Bad Fla. Weather Keeps Discovery in Orbit

14-day mission ends on West Coast after poor weather scrubs Florida attempt again

(NEWSER) - After bad weather kept it from heading to Florida for the second consecutive day, the space shuttle Discovery touched down safely in California moments ago, Space.com reports. The crew returns after a 14-day mission that including resupplying and repairing the International Space Station. More»

(NEWSER) - The shuttle Discovery detached from the International Space Station today and began its journey home to Earth, Space.com reports. The 13-day mission help resupply and repair the station; the seven crewmembers are scheduled to return to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center at 7:05pm Thursday. More»

Shuttle leaves California for home, mounted on a 747

(NEWSER) - The space shuttle Atlantis set off to return to Florida from its emergency landing site in California today—strapped to a jumbo jet. The Boeing 747 carrying Atlantis departed from the Mojave Desert Air Base and will stop to refuel along its trip at undisclosed locations. It's expected to arrive at the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, said a NASA spokesman. More»

...in just the first 6 months of 2012

(NEWSER) - Come June, about 70,000 people will lose long-term unemployment benefits sooner than they expected, bumping the number of people who've had the rug pulled out from under them in the first six months of the year to nearly 500,000, the New York Times reports. Congress renewed its extended unemployment program in February , but reduced the maximum number of weeks from 99 to as low as 63. How quickly benefits disappear is determined largely by how much unemployment has increased recently, meaning hard-hit states like California, which has 11% unemployment, lost benefits early because things hadn't gotten worse. More»

Some of country's hardest hit states see benefits expire

(NEWSER) - Unemployment benefits abruptly dried up for 236,300 people this weekend, as federal support for the long-term unemployed expired in some of the country's hardest-hit states. Thanks to a law Congress passed in February, long-term benefits are being scaled back from 99 weeks to 79 weeks, the Hill explains. So far, 27 states have been cut, for a total of 409,300 unemployed people, according to the National Employment Law Project More»