WASHINGTON

NASA’s asteroid mission a stepping stone to Mars

NASA is aiming to launch a rocket to an asteroid in five years and grab a boulder off of it – a stepping stone and training mission for an eventual trip sending humans to Mars.

The space agency Wednesday unveiled details of the $1.25 billion plan to launch a solar-powered unmanned spaceship to an asteroid in December 2020. The ship would spend about a year circling the large space rock and pluck a 13-foot boulder off its surface using robotic arms. It would have three to five opportunities to grab the rock, said Robert Lightfoot, NASA’s associate administrator.

The smaller rock would be hauled near the moon and parked in orbit around the moon. Using a giant rocket ship and the Orion crew capsule that are still being developed, two astronauts would fly to the smaller rock in 2025 and start exploring.

The mission will “demonstrate the capabilities we’re going to need for further future human missions beyond low Earth orbit and then ultimately to Mars,” Lightfoot said.

NEWTOWN, Conn.

Home of school massacre perpetrator demolished

The Connecticut home of the man who carried out the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary school has been demolished.

The 2-acre lot where the 3,100-square-foot house once stood in a leafy, suburban neighborhood will be left as open space under a plan approved by town officials.

Several neighbors had asked for the building to be taken down, describing it as a constant reminder of the tragedy.

Adam Lanza killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, inside the house on the morning of Dec. 14, 2012, then drove to the school where he gunned down 20 children and six adults before committing suicide.

TULSA, Okla.

Tornadoes kill one, injure many others, authorities say

Authorities say one person is dead and multiple others are injured after tornadoes hit Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Tulsa County Sheriff’s Capt. Billy McKelvey says a mobile home park near Sand Springs in the Tulsa area was nearly destroyed Wednesday. It’s not clear yet whether it was a tornado or straight-line winds that hit the mobile home park.

NEW CITY, N.Y.

Lottery ticket in get-well card wins man $7 million

A Pennsylvania man recovering from surgery has won $7 million off a lottery ticket tucked into his get-well card.

Joseph Amorese, of Easton, got the ticket from his father, who lives in the hamlet of Congers in Rockland County, New York.

Amorese had just undergone hernia surgery. A few scratches later on the “$7 million Golden Ticket,” and he was feeling great.

Amorese said, “it was a good thing I was already sitting down because I was shocked.”

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