Missions

Janice Voss, 55, a NASA astronaut who first worked for the space agency as a teenager and flew five shuttle missions in seven years, died Feb. 6 in Scottsdale, Ariz., where she was receiving treatment for breast cancer. Voss flew four missions in the 1990s before a flight to the International Space Station in 2000. Her final trip was part of a radar topography mission that mapped more than 47 million square miles of Earth's surface. NASA said Voss was one of six women to fly in space at least five times.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket roared to life before dawn at Cape Canaveral, Fla., today and blasted into space on a column of fire that lit the night sky for miles around. The nine-engine rocket lifted off at 3:44 a.m. EDT carrying a cone-shaped space capsule that's set to berth with the International Space Station later this week. SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is the first private company to embark on such a mission.

I commend The Times' position in support of allocating federal funds to help restore California missions (editorial, Aug. 12). Apart from being tourist and fourth-grade field trip destinations, the missions represent a complicated and diverse history that goes beyond the romanticized imagery that is often bestowed on them. The missions will continue to challenge both religious and secular scholars, making history a challenging and fascinating field of study. JOHN MACIAS West Covina

You can draw a straight line, in terms of architectural history, from William Randolph Hearst'ssprawling estate in San Simeon to the corner of Broadway and 11th Street in downtown Los Angeles. It was at that downtown site in 1913 that Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to design a headquarters for his Los Angeles Examiner newspaper, which he'd founded in 1903. Morgan produced one of the most remarkable designs of her prolific career, a 103,500-square-foot Mission Revival building draped with Italian and Moorish touches, including domes covered in yellow and blue tile.

Britain and Germany reopened diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia that were shut in the wake of suicide bombings that killed 34 people May 12 in the capital, Riyadh. But Western warnings remained against nonessential travel to the Arab kingdom, which has arrested suspected Al Qaeda supporters in connection with the attacks.

Re "Been there, done that," editorial, Dec. 10 The way to recapture the excitement of the original moon landings would be to send astronauts directly to Mars, not go back to the moon. A moon base would simply be a complex boondoggle without much purpose. I want to see a Mars landing in my lifetime. I don't want to waste years and resources building a moon base. Robotic missions also deserve our full support; they have extended our knowledge of places beyond the reach of astronauts.

I really enjoyed Geoff Boucher's piece on the trip to the missions ["Mission Project: Not Bad, Dad," March 16]. Over the years I have been to many of them from Sonoma to San Diego. La Purisima has always been my favorite, followed by San Juan Bautista. Jerry West Gold River, Canada

Re "Congress Votes to Repair Missions," Nov. 18: If the federal government is going to spend $10 million toward repairing 19 missions owned by the Catholic Church, then it is only fair that the Catholic Church deed those missions to the federal government. Al Grenier Los Angeles I am a proud liberal and a staunch believer in the separation of church and state. But the "watchdog group," Americans United for Church and State, do California and themselves a grave disservice by opposing the bill that would provide desperately needed funds to restore our California missions.

Mother Teresa announced the establishment today of three missions in the Soviet Union to help the poor and the sick in Moscow and in the two southern republics of Armenia and Georgia. An official of the Armenian Peace Committee said four sisters from the Missionaries of Charity will live in small mobile homes in that republic, where 23,000 people died and 500,000 were left homeless in the December, 1988, earthquake. The frail, 78-year-old Roman Catholic nun, whose charitable work throughout the world from her base in Calcutta, India, earned her the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, said the Soviet Union is the 80th country in which she has set up missions.

Re "Peace Missions Are Put in Doubt," July 3: I am utterly astounded at the scofflaw attitude of the United States government toward the new International Criminal Court, to the point of its willingness to sabotage U.N. peacekeeping missions all over the world and plunge entire countries like Bosnia and East Timor back into the abyss of civil war just because our government wants to secure for Americans absolute immunity from any court prosecutions....

As the United States finally begins to wind down its military presence in Afghanistan, is the Obama administration poised to replicate that intervention in Yemen? The administration insists it has no such plans, but it has been evident for months that it regards the Yemen-based group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as the most dangerous incubator of terrorist plots directed at America. And it is acting on that conviction. This week The Times reported that U.S. special operations troops, which were withdrawn from Yemen last year amid political turmoil in that country, have returned and are providing technical assistance to Yemeni forces.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai, perhaps best known in the West for periodic well-aimed jabs at his NATO allies, is embarking on a determined charm offensive as he faces the prospect of seeing troops and, perhaps even more crucially, dollars slip away from his country. The Afghan government has long regarded the NATO alliance and its partners as a seemingly bottomless source of funding. But aides to Karzai say the president is heading to a landmark NATO summit in Chicago this weekend with a keen awareness of the financial pinch being felt from London to Tokyo.

The countdown has begun for SpaceX's historic mission to send a spacecraft into orbit to dock with the International Space Station.SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is due to launch its Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in a demonstration for NASA. Officials of the space agency and SpaceX held a news conference Friday at the cape to discuss the mission.

The Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside has a special offer for active and veteran members of the U.S. military this month: $159 a night for a room that includes dinner for two and valet parking. It's a good discount off the usual rates -- and might make for a nice Memorial Day getaway. The deal: A Salute to Our Heroes package includes a room, dinner for two at the hotel's Bella Trattoria Italian Bistro and free valet parking. A military ID is required for this deal.

For the last half-century, space flight has been the domain of the world's superpowers. All that is set to change as soon as Saturday when SpaceX, the private rocket company in Hawthorne, will attempt to launch a spaceship with cargo into orbit and three days later dock it with the International Space Station. If successful, the mission could mean a major shift in the way the U.S. government handles space exploration. Instead of keeping space travel a closely guarded government function, NASA has already begun hiring privately funded start-up companies for spacecraft development and is moving toward eventually outsourcing NASA space missions.

What an appealing slice-of-life California town, an easy day trip by car or train. Come for the history, stay for the food. This restaurant-intensive ranch town is the oldest community in Orange County. If San Juan Capistrano - or SJC - had a dating profile it would say: "Self-deprecating, authentic, still likes a good time. " The bed. Choices here are limited, though a new hotel is on the way. Till then, you have the Residence Inn Marriott, with one- and two-bedroom suites starting at $179 (33711 Camino Capistrano; [949]

Despite a growing debate over Chumash artifacts found behind Mission San Buenaventura, officials on Wednesday broke ground for a 750-seat auditorium and 345-pupil elementary school. All 210 students of Holy Cross School--or at least the ones who weren't busy fidgeting--lifted their young voices in song, and regional Bishop Thomas Curry offered a blessing of holy water and prayers for the $5.5-million project to proceed smoothly.

The fantastical murals of San Francisco's Mission District are an intriguing dialogue between artists and their city that you can easily experience on foot. On any given day in Clarion Alley, tourists from all over the world mingle with field-tripping students (and the homeless). Start at the Mission Street end of Clarion Alley, then exit at Valencia Street and head south (turn left). Check out the murals all the way to 20th Street. Typically, walk one or two blocks (east or west) to view.

NASA'sfirst hard look at the protoplanet Vesta has given scientists an unprecedented view of its makeup, terrain and history - and revealed that major activity on this ancient rock occurred far more recently than researchers had expected. Images sent back from NASA's trailblazing Dawn spacecraft reveal the full size of a massive crater in the southern hemisphere and indicate that it may have been made just 1 billion years ago, well after Vesta formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, according to one of half a dozen studies published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.