Space shuttle Endeavour finally gusted into space Wednesday evening, along with its seven-member entourage on Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida after overcoming five major setbacks, slated to reach the International Space Station on Friday. After a month long delay, the launch of Endeavour coincides with the 40th anniversary of the successful launch when man first landed on moon.

Engineers have noted rubble of close to nine foam insulations of the external fuel tank flying off the Endeavour at the time of take off, though the prospect of major damage has been ruled out. A few scrapes have been observed that are being comprehended as insignificant coating being grazed off. A detailed picture of further damage would become clear on Friday when the astronauts would be taking closeup pictures of the space shuttle as it back tosses prior to docking.

The chairman of the mission management team, Mike Moss stated that it would be premature to make any speculations regarding the damage at this point of time. He further mentioned that in the eventuality of minor damage, the crew were well-equipped with repair kits. If matters were worse, the crew had the option to haul into the space station for the 2-3 month period while a rescue shuttle would be there to tend to them.

Columbia, NASA’s prior fatal venture that blasted to pieces in sky while re-entry claimed all seven lives on it.

The seven member crew comprising of six Americans along with a Canadian, Julie Payette who is set to manoeuvre the space shuttle’s robot arm in the mission. For a period of two weeks, the space shuttle will remain docked at the International Space Station, during which the crew will assist in installation of the final component of the Japanese space lab, Kibo, a porch that needs exposure to space for research work. There are five spacewalks scheduled.

There are seven space flights to be undertaken in future prior to the shuttle’s retirement in 2010.

Raging storms close to the Kennedy Space Center compelled NASA to reschedule the launch of the space shuttle ‘Endeavour’ pursued well into the second day. The launch was due at 7:13 p.m with all the preparations for the shuttle completed. But, regrettably, the weather had other plans.

The launch director, Pete Nickolenko notified Mark Polansky, the shuttle commander about the imminent snag in carrying out the launch and that another attempt would be made tomorrow.

On Friday night, there were eleven lightning strikes that took place inside the half mile spanning the launch pad area, compelling a deferring of the launch date. Endeavour has earlier been put off twice in the past month due to liquid hydrogen seepage.

Endeavour is scheduled to carry seven astronauts and the crucial part for Japanese Experiment Module or Kibo Science Lab that is headed to the International Space Station in the course of its 16 day long mission. The Kibo science lab is Japan’s pioneer endeavour in human space facility that has taken more than two decades to make.

Endeavour’s primary objective will be to set up a porch in space. It is holding two Kibo Lab platforms in its cargo bay, one of which is currently installed in the space station. One of the platform moves up and back on the shuttle and the second will be a permanent fixture to the Kibo laboratory for scientific research that needs to be exposed to space.

The next attempt to launch the shuttle is slated at 6:51p.m. on Monday.

Chris Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq must be thanking his lucky stars as his convoy narrowly missed a roadside bomb that went off in the southern province of Baghdad. The embassy convoy was on its way passing through Thiqar province that is 240kms south of Baghdad. The bomb has caused damage to the vehicle but none were harmed. The attack has come just two weeks subsequent to the total withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Iraq.

The American ambassador was visiting the region to get together with U.S, Italian residents and local political leaders in an endeavour to help restore Iraq. The U.S. military speaker, Maj. Myles Caggins said that it was not clear whether the ambassador was the intended target, stating that it was atypical for a Western convoy to be assaulted in that part of Iraq.

A characteristically Shiite Arab stronghold, Thiqar, was among the first province to be passed over to the Iraqi security personnel. It had been the hot bed for episodic violent conflicts in 2007 that concurred between the dedicated mercenaries to Shiite prophet Muqtada al-Sadr that were anti-American and the Iraqi security personnel. The latest car bomb attack in a bustling market of Bathaa during June this year consumed 37 lives and injured 70 others.

The American Air Force Col. Willie Berges, based in Brazil, has signalled that the search operations carried out by the two ships hunting for black boxes of Air France have been discontinued. The commander of U.S. military forces sustaining the search endeavour has said that the other ship tugging a search device will also conclude its lookout venture in few hours.

Berges however stated that a French nuclear submarine is still carrying on the probe for the missing black boxes that will play a significant role in finding the root cause of such an unforeseen tragedy. The Black boxes emit aural pulses also called pings which the French submarine has been trying to locate. However, despite these efforts no success has been achieved in the matter.

The battery life of the aural locator beacon in the black boxes is a mere three weeks after which they start fading. The craggy ocean base coupled with testing ocean storms have also added to the woes.

Significant doubts still loom large over the unexpected breakdown of the Air France Flight 447 that sank into the sea off the Brazilian coast leaving no survivors. The 600 pieces of wreckage inclusive of the structural constituents of the ill-fated flight have been shipped out from the Atlantic Ocean and are being shipped to France for detailed investigations into the 1st June crash. The almost integral tail piece, engine cover, unused life vests, seats and kitchen appliances were first kept in Recife, Brazil, where the search procedures were initiated post the crash.

Things don’t look bright for the Australian Navy as the sex betting ring scandal on HMAS Success has been exposed; the one sure impact will be lesser women recruits.

The already ebbed hiring service is set for evident further battering as the disgraceful news of Australian sailors who employed money bets in exchange for sex contest. A repugnant contest was run by the sailors to grace dollar values to those who could bed the highest number of women crew on the ship.

The infamous track of records were noted down in the notorious book, warmly called ‘The Ledger’, where dollar worth were assigned to each woman who were potential targets for the game. The sailors challenged each other to have sexual encounters with women in dubious spots like atop a pool table. Greater prize money was in the offing for those sailors who could make out with a woman officer or a lesbian.

This scandalous information was discerned during the ship’s tour in Singapore during May, ensuing which the sailors were ordered to come back home following an equity and diversity health check up and a formal interrogation. Though a number has not been established on the how many were game to this ordeal with the truth behind the accusations still being investigated.

If there is any legitimacy in these accusations, firm and immediate action will be handed out, to nip the problem in the bud that will act as a deterrent to any further misdeeds. The endeavour by the navy is to create an unbiased work atmosphere free of any mal-behaviour.

There are nearly 25 percent women naval novices and higher than 60 percent women in break year hire. The Royal Australian Navy is among the handful of navies globally who recruit women to service in submarines.

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hit an introductory pact on Monday , that ensued after three hours of discussion held in Kremlin, to cut down their respective stash of nuclear missiles to as low as 1500, targeting the least echelon that any US –Russia arms pact has ever achieved. The endeavour also entrusts the new deal to reduce the respective nation’s long range projectiles for conveying nuclear bombs to be in the range of 500-1100.

The notable deal being Obama’s premier one in Russia, was signed between the two leaders during the Moscow summit as a means to direct envoys while the nations progress towards a substitute deal as the currently existing START arms control agreement nullifies in December. The present agreement permits an upper limit of 2,200 weapons and 1,600 launch platforms. According to a statement issued by the White House, the new-fangled agreement incorporates able corroboration measures to augment defence, whilst doubling up to offer logicality and constancy in tactical offensive power.

Conscious measures to bridge the gap between the two countries were evident by the deal in which Moscow would permit US to move weaponry across its soil and space to Afghanistan. This comes as a windfall as it would aid in saving precious US $ 133million annually by means of relinquishing of transit fees and decreased flight time.

Obama requires Russia’s aid in creating pressure on North Korea and Iran to forego their nuclear warhead aspirations and thus effectively dealing with global warming, terror campaigns and in reviving economy.