Tuesday, November 17, 2009 NEW YORK: The shuttle Atlantis has blasted off carrying vital supplies and spare parts for the International Space Station to push its life past the 2010 retirement of the aging shuttle fleet.Atlantis launched at 2.28pm on Monday (0628 AEDT Tuesday) from the Kennedy Space Centre near Florida's Cape Canaveral carrying six astronauts and some 12 tonnes of gyroscopes, ammonia tanks and other equipment."A perfect launch, right on time," said a NASA spokesman after the shuttle reached orbit about eight minutes into its flight, hurtling at a speed of more than 24,000km/ph, NASA said.Moment before the lift-off, launch director Mike Leinback wished the crew godspeed, declaring: "All the vehicle systems are outstanding today, the weather is near perfect for a good lift-off today."Space agency officials said the mission was crucial as just five more shuttle launches remain before the planned September 2010 retirement of the fleet and the spare parts will add years to the space station's life."You'll see this theme in some of the flights that are going to come after ours as well," said mission director Brian Smith. "This flight is all about spares, basically, we're getting them up there while we still can."Atlantis reached its orbit in eight and-a-half minutes 225km above earth. It was due to dock with the ISS at 1653 GMT on Wednesday (0353 AEDT Thursday).Led by Marine Corps Colonel Charlie Hobaugh, the all-male crew arrived on Thursday at Kennedy Space Centre from Houston, Texas, where the astronauts are based.The 11-day space outing, the fifth and final shuttle mission for 2009, is scheduled to include three space walks to store hardware on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS).
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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