Rocket carrying treats bound for station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A stash of frozen treats and other supplies rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday, this time from Virginia’s cold eastern shore.
NASA’s commercial shipper, Orbital ATK, launched the cargo ship just after sunrise from Wallops Island, aboard an unmanned Antares rocket.
The Cygnus capsule should reach the orbiting lab Tuesday. It’s loaded with 7,400 pounds of cargo, including sweet treats for the six station astronauts.
The crew expects pizza as well. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli has been craving pizza for months. “Pizza and ice cream on the way!” NASA astronaut Joe Acaba tweeted after liftoff. “Eagerly awaiting the arrival.”
A launch attempt on Saturday was nixed after a plane strayed into the restricted airspace. Sunday’s try was almost foiled by a couple of boats that briefly wandered into the keep-out zone.
The capsule will remain at the space station until the beginning of December, when it’s cut loose for a test of close proximity flying, a series of mini satellite deployments and, lastly, a fiery re-entry with a load of trash.
Platform collapse hurts 21 kids, 2 adults
San Diego’s Vault PK is usually packed with bouncing and flipping children on Saturday evenings, when it hosts a “kids’ night out” for budding athletes ages 5 to 14.
This past weekend was especially packed, parents said, as people cashed in a Groupon that got three kids into the facility’s open gym for just $30. The three-hour event is supervised by Vault PK staff members, so it doubles as a parents’ night out too.
Some of the nearly 150 children present played on the America Ninja Warrior-styled obstacle course, but roughly a third had gathered on a 10-foot-by-30-foot wooden viewing platform, parent Cory Brizendine told San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV. That’s where the pizza was being served.
“Once the majority of kids got up there, the whole platform collapsed,” he said.
The crumbling structure took a connected staircase with it, authorities and witnesses told reporters. Wood and little bodies tumbled to the ground — on top of children playing below — forming a heap of injured kids and gym equipment.
Zachary Smith, who was at Vault PK with his son for a birthday party, told the Los Angeles Times he was standing on the platform along with more than 30 others. Smith fell onto a young girl but neither were seriously injured, he said. Smith’s son was also on the platform at the time but suffered only minor scrapes.
In all, 21 children and two adults, ages 72 and 46, were rushed to San Diego-area hospitals with moderate or minor injures, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Steve Wright. At least three had spinal injuries.
Alerted to the collapse, parents who’d dropped off their children rushed back and found a street full of ambulances and firetrucks.
“It is a very serious night for parents,” Wright said. “They had to wait to get in to see if their children were affected or not.”
Plane crashes in Kentucky; 4 people die
GLASGOW, Ky. — A small plane crashed about 80 miles from its destination in south-central Kentucky on Sunday, killing four people on board, police said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that a Piper PA32 crashed near Glasgow at 2:21 p.m. The FAA said the plane was heading to the Lake Cumberland Regional Airport in Somerset west of Glasgow. The statement didn’t say where the plane was coming from.
Kentucky State Police spokesman Trooper Jeremy Hodges told the Bowling Green Daily News that three people were pronounced dead at the scene and a fourth victim was later pronounced dead at a hospital in Bowling Green. The names of the victims weren’t immediately released.
Part of the plane was lodged between large branches in a tree and debris was scattered at least 200 feet, Hodges said.
Uber driver hit with hockey stick dies
NEW YORK — An Uber driver crashed his vehicle and died after he was hit in the head with a hockey stick by a pedestrian during a dispute in Manhattan, the police said.
Randolph Tolk, 68, died early Sunday, shortly after the altercation near Chelsea Piers. Police arrested Kohji Kosugi, 39, of Manhattan, on a manslaughter charge in the attack.
According to the police, Tolk got out of his Toyota Camry on the West Side Highway late Saturday after a pedestrian hit the passenger side of the car with a hockey stick.
Police said the pedestrian crossed to the driver’s side of the vehicle and hit Tolk in the head with the hockey stick.
Tolk managed to get back into his car and drive for 10 blocks before crashing into a median, according to police.
A Section on 11/13/2017