Mission Specialist

The federal government and Morton Thiokol Inc. bought annuities for $7.735 million to settle the claims by survivors of four of the astronauts who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger, according to documents released today. Morton Thiokol, the company that produced the faulty booster rocket blamed for the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion, paid 60% of the total cost of buying the annuities, the Justice Department acknowledged. The government's share was 40%.

Shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts flew into the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral as NASA prepared to start the countdown for its first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster. The space agency has scheduled Discovery's liftoff for Wednesday. "It's been 2 1/2 years since a crew has stood here before you," mission specialist Andrew Thomas, 53, said shortly after the crew's plane touched down.

Dr. Mae C. Jemison of West Los Angeles, the first black woman to be selected for the nation's astronaut corps, says she wants to be known as "just another astronaut," but that if she becomes a role model for other black women aspiring to join the nation's space agency, that's OK too. Jemison, 30, was named on Friday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to join 14 other individuals in the first class of astronaut trainees chosen by the space agency since the Jan.

The Pathfinder spacecraft, poised for its historic descent to the Martian surface today, got close enough to the Red Planet to begin to feel its gravitational attraction at 4 a.m. Thursday. "I think it's safe to say we're all [feeling the pull of Mars]," flight system manager Brian Muirhead said. At 11 a.m. Thursday, the heaters turned on to inflate the air bags that will protect the craft when it hits the surface. By 7:45 p.m., the spacecraft was as close to Mars as the moon is to Earth.

Shuttle Discovery's seven astronauts flew into the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral as NASA prepared to start the countdown for its first shuttle mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster. The space agency has scheduled Discovery's liftoff for Wednesday. "It's been 2 1/2 years since a crew has stood here before you," mission specialist Andrew Thomas, 53, said shortly after the crew's plane touched down.

Veteran astronaut Frederick H. Hauck and four other experienced space fliers were named today to blast off aboard Discovery in 1988 for the first shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster, NASA announced. Discovery is tentatively scheduled for launch Feb. 18, 1988.

On their final full day in orbit, the five Atlantis astronauts encountered their first problem when one of the orbiter's four general-purpose computers "froze" and had to be replaced with a spare. Earlier Sunday, however, they finally got a chance to photograph some lightning before preparing for their landing at 12:43 p.m. today at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The computer that failed did not control any flight-critical processes but directed the attitude of antennas and played a role in the on-board science experiments.

Astronaut S. David Griggs, who flew on the space shuttle in 1985 and was in training to pilot a mission in November, died Saturday when the vintage plane he was flying slammed into a field, authorities said. Jeff Carr, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said that Griggs was flying a World War II North American T-6, "a vintage trainer airplane," and that he apparently was performing aerobatics at the time of the accident. "I was told he was out here practicing this morning and was going to go to an air show at Clarksville, Ark.," said Peter Kerwin, an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration who was on the scene.

Despite such "minor annoyances" as a jammed fax machine, a stuck camera shutter and a malfunctioning control valve on a water faucet in their galley, the Atlantis astronauts entered their third day in space with no significant problems and a light workload. Tests of a hand-held 8-millimeter Sony camcorder were particularly successful, sending back to the ground the clearest and most precise television pictures ever obtained from space, NASA officials said. The Atlantis astronauts had a particularly light schedule because most of the payload weight available for experiments was used for extra fuel to ensure the launch of the spacecraft Magellan, which is designed to map the cloud-covered surface of Venus with a sophisticated radar mapping device.

A federal judge Friday cleared the way for the launching of the space shuttle Discovery early today after ruling that three environmental groups had failed to demonstrate that the launching could result in radioactive contamination over much of the East Coast. The Discovery, scheduled for liftoff at 4:35 a.m. PDT, will carry the nuclear-powered Ulysses into orbit and then send the robotic spacecraft on a 2-billion-mile journey to the sun by way of Jupiter.

