1 of 7. The space shuttle Columbia lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, reflected in salt marsh swamps surrounding the pad in this file photo from January 16, 2003. February 1, 2013 marks the 10th anniversary since the orbiter broke apart in the skies over Texas, killing the crew of seven astronauts. Columbia broke up as it re-entered the atmosphere because of damage to the leading edge of the left wing.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida | Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:55pm EST

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space shuttle Columbia's flying days came to an abrupt and tragic end on February 1, 2003, when a broken wing gave way, dooming the seven astronauts aboard.

Although Columbia now lies in pieces, its mission is not over.

The recovered wreckage, painstakingly retrieved from Texas and Louisiana for months after the accident, was preserved for a unique archive and education program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"I can talk about safety, but once I open those doors and folks enter into the room, it becomes a different conversation," said Michael Ciannilli, who oversees NASA's Columbia Research and Preservation Office. "When you come face to face with Columbia in the room, it becomes real. It becomes extremely real."

Ten years ago, Columbia was on its 28th mission, a rare research initiative in the midst of International Space Station construction flights.

The crew included the first astronaut from Israel, Ilan Ramon, and six Americans - commander Richard Husband, pilot William McCool, flight engineer Kalpana Chawla, payload commander Michael Anderson and flight surgeons David Brown and Laurel Clark.

After 16 days in space, the shuttle was gliding back to Florida for landing when it broke apart due to wing damage that had unknowingly occurred during launch.

Accident investigators determined that a chunk of insulating foam from the shuttle's fuel tank had fallen off 81 seconds after liftoff and hit a carbon composite wing panel that turned out to be unexpectedly fragile. The breach proved fatal.

NASA had no idea falling foam debris, a common occurrence during shuttle launches, could do so much damage.

"One of the most important things that came from Columbia is to really learn to listen to your hardware. It's talking to you," Ciannilli said.

Pieces of Columbia's heat shield, including wing panels and protective thermal tiles, are among the most requested items for study from the archive.

Upon request, NASA lends specific components to researchers and educational institutes for analysis. In addition to NASA field centers and aerospace companies, program participants include Caterpillar, the Colorado School of Mines and Ohio State University.

By understanding the dynamics of flight and how specific parts of Columbia were impacted, the hope is engineers will be able to design safer ships in the future.

The collection includes more than 84,000 individual pieces, most of which are cataloged and boxed. A handful of materials and structures - a tire, a wing panel, pieces of tile - are on display in the front part of a 7,000-square-foot room inside the Vehicle Assembly Building where the archive is housed.

"Sometimes I walk into the room, especially if I'm alone, and it comes back, some of the emotions, some of the feeling, some of the memories," Ciannilli said. "I lived the recovery operation in Texas, so you have these moments where you flash back."

"Some days are a little bit more introspective and difficult, but I really counter that with the fact that I've seen so much good come out of it. Every single tour engages in a conversation about safety," he said.

The Vehicle Assembly Building was once used to piece together space shuttles for flight, but it, like most of the Kennedy Space Center, is in the midst of a transition following the end of the shuttle program in 2011.

Only Columbia remains at the space center. Sisterships Discovery and Endeavour were relocated to museums, and Atlantis was transferred to Kennedy Space Center's privately operated visitors complex.

"We teach the story, show the effects of the accident and show the fixes that we put into place," Ciannilli said. "Columbia's mission was a mission of education and research. We try to continue that in their name."

(Editing by Kevin Gray, Leslie Adler)

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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the fiscal cliff at the White House in Washington December 21, 2012.

WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 26, 2012 1:23pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It is one of those occasions that is quintessential Washington: the inauguration of a president, a multi-day festival of patriotism, politics, optimism and self-congratulation.

All of that will be on display on January 21, when President Barack Obama is publicly sworn in for his second four-year term. But this inauguration will be far less grand than Obama's first in 2009, when a record 1.8 million visitors flooded the city to see the nation's first black president take office.

This time the celebration is likely to attract no more than 800,000 or so guests, city officials estimate. As a result, some luxury hotel rooms and coveted tables at high-end restaurants are still available, less than a month before the inauguration.

The swanky Mandarin Oriental Hotel, with its sweeping views of the National Mall, initially required inauguration guests to make reservations for four nights. Now it has relaxed that requirement to three nights to try to fill its rooms.

But the "inauguration markup" still applies: The Mandarin's least expensive room, normally available for $295 a night, starts at $1,195 a night during the long inauguration weekend.

Even so, the demand for hotel and restaurant reservations for this inauguration pales compared with the rush that followed Obama's first election.

Back then, the scramble for accommodation was so desperate that homeowners and renters in Washington and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs leased their homes for the inauguration, creating a vast secondary market in housing that week.

