Russia launches long-delayed lab module to space station
CBSN
A heavy-lift Proton rocket roared to life and blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Wednesday, sending a long-delayed 44,000-pound laboratory module into orbit for an eight-day flight to the International Space Station.
The towering Proton, the most powerful rocket in the Russian inventory, took off at 10:58 a.m. EDT (7:58 p.m. local time), quickly climbing away from the sprawling cosmodrome atop a long jet of flaming exhaust. Nine minutes and 40 seconds later, the unpiloted Nauka module, also known as the multi-purpose laboratory module, or MLM, separated from the Proton's upper stage, deployed its solar arrays and set off after the space station.Noumea — France's president held a flurry of meetings with local representatives in the restive Pacific territory of New Caledonia on Thursday, urging calm after deadly rioting, and vowing thousands of military reinforcements will stay in place to quell what he called an "unprecedented insurrection."
Kathmandu — Nepali climber Phunjo Lama on Thursday reached Mount Everest's summit in 14 hours and 31 minutes, smashing the record for the world's fastest ascent of the mountain by a woman. Climbers usually take days to reach the top of the 29,032-foot mountain, spending nights on its different camps to rest and acclimatize.