Adriatic Tours/American Journeys, San Pedro-based specialists in both mature travel and pilgrimage tours to religious shrines and destinations in the United States and Europe, has combined both in a three-day motor-coach tour of California missions. The escorted tour includes visits to six of Father Junipero Serra's missions between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

A federal judge Friday cleared the way for the launching of the space shuttle Discovery early today after ruling that three environmental groups had failed to demonstrate that the launching could result in radioactive contamination over much of the East Coast. The Discovery, scheduled for liftoff at 4:35 a.m. PDT, will carry the nuclear-powered Ulysses into orbit and then send the robotic spacecraft on a 2-billion-mile journey to the sun by way of Jupiter.

Astronaut S. David Griggs, who flew on the space shuttle in 1985 and was in training to pilot a mission in November, died Saturday when the vintage plane he was flying slammed into a field, authorities said. Jeff Carr, a NASA spokesman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, said that Griggs was flying a World War II North American T-6, "a vintage trainer airplane," and that he apparently was performing aerobatics at the time of the accident. "I was told he was out here practicing this morning and was going to go to an air show at Clarksville, Ark.," said Peter Kerwin, an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration who was on the scene.

On their final full day in orbit, the five Atlantis astronauts encountered their first problem when one of the orbiter's four general-purpose computers "froze" and had to be replaced with a spare. Earlier Sunday, however, they finally got a chance to photograph some lightning before preparing for their landing at 12:43 p.m. today at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The computer that failed did not control any flight-critical processes but directed the attitude of antennas and played a role in the on-board science experiments.

Despite such "minor annoyances" as a jammed fax machine, a stuck camera shutter and a malfunctioning control valve on a water faucet in their galley, the Atlantis astronauts entered their third day in space with no significant problems and a light workload. Tests of a hand-held 8-millimeter Sony camcorder were particularly successful, sending back to the ground the clearest and most precise television pictures ever obtained from space, NASA officials said. The Atlantis astronauts had a particularly light schedule because most of the payload weight available for experiments was used for extra fuel to ensure the launch of the spacecraft Magellan, which is designed to map the cloud-covered surface of Venus with a sophisticated radar mapping device.

The federal government and Morton Thiokol Inc. bought annuities for $7.735 million to settle the claims by survivors of four of the astronauts who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger, according to documents released today. Morton Thiokol, the company that produced the faulty booster rocket blamed for the Jan. 28, 1986, explosion, paid 60% of the total cost of buying the annuities, the Justice Department acknowledged. The government's share was 40%.

Kids still want to be astronauts when they grow up. That, despite the tragic Challenger explosion nearly two years ago, is one thing that astronaut and Marine Corps Col. James F. Buchli has learned in speaking to students like those he met Friday at Hawthorne Intermediate School. Suited up in his blue NASA jump suit, Buchli talked with eighth-grade science students, fielding a barrage of questions that ranged from how much astronauts earn to the logistics of taking a shower in space.

Adriatic Tours/American Journeys, San Pedro-based specialists in both mature travel and pilgrimage tours to religious shrines and destinations in the United States and Europe, has combined both in a three-day motor-coach tour of California missions. The escorted tour includes visits to six of Father Junipero Serra's missions between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Kids still want to be astronauts when they grow up. That, despite the tragic Challenger explosion nearly two years ago, is one thing that astronaut and Marine Corps Col. James F. Buchli has learned in speaking to students like those he met Friday at Hawthorne Intermediate School. Suited up in his blue NASA jump suit, Buchli talked with eighth-grade science students, fielding a barrage of questions that ranged from how much astronauts earn to the logistics of taking a shower in space.

Dr. Mae C. Jemison of West Los Angeles, the first black woman to be selected for the nation's astronaut corps, says she wants to be known as "just another astronaut," but that if she becomes a role model for other black women aspiring to join the nation's space agency, that's OK too. Jemison, 30, was named on Friday by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to join 14 other individuals in the first class of astronaut trainees chosen by the space agency since the Jan.