NBN Co staff must be feeling as little less confident about the upcoming launch of its second satellite, after Facebook's broadband internet satellite was destroyed in an explosion during launch testing on Thursday morning in Florida. 

While NBN Co has insured the launch of its satellite, the explosion highlights the risk of sending expensive communications equipment into space.

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On Wednesday, President Barack Obama reiterated that the intervention in Libya was probably the worst mistake of his presidency. Nevertheless, for one reason or another, the president again failed to mention who the architect of that operation was. Hint: She's running for president.

ICAC: Liberals pay the price as Mike Baird apologises for political rogues

Energy is a weird thing. Matter is made of energy levels as elegantly explained by the reciprocal famous Einstein equation. Energy goes through specific levels of values, some of it becomes bits that make atoms, while other energy levels become the connections and relationships between atoms. As the universe expands, the whole lot is seemingly going towards a relative entropy of nothingness. 

The house of reps members are heading over to the Senate for the speech by the governor general, Sir Peter Cosgrove. Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull are walking together.

The climate sceptic Liberal MP Craig Kelly has been appointed chairman of the backbench environment and energy committee, with National party MP Kevin Hogan as secretary.

It's hard to know where to start... 

South Australian Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young has been stripped of the immigration portfolio, in a major internal reshuffle.

"I fought hard to keep the immigration portfolio, but ultimately it was a decision of the leader of the party," Senator Hanson-Young said in a statement after The Greens meeting in Melbourne.