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Mobile operators get fixed price spectrum renewal in $3b Government windfall

The Government has offered Australia's three mobile operators, and vividwireless, renewal of their existing spectrum allocated on 15 year licences in the late 90s and early 2000s at set prices, while the Government expects to rake in $3 billion.

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Space shuttle Atlantis and STS-122 crew lifts off into space

Science - Space

At 2:45 p.m. EST on Thursday, February 7, 2008, the space shuttle Atlantis and its seven-member crew lifted off on-time from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with blue skies overhead and barely a cloud visible.     


Somehow, the skies cleared for the launch after meteorologists predicted rain showers and thunder storms all around central Florida.

The storm had produced limited lightning and a few embedded thunderstorms. This is the same weather system that produced deadly weather in the Mississippi Valley two days ago.

Atlantis contains the $2 billion European Space Agency’s Columbus scientific laboratory within its cargo bay. The mission is about two months behind in lifting off due to engine cutoff (ECO) sensors. However, the fueling of the external tank earlier this morning showed that the problem had been resolved for this flight.

STS-122 commander Steve Frick and pilot Alan Poindexter are in the cockpit of Atlantis as they fly the shuttle toward the International Space Station.

They are joined by astronauts Leland Melvin, who will operate the robotic arm when the team moves the Columbus lab onto the space station; European Space Agency astronauts Hans Schlegel (Germany), who will conduct two spacewalks, and Leopold Eyharts (France), who will stay on the space station after Atlantis leaves, Rex Walheim, who will participate in the first spacewalk; and mission specialist Stanley G. Love.


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