NASA Looks to Fly Commercial

NASA will spend $50 million of federal economic stimulus funds to seed development of commercial passenger spaceships; however, a presidential panel reviewing the U.S. space program says that may be just the beginning.

According to the recommendations of the U.S. Human Space Flight Plans committee, which delivered its preliminary findings to the White House on Friday, NASA should set aside $2.4 billion between 2011 and 2014 for rides to the International Space Station on commercial U.S. carriers.

"There are companies that would love to move forward with orbital launch service on their own, using only private funds, but it just wouldn't happen for many, many years," John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, a Washington, D.C.-based industry trade group, told Discovery News. "What the government funding would do is basically allow these companies to accelerate these efforts."

With the government as a base customer, commercial firms would be able to develop an array of new markets for orbital launch services, including tourism and scientific research, Gedmark added.

"When you have multiple companies doing this as part of their core business, you open the doors for all sorts of things that you can do in space," he said.

The agency has $50 million available for firms to flesh out plans to provide astronauts rides to and from space station, which orbits about 225 miles above Earth. Proposals are due by Sept. 22.

Shiloh Jolie-Pitt - the sweetest kid from Hollywood

Snoop Dogg Closet - Heineken Parody

Snoop Dogg Closet - Heineken Parody de pe tare.ro

Eto'o arrives for Inter medical

Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o has arrived in Italy for a medical with Internazionale as the swap deal for Zlatan Ibrahimovic edges towards completion.

The Cameroon forward has said he is delighted to be joining the Serie A champions and has targeted winning the Champions League for his new side.

"I'm very happy to be at Inter," Eto'o told the club's website. "I'm here to work and win the Champions League."

Eto'o, who helped Barca to a Spanish league and Cup double and victory in the Champions League last season, is set to join Inter as part of a complicated deal that would see Ibrahimovic move in the opposite direction.

The Catalans will also loan Belarus midfielder Aleksandr Hleb to Inter and pay cash reported to be in the region of 50 million euros (£43m).

Inter manager Jose Mourinho had said his sadness at seeing his best player go was balanced by his excitement at Eto'o's arrival.

"Inter had to choose whether to say: 'We're not selling you' to Ibrahimovic, or get Eto'o plus Hleb free for a year, plus 50 million euros (£43.2m)," he said. "The fans are ready to love Eto'o.

"This seems an extraordinary deal to me, a 100m (£86.5m) euro deal, the deal of the summer. For me it's worth 100m (£86.5m) because Eto'o is not worth a euro less than Ibra'".

Reuters

Five Roman-Era Shipwrecks Found Off Italy

A team of archaeologists has discovered a trove of five Roman-era shipwrecks deep under the sea off a small Mediterranean island.

The find of well-preserved ships, made possible by sonar technology and the use of remotely operated vehicles, includes cargo of largely intact clay vases and pots transporting wine, olive oil, fish sauce and other goods.

Resting untouched between 330 to 490 feet underwater near the small island of Ventotene, which lies 30 miles off the Italian coast halfway between Rome and Naples, the ships date from the 1st century B.C. to the 5th century A.D.

From their cargo, archaeologists from the U.S. group AURORA Trust and Italy's Ministry of Culture, established that the vessels were transporting goods from Italy, Spain and north Africa.

They were probably heading for safe anchorage, but then sunk during a storm.

"Ventotene is a small island in the open sea. It was on major trade routes and was both a safe haven and a danger to shipping," Timmy Gambin, head of archaeology for the Aurora Trust, told Discovery News.

discovery.com

A little girl

A little girl is trying to knock down the sumo fighter Taiichiro Tashima.
PS: I hope her mother didn't make her do this.

World's Largest Telescope Acts Like Big Bucket

A new telescope scheduled to be inaugurated this week on Spain's Canary Islands holds the title as the world's largest, but contenders are gathering in the wings.

The Gran Telescopio Canarias, or GTC for short, has 10.4 meters (34 feet) of mirrors for collecting faint light from distant objects.

"Basically, a telescope mirror functions like a bucket in the rain: The larger the bucket, the faster you collect water," said Michael Richer, an astronomer with Mexico's Instituto de Astronomia Ensenada, who serves as a scientific advisor for the GTC.

"Larger telescopes allow you to collect light faster. This permits the observation of fainter sources -- either because they're farther away or because they're intrinsically fainter -- or more detailed observations that require more precise manipulation of the light," Richer told Discovery News.

GTC tops the 10-meter (32.8-foot) Keck Telescopes on Hawaii's Mauna Kea and folds new teams of astronomers into a heated quest for knowledge about how the universe formed and what it contains. The $180 million GTC is owned Spain, Mexico and the University of Florida.

"When you're a partner in your own telescope, you have a competitive advantage," said Stan Dermott, chairman of the astronomy department at the University of Florida.

discovery.com