Hundreds of those homeowners - including former Tennessee senator and actor and Fred Thompson, who offered to rent out his condominium for five days for $30,000 - sought to profit from the festivities and leave town to avoid the crowds.

Today the website Craigslist shows only a few dozen ads offering housing for the inauguration.

"They swarmed to the market last time," said real estate agent Hill Slowinski, who deals in luxury properties. "We are not seeing the same level of interest" this year.

The story is similar at the Palm restaurant, which offers a $54 rib-eye steak and is a favorite of Democratic power brokers. Some tables are still free for Sunday night, January 20, the evening before the ceremony.

Looking over the reservations for that night, Tommy Jacomo, who has run the restaurant for four decades, said: "It's mediocre. Nothing out of the ordinary."

Jacomo said that for many of Obama's supporters, the 2009 inaugural celebration was a history-making one that can't be topped.

"The second time, it's always not that big," he said.

That has been the case in recent second-term inaugurations, particularly Republican Ronald Reagan's in 1985. Thanks to brutally cold weather, that became a mostly-indoor affair in which Reagan took the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda rather than outside the Capitol.

For Obama's second inauguration, the thrill might be lessened further by the fact that he will take the official oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts in a closed ceremony the day before the public festivities - on January 20, as required by law.

Because that day falls on a Sunday, the public events - the swearing-in outside the Capitol, Obama's inaugural address, the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House, and the inaugural balls - will be held a day later.

Hans Bruland, the general manager of the Hay-Adams Hotel who is working his fifth inauguration, said the lack of excitement for a president's second time around should be expected.

He said the ongoing negotiations between the White House and Congress over looming tax increases and budget cuts - and the threat of economic calamity if some sort of deal isn't reached - are clouding the mood in Washington and could be affecting the plans of some potential celebrants.

Obama's first inauguration took place as a worldwide financial crisis was unfolding, but his history-making ascent to the White House seemed to trump such concerns, at least for a few days.

"Oftentimes, we don't remember what normal feels like," Bruland said. "People tend to panic a little."

FEWER INAUGURAL BALLS

Such economic jitters are one reason Obama's second inauguration will feature just two official balls, rather than the 10 that were held in 2009.

Both will be at the Washington Convention Center on January 21. One ball will be for the public and guests, the other primarily for military families and veterans.

There will be a few unofficial balls held by various groups, but this will be the fewest number of official inaugural balls by any president since Dwight Eisenhower's first term in 1953 - a reflection of Obama's effort to keep the celebration low-key at a time when many Americans are struggling financially.

For all that relative austerity, there will be plenty of opportunities for big-spending Obama supporters to wrap themselves in luxury.

For $60,000, guests can stay four nights in the Mandarin Oriental's presidential suite, with 24-hour butler service and a private dining room.

A champagne cork's flight from the White House, the Hay-Adams is renting its largest suite for $7,900 a night. Before the 2009 inauguration, Obama and his family occupied an entire wing of the hotel before he was able to move into his new digs at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

One early indication that there will be fewer visitors filling such expensive beds - and contributing to the festivities - was the president's decision to widen the search for funds for his second inauguration.

In 2009, Team Obama raised a record $53 million for his inauguration, without donations from corporations, lobbyists, and political action committees as part of a "commitment to change business as usual in Washington."

This time, Obama supporters have welcomed donations from such groups. A spokesperson for the presidential inauguration committee, which manages the effort, declined to comment on the pace of fundraising so far.

In 2009, the maximum donation for individuals accepted by the committee was $50,000. This year, Obama's fundraising committee is encouraging gifts of $250,000 from individuals. That kind of generosity will earn givers access to VIP receptions, reserved seats for the inaugural parade and other benefits.

THE FIRE STILL BURNS

There is one group that appears to be fired up and ready to go to Washington: his former campaign workers.

One volunteer, Catherine Lyons, a phone bank coordinator in Emeryville, California, said she was so excited that she bought plane tickets for Washington before Obama's re-election was assured.

On the morning of November 6, Election Day, Lyons went online and bought a seat for a cross-country flight.

"It was a little risky," Lyons, 25, said. "Bravery or a little stupidity, however you want to see it."

Also heading to Washington will be Shomari Figures, 27, a lawyer who was a field organizer for Obama's campaign in Akron, Ohio.

"The excitement," Figures said, "is still there."

(Editing by David Lindsey and Xavier Briand)

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Actor Liam Neeson poses before a news conference to promote his movie, ''Taken 2'' in Seoul September 17, 2012.

LOS ANGELES | Sun Oct 14, 2012 2:06pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Liam Neeson thriller "Taken 2" won a battle between two hostage movies over the weekend, holding on to its top box office rankings for a second week with $22.5 million from ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian theaters.

