State and National News

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

You're listening to SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. Our next story is about one person's garbage being another person's treasure. You know how that works. Well, this one is a very interesting story. Last year, the National Reconnaissance Office, they operate America's spy satellites, well, the National Reconnaissance Office called up NASA with an offer: Would NASA like a couple of old spy telescopes? We don't need them. Could you do anything useful with them? We'll give them to you.

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IRA FLATOW, HOST:

This is SCIENCE FRIDAY. I'm Ira Flatow. If you look up in the sky at night, especially later this year, you can spot the Andromeda Galaxy, it's a small cloudy smudge in space. It's our galaxy, the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbor, about two and a half million light years away.

SpaceX's Dragon capsule has travelled safely to the International Space Station and back. The next step, says Space.com writer Clara Moskowitz, is to outfit the capsule for crew, which SpaceX hopes to complete by 2015. Until then US astronauts will hitch rides on Russia's Soyuz, at about $60 million a pop.

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President Obama opened himself up to withering Republican attacks Friday via an off-hand statement he made in a brief White House news conference.

Obama seemed to suggest that matters were going swimmingly for the private-sector part of the economy and that it was the reduction of government jobs that was the real problem.

Asked to respond to Republican charges that he was blaming Europe's economic policies for the alleged failure of his own domestic economic policies, Obama said:

The days are getting longer, and the kids are getting antsier.

Summer must be right around the corner.

So earlier this week, we led a chat on Twitter with Dr. Robert Block, a pediatrician who is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, about some tips for a healthier summer.

In an action-packed half-hour, he tackled questions ranging from how to pick a sunscreen to how to get kids to eat better.

Here are some highlights from the chat, which was tagged #nprkids, on Twitter.

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It could very well end up being the song of this summer. Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," a sunny pop song about a nascent crush, is No. 2 on the pop charts and No. 1 on iTunes.

But, perhaps the bigger sign that it has just crept everywhere is when someone on the Internet mashes up a President Obama remix.

More than 10,000 of you took our recent survey about how your family meals stack up against the Obamas'. And it turns out, you're a pretty healthy bunch.

This sounds like something we said in first grade:

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And today's last word in business is: Don't drive like my brother. That's the sign off heard each week at the end of NPR's most popular program. Were talking, of course, about CAR TALK. Brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi have been dispensing humorous auto advice on the radio for more than 25 years. But today, the duo said they're putting the breaks on the program. In October they'll call it quits and no longer record new episodes.