NASA announces STS-127 activities
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., June 9 (UPI) -- A pre-launch webcast will be one highlight of the U.S. space agency's Web coverage of space shuttle Endeavour's flight to the International Space Station.
Endeavour is to lift off Saturday at 7:17 a.m. EDT from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
A Wednesday webcast at 10 a.m. EDT will start the in-depth online coverage of the mission, NASA said. Host Damon Talley of the space agency's Digital Learning Network will preview the flight, and payload mission manager Scott Higginbotham will describe the Japanese Kibo laboratory complex and the elements to be installed during Endeavour's mission.
"A blog will provide launch countdown updates beginning at 2 a.m. on June 13," officials said in a statement. "Originating from the Launch Control Center at Kennedy, the blog is the definitive Internet source for information leading up to launch."
During the STS-127 mission, visitors to NASA's shuttle Web site can read about the astronauts' progress and watch their five spacewalks live. Also, updates will be provided to the NASA News Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/nasa.
As Endeavour's flight wraps up, NASA will update the blog detailing the spacecraft's return to Earth.
Diabetes-heart disease mortality studied
PITTSBURGH, June 9 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists say they've determined there's no difference in mortality among certain patients with type 2 diabetes and stable heart disease.
The researchers from the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health studied patients with type 2 diabetes and heart disease who received prompt bypass surgery or angioplasty and then compared those patients' mortality with patients receiving drug therapy alone.
The researchers said they also found that while prompt bypass procedures in patients with more severe heart disease did not lower mortality, it lowered their risk of subsequent major cardiac events.
"More than 20 million Americans suffer from type 2 diabetes and many of these people also have heart disease," said Professor Sheryl Kelsey, who led the study. "We began this study because we don't know how best to treat this deadly duo that is affecting more and more people at increasingly younger ages. Our results provide needed guidance about which approaches can best help these patients."
The research is detailed in the June 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Mars orbiter resumes operations
PASADENA, Calif., June 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has resumed its science observations after successfully transitioning from a precautionary standby mode.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration engineers said the standby mode was triggered by an unexpected June 3 rebooting of the spacecraft's computer.
Engineers brought the spacecraft out of the standby mode Saturday and cameras and other scientific instruments resumed operation Tuesday.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars in 2006 and has returned more data about the planet than all other Mars missions combined, NASA said.
"The June 3 rebooting resembled a Feb. 23 event on the spacecraft," the space agency said in a statement. "Engineers are re-investigating possible root causes for both events. The new investigation includes reconsidering the likelihood of erroneous voltage readings resulting from cosmic rays or solar particles hitting an electronic component."
Anti-cancer gene therapy shows promise
SEOUL, June 9 (UPI) -- South Korean medical scientists say a new lung cancer therapy employing a vaporized viral vector has shown early promise in a mouse model of lung cancer.
The researchers at South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the vaporized viral vector is used to deliver a cancer-inhibiting molecule directly to lung tissue.
Although gene therapy is an area of great promise, the scientists said delivery mechanisms have proven problematic for effective delivery of genetic therapy to lung tissues.
"Aerosol delivery targets the lungs specifically and represents a non-invasive alternative for targeting genes to the lung," Professor Myung-Haing Cho, who led the research, said. "The delivery of genes via aerosol holds promise for the treatment of a broad spectrum of pulmonary disorders and offers numerous advantages over more invasive modes of delivery."
The results of Cho's research are to appear in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
