High above the earth, Kittinger studied a frontier that few men have seen. "Up there,'' he recalled afterwards, "the sky looked dark enough to see stars as one would at twilight on earth." Up, up, up the balloon rose, to 98,800 ft. above the ground (102,800 ft. above sea level), higher than any human being had ever soared before in nonpowered flight. Shortly after 7 a.m., Kittinger ticked off his go-second countdown in radio communication with the ground. Then he "asked the Lord for help," flopped over the side of the gondola, and began his long fall nearly 20 miles. Down, Down, Down. Within 18 seconds, Kittinger's stabilizing chute opened, but for more than four minutes more he plummeted in free fall, reaching a velocity of 614 m.p.h. More →

A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years _are_ a result of long-term trends associated with global warming. More →

After hacking into and taking control of the computers, Faur programmed the machines to operate as chat rooms so he could communicate with other WhiteHat members, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Hoffstadt said. More →

The US space agency is drawing up plans to land an astronaut on an asteroid hurtling through space at more than 30,000 mph. It wants to know whether humans could master techniques needed to deflect such a doomsday object when it is eventually identified. The proposals are at an early stage, and a spacecraft needed just to send an astronaut that far into space exists only on the drawing board, but they are deadly serious. A smallish asteroid called Apophis has already been identified as a possible threat to Earth in 2036. More →

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere. An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." More →

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