Religion Calendar (Jan. 10)

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Sermon: Roots of African-American Spirituality is the title of a sermon to be given at 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 N.W. Circle Blvd.

From indigenous African practices and beliefs through Islam and Christianity, African-American spirituality is rich with resources for facing the challenges of living.

Devotions and discussion: Bahai devotions will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday at 5006 S.W. Hollyhock Circle in Corvallis.

The program, Degrees of Progression, will be a shared reading of selected Bahai texts, prayers and discussion of attaining to second birth and the soul's everlasting existence.

Presentation: Charlotte Headrick of the Oregon State University Theatre Department will give a presentation at 11:45 a.m. Sunday in the sanctuary of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan, 333 N.W. 35th St. in Corvallis.

Headrick will speak on the relationship of the church to medieval theatre how theatre was used during worship.

Kirtan: The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis will offer a Kirtan service at 7 p.m. Sunday.

This is the first of a new monthly offering by the UUFC Worship Committee and the New World Kirtan Band.Kirtan comes from ancient Hindu traditions of chanting as devotional practice, to calm the mind and open the heart. Information: http://www.meetup.com/the-corvallis-kirtan-community/events/219568481.

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Religion Calendar (Jan. 10)

Canadian Bishops Featuring Nation's Saints During Year of Consecrated Life

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St. Andr Bessette's Life and Work Currently Spotlighted Toronto, January 09, 2015 (Zenit.org) | 181 hits

To celebrate theYear of Consecrated Life, the Web site of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) will be posting short outlines of the lives and spirituality of a number of Canadian Saints and Blesseds during 2015.

The Year of Consecrated Life, from the end of November 2014 to the beginning of February 2016, invites the Church to celebrate the gifts and charisms of the consecrated life religious institutes, societies of apostolic life, and secular institutes, together with consecrated virgins.

Most Canadian Saints and Blesseds were members of religious communities, and one (Saint Kateri Tekakwitha), although not a member of a religious community, consecrated her life as a virgin.

The site observes: "Their lives are a wonderful testimony to how those in the consecrated life have generously and heroically served the Church in Canada and all our society. They are witnesses in our midst of how the example and teachings of Jesus continue to challenge each of us today. Moreover, they inspire us to evangelize our contemporary world, since we too as the baptized share in Our Lord's mission to announce in word and deed that 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news' (Mark 1.15)."

SaintAndr Bessette

The Church in Canada celebrated the life and witness of Saint Brother Andr Bessette on Jan. 7, his feastday. He was a lay man who was a member of the Congregation of the Holy Cross.

The principal text outlining his life and spirituality which has been posted on the CCCB Website is a translation from the liturgical fascicules issued by the French Sector Commission for Liturgy and the Sacraments for each Canadian Saint and Blessed.

The text notes: "His close contact with suffering gave him insight into human nature. On his deathbed he whispered to a member of his community, 'God is good! How beautiful and powerful he is! He must be beautiful, because the human soul, which is a reflection of Gods beauty, is so beautiful!'"

Printed copies of the complete fascicule in French are on sale fromCCCB Publications.

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Canadian Bishops Featuring Nation's Saints During Year of Consecrated Life

Launch of 14th SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-5, First Barge Landing for 1st Stage – Video

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Launch of 14th SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-5, First Barge Landing for 1st Stage
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has successfully launched on it #39;s 14th mission carrying the Dragon CRS-5 Spacecraft full of cargo for NASA and the International Space Station. Liftoff occurred at...

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Launch of 14th SpaceX Falcon 9 with CRS-5, First Barge Landing for 1st Stage - Video

Blast-Off! SpaceX CRS-5 Mission Launches To Space Station | Video – Video

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Blast-Off! SpaceX CRS-5 Mission Launches To Space Station | Video
The SpaceX cargo ship launched to the International Space Station on Jan. 10th, 2014. SpaceX will attempt to land the rocket #39;s first stage (INFOGRAPHIC here: http://goo.gl/O3Y5Vi) on a platform...

