American Morning
So far, so good with 'static kill,' BP says
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/08/04/acosta.static.kill.cnn.art.jpg caption="CNN's Jim Acosta reports from the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico."]
(CNN) – It could be the beginning of the end of the 107 day long nightmare for people living and working along the Gulf Coast. BP announced overnight that the static kill operation to seal the leaking oil well for good is working.
According to the New York Times, the government is set to announce that three quarters of the oil from the BP spill has already either evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated. And the rest is so diluted that it doesn't pose much of a risk.
The Coast Guard took our Jim Acosta out for a bird's eye view of the Deepwater Horizon site just as the static kill was getting under way. There, he met up with the crew of the aptly-named Coast Guard cutter, Decisive. As the crew told him, they can feel that this operation has reached a decisive phase. Watch 
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[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/08/04/gulf.oil.spill/t1main.bp.jpg caption= "A long-awaited procedure to permanently seal BP's crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be working, the oil giant announced early Wednesday"]
'Static kill' appears to be working, BP says
(CNN) – A long-awaited procedure to permanently seal BP's crippled well in the Gulf of Mexico appears to be working and is being monitored, the oil giant announced early Wednesday.
The well-killing procedure, which began Tuesday afternoon, involves pumping heavy drilling mud down from above to push oil back into the well reservoir.
"The well pressure is now being controlled by the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud, the desired outcome of the static kill procedure," a BP statement said. "The pumping of heavy drilling mud was stopped after about eight hours of pumping drilling mud down the well. The well is now being monitored, per the procedure, to ensure the well remains static."
BP said it will continue work on a relief well.
The static kill is the biggest development in the long-running saga involving BP's well since a tightly fitting cap was placed on it in mid-July, stopping oil from flowing into the Gulf for the first time in almost three months.
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill Wednesday, a joint Senate hearing will focus on the use of dispersants in Gulf.
The Environmental Protection Agency is likely to face questions about its finding that eight dispersants, including one used in combating the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, are no more toxic when mixed with oil than the oil alone. Read more
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Counting Down Cady: Crew trains for space emergencies
(CNN) – NASA is scrambling to deal with a rare emergency on board the International Space Station. Two spacewalks are scheduled to fix one of the station's two cooling systems that failed over the weekend. NASA officials say crew members are in no immediate danger, but the malfunction leaves the space station with just one critical cooling system in operation
Right now, a future space station crew here on Earth is training for worst-case scenarios when they're 220 miles up in space. One member of that crew is our very own astronaut Cady Coleman, who we've been following ahead of her mission to the International Space Station later this year. John Zarrella caught up with her to see that emergency training firsthand for our ongoing series, "Counting Down Cady." Watch
NASA: Spacewalks may be used to fix space station cooling problem
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