In closing down its ATV cargo freighter assembly line, Europe considers its next manned space project.

In closing down its ATV cargo freighter assembly line, Europe considers its next manned space project.

ESA and NASA have been discussing how ESA might compensate NASA for Europeโ€™s 8.3 percent share of the international space stationโ€™s future operating charges. Until about 2017, the agency is repaying NASA, as the stationโ€™s general contractor, through launches of European Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo ships to the station. But with the station partners now all but committed to operating the station at least through 2020, ESA is searching for another โ€œbarter elementโ€ to succeed ATV.

NASA has said a propulsion module for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle would fill ESAโ€™s obligations to NASA, which have been estimated at about 450 million euros ($600 million) over three years.

But several ESA members, notably France and Italy, have argued that the Orion module, which would use ATV-derived technologies, does not provide sufficient technology interest or public impact. Instead, these governments have proposed development of a vehicle that would perform multiple tasks in low Earth orbit, including debris removal.

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The Monkees reunion – Daydream Believer

An evening pause: R.I.P. Davy Jones. This reunion performance, which included Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork of the Monkees, occurred on June 16, 2011 at the Beacon Theater, New York City. Less than a year later, Davy Jones had passed away.

Though the audio isn’t great, the joy of the song and those singing it comes through loud and clear. Go here to hear the song as performed in 1967.

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The Labor Department has abandoned its effort to ban kids from working on farms.

A victory of sorts for freedom: The Labor Department has abandoned its effort to ban kids from working on farms.

The reason I consider this merely a temporary victory is that the desire to regulate these matters still exists in the people running the federal government. These same people also don’t understand that, as a free nation, they have no moral right to impose these rules in the first place. Thus, they remain a threat, waiting only for another opportunity to try again.

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