Shuttle

A delay in Baltimore's free downtown shuttle service will enable the city to save about $3.1 million and pay for the buses more quickly, according to city officials. The Charm City Circulator will ferry its first passengers between the Hollins Market area and Harbor East on Jan.11, about six months after service was originally slated to begin. About $2.5 million that the city saved in operating costs will be used as part of the down payment on the buses, cutting the amount of interest owed, said Jamie Kendrick, deputy transportation director.

One image appears uncannily like a butterfly, its ethereal wings extending into the blackness of space. But looks are deceiving, and the apparently tranquil scene actually depicts a violent nebula of superheated gas charging across the Milky Way Galaxy at 600,000 miles per hour, with a dying star once five times the mass of the sun at its center. In another picture, a cluster of several swirls of light seem to interact in a celestial dance, while a smaller, glowing circle hovers at some distance from the others.

Preakness transit service Light rail service * Take Light Rail to the Cold Spring Lane stop. * Take the connecting shuttle bus to the track. Shuttle bus service ends at 2 p.m. * Return service begins at approximately 6:15 p.m. and operates until 7:30 p.m. * $3.50 day pass required Metro subway service * Take Metro Subway to the Rogers Avenue Station. * Take the connecting shuttle bus to the track. Shuttle bus service ends at 2 p.m. * Return shuttle bus service to Rogers Avenue Station begins at approximately 6:15 p.m. and operates until 7:30 p.m. * $3.50 day pass required Local bus service * Nos. 27, 91, 44 lines, plus No. 54 via Park Heights Avenue all stop near the track.

Light Rail service * Take Light Rail to the Cold Spring Lane stop. * Take the connecting shuttle bus to the track. Shuttle bus service ends at 2 p.m. * Return service begins at approximately 6:15 p.m. and operates until 7:30 p.m. * $3.50 day pass required Metro Subway service * Take Metro Subway to the Rogers Avenue Station. * Take the connecting shuttle bus to the track. Shuttle bus service ends at 2 p.m. * Return shuttle bus service to Rogers Avenue Station begins at approximately 6:15 p.m. and operates until 7:30 p.m. * $3.50 day pass required Local bus service * Nos. 27, 91, 44 lines, plus No. 54 via Park Heights Avenue all stop near the track.

The space shuttle Atlantis is racing to catch up with the Hubble Space Telescope after a nearly flawless launch Monday into clear skies. If all goes well, four astronauts will begin a series of spacewalks Thursday to repair and upgrade the 19-year-old observatory for the last time before the shuttle program ends next year. "It was fantastic," said Mario Livio, a senior scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore who was at the Kennedy Space Center for the launch. "There were tears in my eyes when I saw the shuttle go off," he said.

Seven astronauts are stranded in orbit after their shuttle is damaged during launch. Unable to repair the ship, they hunker down with dwindling supplies while four more astronauts board a second spacecraft and blast off on a daring rescue mission. NASA executives would like to keep this scenario in the realm of science fiction. But they're preparing for it just the same on the slim chance the shuttle Atlantis is crippled during the May 11 repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. A second shuttle - Endeavour - is poised for liftoff from Cape Canaveral if there's a call for help from Atlantis.

As a kid growing up in Bowie, Richard Arnold's heroes included Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson, undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau and the Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon. He realized quickly that he did not have the makings of a major league ball player. So he set his sights instead on science. And now, after teaching in middle and high schools for 15 years, Arnold, 45, is preparing to follow the astronauts into space. He and another former science teacher will be on board the shuttle Discovery tonight, ready for a scheduled 9:20 p.m. launch on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA's space shuttle Discovery has been cleared for blastoff next week on a two-week mission during which a former Maryland science teacher will help to install the International Space Station's fourth and final pair of solar energy panels. Discovery is scheduled for a nighttime liftoff at 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, carrying a crew of seven. www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main

NASA has named a Baltimore native to pilot the shuttle Endeavour on a flight next December to the International Space Station. Col. Terry Virts Jr., 41, a graduate of Oakland Mills High School in Columbia and the U.S. Air Force Academy, will be making his first space flight since joining the astronaut corps in 2000. The mission, labeled STS-130, is assigned to deliver another module to expand the orbiting space station, as well as a seven-window cupola designed as a control room for robotic operations on the station's exterior.

Hopkins shuttle shows how transit can succeed I hope everyone read the article on the success of the Johns Hopkins shuttle bus, which is reported to be reliable and is better than affordable since it's free for the Hopkins and Peabody community and, as the article suspects, many freeloading bounders as well ("Bus service picks up," Nov. 10). I hope readers see the moral of the story: Public transit that is well funded and efficient will be very popular. It is not hard to see why. An individual living in Charles Village going downtown would waste money profligately on parking lots if he persisted in driving.