If You Want the President To Call, It Helps to Send Him Color Pictures... From Mars The people operating NASA's Spirit received a congratulatory call from the President, following their reception of the first color photos from the Mars Spirit Rover. President George W. Bush called the Mars Rover Team (Tuesday) to congratulate them for reconfirming the American spirit of exploration, said Dr. Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., where the mission is managed. Later in the day, the Spirit team awakened the rover with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's rendition of "Hail to the Chief." Color images in a mosaic released today are the highest-resolution pictures ever sent from Mars, more than three times as detailed as i

Lockheed Martin tells ANN that improvements to a promising new laser-based technology have enabled the detection and tracking of aircraft wake vortices, which previously were undetected. As most flyers know, wake vortices are hazardous turbulent airflow disturbances resembling small horizontal tornadoes that are a byproduct of the lift induced by airfoils in flight. If these hazards can be detected and tracked, airplanes will take off and land more safely and airport delays can be reduced. Project SOCRATES -- which stands for Sensors for Characterizing Ring-eddy Atmospheric Turbulence Emanating Sound -- is an applied research and development program that leverages declassified military technology previously used for the acoustic detection of submarines. It aims to

SPACEHAB has announced the appointment of Brian K. Harrington as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective January 5, 2004. Harrington, a 30-year veteran in corporate financial management, will oversee all of SPACEHAB's financial operations, including corporate finance, accounting, budgeting, regulatory compliance reporting, and investor relations. "We are extremely pleased to have Brian on board," said Michael E. Kearney, SPACEHAB President and Chief Executive Officer. "We view his extensive experience and knowledge as integral to the continued growth of our company as we expand our role in space commerce. I have every confidence that SPACEHAB and our shareholders will be well served with Brian as CFO," Kearney added.

AD NUMBER: 2003-26-14 MANUFACTURER: Fire Extinguishers SUBJECT: Airworthiness Directive 2003-26-14 SUMMARY: The FAA adopts a new airworthiness directive (AD) for certain Kidde Aerospace P/N 898052h and-held halon fire extinguishers that are utilized on aircraft. This AD requires you to remove the affected fire extinguishers from service and would prevent you from using them in the future. This AD is the result of information that shows that the discharge time of the affected fire extinguishers exceeds the maximum allowable discharge time.