Search results for

Space shuttle Columbia's nose cone is found in the eastern Texas woods. Recovery teams hunting for debris from the Feb. 1 disaster spread out further Tuesday, searching as far west as Arizona. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

Thousands of mourners honor the space shuttle Columbia crew at a memorial service at Johnson Space Center in Houston. President Bush consoles survivors and NASA workers. NPR's John Burnett reports.

The leaders of Britain and France meet but fail to resolve differences on Iraq. France wants to give U.N. arms inspections more time -- and has veto power on the Security Council. And in an interview on British TV, Iraq's Saddam Hussein denies any connection with al Qaeda terrorists. Hear from NPR's Nick Spicer, NPR's Robert Siegel, and New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg.

Statehouses across the nation struggle to achieve break-even budgets under the challenge of a weak economy. Many already have tapped "rainy day" funds, dismissed workers, and cut back their spending for education, health care and services to deal with shortfalls in this year's budget. NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports.

NASA's investigation into the Columbia disaster is wide open, the agency saying there's insufficient evidence that damaged heat tiles caused the crash. Meanwhile, another memorial service is held for the crew, and future manned science missions come under scrutiny as critics argue that most of the work doesn't need humans at all. Hear from NPR's Richard Harris and NPR's Joe Palca.

NASA is exploring several theories about what could have caused the break-up of the space shuttle Columbia. One likely cause also is one of the most difficult to prove -- that the space shuttle was hit by a piece of debris in orbit. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

The White House and Congress react to North Korea's suggestion it might launch pre-emptive attacks should it feel threatened by the United States. The administration calls the threat "saber rattling." But senior Democrats in the Senate demand the situation be treated as a crisis. NPR's David Welna reports.

Secretary of State Colin Powell tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the Iraqi weapons matter will be brought to conclusion "within weeks, one way or another." Meantime, there's skeptical reaction from France and many Muslim countries to Powell's U.N. presentation on Iraq Wednesday. Hear reports from NPR's Michele Kelemen, NPR's Nick Spicer and Khaled Al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of Arab News.

Mitch Daniels, the White House budget director, undergoes bipartisan grilling by the Senate Budget Committee over the $2.23 trillion budget President Bush sent to Congress. Committee members pressed Daniels to answer how the budget could assume a new round of tax cuts amid forecasts of record red-ink spending. NPR's David Welna reports.

The remains of Columbia astronauts are flown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, while investigators continue to recover and study shuttle fragments. Meanwhile, two in Texas are charged with theft of government property for looting shuttle debris. Hear NPR's Richard Harris and NPR's Larry Abramson.