NASA watches for space junk that may threaten shuttle, space station

The space debris is potentially headed toward the space stationAtlantis docks with the International Space StationThe mission is the last of the 30-year space shuttle programNASA official says U.S. won't cede space race

Kennedy Space Center (CNN) -- NASA is tracking a piece of space debris that could come close to the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station this week, the agency said.

Data indicates that the point of closest approach would occur about midday Tuesday, the same day as a scheduled space walk by shuttle crew members, according to Leroy Cain, deputy manager of the shuttle program.

"However, we don't really have a good (probability of collision) on it yet," said Cain, who cautioned that the size of the object is still not known.

The debris, part of satellite COSMOS 375, is one of more than 500,000 pieces of debris tracked in Earth's orbit, according to NASA.

A space-debris incident nearly two weeks ago prompted the crew of the International Space Station to take shelter inside two Soyuz capsules when it came within 1,100 feet of the station.

Atlantis docked with the International Space Station on Sunday for a week-long rendezvous, two days after blasting off on a historic flight marking the final liftoff of the U.S. shuttle program.

The shuttle crew will deliver supplies and spare parts to the space station and pick up a broken pump and transport it back to Earth for inspection, NASA said on its website. The shuttle docked at 11:07 a.m. ET in an "absolutely flawless" operation, according Cain.

Atlantis' docking with the space station was done by executing a "back flip" maneuver that leaves the shuttle's underbelly facing the space station, where crew members can investigate its condition, NASA said.

After checking for leaks, the crew opened the hatches between the two vehicles shortly after 12 p.m. ET.

"It was really moving to see the final docking of the shuttle to the space station," Cain said, adding that it was the 12th such time Atlantis has done so.

The crews of Atlantis and the space station also will research the potential for a space refueling system.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, speaking to CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday, said the conclusion of the American space shuttle program doesn't mean the United States is ceding the space race to Russia.

"American leadership will persist for the foreseeable future, I can guarantee you that," Bolden said. In addition to taking cargo to orbit next year, NASA is working to partner with commercial interests in developing a crew vehicle, he said.

"We are hopeful in starting to ask for proposals from industry (in the) early part of next year," he said.

A recent call from President Barack Obama re-emphasized aggressive goals for NASA, including exploration beyond lower orbit and into deep space, Bolden said.

"He wants to have humans on or near an asteroid in 2025, and he wants us to be in Martian orbit with the intent of landing in the 2030s. Those are two very well defined destinations that we're really working hard on," Bolden said.

When crew members conclude their mission and exit the space station, it will break an uninterrupted human presence in space that has lasted more than a decade.

The International Space Station's first expedition began in November 2000. The current expedition, the 28th, is manned by Cmdr. Andrey Borisenko, Alexander Samokutyaev and Sergei Volkov of Russia; Satoshi Furukawa of Japan; and NASA's Ronald Garan and Michael Fossum.

The four astronauts aboard the Atlantis are Cmdr. Chris Ferguson, Doug Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.

President Richard Nixon commissioned the space shuttle program in 1972, three years after the Apollo program put a man on the moon.

The first shuttle, Columbia, blasted off in April 1981. Since then, space shuttle crews have fixed satellites, performed scientific studies, and ferried materials and people to International Space Station Alpha, a football field-sized construction project in orbit.

In 134 missions, the five space shuttles have ferried 355 astronauts half a billion miles in space, turning heroic feats into the routine.

When Atlantis lands, it will leave the United States with no way to lift humans into space for the first time in decades.

NASA will rely on the Russian space agency to ferry U.S. astronauts to orbit.

CNN's Jim Spellman, Rich Brooks, Rich Phillips, Ben Brumfield and journalist Craig Johnson contributed to this report.

CNN

Twelve wounded after suicide bomber hits Iraq police station (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At least 12 people were wounded when a suicide bomber in a wheelchair blew himself up at a police station in the northern outskirts of Iraq's capital on Sunday, a spokesman for the Baghdad operations command said.

Major General Qassim al-Moussawi said the bomber set off his explosives vest in the police chief's office at the station in Tarmiya, 25 km (15 miles) north of Baghdad.

"This is the initial toll and we expect it to rise," Moussawi told Reuters.

He said the 12 wounded included nine policemen and three civilians.

An Interior Ministry source put the toll at two killed and 17 wounded, including nine policemen.

Attacks against Iraqi security forces have been increasing as the country's army and police prepare to take total responsibility for security ahead of a full withdrawal of U.S. troops by December, more than eight years after the invasion.

Insurgents launched at least eight attacks on police in Baghdad and northern Mosul on Wednesday, using a combination of guns and explosives.

Bombings and killings remain a daily occurrence in Iraq as security forces fight a stubborn insurgency, although overall violence has dropped since the height of sectarian fighting in 2006-7.

(Reporting by Muhanad Mohammed; Writing by Serena Chaudhry; Editing by Louise Ireland)

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Iraq: Bomber attacks police station

9 Iraqi police were among the woundedThe attack took place in Tarmiya district in northern Baghdad

Baghdad (CNN) -- A suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden belt targeted a police station Sunday in northern Baghdad, killing two civilians, an Iraqi official at the police station said.

Another 17 people were wounded, nine of them police, the official said, speaking to CNN on condition of anonymity.

The attack took place in Tarmiya district.

Journalists Fattah Mahmood Fattah & Muhaimen Najm contributed to this report.

