of equipment and supplies. The flight's larger significance, however, might be that it positions the space agency to begin a final push of 15 more missions needed to finish the station before the planned retirement of the shuttles in 2010.

CAPE CANAVERAL -- Shuttle Discovery left the International Space Station yesterday en route to a planned homecoming tomorrow at the Kennedy Space Center. With Navy Cmdr. Mark Kelly piloting Discovery, the shuttle and its crew of six undocked from the station at 6:08 a.m. as the spacecraft flew 210 miles above the Pacific Ocean north of New Zealand. Kelly slowly eased the shuttle away before firing steering jets to separate the ships. "Have a safe journey back, soft landings, and we'll see you on the ground in a few months," station astronaut Jeff Williams radioed as Discovery undocked.

RICHARD ALAN HARLOW, age 69, passed away on Monday, 27 March at Cape Canaveral Hospital. Born November 10, 1936, he spent most of his life in Baltimore, MD. He graduated from Towson High School in 1954 and served in the U.S. Army. After a career in retail sales, he made his home for the last 10 years in Cape Canaveral, FL, and was a member of the Royal Order of the Moose. He is survived by his brother, Robert W. Harlow of Red Wing , MN, his sister, Hope Harlow Coleman of Oviedo, FL, his beloved friend, Margaret Joyce, of Cape Canaveral, FL, his four children Mark Harlow, Brett Harlow, Todd Harlow, and Beth Harlow Buckalew and six grandchildren, all of the greater Baltimore , MD area.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- After 20 years, the images remain seared into the nation's consciousness. A smiling, waving schoolteacher and her six astronaut crewmates leave their quarters on a frigid morning at Cape Canaveral. Two booster rockets arc uncontrollably away from a giant fireball. Family members stare skyward, not fully comprehending the awful truth of what they are witnessing. The Challenger accident shattered the aura of near-invincibility that surrounded NASA after landing men on the moon.