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Blast-Off! SpaceX CRS-5 Mission Launches To Space Station | Video - Video

Reusable Falcon 9 rocket blasts off for International Space Station – Video

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Reusable Falcon 9 rocket blasts off for International Space Station
An unmanned Falcon 9 rocket blasts off carrying a cargo capsule for the International Space Station, then turned around to attempt an unprecedented landing on earth A SpaceX rocket has blasted...

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Reusable Falcon 9 rocket blasts off for International Space Station - Video

HWMM: Space Station 76 – Full Interview (Minus Trailer) with Writer / Director & Producer – Video

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HWMM: Space Station 76 - Full Interview (Minus Trailer) with Writer / Director Producer
Writer/Director Jack Plotnick and Producer Rachel Ward discuss his latest comedy, SPACE STATION 76, starring Liv Tyler, Matt Bomer, Jerry O #39;Connell, Marisa Coughlan and Patrick Wilson. The...

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HWMM: Space Station 76 - Full Interview (Minus Trailer) with Writer / Director & Producer - Video

'Close but no cigar': SpaceX reland fails

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An unmanned Space Exploration Technologies mission blasted off on Saturday carrying cargo for the International Space Station, but efforts to reland the rocket on a sea platform failed, the firm said.

"Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time," Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX, as the company is called, said on Twitter.

Read MoreDisruptors 2015: SpaceX

"Bodes well for the future," he added.

The Dragon cargo capsule itself was successfully launched into space and is expected to dock with the space station on Monday.

Seeking to cut the cost of space launches, SpaceX hoped to bring the rocket back to Earth, aiming to land it on a floating platform in the Atlantic Ocean some 200 miles (322 km) off Jacksonville, Fla., north of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch site.

A ship stationed near the platform tried to capture the touchdown on video, but it was too dark and foggy, Musk said.

Engineers will look to work out what went wrong by studying data relayed during the descent, as well as pieces of the rocket itself, he added.

"Ship itself is fine. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced," said Musk, who prior to the launch had put the odds of a successful touchdown on the first attempt at just 50 percent.

The primary purpose of Saturday's mission was to deliver cargo to the space station, a $100-billion laboratory that flies about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth.

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'Close but no cigar': SpaceX reland fails

'Close but no cigar' for SpaceX's try at historic rocket landing

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The private space-exploration company successfully sends a cargo capsule off to the International Space Station, but its "reusable" rocket crashes into its floating landing pad in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off early Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. An attempt to land the rocket on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean was unsuccessful. NASA

SpaceX almost made history on Saturday. Almost.

As part of its NASA-contracted mission to resupply the International Space Station, the private space-exploration company was attempting to launch the "world's first reusable rocket" and then land it on a landing pad floating in the Atlantic Ocean.

The launch, which was scrapped earlier this week because of a problem with a rocket part, went off without a hitch at 4:47 a.m. local time at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, according to NASA.

SpaceX's 14-story Falcon 9 rocket also successfully sent a Dragon cargo capsule on its way to the space station. But when the first stage of the Falcon 9 returned to Earth, it crashed into its 300-by-100-foot floating landing pad.

"Close, but no cigar this time," SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted Saturday morning. "Bodes well for the future tho."

SpaceX is one of a handful of private companies pursuing spaceflight, a realm once solely controlled by government space agencies. But the task isn't easy. In August, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded during a test flight. And in October, space-tourism company Virgin Galactic saw one of its space planes crash during a test flight, a mishap that killed one of the plane's two pilots.

Before Saturday's launch, SpaceX had put the odds of a successful landing at 50 percent "at best" and likened hitting the bull's eye to "trying to balance a rubber broomstick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm."

SpaceX has already started assessing what went wrong, and Musk tweeted an initial finding: "Grid fins worked extremely well from hypersonic velocity to subsonic, but ran out of hydraulic fluid right before landing." The grid fins are an upgrade for the rocket and are designed to move independently to help with landing, according to SpaceX.

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'Close but no cigar' for SpaceX's try at historic rocket landing

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station (+video)

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Some 2.5 tons of freight are speeding toward the International Space Station following Saturday morning's successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket topped with the company's Dragon cargo capsule.

