Astronauts

Two astronauts on a spacewalk failed to free a jammed equipment shelf. Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold II pushed and pulled the stuck equipment storage platform but finally gave up. NASA officials at Cape Canaveral instructed them to tie the platform down using sturdy tethers. Meantime, inside the space station, the recycling system that's meant to turn astronauts' urine and condensation into drinking water finally completed a full cycle and yielded four or five liters to bring back to Earth for testing.

The space shuttle pilot at the center of a bizarre love triangle that included a former astronaut who now faces attempted kidnapping charges is leaving the space agency, NASA said in Houston. Cmdr. William A. Oefelein will leave NASA on June 1, nearly four months after authorities believe his cooled relationship with Lisa Marie Nowak led her to drive 900 miles from Houston to Florida and confront her romantic rival. Oefelein was being assigned to the Naval Network Warfare Command in Norfolk, Va.

NASA doesn't have nearly enough money to put astronauts back on the moon by 2020 -- and it might be the wrong place to go, anyway. That's one of the harsh messages emerging from a sweeping review of NASA's human space flight program. The Human Space Flight Plans Committee, appointed by President Obama and headed by retired aerospace executive Norman R. Augustine, has been trying to stitch together a plausible strategy for America's manned space program. The panel has struggled to find options that stay under the current budget and include missions worthy of the cost and effort.

A massive piece of space junk drifted toward the International Space Station and its 13 astronauts Wednesday, although NASA officials said the threat would not delay tonight's spacewalk. Mission Control kept close tabs on the piece of debris because there was a chance, however unlikely, that it could come too close or even hit the linked shuttle Discovery and space station if their path is not altered. As of Wednesday night, the junk was expected to pass within two miles of the outpost Friday, said John McCullough, chief of NASA's flight director office.

Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge have succeeded in levitating mice, a feat that they say could lead to advances in treating bone loss for astronauts living for extended periods in low-gravity environments. Jet Propulsion Laboratory physicist Yuanming Liu said in an interview Thursday that the mice were levitated using a device called a no-gravity simulator, which is powered by a superconducting gradient magnet. "The reason we want to levitate mice is we are aware of the situation that astronauts who stay in microgravity environments long enough might lose some bone mass," Liu said.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is heading for the final frontier: Space. At the behest of Supervisor Mike Antonovich, the board Tuesday appointed Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin as its "Honorary Consul General to the Moon from Los Angeles County." Aldrin was the second man to step on the moon in July 1969. The Board of Supervisors, famous for presentations of elaborate scrolls, gave one to Aldrin, who accepted on behalf of the 24 Apollo astronauts who reached the vicinity of the moon.

Former astronaut Lisa Nowak turned to face the woman she was accused of attacking nearly three years ago after driving 1,000 miles across country: Colleen Shipman, who sat in the front row of a packed Florida courtroom. "I am sincerely sorry for causing fear and misunderstanding and all the intense public exposure you have encountered," Nowak said. Then Orange County Circuit Court Judge Marc Lubet accepted Nowak's guilty plea of burglary of a car, a third-degree felony, and misdemeanor battery.

Comedian Stephen Colbert, who couldn't get his mock presidential campaign off the ground, is polling better by aiming higher. He's convinced his many fans to write in his name in NASA's online public vote to name a new room to be added to the international space station. So instead of NASA's suggested choices -- Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise or Venture -- the space station's new addition may wind up with the name "Colbert." The count by mid-Tuesday had votes for the comedian just shy of 115,000 and Serenity trailing at 98,641.

Thunderstorms raking NASA's spaceport kept space shuttle Atlantis in orbit an extra day, giving the crew unwanted downtime as they aimed for a landing today. After passing up two opportunities to land Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Mission Control thanked the seven astronauts for their patience. As a precaution, NASA activated its backup touchdown site at Edwards Air Force Base in California, where good weather was expected.

The astronauts in orbit, all 13 of them, enjoyed their first day off in more than a week after a series of grueling spacewalks. "Today we hope you can enjoy some well-earned time off," Mission Control told them. The astronauts wrapped up their fourth spacewalk Friday, completing crucial battery changes at the International Space Station. One more is planned for Monday. Shuttle pilot Douglas Hurley acknowledged that there's been "a little bit of a traffic jam" at the bathrooms every morning because of the record number of people up there.