At approximately 12:50 a.m., Kandahar time, on July 5, a Canadian soldier suffered critical injuries and later died when an explosive device detonated near a dismounted security patrol in Panjwayi District.

The fallen soldier is Private Colin William Wilmot, a medic serving with the Health Services Support Unit in Afghanistan attached to 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Battle Group. His home unit was 1 Field Ambulance, based in Edmonton, Alberta.

Downey's body was discovered Thursday in the living quarters at Camp Mirage, a base in the Persian Gulf that is used as a staging area for Canadian airlifts to Afghanistan.

"The airman died on an overseas mission in support of the mission in Afghanistan and to the military it's irrelevant how or where somebody is killed," said Maj. Jay Janzen, spokesman for Task Force Afghanistan. "What's important is that we honour and respect our fallen comrades at all times no matter what the circumstance."

DND OTTAWA - At approximately 4:15 a.m. (EST) July 4, a Canadian Forces member was found dead in an accommodation room in the Theatre Support Element compound in the Gulf region.

Deceased is Corporal Brendan Anthony Downey, a Military Policeman from the Military Police Detachment in Dundurn, Saskatchewan

With its protective bricks torn away by the recent space shuttle launch, the flame trench at Launch Pad 39A will be given a new layer of protection in time for the next space shuttle liftoff.

The flame trench channels the flames and smoke exhaust of the shuttle's solid rocket boosters away from the launching spacecraft.

A swath of about 3,500 protective bricks tore away from the walls of the structure when space shuttle Discovery lifted off May 31 to begin its STS-124 mission. None of the bricks bounced back in the area of the shuttle. Preliminary computer models of the exhaust pattern suggest no likelihood of loose bricks coming back to the mobile launcher platform or the shuttle.

The Pentagon will buy and operate one or two commercial imagery satellites and plans to design and build another with more sophisticated spying capabilities, according to government and private industry officials.

The satellites could spy on enemy troop movements, spot construction at suspected nuclear sites and alert commanders to new militant training camps.

The Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability (BASIC) satellite system will cost between $2 billion and $4 billion. It would add to the secret constellation of satellites that now circle the Earth, producing still images that are pieced together into one large mosaic.

As the summer fire season heats up, NASA aircraft are set to follow the trail of smoke plumes from some of Earth's northernmost forest fires, examining their contribution to arctic pollution and implications for climate change.

Starting June 29, NASA's DC-8 and P-3B aircraft, based at [14 Wing] Cold Lake, Alberta, will begin their final three-week deployment of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites, or ARCTAS, mission. A third NASA aircraft, the B-200 King Air, will fly from Yellowknife, Canada. The mission is the most extensive field campaign ever to study the chemistry of the Arctic's lower atmosphere. The three airborne laboratories are equipped to fly through the smoke plumes of northern-latitude forest fires. The resulting data, when combined with simultaneous satellite measurements, could reveal the impact of forest fires on the arctic atmosphere.

Space shuttle Discovery and its crew landed at 11:15 a.m. EDT Saturday, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., completing a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles in space.

The STS-124 mission was the second of three flights to launch components to the International Space Station to complete the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory. Discovery delivered Kibo's tour bus-sized Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, which is the station's largest module. The mission included three spacewalks to install and outfit the JPM and activate its robotic arm system. The lab's logistics module, which was delivered and installed in a temporary location in March, was attached to its permanent position on top of the JPM.

Santa Clara University students invite amateur radio operators worldwide to participate with them by receiving beacon signals from PreSat and NanoSail-D, two pioneering cubesat missions that will launch from the Reagan Test Site (Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Republic of Marshall Islands) on June 23, 2008 at about 7:00 pm PDT. Both spacecraft will go into Low Earth Orbit as secondary payloads aboard a SpaceX Falcon-1 launch vehicle. The vehicles will be launched into a 685x330 km, 9 degree orbit, with line of site communications only possible at low latitudes. PreSat is a 10 x 10 x 30 cm. spacecraft, that will evaluate the performance of a generic biofluidic sample management and handling system for future advanced in situ spaceborne biology experiments. NanoSail-D is a 10 x 10 x 30 cm. spacecraft, which will deploy a solar sail that also will be used as a drag sail to demonstrate orbital debris mitigation technology. These missions follow the earlier efforts of Santa Clara U. students in launching Genesat 1, in 2006.

The space shuttle Discovery crew is expected to complete its 14-day flight to the International Space Station with a landing at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 14.

The STS-124 mission began May 31 and delivered two new sections of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory to the station. During three spacewalks, the crew installed the Japanese Pressurized Module, or JPM, and Kibo's robotic arm system. Kibo's logistics module, which had been attached temporarily to the Harmony node during the STS-123 mission in March, was attached to the JPM. The flight also delivered station resident Greg Chamitoff to the outpost. Discovery will return with Garrett Reisman, who spent three months aboard the complex.

NASA managers will evaluate weather conditions at Kennedy before permitting Discovery to return to Earth. Saturday landing opportunities at Kennedy are at 11:15 a.m. and 12:50 p.m.

The crews of space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station will prepare for the end of joint operations today.

The astronauts will transfer spacewalk equipment and at least one spacesuit back to Discovery. They will enjoy some off-duty time and also will check out the tools and equipment needed for undocking activities.

At 3:57 p.m. EDT, the two crews will bid farewell to one another and close the hatches between Discovery and the station.

Discovery is scheduled to undock from the station at 7:42 a.m. Wednesday and begin its journey back to Kennedy Space Center, Fla., landing Saturday at 11:15 a.m.