Health & Science briefs
Navy completes first drone carrier landing
The Navy successfully landed a drone the size of a fighter jet aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time Wednesday, showcasing the military's capability to have a computer program perform one of the most difficult tasks that a pilot is asked to do.
The landing of the X-47B experimental aircraft means the Navy can move forward with its plans to develop another unmanned aircraft that will join the fleet alongside traditional airplanes to provide around-the-clock surveillance while also possessing a strike capability.
"It is not often that you get a chance to see the future, but that's what we got to do today," Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said after watching the landing.
The X-47B took off from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland and landed on the USS George H.W. Bush, which was operating about 70 miles off the coast of Virginia.
Arrow removed from Canada goose
Wildlife officials in Michigan have removed an arrow from a Canada goose more than two months after the injured bird was spotted, leaving the goose to blend in once again with its fellow geese.
The female goose initially was seen wandering in downtown Bay City in April, and people alerted the state Department of Natural Resources.
Officials initially decided not to remove the arrow because the bird was able to fly without difficulty. The DNR again found the goose at the end of June when biologists were banding geese and decided to take action.
A biologist removed the arrow, banded the bird and let it go within about a half-hour.
Solar system has a cometlike tail
NASA can prove it now: Our solar system has a tail, just like comets.
Scientists revealed images Wednesday showing the tail emanating from the bullet-shaped region of space under the grip of the sun, including the solar system and beyond. The region is known as the heliosphere, thus the name heliotail.
The findings are based on data from by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX. The Earth-orbiting spacecraft was launched in 2008.
Scientists always presumed the heliosphere had a tail, but this provides the first real data on the shape.
Environmentalists fight Fla. spaceport
A coalition of Florida environmental groups has called in the cavalry to help stop a proposed spaceport inside Florida's Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
They're asking that top officials at the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages the 140,000-acre sanctuary, become "directly involved" in plans to build a launchpad there.
The state hopes to locate a 150-acre commercial spaceport at the northern boundary of Kennedy Space Center. Opponents say it could cause problems for migratory birds and rare wildlife.
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