NASA succesfully tests new spacecraft
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA’s new Orion spacecraft made a “bull’s-eye” Pacific splashdown Friday following a dramatic flight 3,604 miles beyond Earth, opening a new era of human exploration meant to put people on Mars.
The unmanned test flight ended 4 hours after it began and achieved at least one record: flying farther and faster than any capsule built for humans since the Apollo moon program.
NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts beyond Earth’s orbit in the decades ahead, to asteroids and ultimately the grand prize: Mars.
Obama touts pick to head Pentagon
WASHINGTON – Shaking up his Pentagon leadership, President Barack Obama tapped policy wonk Ashton Carter to oversee the sprawling Defense Department Friday, heralding his new nominee as one the nation’s “foremost national security leaders.”
Obama announced Carter’s nomination during a ceremony at the White House. A Pentagon veteran who is seen as a centrist, Carter is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate, putting him at the helm of a department moving back into military conflict in the Middle East even as it grapples with budget cuts.
In discussing the Pentagon post with Carter, Obama said he emphasized the need “to make smart choices, precisely because there are so many challenges out there.”
Carter, a widely respected physicist and academic, has won praise from some Republicans, suggesting he’ll face a smooth Senate confirmation. Carter would replace Chuck Hagel, who resigned under pressure last week after a bumpy tenure.
Chinese police arrest former security chief
BEIJING – Chinese authorities placed the feared ex-security chief Zhou Yongkang under formal arrest early Saturday to investigate his suspected crimes, including accepting bribes, adultery and leaking the country’s secrets, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Zhou, a former member of the powerful nine-member Politburo Standing Committee, also was expelled from the Communist Party, making him the most senior figure to be snared in President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption crackdown.
The square-jawed, granite-faced Zhou is the highest-level official to be prosecuted since the 1981 treason trial of Mao Zedong’s wife and other members of the “Gang of Four” who persecuted political opponents during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.
Associated Press
