The workers - among them electricians, painters and mechanics - began returning to Boeings commercial aircraft plants Sunday night, and the entire union work force is due to resume work by Monday.

The walkout cost the company an estimated $100 million per day in deferred revenue. Boeings commercial aircraft plants had been operating at full capacity amid a record backlog of orders before the strike began Sept. 6.

On Tuesday, Boeing officials said the strike had delayed the inaugural test flight of the companys next-generation 787 jetliner until next year. But the plane, which the company says will be more fuel-efficient than current jetliners because of its construction from lightweight carbon composite parts, faced a series of production delays even before the walkout.

Boeing also said it had discovered that some fasteners - essentially nuts and bolts - used throughout 787s at its main facility near Seattle had been improperly installed by the company and suppliers responsible for building sections of the plane.

Sales of the 787, Boeings first newly designed jet in more than a decade, have been robust, with customers ordering about 900 of the planes to date. Boeings other jetliners include 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s.

But the worlds No. 2 commercial aircraft maker has lost credibility and billions of dollars in expected additional costs and penalties because of delays to the program, which is now more than a year behind the original schedule. The first airline due to receive one of the planes, All Nippon Airways Co., has said it expects its first 787 next August.

Boeing officials have said the companys production schedule likely will be pushed back day-for-day because of the 57-day strike, and that a revised schedule will be announced after an assessment of the strikes impact is complete.

Analysts have said the company routinely delivers about 40 planes per month, bringing the estimated number of postponed aircraft deliveries to about 80.

It remains unclear how long it will take Boeings commercial aircraft business, based near Seattle, to return to pre-strike production levels. Boeings chief financial officer, James Bell, has said the company hopes it will take less than two months.

The company, meanwhile, is in the final stage of contract talks with a second union, the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which represents nearly 21,000 engineers, scientists and technical workers in Washington state, Oregon, Utah and California. The unions contract expires Dec. 1.

On Wednesday, Boeing CEO W. James McNerney Jr. wrote in a message to employees that he was optimistic about avoiding a second strike.

Shares of Boeing fell $3.54, or 7.1 percent, to $46.01 in afternoon trading.

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Boeing Co.: http://www.boeing.com/

Source: ktvb

“This contract gives the workers at Boeing an opportunity to share in the extraordinary success this company has achieved over the past several years,” Mark Blondin, the unions aerospace coordinator and chief negotiator, said in a union news release.

“It also recognizes the need to act with foresight to protect the next generation of aerospace jobs. These members helped make Boeing the company it is today, and they have every right to be a part of its future,” he said.

The union has said the contract protects more than 5,000 factory jobs, prevents the outsourcing of certain positions and preserves health care benefits. It also promises pay increases over four years rather than three, as outlined in earlier offers.

The union members, including electricians, painters, mechanics and other production workers, have lost an average of about $7,000 in base pay since the strike began. They had rejected earlier proposals by the company, headquartered in Chicago.

It was the unions fourth strike against Boeing in two decades and its longest since 1995. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers staged strikes against Boeing for 24 days in 2005, 69 days in 1995 and 48 days in 1989.

“Were looking forward to having our team back together to resume the work of building airplanes for our customers,” Scott Carson, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive, said in a statement. “This new contract addresses the unions job security issues while enabling Boeing to retain the flexibility needed to run the business … and allows us to remain competitive.”

The walkout came amid surging demand for Boeings commercial jetliners, which include 737s, 747s, 767s and 777s.

Chicago-based Boeing, which ranks as the worlds second-largest commercial airplane maker after Europes Airbus, has said its order backlog has swollen to a record $349 billion in value.

The strike also further postponed the delivery of Boeings long-awaited 787 jetliner, which has already been delayed three times, and other commercial planes.

It remains unclear how long it would take Boeings commercial aircraft business to return to pre-strike production levels, but the companys chief financial officer, James Bell, has said Boeing hopes it would take less than two months.

As the Machinists strike wore on, Boeing began talks with another union in hopes of avoiding a second strike by 21,000 scientists, engineers, manual writers, technicians and other hourly workers.

Boeing officials and representatives of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, which struck for 40 days in 2000, moved into the final phase of contract talks Wednesday. The unions two current contracts expire Dec. 1.

Negotiators at a hotel outside Seattle say they hope to present a proposal to that unions membership by mid-November.

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Associated Press writers Tim Klass in Seattle and Daniel Lovering in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Source: nckin

Officials had hoped to have the 18-year-old observatory back in business Friday, after it stopped sending pictures three weeks ago. But a pair of problems cropped up Thursday, and now recovery operations are on hold.

It’s unclear how long the telescope will be prevented from transmitting its stunning photos of the cosmos.

The soonest it could be operating fully again is late next week, said Art Whipple, a Hubble manager. At worst, the observatory might remain inactive until astronauts arrive with a replacement part next year.

“We’re still optimistic,” he told reporters Friday.

Flight controllers at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., began the lengthy process of restoring data transmission on Wednesday. Everything was going well, until late Thursday afternoon.

First, a low-voltage power supply problem prevented one of Hubble’s cameras from being rebooted properly, and then computer trouble struck and all efforts ceased.

It’s too soon to know whether the two problems are related, said Whipple.

“We’re in the early stage of going through a mountain of data that has been downloaded over the last 24 hours,” he said at a news conference.

Hubble’s command and data-handling system for science instruments failed late last month and prevented the telescope from capturing and beaming down data used to create the pictures for which Hubble is known.