CNN

Shuttle Endeavour leaves space station for last time

NASA's final shuttle voyage is scheduled for July 8Endeavour spends more than 11 days docked at the International Space StationThe shuttle is scheduled to land early Wednesday

(CNN) -- The space shuttle Endeavour undocked from the International Space Station for the last time late Sunday, as the craft nears the end of its final mission.

The scheduled 16-day mission began two weeks ago after multiple delays.

When Endeavour pushed away from the space station just before midnight, it had been docked for 11 days, 17 hour, 41 min, according to NASA's website.

The shuttle is scheduled to land at 2:35 a.m. ET Wednesday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Space shuttle Atlantis will make NASA's final shuttle voyage July 8 on a mission to deliver supplies and spare parts to the International Space Station, the agency said.

CNN

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Car bomb destroys police station in Pakistan, 6 dead (Reuters)

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed car into a police station on Wednesday as the Taliban intensified attacks against Pakistan's security forces after the killing of al Qaeda's Osama bin Laden.

At least five policemen and a soldier were killed in the attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar. The Pakistani Taliban said they were responsible.

The militants, allied with al Qaeda, have vowed to avenge bin Laden's killing by U.S. forces in a Pakistani town on May 2.

"We will continue attacks on security forces until an Islamic system is implemented in Pakistan, because the Pakistani system is un-Islamic," Ehsanhullah Ehsan, a spokesman for the Pakistan Taliban, told Reuters, adding the attack was also in revenge for bin Laden's death.

The blast came two days after a brazen Taliban raid on a heavily guarded naval base in the southern city of Karachi that killed 10 military personnel and destroyed two aircraft.

The police station, in a military neighborhood, houses an office of the Criminal Investigation Department, which is responsible for investigating Islamist militants.

There is also a training facility for special forces and officers' residences nearby.

Senior provincial minister Bashir Bilour said up to 300 kg (660 lb) of explosives were used in the bomb that police said wounded 22 people.

Residents said the explosion rattled windows throughout the city. By midday, volunteers and rescue workers were removing rubble with spades, while bulldozers removed broken slabs of concrete.

Senior police officer Ejaz Khan said the bomber rammed his car into the station's gate, on the main road leading to Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.

Another police officer said about 20 policemen were in the building when the attack happened.

"Three of our colleagues are still missing under the rubble and it will take another hour to clear the site," said officer Bahadur Khan.

"My colleague and I were on the roof, calling for dawn prayers, when all of a sudden there was a big explosion," said wounded policeman Muzaffar Khan. "We don't know what happened but the roof collapsed and we fell on the ground.

"I was trapped in the debris," he said. "I was screaming and crying for help. I was lucky that people pulled me out."

MILITARY UNDER PRESSURE

The police station is about a km (half a mile) from the U.S. consulate and in the same area where Taliban militants detonated a car bomb last week targeting a consular convoy.

One man was killed and about a dozen people were wounded, including two U.S. nationals, in that attack.

The commander of the naval base attacked by militants on Sunday was relieved of his command, the Navy said in a statement on Wednesday, a rare sign of accountability in the powerful military establishment.

"Commodore Raja Tahir has been relieved from his duties with immediate effect," it said adding an inquiry had been ordered to investigate the attack.

The string of attacks by al Qaeda-linked militants has raised concern about the possible presence of Islamist sympathizers within the military, which controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons.

A 2008 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks revealed U.S. concern that officers at a prestigious army institution were largely biased against the United States, a key ally which has given Pakistan more than $20 billion in aid over the past decade, about two-thirds of it military.

The military is also facing accusations of either incompetence, or possibly complicity, after it became clear that bin Laden had been hiding out in Abbottabad, a garrison town north of the capital, for several years before he was shot dead by U.S. forces.

After bin Laden's killing, some Pakistanis have questioned whether the funding for the military is really worth it. Pakistan spent 442.2 billion rupees ($5.15 billion), about 20 percent of its 2010/11 budget, on defense last year -- an increase of 17 percent from the year before.

This year it plans to spend 495 billion rupees ($5.76 billion), officials say.

"To me, it defies logic for allocating so much on defense," said Asad Shafqat, a banker in Karachi.

The government showed no signs of even light criticisms of the powerful military establishment. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani expressed "full support" for the armed forces.

Experts said changes in defense spending were unlikely.

"The balance between defense and social development has to change but I don't see that happening in the short term," said Shafqat Mahmood, a political analyst based in Lahore.

"Recent events have shown that we have to improve our defense and vulnerabilities."

(Additional reporting by Sahar Ahmed, Zeeshan Haider, Kamran Haider, Augustine Anthony, Haji Mujtaba and Saud Mehsud; Editing by Chris Allbritton and Robert Birsel)

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NASA now says satellite debris no threat to space station

NASA has given the all-clear to the three crewmembers of the International Space Station after tracking data indicated a small piece of Chinese space junk poses no threat to them.

This morning around 7, flight controllers notified commander Dmitry Kondratyev and flight engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli that they needed to prepare to evacuate to their Soyuz TMA-20 capsule if the debris continued on its course, which would bring it to within 2.7 miles of the station. The closest approach was predicted for 4:21 p.m. ET. The all-clear was given at 2:41 p.m. ET.

The debris came from a defunct Chinese weather satellite deliberately destroyed in 2007 during an anti-satellite weapons test.

It's the second junk scare in several days. Friday, flight controllers moved the space station out of the way of another piece of satellite debris. More than 500,000 pieces of orbiting trash are tracked from Earth.

Today's nervousness came as NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev continued their journey to the space station. They lifted off before dawn today in Kazakhstan and will dock Wednesday at 7:18 p.m. ET.

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