NASA aims for unmanned moon rocket launch Thursday
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA launched its first moon shot in a decade Thursday, sending up a pair of unmanned science probes that will help determine where astronauts could land and set up camp in years to come.
The liftoff occurred just one month and two days shy of the 40th anniversary of the first lunar footprints. The mission is a first step in NASA’s effort to return humans to the moon by 2020.
Scientists cheered as the Atlas V rocket blasted off in late afternoon, ducking through clouds and providing an exhilarating start to the $583 million mission.
The two spacecraft should reach the moon in four to five days — or by early next week.
One will enter into an orbit around the moon for a mapping mission. The other will swing past the moon, go into an elongated orbit around Earth and crash into a crater at the moon’s south pole in October.
Janitor gets 6 years in prison for Tenn. nuclear parts theft
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A former janitor was sentenced to six years in prison Thursday for trying to sell scrap hardware he stole from a shuttered plant that enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, of Harriman pleaded guilty in January to one count of disclosing restricted data in violation of the Atomic Energy Act. He entered the plea deal the day his trial was set to begin.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan sentenced Oakley to the six-year prison term outlined in the deal and three years of supervised release after Oakley gets out. He could have received up to 20 years if convicted of the original two charges.
U.S. Attorney Russ Dedrick said Oakley “betrayed this country in order to line his pockets with money.”
Oakley admitted taking the equipment from the U.S. Energy Department’s former K-25 uranium enrichment plant in Oak Ridge, where he was employed from 2006 to 2007.
New images show evidence of ancient Martian lake, beach
LOS ANGELES — Scientists say new images from space suggest Mars had a sizable lake on its surface billions of years ago.
Images taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a 30-mile-long canyon and beach remnants surrounding a basin.
Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder estimate the lake, which probably formed 3.4 billion years ago, was 80 square miles and up to 1,500 feet deep.
Okla. Man not full of bologna, assaulted for 76-cent sandwich
OKLAHOMA CITY — A man in Oklahoma City says he was attacked for his bologna and cheese sandwich.
Police say 24-year-old Roger Hamilton told them he was sitting on a bus station bench Wednesday, about to put mayonnaise on his sandwich, when another man began staring at him.
Hamilton told police that the man then punched him in the mouth and grabbed his sandwich and left.
Police say Hamilton has a swollen lip and his face was covered in blood. The police report listed the value of the sandwich at 76 cents.
Police have not found the attacker.
