Word: columbia
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...sorrows of the past behind. The spacecraft rises toward the heavens exactly as, in our finest moments as a nation, our hearts have risen toward justice and principle. And when, for no clear reason, the vessel crumbles, as it did in 1986 with Challenger and last week with Columbia, we falsely think the promise of America goes with...
Unfortunately, the core problem that lay at the heart of the Challenger tragedy applies to the Columbia tragedy as well. That core problem is the space shuttle itself. For 20 years, the American space program has been wedded to a space-shuttle system that is too expensive, too risky, too big for most of the ways it is used, with budgets that suck up funds that could be invested in a modern system that would make space flight cheaper and safer. The space shuttle is impressive in technical terms, but in financial terms and safety terms no project has done...
...golden egg. Just a few weeks ago, NASA canceled a program called the Space Launch Initiative, whose goal was to design a much cheaper and more reliable replacement for the shuttle. Along with the cancellation, NASA announced that the shuttle fleet would remain in operation until 2020, meaning that Columbia was supposed to continue flying into outer space even when its airframe was more than 40 years old! True, B-52s have flown as long. But they don't endure three times the force of gravity on takeoff and 2000[degrees] on re-entry...
Roberts seemed on a fast track to judicial glory in 1992, when George H.W. Bush tapped him for the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals at the age of 36. But he encountered his first setback when the bid died in the Senate with Bill Clinton's victory. Then George W. Bush tried in 2001 and finally succeeded in 2003. In the meantime, Roberts spent most of the '90s biding his time, getting rich as a corporate lawyer at Hogan & Hartson, one of Washington's largest firms, where he quickly emerged as the supreme commander of Supreme Court battles...
...kids can barter for their favorite prescription drugs. Pharming parties--or just "pharming" (from pharmaceuticals)--represent a growing trend among teenage drug abusers. While use of illegal substances like speed, heroin and pot has declined over the past decade, according to a report issued three weeks ago by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), abuse of prescription drugs has increased sharply. CASA says about 2.3 million kids ages 12 to 17 took legal medications illegally in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available. That's three times the number in 1992, or about...