... 2003 February 3 . Space Shuttle and Crew Lost During Re-Entry . Credit: STS-107 Crew , NASA . Explanation: Saturday morning, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry. Pictured above is the seven-member crew that was lost. ... As debris from the shuttle may be toxic , NASA asks that anything found be reported immediately to local authorities and not touched. ... About APOD | ... NASA Technical Rep.: ... A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC . NASA SEU Edu. ...

... It does not seem a far-fetched notion.The Soviet Union began the Space Age with an early lead over the Americans.The first satellite in orbit, first man in space, first spacewalk and first probes to the Moon were all achieved by the USSR.In 1967, NASAтАЩs Apollo project appeared to be faltering following the deaths of three astronauts in an accident which had indicated fatal flaws in the spacecraft design. ... The moon project was led by Sergei Korolev, architect of the early Soviet space successes....

As announced by the IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams in Circular No. 9004 on 11 December 2008, Bulletin C36 of the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service announced that a positive leap second will be added on 1 January 2009. ... Bulletin C is mailed every six months, either to announce a time step in UTC or to confirm that there will be no time step at the next possible date. Daniel GAMBIS Head Earth Orientation Center of IERS Observatoire de Paris, France ...