Mission

The Kepler Space Telescope, the celebrated discoverer of worlds around distant stars, may have found its last planet. NASA announced Wednesday that the telescope, which to date has cost $600 million to build and operate, has lost the ability to point accurately. It's not dead, but by going wobbly it can't do the precision observations necessary for spotting signs of "exoplanets. " Kepler is 40 million miles from Earth, too far away to be fixed even if NASA still had a space shuttle and could throw together a...

ABUJA, Nigeria — A Nigerian military helicopter has crashed in the country's oil-rich southern delta, just days after one of its jets crashed. A statement from Nigeria's Air Force said the crash happened Thursday morning at its base in Port Harcourt and that the crew escaped unharmed. Local witnesses described seeing a plume of smoke rise from the base. The air force identified the helicopter as a Russian-made Mi-24B attack helicopter. The statement said an investigation into the...

She was a real-life heroine of the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden , a headstrong young operative whose work tracking the al-Qaeda leader serves as the dramatic core of a Hollywood film set to premiere next week. Her CIA career has followed a more problematic script, however, since bin Laden was killed . The operative, who remains undercover, was passed over for a promotion that many in the CIA thought would be impossible to withhold from someone who played such a...

PRISTINA, Kosovo — The European Union law mission in Kosovo says it has ordered a suspected Balkan drug boss to be detained for one month while it gathers evidence in a suspected organized crime case. Naser Kelmendi is suspected of directing a criminal network stretching from Turkey into Western Europe. The EULEX mission said Thursday that Kelmendi is being investigated for "the same offences he has been accused of in Bosnia. " Authorities in Bosnia want Kelmendi as part of an investigation into...

The CIA's armed drones and paramilitary forces have killed dozens of al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of its foot soldiers. But there is another mysterious organization that has killed even more of America's enemies in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. CIA operatives have imprisoned and interrogated nearly 100 suspected terrorists in their former secret prisons around the world, but troops from this other secret organization have imprisoned and interrogated 10 times as many,...

Is NASA going to send astronauts to Mars? That's the agency's stated goal, though there's no mission yet, no program per se, certainly no budget (it would probably give lawmakers the jitters) and, at the moment, NASA doesn't have the technology to land astronauts safely and then bring them back to Earth. So humans-to-Mars is aspirational, with the tough logistical and political issues yet to be resolved. Amplification of NASA's long-term Mars strategy came Monday at the outset of a three-day...

When Michael Gerson ["The Decency of George W. Bush," op-ed, Nov. 7] referred to President Bush's "historic" "accomplishment" in bringing Iraq to "the verge of a miraculous peace," he was really saying: "Look at what a great job the president did cleaning up that china shop after he sent a bull into it -- and it only took 5 1/2 years. " RICK OLESZEWSKI Bethesda

Not long ago, the families of Fairfax Presbyterian Church spent thousands of dollars to fly their teens to Mexico for eight days of doing good. They helped build homes and refurbish churches as part of an army of more than 1 million mostly Christians who annually go on short-term international mission trips to work and evangelize in poverty-stricken lands. Yet even as those trips have increased in popularity, they have come under increased scrutiny. A growing body of research questions the value of the trips abroad, which are supposed to bring hope...

Regarding the Nov. 18 Style article "Seeking to put asunder": Bishop Harry Jackson appears to be saying that certain residents of the District should not enjoy certain civil rights by virtue of being sinners as defined by his reading of the Bible. How is this not "a mission of hate"? And by what stretch of logic does homosexuality and gay marriage relate to the problem of broken families within the African American community? Nothing this man says makes civic or Christian sense, and it's a travesty for The Post to lionize him...

Absent more U.S. troops, the mission in Afghanistan "will likely result in failure," says Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, according to a "McChrystal: More Forces or 'Mission Failure,' " [ front page , Sept. 21]. But what is the mission, and who defined it? If it is (a) to pacify all of the country for the first time, the person who defined it that way should be fired, or, if he is a few months into a four-year term, he should rethink the mission. If the mission is (b) to substantially reduce opium poppy production, that can...

NEW YORK – The Washington Capitals spent so much time shorthanded in the first two periods Monday night against the New York Rangers that Eric Fehr could barely recall taking an even-strength shift with his linemates. "Just felt like the first two periods all we were doing was killing," Fehr said. "We have a really good team that enjoys playing all four lines. We have the ability to take over games as a unit, and we weren't able to roll over the lines, so it's tough. " Fehr's concern spoke to the greater...

Is NASA going to send astronauts to Mars? That's the agency's stated goal, though there's no mission yet, no program per se, certainly no budget (it would probably give lawmakers the jitters) and, at the moment, NASA doesn't have the technology to land astronauts safely and then bring them back to Earth. So humans-to-Mars is aspirational, with the tough logistical and political issues yet to be resolved. Amplification of NASA's long-term Mars strategy came Monday at the outset of a three-day conference at George...

The notion of landing astronauts on Mars has long been more fantasy than reality: The planet is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth, and its atmosphere isn't hospitable to human life. But a human voyage to the planet is now, for the first time, within the realm of possibility, according to space advocates inside and outside government. As a result, plans for a mission around the planet, and ultimately for lengthier stays, have been sprouting like springtime flowers. The new momentum, some space...

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) met Wednesday with top Israeli officials as part of an eight-day economic development trip to Israel and Jordan . The governor's itinerary included a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in the morning and time later in the day with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Topics included economic ties between Israel and Maryland and the Middle East Peace process, according to O'Malley's office. In a statement, O'Malley, who is traveling with a...

There's no need to drive to Florida if you want to see a rocket launch. Wallops Island, on Virginia's Eastern Shore, was the place to be Sunday to watch the Antares rocket shoot into orbit as a test run for missions to restock the international space station. Dulles's Orbital Sciences is one of two companies working with NASA to take food, clothing and replacement parts to the space station. NASA used space shuttles for the supply trips until the shuttle program ended in...

BRUSSELS — Secretary of State John F. Kerry joined his NATO counterparts here Tuesday for discussions on the 28-member alliance's joint operations in Afghanistan and plans to withdraw all combat troops by the end of 2014. "I reaffirmed our commitment to the Afghan people and to our determination that Afghanistan not ever become a haven for terrorists," Kerry said in a news conference after the foreign ministers' meeting. "To that end," he continued, "we are committed beyond 2014" to a...

Ever since it launched as a TV series in 1966, the allure of " Mission Impossible " has been its entertaining combustion of cunning and pyrotechnics. With the explosion of "MI" onto the big screen as a Tom Cruise star vehicle, the technical sleights-of-hand that are the franchise's trademark have become all the more spectacular. Sure, it's easy to blow up things, which the latest installment, "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol," does at a fast and furious pace. But what about some of its other technical...

HIGHLIGHTS FINALE WATCH: No word yet on whether freshman mid-season drama "The Carrie Diaries" (CW at 8) will see a second season — although Sarah Jessica Parker has been openly dismissive of the series, a "Sex and the City" prequel about Carrie Bradshaw in her teen years. Anyway, in the finale, Carrie faces junior prom, which is filled with lots of drama when some secrets are revealed. FINALE WATCH: The American version of "Being Human" (Syfy at 9) wraps up Season 3 on...

For a Republican Party embarked on a mission of modernization, an ethnic slur uttered by a senior House Republican this week offered an unwelcome reminder of the past. Rep. Don Young (Alaska) used a derogatory term for Latinos in a radio interview Thursday, less than two weeks after the Republican National Committee issued a post-election report that called for broadening the party's tent. The comment, coupled with an anti-gay remark that an RNC official posted on his...