Oliver Yeh is the kind of guy who cooks up ideas so kooky, so out-of-this-world, that even his fellow MIT students tend to roll their eyes when they hear them. But that never stops him. His latest concept -- to launch a camera into near-space using a weather balloon, a cell phone, hand warmers and a drink cooler -- fell flat when he sent out an e-mail message to dozens of his classmates, asking for help. Unfazed, Yeh managed to ...

The Phoenix Mars Lander has entered a state of suspended operation called "safe mode" due to low power, mission managers said Thursday. And while they hope to recharge batteries and reactivate the spacecraft in the coming days, they say the rapid onset of the Martian winter means Phoenix's days are severely numbered. "This is a precarious time for Phoenix," Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a written statement. "We're in the bonus round of ...

Santa strapped on his body armor and sidearm Monday and got an early start on his rounds, taking candy canes and holiday wishes to U.S. troops in Iraq. The Super Puma ditched about 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform. "Everyone has been recovered from the water," said James Lyon, assistant controller of the RAF's aeronautical rescue coordination center at RAF Kinloss, Scotland. "We don't know their condition, but we believe there are no major injuries." Five ...

Rainy weather and poor logistics thwarted efforts by relief troops who walked for hours over rock, debris and mud on Tuesday in hopes of reaching the worst-hit area of an earthquake that killed nearly 10,000 in central China, state-run media reported.

The space shuttle Discovery was waved off from its first chance to land Friday afternoon because of unstable weather near Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA said. The shuttle will make another orbit of Earth, while NASA mission managers watch to see if extreme moisture and lightning threaten a safe landing. The next opportunity to land in Florida would come at 7:23 p.m. ET; however, Mission Control told the shuttle crew the forecast for that time "looks about the same." ...

Treacherous storm conditions have plagued southern Brazilian states for nearly a week, causing flooding and landslides and displacing thousands of people, a senior official told CNN Saturday. In Santa Catarina, the severe weather started Monday, with a tornado with estimated winds reaching 200 km/h (125 mph) striking the western part of the state, said Santa Catarina Civil Defense Secretary Marcio Luiz Alves. Heavy downpours have continued due to a low pressure system, he said. In one area, video from CNN ...

The U.S. Open is set to face further delays as weather forecasters predicted more rain after an entire day of play was lost on Friday. Both women's semifinals have also been moved to Saturday with the final due to be played on Sunday, but the immediate forecast is not encouraging with rainfall extremely likely in New York which could rule out play for a second consecutive day. No tennis was possible on Friday with the rain-suspended men's quarterfinal between Rafael ...

The space shuttle Discovery will land in California Friday evening, NASA said after bad weather near Kennedy Space Center forced it to wave off a landing in Florida. The shuttle is scheduled to touch down at 5:53 p.m. (8:53 p.m. ET) at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, where the weather is described as "pristine," NASA said. A California landing adds a week to the turnaround time before the shuttle can be ready for another mission and adds ...

The space shuttle Discovery will stay aloft another day after NASA mission managers scrubbed its second and final opportunity to land Thursday, citing bad weather near Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The next landing opportunity for Discovery will come shortly before 6 p.m. ET on Friday, officials said. That landing would also take place in Florida. The shuttle initially was set to land at 7:05 p.m. ET Thursday. After the crew woke up to the Beatles' "Good Day Sunshine," Discovery ...

Weary firefighters labored into the early Tuesday, hacking away at bone-dry tree limbs and laying down fire retardant as they tried to beat back a 6-day-old blaze in Southern California. Triple-digit temperatures combined with low humidity pushed the Station Fire in Angeles National Forest from 45,000 acres to more than 100,000 acres in a matter of hours Monday. This area north of Los Angeles had not seen a major fire in more than 60 years. The blaze, the ...