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National Briefs
Issue date: 2/3/03 Section: News
Scientific experiments lost with shuttle
(KRT) — Columbia was a speeding laboratory with 59 scientific experiments on board, and in the coming days researchers from around the world will be sorting out their losses.
During the shuttle’s 16-day mission, completed data often was downlinked from the shuttle to scientists on Earth. But some results remained aboard.
Often life sciences experiments depend in part upon the examination of laboratory animals upon their return.
In one experiment, crew members were collecting their own blood, urine and saliva. Scientists were to study the samples for such things as bone and muscle loss.
Before Saturday’s catastrophe, researchers had been “pinching themselves” over the smoothness of the mission, said Ron Dittemore, shuttle program manager, at a NASA news briefing.
This Columbia mission was purely scientific. For the first time in three years, a shuttle flight had not headed to the international space station or to the Hubble Space Telescope.
For NASA officials, however, questions about the experiments on board were put aside while they focused on Saturday’s loss of life and on an investigation of the shuttle’s breakup.
“We’re in the process of recovery, and we’re not prepared to talk about the science,” said Dolores Beasley, a NASA spokesman in Washington.
Those involved in shuttle experiments and other observers said the disaster would no doubt delay the shuttle program. And some researchers would be heartbroken over missing data; many spend years preparing experiments.
But Columbia’s fate won’t put an end to the program’s commitment to scientific examination, experts said.
U.S. negotiates with Turkey for role in war
WASHINGTON (KRT) — When U.S. and Turkish officials meet today in Ankara to discuss Turkey’s potential role in any war with Iraq, they are to examine something called a Memorandum of Understanding. This is, in fact, a bid — the price the Bush administration is willing to pay for the use of Turkey’s military bases, airfields and ports.
The memorandum offers more than $4 billion in U.S. loans and grants, according to a Western diplomat in Istanbul, and represents a “significant step forward” in the Bush administration’s efforts to add a critical ally to its “coalition of the willing” against Iraq.
“The United States has presented what we consider to be a credible offer,” the diplomat said. “We have tried to design a package to give Turkey as much flexibility as possible.”
The package reveals Washington’s eagerness to secure the use of Turkey as a vital land bridge into northern Iraq.
It also illustrates the powerful economic and diplomatic levers that President Bush wields as he rallies allies against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
In the Persian Gulf region alone over the past two years, the United States has sold, lent or given away an estimated $7.5 billion worth of weaponry, other military equipment and training assistance, according to State Department figures.
The deals include advanced fighter jets, radar systems and missiles. Airfields are being expanded. Military bases are being renovated.
In return, the United States has won the right to build bases, house troops and use sovereign airspace if it prosecutes a war against Iraq.
(KRT) — Columbia was a speeding laboratory with 59 scientific experiments on board, and in the coming days researchers from around the world will be sorting out their losses.
During the shuttle’s 16-day mission, completed data often was downlinked from the shuttle to scientists on Earth. But some results remained aboard.
Often life sciences experiments depend in part upon the examination of laboratory animals upon their return.
In one experiment, crew members were collecting their own blood, urine and saliva. Scientists were to study the samples for such things as bone and muscle loss.
Before Saturday’s catastrophe, researchers had been “pinching themselves” over the smoothness of the mission, said Ron Dittemore, shuttle program manager, at a NASA news briefing.
This Columbia mission was purely scientific. For the first time in three years, a shuttle flight had not headed to the international space station or to the Hubble Space Telescope.
For NASA officials, however, questions about the experiments on board were put aside while they focused on Saturday’s loss of life and on an investigation of the shuttle’s breakup.
“We’re in the process of recovery, and we’re not prepared to talk about the science,” said Dolores Beasley, a NASA spokesman in Washington.
Those involved in shuttle experiments and other observers said the disaster would no doubt delay the shuttle program. And some researchers would be heartbroken over missing data; many spend years preparing experiments.
But Columbia’s fate won’t put an end to the program’s commitment to scientific examination, experts said.
— Knight Ridder Newspapers
U.S. negotiates with Turkey for role in war
WASHINGTON (KRT) — When U.S. and Turkish officials meet today in Ankara to discuss Turkey’s potential role in any war with Iraq, they are to examine something called a Memorandum of Understanding. This is, in fact, a bid — the price the Bush administration is willing to pay for the use of Turkey’s military bases, airfields and ports.
The memorandum offers more than $4 billion in U.S. loans and grants, according to a Western diplomat in Istanbul, and represents a “significant step forward” in the Bush administration’s efforts to add a critical ally to its “coalition of the willing” against Iraq.
“The United States has presented what we consider to be a credible offer,” the diplomat said. “We have tried to design a package to give Turkey as much flexibility as possible.”
The package reveals Washington’s eagerness to secure the use of Turkey as a vital land bridge into northern Iraq.
It also illustrates the powerful economic and diplomatic levers that President Bush wields as he rallies allies against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
In the Persian Gulf region alone over the past two years, the United States has sold, lent or given away an estimated $7.5 billion worth of weaponry, other military equipment and training assistance, according to State Department figures.
The deals include advanced fighter jets, radar systems and missiles. Airfields are being expanded. Military bases are being renovated.
In return, the United States has won the right to build bases, house troops and use sovereign airspace if it prosecutes a war against Iraq.
— Chicago Tribune