Ben Affleck's highly praised Iran hostage thriller "Argo" was as close second, earning $20.1 million from Friday through Sunday. Low-budget horror movie "Sinister" came in third with $18.3 million, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters.

Action sequel "Taken 2" stars Neeson as a former CIA agent who is captured while on vacation in Istanbul. The movie has pulled in $86.8 million at North American (U.S. and Canadian) theaters since its debut a week ago, plus $132.8 million from international markets.

"We continue to play broadly across all demographics and it is a testament to the strength of Liam's character and the property," said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at 20th Century Fox, which released the film.

With a worldwide box office total already reaching nearly $220 million, he said the film was close to equaling the final box office total of the first "Taken" movie ($226.8 million), and therefore labeled the sequel as "a much bigger movie."

"Taken 2" sales outpaced receipts for "Argo," a movie that Affleck stars in and directs. The film is based on a real-life CIA plot to smuggle six U.S. diplomats out of Iran in 1979 under the guise of a fake movie production.

The diplomats had escaped the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran at the height of the Islamic revolution. They hid at the Canadian embassy until a CIA agent came to sneak them out of the country.

"Argo" is generating buzz as an Oscar contender after earning stellar marks from critics, with 94 percent of reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website praising the film. Ahead of the weekend, box-office forecasters had predicted an opening of $15 million or more.

"The movie is like the perfect storm, everything came together at the right time," said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros, noting that the combination of the film's appeal to all ages combined with critical acclaim and awards season buzz would spell a long commercial run.

"It's going to have legs," he said. "Critical acclaim is going to translate into commercial success."

Warner Bros. and GK Films paid about $44 million to produce the movie.

Sales for third-place film "Sinister" came in more than 6 times its tiny $3 million production budget. The movie stars Ethan Hawke as a crime novelist who moves into a new house and finds disturbing home movies. It was produced by Jason Blum, producer of the hit "Paranormal Activity" series of horror flicks.

Family film "Hotel Transylvania" held on to the No. 4 spot during its third weekend in theaters, pulling in $17.3 million. Total domestic sales since its debut reached $102.2 million.

New comedy "Here Comes the Boom," earned $12 million and landed in fifth place. The $40-million film stars Kevin James as a high-school biology teacher who competes in mixed martial arts to raise money for his school.

Another new entry, comedy "Seven Psychopaths," earned ninth place, grossing $4.3 million from a medium-sized run in about 1,500 theaters. The film stars Colin Farrell and Woody Harrelson in the story of a screenwriter who gets wrapped up in criminal activity after his friends kidnap a gangster's dog.

The movie, which won an 89 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, cost $15 million to make. It will expand to more theaters in two weeks.

Warner Bros., a unit of Time Warner Inc, released "Argo." "Taken 2" was distributed by News Corp's 20th Century Fox studio. Summit Entertainment, owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, released "Sinister."

Sony Corp's movie studio distributed "Hotel Transylvania" and "Here Comes the Boom." CBS Films, a unit of CBS Corp, released "Seven Psychopaths."

(Additional reporting by Christine Kearney, editing by Doina Chiacu and Gunna Dickson)

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NEW YORK | Sun Oct 14, 2012 4:02pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge funds and other big speculators piled into the rallying gold and natural gas markets for a second week running, taking the net long money in U.S. commodities up by nearly $1 billion, trade data showed on Friday.

The so-called "money managers" in commodities boosted their net longs in gold to the highest level in nearly 16 months, while taking bullish bets in gas to 8-week peaks, according to the data issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.(CFTC)

Reuters' calculations of the CFTC's Commitment of Traders data showed the value of the net long position held by money managers in some 22 U.S. commodity markets tracked by the CFTC rose by around $900 million in the week to October 9, touching nearly $114 billion.

The figures are calculated by Reuters based on the change in net positions from the week before, multiplied by the contract's value at the end of the period. Because most investors trade commodities on margin, the change in the value of positions is not directly equivalent to total investment.

Managed money's net length in gold futures and options traded on New York's COMEX rose by 2,547 lots to 198,194 lots in the week ended October 9 -- the largest such holding since August 2011.

Gold posted four straight months of gains prior to October. Last week, it hit 11-month highs just below $1,800 an ounce.

While the precious metal saw some profit-taking this week -- closing on Friday with the sharpest weekly decline since June -- some analysts expect a rebound due to euro zone debt worries and economic uncertainties.

Prospects of a U.S. "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled for January could also shock the U.S. economy and lead to more money printing from the Federal Reserve, analysts said.

In natural gas, money managers added 13,119 contracts in NYMEX natural gas futures and options, NYMEX Henry Hub Swaps, NYMEX Henry Hub Penultimate Swaps, and ICE Henry Hub Swaps, for a net long position of 151,942. It was the largest net long position in eight weeks for speculators in gas.

