Friday, November 11, 2005

European Space Agency Launches Venus Probe

DARMSTADT, Germany Nov 9, 2005 — A European spacecraft left Earth orbit Wednesday on a five-month, 220 million-mile journey to Venus, an exploratory mission that could help spur a new space race.

The European Space Agency said the unmanned Venus Express lifted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and mission control in Darmstadt activated the probe's instruments and immediately picked up a signal to hearty applause in the observation room.

The Europeans then received another signal a congratulatory note from the Pasadena, Calif.,-based Planetary Society, which had monitored the launch from NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab.

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Leap second proposal means new time

I personally think GMT should be abolished and for good reason.

Greenwich Mean Time would become an irrelevance if proposals to redefine how time is measured are accepted...

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