Tonight is radio night here at Behind the Black. I will be on two different syndicated radio shows, one in the United Kingdom, The Moore Show, followed by two hours live beginning at 10 pm (Pacific) on Coast to Coast with George Noory.
Both interviews should be a lot of fun. I intend to talk a bit about today’s SpaceShipTwo flight and how that lays the groundwork for the future of space travel. The subject of climate will also be a topic on both shows.
The Herschel Space Telescope has closed its eye on the universe.
After four years of operation, the telescope’s supply of helium coolant has run out, leaving the infrared telescope blind to the sky.
SpaceShipTwo broke the sound barrier on its first powered flight.
Below the fold is video of the flight.
» Read more
Cassini snaps an amazing image of Saturn’s north pole vortex.
The competition heats up: SpaceShipTwo has successfully completed its first powered flight. Some images here.
The excitement builds in Mojave for SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight, expected on Monday..
The flight window appears to stretch from 6 pm (Pacific) Sunday to noon Tuesday.
An evening pause: Jacqueline Abbott and Iris Dement sing a song by Iris Dement, “You’ve done nothing wrong.”
More Democratic senators discover that Obamacare is a train wreck about to happen.
They wrote it. They rammed it through Congress. It is their baby, lock, stock, and barrel.
It appears the Progress freighter has successfully docked with ISS.
The story is not entirely clear on whether this was a successful hard dock, or only a soft dock. However, I’ve done a search on the web and it sounds like the docking was good. This story says the astronauts on ISS will conducting leak tests (a normal procedure) and then begin unloading, which suggests that all is well.
A hard docking is confirmed.
Cassini has imaged meteorites as they crash into Saturn’s rings.
Now Congress has found out what’s in it: Lawmakers are considering exempting themselves and their staffers from Obamacare.
If they think the law is too onerous for themselves, then maybe they might finally realize that it is too onerous for everyone, and repeal the damn thing. Unfortunately, such common sense is not likely to appear in Washington.
Update: The story above suggested the exemption was being pushed by both parties. This apparently is not entirely true. There does appear to be some common sense in Washington, at least among some on the Republican side, as indicated by Republican statements from both the House and Senate. As noted by Speaker John Boehner’s office,
» Read more
