But virtually all scientists continue to believe that most indicators suggest the world as we know it is slowly ending, and that humans are to blame.  Nature – oceans, deserts, crops, animals and insects – is in the process of being transformed by rising temperatures due to the fuel we burn to stay warm or cool, and to power factories, cars and jets. In the academies, the argument now is only between experts who predict “bad” and those who predict “catastrophe.”

Some people don't want to hear it. Supporters of industries that profit from the fossil-fuel status quo routinely challenge those facts, and treat them as political talking points. This week, a dirty trick played on one of the chief industry front groups, the Heartland Institute of Chicago, a major source of “climate denialism,” as the fact-based scientists like to call it, revealed just how politicized the issue has become.

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A record crowd of 2,000 gathered near the landing strip, thousands more packed Kennedy Space Center and countless others watched from afar as NASA's longest-running spaceflight program came to a close.

"After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle's earned its place in history. And it's come to a final stop," commander Christopher Ferguson radioed after Atlantis glided through the ghostly twilight and landed on the runway.

"Job well done, America," replied Mission Control.

With the shuttle's end, it will be another three to five years at best before Americans are launched again from U.S. soil, with private companies gearing up to seize the Earth-to-orbit-and-back baton from NASA.

The long-term future for American space exploration is just as hazy, a huge concern for many at NASA and all those losing their jobs because of the shuttle's end. Asteroids and Mars are the destinations of choice, yet NASA has yet to settle on a rocket design to get astronauts there.

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2. Foodie of the day: Ron Swanson from "Parks and Recreation," who can be seen here eating every kind of meat known to man.

 3. Big Brother moment of the day: Who knew the Secret Service read Tumblr? Kyle McDonald created People Staring at Computers just three days ago, to  document individuals taking pictures of themselves in Apple stores. Now he's being investigated by the government for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

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For the last 25 years, from the time I landed my first job out of college in 1986, the year Challenger went go at throttle up and then went no more, a small, bendable astronaut named Major Matt Mason has been perched atop my display.

Rescued long ago from the attic of my parent's house on Long Island, not five miles from the Grumman Aerospace Corp., where the Apollo Lunar Module was built and where my father spent his days scrawling bizarre math figures resembling hieroglyphics on chalkboards located inside buildings I was rarely allowed to visit ("What do you do, Dad?" I once asked, and he replied, helpfully, "You wouldn't understand."), this little action figure -- never call it a doll -- has always been within reach.

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ABC News reported on its website Monday night that Giffords stood up from her wheelchair to hug and kiss her astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, after he received the Spaceflight Medal.

ABC News says the 41-year-old Democrat from Tucson, Ariz., entered the auditorium at Space Center Houston while being pushed in the wheelchair. She smiled and waved at the crowd and received a standing ovation.

Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin confirmed that Giffords attended the ceremony.

Giffords has been in the Houston area undergoing rehabilitation since several weeks after the Jan. 8 shooting in Tucson that left her and 12 others wounded and six people dead.

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Endeavour touched down on the runway a final time under the cover of darkness, just as Atlantis, the last shuttle bound for space, arrived at the launch pad for the grand finale in five weeks.

Commander Mark Kelly -- whose wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, remained behind at her rehab center in Houston -- brought Endeavour to a stop before hundreds of onlookers that included the four Atlantis astronauts who will take flight in July.

The museum-bound Endeavour, the youngest of the shuttles, logged nearly 123 million miles over 25 spaceflights.

"Your landing ends a vibrant legacy for this amazing vehicle that will long be remembered. Welcome home, Endeavour," Mission Control told Kelly and his crewmates, who wrapped up U.S. construction at the International Space Station.

"It's sad to see her land for the last time," Kelly replied, "but she really has a great legacy."

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Still recovering from a devastating wound to the head, the Arizona congresswoman was at Kennedy Space Center on Monday to witness Mark Kelly and his five crewmates blast off and head to the International Space Station. She watched in private -- as do all crew families.

What had already been a historic event -- the second-to-last space shuttle flight and the last for Endeavour itself -- had become the Gabrielle Giffords-Mark Kelly saga after the Jan. 8 shooting.

