Gadhafi forces using cluster munitions ...

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi have fired cluster munitions into residential areas in the besieged western city of Misrata, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The organization said in a statement that it had seen three cluster munitions explode over the el-Shawahda neighborhood of Misrata on Thursday night. Researchers inspected debris from a cluster submunition and interviewed witnesses to two other apparent cluster-munition strikes, the statement said.

HRW inspected the submunition, which it said had been discovered by a New York Times reporter, and determined that it was a Spanish-produced MAT-120 120mm mortar projectile, which opens in the air and releases 21 submunitions across a wide area.
The submunitions explode on contact, disintegrating into molten metal that can strike people and penetrate armored vehicles, it said.

"It's appalling that Libya is using this weapon, especially in a residential area," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch. "They pose a huge risk to civilians, both during attacks because of their indiscriminate nature and afterward because of the still-dangerous unexploded duds scattered about."
Most nations have banned their use through the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which became international law in August.

"Libya needs to halt the use of these weapons immediately, and take all steps to ensure that civilians are protected from the deadly remnants they have left behind," Goose said.

Texans riled over Space Shuttle pick cities ..

CNN) -- Texas lawmakers are demanding to know why the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston was not chosen to be a permanent home of a retired space shuttle.
In a letter to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, members of the U.S. House of Representatives Texas delegation asked the administrator, "What factors did you use in making your decision?"

NASA announced Tuesday the locations to receive the four remaining space shuttles -- three historic orbiters and the program's test vehicle. The space shuttle Atlantis will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida; the Endeavour, at the California Science Center in Los Angeles; the Discovery, at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia; and the test shuttle Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.
During a teleconference after the decision was announced -- with Houston conspicuously not on the list of locations getting retired shuttles -- NASA officials were asked where Houston's bid had failed.

NASA's assistant administrator, Olga Dominguez, whose Strategic Infrastructure Office made the site recommendations said, "Houston did not in any way, shape or form fail. It has always been a critical piece of NASA's shuttle and space program. We just did not have enough to go around, and Houston and JSC (the Johnson Space Center) will always be a critical piece of NASA's space program and of our future."

Dominguez said the locations selected offered the best value to the American public, including domestic and international access. Dominguez said all of her office's recommendations were followed by NASA Administrator Bolden.
The Johnson Space Center is where NASA's Mission Control Center is located and it is the center for human spaceflight research. Because of the important role the Johnson Space Center plays in human space flight, it was not just Texans who were shocked that a space shuttle would not be going to Houston.

But it is 17 members of the Texan House delegation who say in the letter that they are prepared to use their power in Congress, "including legislation to prevent funding of the transfer, to stop this wasteful decision."
NASA had no further response Thursday to the Texas delegation.

The decision the lawmakers seem most concerned about is the one to send test shuttle Enterprise to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City. The Enterprise currently is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia. The Enterprise, which never flew in space, will be moved to New York so the Smithsonian can make room for Discovery.
"It defies logic for a shuttle to go to New York City, a place with no connection to NASA. It's like putting the Statue of Liberty in Omaha," Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said in a statement.

Housing a space shuttle is not just an honor -- it means money, according to the executive director of New York's Intrepid Museum. Susan Marenoff estimates that once the shuttle is in place, her museum will see an additional 300,000 people and $106 million in economic benefit.

That is a benefit Texans believe is rightfully theirs. Rep. Pete Olson, also a Texas Republican, bluntly reiterated that in a statement, saying, "No city in the world deserves a shuttle more than Houston, certainly not New York."

NASA announces shuttle retirement homes

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday announced the facilities where four shuttle orbiters will be displayed permanently at the conclusion of the Space Shuttle Program.

Shuttle Enterprise, the first orbiter built, will move from the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York.

The Udvar-Hazy Center will become the new home for shuttle Discovery, which retired after completing its 39th mission in March.

Shuttle Endeavour, which is preparing for its final flight at the end of the month will go to the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

Shuttle Atlantis, which will fly the last planned shuttle mission in June, will be displayed at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex in Florida.


NASA also announced that hundreds of shuttle artifacts have been allocated to museums and education institutions.

Various shuttle simulators for the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum of McMinnville, Ore., and Texas A&M's Aerospace Engineering Department

Full fuselage trainer for the Museum of Flight in Seattle

Nose cap assembly and crew compartment trainer for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio

Flight deck pilot and commander seats for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

Orbital maneuvering system engines for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center of Huntsville, Ala., National Air and Space Museum in Washington, and Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

Norad Flight Exercise Planned For National Capital Region

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and its geographical
component, the Continental United States NORAD Region (CONR), will
conduct an exercise, Falcon Virgo 11-07, beginning midnight Tuesday into
early Wednesday morning in the National Capital Region, Washington, D.C.
and Frederick County, Md.

Flights in the National Capital Region are scheduled to take place
between midnight Tuesday and 2 a.m. Wednesday morning. Flights in the
Frederick County, Md., area are scheduled to take place between 4:10
a.m.and 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.

In the event of inclement weather, the exercise will take place the next
day until all training requirements are met.

For more information on Falcon Virgo exercises, please contact CONR
Public Affairs at 850-283-8080, or the NORAD Public Affairs Office at
719-554-6889.

U.S. Department of Defense
Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)

Air France AB380 clips tail of Delta commuter plane

An Air France jumbo jet bound for Paris clipped the tail of a Delta Comair commuter plane while taxiing last night at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

There were no injuries, though passengers were startled, and the planes appeared to be damaged.

"It was pretty damned scary," Poppy Lawton, 29, of London, who was aboard the Delta flight, tells the New York Daily News. "You could hear things breaking, almost like glass breaking."

An Air France spokeswoman tells AOL Travel News the Airbus A380 with 495 passengers and 25 crew onboard "was taxiing and the other one (plane) was parking" when the incident occurred around 8:09 p.m.

She says the carrier is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board in their investigation. "They are looking into the matter," the Air France spokeswoman says.

The A380 is the world's biggest commercial passenger plane.


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