On August 22, the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in Hutchinson is celebrating the 25th anniversary of STS-41-D, the first mission for the space shuttle Discovery, which is the oldest orbiter in NASA's fleet.

 Though the tornado put an end to Veterans’ Day observances for Greensburg students being held in the Twilight Theatre, last week’s gathering in the temporary school’s practice gym was memorable in its own right.
 

   This time was different.  Rather than a steady parade of architects, engineers and developers stepping to the podium to speak hopefully of how Greensburg might recover as a community, the 200 residents who attended the latest community gathering last Wednesday heard local leaders highlight recovery projects in various stages of completion.

    Though a steady rain Friday morning drove the three-dozen onlookers inside the small but attractive new house being turned over to a single father and his one-year old daughter in Greensburg, the mood of those celebrating the event was anything but dampened.

   Being one of the eight houses of worship destroyed in the May 4, 2007 Greensburg tornado, St. Joseph’s Catholic Church’s former location on west Morton has been recognizable in the 13 months since by nothing more than its surviving bell tower, and more lately, a temporary modular unit used for worship.  That began to change last Sunday, however, as church leaders and parishioners grabbed shovels following mass to participate in a groundbreaking for a new structure expected to be completed as early as January.