Since the assassination attempt in her Tucson, Ariz., hometown, Giffords has been shielded from public view: during her two weeks in intensive care, her transfer to Houston, and the weeks since at a rehab hospital. Her doctors last spoke publicly about her progress in early March, and the only recent details have come from select interviews granted by her husband, staff, and those caring for her.

The night before launch, Kelly bid Giffords goodbye at the exclusive beachfront house the crew uses before launch.

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Giffords' arrival Sunday afternoon included a quick fly-by of Endeavour on the launch pad, ready to go.

"Gabrielle is excited for tomorrow's launch. Do you plan to see history in the making?" her staff tweeted:

NASA officials said conditions -- from weather to technical issues -- couldn't look much better for the scheduled 8:56 a.m. launch Monday.

Giffords, traveling on a NASA jet with the family of pilot Gregory Johnson, arrived shortly after the protective structure that surrounds Endeavour was moved out of the way -- a milestone in launch preparations that allows fueling to begin late Sunday night.

NASA was so ready to get the flight off the ground that they moved the protective scaffolding 15 minutes earlier than planned.

There was only a 30 percent chance of a weather delay, mostly because of crosswinds.

The conditions were far different from last month's futile launch attempt. The protective cover wasn't removed for five hours because of storms, and the launch was scrubbed because of an electrical problem.

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Mission managers gave the green light Saturday for the final voyage of Endeavour. Forecasters put the odds of acceptable weather at 70 percent.

Endeavour will fly to the International Space Station under the command of astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of recuperating U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She will be at Cape Canaveral for this second launch attempt.

Late last month, an electrical problem in Endeavour's engine compartment halted the initial countdown. A switch box and faulty thermostat were replaced.

Six veteran spacemen are assigned to the 16-day flight.

Only one other shuttle mission remains. Atlantis will soar one last time in July.

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The six crewmen -- led by the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords -- arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Thursday morning.

Shuttle Endeavour is due to blast off Monday morning. The first launch attempt on April 29 was halted by electrical trouble. A switch box was replaced, and new wiring installed.

Commander Mark Kelly's wife was critically wounded in the head four months ago. The Arizona congresswoman recovered well enough to travel for her husband's first launch effort. She will return to Kennedy later this week.

Astronaut Gregory Chamitoff commended Kelly for giving the mission his all, and called him "truly an amazing commander."

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The six astronauts -- led by commander Mark Kelly -- wasted no time heading back to Houston.

Kelly's wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, did not join the astronauts in flying back. The timing of her return to Houston, to resume rehab after being wounded in a shooting rampage four months ago, was uncertain.

As late as Saturday, the astronauts and their families were still hoping for a possible launch attempt on Monday. But NASA gave up on that once it became clear extensive repair work would be needed to fix a faulty heater system aboard Endeavour. The trouble prevented the shuttle from blasting off Friday; President Barack Obama and his family were among those missing out.

"We all had our fingers crossed looking forward to a quick rescheduling of the launch," said C.J. Karamargin, a Giffords spokesman.

Said Endeavour's pilot, Gregory Johnson, in a Sunday morning tweet: "Things happen fast. We are now all aboard (a plane) for return to Houston. Be back in a few days. More to follow."

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Giffords is "medically able" to attend but will return to Houston "shortly after the launch" at Cape Canaveral to continue rehabilitation, said Dr. Gerard Francisco, the lead physician of the brain injury rehabilitation team and chief medical officer, TIRR Memorial Hermann and chairman, department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School.

It will be the Endeavour's final flight and the next-to-last shuttle mission.

Giffords was shot in the head on Jan. 8 while at a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson, Ariz. This would be her first trip since she was flown from Arizona to the Houston rehabilitation hospital where she has been in therapy.

The launch is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. Friday. Giffords' husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly is the commander of the mission.

"I've met with her doctors, her neurosurgeon and her doctors, and ... they've given us permission to take her down to the launch," Kelly said in an interview with CBS' Katie Couric in Houston. The network statement did not specify when the interview occurred.

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It is tempting to say that this is an outrage; that the effective end of the American manned spaceflight program is a national humiliation; that the program's demise is yet another symbol of the gap in mentality between the confident, ambitious Kennedy-Johnson years and today's solipsistic, penny-pinching America. It is tempting to say all that, but the temptation should be resisted.

