Christian Science Monitor: Shortly before 5 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, a small, nondescript Beechcraft Air King climbed from the runway at Mammoth Yosemite Airport, reached 15,300 feet and headed over the snow-starved Sierra Nevada. To anyone driving past the airport, nestled on the backside of the mountain range, the airplane's departure might have seemed like just another private plane taking off from a rural airfield. Instead, the 1960s-vintage, twin-engine turboprop NASA's Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO)...