Because of the breakdown, NASA delayed its final Hubble repair mission by shuttle astronauts that was set for October. The mission won’t happen until at least February, possibly later.

The latest setback is not expected to further delay the shuttle mission, Whipple said.

The recovery efforts involved switching to a backup channel for the command and data-handling system that had been dormant since the telescope was launched in 1990. That part, at least, seemed to go well, Whipple said.

So far, this isn’t the longest that Hubble has been inactive since NASA’s 1993 mission to correct its blurred vision. In 1999, science operations were halted about six weeks because of gyroscope failures that were remedied by astronauts whose flight quickly followed the breakdown.

Source: Joplin Globe

A senior space official said the mission - China’s most ambitious yet - took the country one step closer in its plan to build a space station and then to land a man on the moon.

Wang Zhaoyao, deputy director of manned space flight, said the program is looking to launch a new orbiting vehicle and set up a simple space lab by 2011. There are also hopes of sending unmanned and manned space vehicles to perform docking activities with the target vehicle.

By 2020, China wants to launch a manned mission to experiment with technologies that will enable astronauts to take care of spacecraft for longer periods of time, Wang told reporters at a briefing in Beijing after a parachute brought the astronauts’ capsule back to ground.

“After we have successfully completed these three steps, we will go to even more remote areas,” Wang said. “We believe that as long as we can make further progress on the road of science and technology, China will achieve the target of putting a manned spacecraft on the moon in the near future.”

The United States is the only country to have accomplished that feat, putting its first astronaut team on the moon in 1969. But its last human landing was in 1972, and it has since concentrated on unmanned probes.

China’s communist leaders, riding a wave of pride and patriotism after hosting the Olympics, face few of the public doubts or budgetary pressures that have constrained space programs elsewhere. Saturday’s spacewalk was watched by cheering crowds on huge outdoor TV screens.

State broadcaster CCTV showed the astronauts’ return Sunday after their Shenzhou 7 ship’s re-entry vehicle burst through the Earth’s atmosphere to make a landing under clear skies in the grasslands of China’s northern Inner Mongolia region.

The vessel touched ground at 5:37 p.m. after floating down gently while attached to a giant red-and-white striped parachute, marking the end of the 68-hour endeavor.

“It was a glorious mission, full of challenges with a successful end,” said mission commander Zhai Zhigang, a 41-year-old fighter pilot. “We feel proud of the motherland.”

Zhai, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng stayed inside the capsule after landing for about 46 minutes to adapt to Earth’s gravity before slowly crawling out the narrow entrance.

Outside, the trio cheerily waved to cameras and reporters from Chinese state media before sitting down in blue fold-out chairs. They saluted as they were presented with bouquets of flowers.

Premier Wen Jiabao applauded at mission control in Beijing and shook hands with staff.

“This mission’s success is a milestone; a stride forward,” Wen said. “I would like to extend my congratulations to the heroic astronauts who successfully completed this mission.”

The premier also reiterated Beijing’s longtime stance that it is the Chinese people’s “persistent aspiration” to develop space technologies for peaceful exploration.

The spacewalk was a key step in mastering techniques for docking two orbiters to create China’s first orbiting space station. Tethered to handles attached to the Shenzhou 7 ship’s orbital module, Zhai remained outside for about 13 minutes before climbing back inside.

China has relied heavily on homegrown technology, partly out of necessity. It has trouble obtaining such technology abroad due to U.S. and European bans and is not a participant in the International Space Station.

The Chinese program is backed by the secretive military. While Beijing insists it is committed to a peaceful program, analysts point to numerous potential applications for its technology, such as when it used a land-based missile to blast apart an old satellite last January.

China conducted its first manned space mission, Shenzhou 5, in 2003, becoming only the third country after Russia and the United States to launch a man into space. That was followed by a two-man mission in 2005.

Source: AP

In a mission that may bring man closer to solving the mystery of the solar system’s birth, the craft completed its flyby of the Steins asteroid, also known as Asteroid 2867 - now in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter - at around 3:15 p.m. EDT.

As planned, the spacecraft’s signal was lost for about 90 minutes as engineers turned it away from the sun and because the craft was moving too fast for its antennas to transmit. The resumption of the craft’s signal transmission was greeted with cheers from ESA engineers and technicians.

“We’re extremely happy that it worked,” mission manager Gerhard Schwehm said, sipping a glass of champagne after the announcement from the control room. “It’s a big relief. People can relax a bit now and everything seems fine.”

Schwehm said the agency would work to get images and other data collected by the probe processed as soon as possible. He said the first images should be released to the public Saturday.
“The operation went very well,” Paolo Ferri, the head of the solar and planetary missions division and Rosetta flight operations director, said in a short speech after the announcement.

“The spacecraft is in exactly the condition we expected, which is good. All indications are that everything was super successful.”

The timing of the flyby meant the asteroid was illuminated by the sun, making it likely the transmitted images will be clear and sharp for scientists working on the origins of the solar system.

“Dead rocks can say a lot,” Schwehm said.

Astronomers have had to work with limited data from previous passes of asteroids, such as when ESA’s Giotto probe swept by Halley’s Comet in 1986, photographing long canyons, broad craters and 3,000-foot hills.

Steins was Rosetta’s first scientific target as flies in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter en route to its main destination, the comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is scheduled for 2014. The probe was launched in March 2004.

The European Space Agency is supported by 17 countries, including Germany, France, Ireland and the Netherlands. It cooperates with NASA, the European Union, European national space agencies and international partners.

Source: AP