Some happy news

Well, the horrible news about Indonesia, the Middle East and the threat
of
nuclear escalation in the Indian Subcontinent has me thoroughly sick of
the
news.  I did a small search looking for something good and came across a
wonderful story that can be tied back to FT/MT wonderfully:

http://cnn.com/TECH/space/9805/13/crippled.satellite/index.html

Apparently there is a huge commercial satellite that went off course. It
was declared a total loss. However, the engineers, inspired by Apollo
XIII
apparently, have decided to use a slingshot maneuver around the moon to
save the bird.	The article has some interesting notes. I suggest anyone
interested in orbital mechanics give it a look (especially if you are as
sick as I am about the headlines of doom we are all reading).

--Pete