The truth is that the American space program is flourishing. In recent years Mars has been visited by the Phoenix lander and the Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. At the moment the Messenger probe is orbiting Mercury and the New Horizons probe is scheduled to pass Pluto in 2015. With the help of the orbiting Kepler space telescope, more than 500 planets in other solar systems have been identified. We live in the greatest age of cosmic exploration in history, even if the public pays little attention because there are no astronauts to engage in white-knuckle landings or to clown around for the cameras.

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NASA spokesman Allard Beutel said Tuesday that 4.2 grams of a white powdery substance was found last week at the NASA facility, though he would not say where.

It tested positive for cocaine.

It's not the first time cocaine has been found at the space center.

A small amount was discovered in January 2010 in a secure part of a hangar that housed space shuttle Discovery. A spokeswoman from NASA's Inspector General Office in Washington declined to comment on how that case was resolved.

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Officials at NASA's Kennedy Space Center say the accident occurred at 7:40 a.m. Monday. The man fell while working. Medics rushed to the pad, but were unable to revive him.

Details of what happened are not yet available.

NASA spokesman Allard Beutel says work on space shuttle Endeavour was suspended for the day. Beutel says the focus is offering grief counseling to the work force. Endeavour is due to blast off April 19 on its final flight. The shuttle arrived at the pad last week.

The victim worked for United Space Alliance, a NASA contractor. His identity is being withheld.

Officials believe it's the first launch pad fatality in decades.

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Last year, Obama lit the fuse for NASA's blastoff into the post-shuttle world with a renewed commitment to explore deep-space destinations (like Mars) and to create jobs in the process. With a $6 billion budget over the next five years -- on top of $50 million worth of NASA contracts awarded to commercial companies like Boeing -- we should expect great things. Here are some of the projects in the works:

Orion Spacecraft
First announced by President Bush in 2004 as the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) for President Bush's Project Constellation, the Orion spacecraft will carry an astronaut back to the moon. Bush's original goal was for a 2015 lunar landing, but because of program reviews under the Obama administration, Orion is scheduled to make its first launch into Earth's orbit without passengers in 2014 -- a mission to the moon would likely happen five years later. Designed by Lockheed Martin for NASA, the spacecraft very much resembles the familiar Apollo spacecrafts that carried man to the moon nearly 50 years ago and can carry a crew of four astronauts.

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The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off early Friday morning from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but fell to the sea several minutes later. The same thing happened to another climate-monitoring satellite two years ago with the same type of rocket.

"We failed to make orbit," NASA launch director Omar Baez said at a press conference Friday. "Indications are that the satellite and rocket ... is in the southern Pacific Ocean somewhere."

Officials explained that a protective shell atop the rocket didn't come off the satellite as it should have about three minutes after launch. That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit.

The 2009 failed satellite, which would have studied global warming, crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. Officials said Glory likely wound up landing in the same area. Both were on Taurus rockets launched by Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va.

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Though similar in name to the trashcan-shaped R2D2 from Star Wars, R2 is much more advanced and eloquent. In fact, R2 tweeted the recent shuttle launch with a sense of humor:

Built by General Motors R2 bears a striking resemblance to its fellow astronaut coworkers -- above the torso, that is. NASA was clearly strategic in this design, as only the torso upward will be shipped on this first mission. R2 will work from a pedestal to acclimate to zero gravity conditions before being rejoined with its lower extremities after Discovery lands back on Earth. (The legs aren’t quite ready yet, says NASA’s Rob Ambrose.)

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At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist. The numbers were extrapolated from the early results of NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope.

Kepler science chief William Borucki says scientists took the number of planets they found in the first year of searching a small part of the night sky and then made an estimate on how likely stars are to have planets.

They figured one of two stars has planets and one of 200 stars has planets in the habitable zone.

There are at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.

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According to United Press International, Russian scientists say there’s the chance that a 900-foot asteroid could cause a global cataclysm in a little over twenty years. Professor Leonid Sokolov of St. Petersburg State University says casually of Asteroid Apophis, “Its likely collision with Earth may occur on April 13, 2036.” His nonchalance stems from the belief that scientists by that time will have found ways to prevent the collision.

NASA scientists are equally insouciant to our potential dinosaur demolition.  In 2009, NASA scientists disclaimed the chances of Apophis hitting earth in 2036, and adhere to their position still today.

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