The rocket launched at4:47 a.m.Eastern Standard Time from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, following an aborted launch attempt Jan. 6. That launch was scrubbed less than two minutes before lift-off after launch controllers reported that a key component in the steering mechanism for the rocket's second stage wasn't working properly.

This morning's launch went flawlessly, delivering the capsule to orbit some 17 minutes after launch. It's the companys fifth formal cargo flight to the station under a $1.6 billion agreement with NASA to resupply the space station.

Although the mission's primary goal is to deliver the goods to the station, the launch also represented Space Exploration Technology Corporation's first try at returning a first-stage booster safely back to Earth. In this case, Earth was represented by a football-field-size, ocean-going platform dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship.

Three times before, Falcon 9 boosters had soft-landed into the ocean during initial tests of the booster-return system. This time, with landing legs added, the stage was to have set down on the platform.

Instead, tweeted SpaceX CEO and chief technology officer Elon Musk, "Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho."

Even so, landing with a resounding thud could be considered a partial success. The SpaceX team delivered the first stage to the platform. In past tests, from about 150 miles up, the first stages splashed down within about six miles of the projected landing spot. Engineers added special fins to the first stage of the Falcon 9 used Saturday to help steer it to a more-accurate landing. The goal was to land with an accuracy of about 30 feet. A hard landing on the platform suggests that the fin system worked.

The company had another, crewed vessel nearby, but it was too dark and foggy to get decent video of the landing attempt. Still, engineers have a wealth of telemetry the first stage sent throughout its descent they can analyze for clues as to what changes need to be made to improve chances for success on future launches.

SpaceX is trying to perfect the system so that it can use a first stage for multiple launches. The goal is to drive down launch costs in hopes of expanding access to space for a wider variety of potential users.

The Falcon 9, as well as the more-powerful Falcon Heavy slated for its initial demonstration flight later this year, are unlikely to sport reusable seconds stages, Mr. Musk acknowledged in a question-and-answer session on reddit.com earlier this week.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station (+video)

Firm to continue manned space balloon flight plans

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SINGAPORE: After some two years of planning, Singapore startup IN.Genius is set on sending the first Singaporean to space by National Day this year.

The race is now down to 12 hopefuls, most of them commercial pilots, who have been going for extra training.

"They included underwater diving, paragliding and subsequently maybe even a hot air balloon licence, said commercial pilot Kayto Toh, who is a candidate for the potential Space Balloon flight. In conjunction with the underwater diving, we actually practise how to use the closed-circuit rebreather system. Basically it extends the supply of oxygen to the pilot who's inside the capsule. So it is special equipment we would have to learn how to use.

We went for a two-week paragliding course and that earned us an international licence, added Mr Toh. This was important because we would have to appreciate how a parafoil works because the parafoil is part of the landing system, the capsule landing system. Understanding that would allow us to be able to take control should the automation fail, so that's why being a pilot and knowing the aerodynamic forces is also part of the background requirements to become a suitable candidate. All of us are actually aviation licence holders as well."

"The biggest concern is the unknown, said Mr Kevin Lee, another potential candidate who is also a commercial pilot. We don't know what will happen. We can only figure out a few scenarios and situations that will happen, but the unknown is what we cannot predict and we have to react according to it.

We cannot prepare for it, so we just have to keep calm and think about what are the systems we are using, what are the capsule systems, and also our survival skills, which is very important. I'm trained as a commercial pilot and we are trained to accept this kind of contingency and react according to it. Of course, we are also very well-tuned in terms of keeping calm in terms of these kinds of situations."

TEST FLIGHTS IN INDIA, AUSTRALIA

The chosen one is set to fly a space balloon 20km into the stratosphere, or what is called the Armstrong Line. But the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) has shot down the idea due to safety reasons and the high density of air traffic in Singapore skies.

Even so, IN.Genius is going ahead with tests flights in India and Australia, which will first involve rats, then trained pilots. IN.Genius founder Lim Seng said: "Our job here as entrepreneurs and scientist engineers, is to advocate, is to do more flight tests, prove to the authorities through the help of the Indian authorities and then through the help of the Australian authorities, to show the Singapore authorities that it is indeed safe to do so."