The front-month contract for NYMEX natural gas hit a 2012 peak of $3.638 per million British thermal units (mmmBtu) in Friday's session. Gas prices have gained nearly 30 percent since the end of August, helped by light stockpile builds amid cooler weather forecasts in the U.S. Northeast.

(Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

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NEW YORK | Fri Oct 12, 2012 5:47pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hedge funds and other big speculators piled into the rallying gold and natural gas markets for a second week running, taking the net long money in U.S. commodities up by nearly $1 billion, trade data showed on Friday.

The so-called "money managers" in commodities boosted their net longs in gold to the highest level in nearly 16 months, while taking bullish bets in gas to 8-week peaks, according to the data issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.(CFTC)

Reuters' calculations of the CFTC's Commitment of Traders data showed the value of the net long position held by money managers in some 22 U.S. commodity markets tracked by the CFTC rose by around $900 million in the week to October 9, touching nearly $114 billion.

The figures are calculated by Reuters based on the change in net positions from the week before, multiplied by the contract's value at the end of the period. Because most investors trade commodities on margin, the change in the value of positions is not directly equivalent to total investment.

Managed money's net length in gold futures and options traded on New York's COMEX rose by 2,547 lots to 198,194 lots in the week ended October 9 -- the largest such holding since August 2011.

Gold posted four straight months of gains prior to October. Last week, it hit 11-month highs just below $1,800 an ounce.

While the precious metal saw some profit-taking this week -- closing on Friday with the sharpest weekly decline since June -- some analysts expect a rebound due to euro zone debt worries and economic uncertainties.

Prospects of a U.S. "fiscal cliff" of automatic spending cuts and tax increases scheduled for January could also shock the U.S. economy and lead to more money printing from the Federal Reserve, analysts said.

In natural gas, money managers added 13,119 contracts in NYMEX natural gas futures and options, NYMEX Henry Hub Swaps, NYMEX Henry Hub Penultimate Swaps, and ICE Henry Hub Swaps, for a net long position of 151,942. It was the largest net long position in eight weeks for speculators in gas.

The front-month contract for NYMEX natural gas hit a 2012 peak of $3.638 per million British thermal units (mmmBtu) in Friday's session. Gas prices have gained nearly 30 percent since the end of August, helped by light stockpile builds amid cooler weather forecasts in the U.S. Northeast.

(Editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid)

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HONG KONG | Fri Sep 28, 2012 11:06pm EDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Aluminum Corp of China (Chalco) (2600.HK) has ended an agreement to buy a 29.9 percent stake in Winsway Coking Coal (1733.HK) as it would not be able to win approvals from Chinese and overseas authorities by the September 30 deadline, it said in a stock exchange filing late on Friday.

The move comes weeks after Chalco abandoned plans to buy a majority stake in Canada's Mongolia-focused coal miner South Gobi Resources (SGQ.TO) due to political hurdles.

Chalco had said in April that it would buy a stake in Winsway, which supplies Mongolian coking coal imported into China, for $308 million.

(Reporting by Vikram Subhedar; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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MOSCOW | Sun Jul 29, 2012 8:41am EDT

MOSCOW (Reuters) - An upgraded Russian unmanned spacecraft successfully linked up with the International Space Station on Sunday on its second attempt to test a new docking system, Russia's space agency said.

The docking set aside doubts over the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system that will deliver astronauts and future cargoes to the orbital station after a botched first test when the equipment malfunctioned due to low temperatures earlier this week.

The operating system functioned properly after it was allowed to warm up, according to a statement from the U.S. space agency NASA.

Kurs-NA is an upgrade of the Kurs docking gear used for years on Russia's manned Soyuz and robotic Progress spacecrafts.

The system consolidates five antennas into one, has updated electronics and is designed to improve safety and use less power, according to NASA.

The Progress ship re-docked with the Pirs module at 0100 GMT (9 p.m. EDT on Saturday), the Russian space agency Roscomos said in a statement, for a brief final stay before the single-use craft, laden with space station trash, is due to burn up on re-entry over the Pacific Ocean on July 30.

Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles last year, the United States has been dependent on Russia and is paying $60 million per person to fly astronauts to the ISS, a $100 billion research complex orbiting 240 miles above Earth.

Moscow is struggling to restore the prestige of its once-pioneering space program after a string of launch mishaps last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples from the Martian moon Phobos.

Six astronauts are currently aboard the orbital outpost: American Sunita Williams, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Russian Yury Malenchenko joined cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and US astronaut Joseph Acaba earlier this month.

(Reporting By Alissa de Carbonnel, editing by Tim Pearce)

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