Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Shuttle's liftoff is delayed again

By Times Wires
Published December 8, 2007

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

NASA delayed the launch of space shuttle Atlantis until Sunday at the earliest as managers debated whether to loosen longtime launch rules to get around fuel gauge problems.

Shuttle managers were still meeting late Friday and trying to decide how best to proceed. After six hours of discussion, they had determined it was too late to try for a Saturday liftoff. Atlantis' countdown was halted Thursday after a pair of gauges at the bottom of the external fuel tank failed a routine test at the launch pad.

The day-by-day delay was especially disappointing for the many visitors from the European Space Agency. Atlantis is supposed to carry a huge European-built science lab, Columbus, to the international space station. NASA has until Thursday or Friday to launch Atlantis. If it isn't flying by then, the mission will be delayed until January because of computer concerns and unfavorable sun angles for the shuttle when it's docked to the space station.

NEW YORK

Scaffolding collapses, killing window washer

A window washer fell 47 stories to his death and his brother was critically injured Friday when the scaffolding on a high-rise apartment building gave way, authorities said.

"They apparently fell all the way from the top," Fire Department spokesman John Mulligan said.

A 30-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene; his 37-year-old brother was in critical condition at a hospital, officials said. Their names weren't immediately available.

PROVIDENCE, R.I.

Lesbian pair's divorce is rejected by court

A lesbian couple who married in Massachusetts cannot get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday. The court, in a 3-2 decision, said the state's family court lacks the authority to grant the divorce of a same-sex couple because Rhode Island lawmakers have not defined marriage as anything other than a union between a man and a woman. Cassandra Ormiston and Margaret Chambers wed in Massachusetts in 2004 and filed for divorce last year in Rhode Island, where they both live.

WASHINGTON

Jets come close in runway incident

Two commercial jets came within 300 feet of hitting each other at Baltimore-Washington International Airport Sunday evening, federal aviation officials said Friday.

A Delta Connection regional jet took off and flew over a US Airways Airbus A320 that was landing on a crossing runway, officials said. Airline representatives said there were 43 passengers on the Delta Connection jet, which is operated by Comair and was headed to Boston. There were 150 passengers on the US Airways jet, which was arriving from Phoenix. No one was hurt on either plane.

The US Airways pilots reported the incident, FAA officials said, adding that the Delta Connection flight crew never saw the other plane. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.

Elsewhere

THREE DIE IN FIRE: Fire tore through three homes in Bridegeport, Conn., on Friday, killing three people whose bodies were found huddled in the rubble, injuring four others and leaving 20 people homeless, authorities said. A man, a woman and their 1-year-old child were found dead, said Deputy Fire Chief Robert Petrucelli.

A RUN ON GAS: Dozens of drivers made a mad rush for cheap gas after a station employee accidentally changed the price to 33 cents a gallon. An employee closing Trig's Minocqua (Wis.) Shell mistakenly entered the price of a gallon of gasoline as 32.9 cents instead of $3.299 on Monday night, and word of the bargain spread fast.

Times wires

[Last modified December 8, 2007, 01:30:26]