Mr Lim pointed out that there is a window during National Day where airspace is closed for the flypast. He said this would be a good time to launch the balloon without disrupting air traffic.

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Firm to continue manned space balloon flight plans

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station

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Some 2.5 tons of freight are speeding toward the International Space Station following Saturday morning's successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket topped with the company's Dragon cargo capsule.

The rocket launched at4:47 a.m.Eastern Standard Time from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, following an aborted launch attempt Jan. 6. That launch was scrubbed less than two minutes before lift-off after launch controllers reported that a key component in the steering mechanism for the rocket's second stage wasn't working properly.

This morning's launch went flawlessly, delivering the capsule to orbit some 17 minutes after launch. It's the companys fifth formal cargo flight to the station under a $1.6 billion agreement with NASA to resupply the space station.

Although the mission's primary goal is to deliver the goods to the station, the launch also represented Space Exploration Technology Corporation's first try at returning a first-stage booster safely back to Earth. In this case, Earth was represented by a football-field-size, ocean-going platform dubbed the autonomous spaceport drone ship.

Three times before, Falcon 9 boosters had soft-landed into the ocean during initial tests of the booster-return system. This time, with landing legs added, the stage was to have set down on the platform.

Instead, tweeted SpaceX CEO and chief technology officer Elon Musk, "Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho."

Even so, landing with a resounding thud could be considered a partial success. The SpaceX team delivered the first stage to the platform. In past tests, from about 150 miles up, the first stages splashed down within about six miles of the projected landing spot. Engineers added special fins to the first stage of the Falcon 9 used Saturday to help steer it to a more-accurate landing. The goal was to land with an accuracy of about 30 feet. A hard landing on the platform suggests that the fin system worked.

The company had another, crewed vessel nearby, but it was too dark and foggy to get decent video of the landing attempt. Still, engineers have a wealth of telemetry the first stage sent throughout its descent they can analyze for clues as to what changes need to be made to improve chances for success on future launches.

SpaceX is trying to perfect the system so that it can use a first stage for multiple launches. The goal is to drive down launch costs in hopes of expanding access to space for a wider variety of potential users.

The Falcon 9, as well as the more-powerful Falcon Heavy slated for its initial demonstration flight later this year, are unlikely to sport reusable seconds stages, Mr. Musk acknowledged in a question-and-answer session on reddit.com earlier this week.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets toward International Space Station

SpaceX launches rocket, but attempt to land booster falls short

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Elon Musks SpaceX sent a cargo capsule loaded with International Space Station supplies into orbit Saturday morning, but the companys unprecedented attempt to set down the crafts first-stage rocket on an ocean barge was rocky and damaged the booster.

Rocket made it to the drone spaceport ship, but landed hard, Musk tweeted soon after liftoff. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.

The Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Floridas Cape Canaveral at 1:47 a.m. Pacific time.

Within minutes, the cargo-filled capsule separated from the first-stage booster rocket and continued on its way to orbit and rendezvous with the space station.

That was when SpaceX attempted what had never been done: flying the 13-story booster back to Earth and landing it upright on an ocean barge.

The booster made it to the barge, but Musk tweeted that some of the vessels equipment was damaged by the impact. Ship itself is fine, he wrote. Some of the support equipment on the deck will need to be replaced.

Didn't get good landing/impact video, he tweeted. Pitch dark and foggy. Will piece it together from telemetry and ... actual pieces.

Hawthorne-based SpaceX hopes to one day be able to reuse the first stage, which includes the expensive and powerful engines needed to blast the capsule to orbit. The planned landing and recovery of the first stage is part of Musks goal to eventually be able to refly the same spacecraft many times, greatly lowering the cost of space flight.

The cargo capsule, nicknamed Dragon, is loaded with more than 5,000 pounds of much-needed supplies for the space station. It is the first cargo mission since Oct. 28, when a supply ship operated for NASA by another company, Orbital Sciences, exploded off the coast of Virginia just seconds after leaving the launch pad.

Days after that, Virgin Galactics rocket plane SpaceShipTwo crashed in Mojave, killing test pilot Michael Alsbury, 39.

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SpaceX launches rocket, but attempt to land booster falls short