Kennedy Space Center in Fla. opens Vehicle Assembly Building to tours for 1st time since '78

The Associated Press

1:20 p.m. CDT, October 31, 2011

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Heads up, space fans.

Visitors to NASA's Kennedy Space Center now have the opportunity to see inside the colossal Vehicle Assembly Building, off-limits throughout the 30-year shuttle program.

Public bus tours last stopped at the VAB in 1978. They're resuming Nov. 1. The cost is an extra $25 per adult and $19 per child — on top of the usual admission charge.

The 525-foot-tall VAB was built to hold the Saturn V rocket that sent men to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's where every space shuttle was attached to its external fuel tank and booster rockets, before flight.

Atlantis closed out the shuttle program in July, with the 135th mission.

NASA officials stress that the VAB tour stop is temporary — it will cease when the VAB is used once again to stack rockets for launch. The space agency is aiming to send astronauts to an asteroid and Mars in the decades ahead.

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Man has been living at Vancouver Airport since Aug. 17

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — It's like the movie "The Terminal," only it's real. A man has been living in the Vancouver airport since Aug. 17 — at the airport's invitation.

"I can't leave. I'm stuck here," Jaeger Mah explained to an airport volunteer who invited him to a party outside the airport Nov. 3.

Since the party happens to fall on the last of Mah's 80 days at the airport, he added, "Perhaps I could come after midnight."

Mah, 29, embarked on his unusual sojourn as the winner of a contest sponsored by the airport to mark its 80th year. The airport invited anyone willing to living there to submit a video application, and five of the 160 entries were posted online for a public vote. Mah, an entrepreneur with a video company and a background in entertainment marketing, dubbed himself "the Anderson Cooper of YVR" and won with 4,128 votes out of thousands cast.

The gig doesn't involve anything close to the discomfort suffered by passengers who've tried to nap in airport seating during a layover. Mah spends his nights at the airport hotel — though he admits to occasional naps in secret terminal spots — and he's got no complaints about the food, either. He's figured out which VIP lounges will feed him and which have the best snacks.

"I'm not sleeping on the benches," Mah says, "but I'm meeting some incredible people."

As he strolls through the terminals in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and worn hiking boots, it's clear he's become a fixture. Employees wave or shout hello. One stops him at the bottom of the escalators by the domestic baggage carousels and asks why he didn't show up for samosa snacks one day.

"I forgot," he says sheepishly with a boyish grin. All is forgiven.

Airport spokeswoman Rebecca Catley says the goal of the project is to show people what happens behind the check-in counters and security screenings at a big airport.

"A lot of people don't realize what goes on at an airport," she says. "We get a lot of requests for behind-the-scenes tours. We can't do that from a security perspective."

That's where Mah comes in. Armed with a digital video camera, he documents the airport's stories and posts them online. "My process consists of Facebook, tweets and blogs," he said. "You're constantly engaging with your fans. You have to give them what they want to see. I'm pimping myself out big time."

For his 14-hour days as contest winner and late nights spent editing video, he is being paid a per diem rate and a $15,000 fee.

"I want to devote my life to telling stories," he says. "You could call it some kind of journalism."

Mah's adventure brings to mind the 2004 film "The Terminal" where Tom Hanks' character found himself stranded at New York's JFK airport, denied entry to the U.S. but unable to return to his revolution-bound country. The film may have been inspired by the real-life drama of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian expat who could not gain entry to other countries and spent years at France's Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

Unlike either Hanks' character or Nasseri, Mah's stay has a definite end date. Still, he says, there were nay-sayers.

"People said 'Don't do it,'" he chuckles. "My dad said, 'If you want to do it, do it.'"

When The Associated Press caught up with Mah on Day 64, he was touring the airport's wildlife control operations. Standing at the edge of a runway with planes taking off, wildlife officer Nick de Jongh taught Mah about the various guns and noisemakers used to scare birds away from planes.

Hoisting a pump-action shotgun to his shoulder, Mah fired off a round. And grinned.

As the wildlife truck rolled past landing jets, Mah got a tweet from a follower who saw pictures of him in the old airport sheriff's cells he described as like being at Alcatraz.

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Airlines attempt to raise fares for 1st time since summer

SAMANTHA BOMKAMP AP Airlines Writer

12:41 p.m. CDT, October 19, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — Holiday travelers may want to lock in airfares now, because they're going up.

At least two U.S. airlines are raising prices for the first time since late summer and others may follow.

Delta Air Lines Inc. raised one-way fares by $4 to $10 across most of their U.S. routes late Tuesday, according to Rick Seaney of Farecompare.com. Soon after, United Continental Holdings Inc. matched the increases. It's the first widespread fare increase attempt since early August and the 17th try this year.

The increase may not stick. Airlines often roll back fare increases if enough competitors don't match them. A recent attempt to raise prices in smaller cities met resistance, Seaney said.

Of the 16 previous attempts to increase prices this year, half of them failed. The eight that succeeded have brought average fares up by $58 to $70, said Citi analyst Will Randow.

The current fare hikes come as airlines begin reporting third-quarter financial results. While higher ticket prices annoy travelers, they send a positive signal to airline investors because it's a sign of strong demand.

Still, higher fares weren't enough to prevent another loss at American Airlines parent AMR Corp., which blamed it on high fuel costs. On Wednesday AMR reported it lost $162 million in the third quarter — its fourth straight losing quarter. Southwest Airlines Co. is set to report results Thursday morning.

Some travelers may avoid higher fares by taking advantage of fare sales. Many airlines recently matched a winter fare sale from Southwest that runs through Thursday. It excludes most peak travel days around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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Follow Samantha Bomkamp on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/samwilltravel

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