Russians plan to stick with ISS through 2028.
More Russian space news: They plan to stick with ISS through 2028.
More Russian space news: They plan to stick with ISS through 2028.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Russians plan to stick with ISS through 2028.
Russians look at lunar caves for their lunar bases
Using images from Japanese and American lunar orbiters, the Russians are looking at lunar caves to build Moon bases by 2030.
Using images from Japanese and American lunar orbiters, the Russians are looking at lunar caves to build Moon bases by 2030.
Gilad Shalit released for 1000 Palestinians
Gilad Shalit has been released for 1000 Palestinians convicted prisoners. And who were these Palestinians? Some examples:
They include the perpetrators of some of the most ghastly terrorist attacks of recent years: Brutal killers like Abd al-Aziz Salehi, who gleefully displayed his blood-soaked hands to a cheering Ramallah crowd in 2000 after lynching two Israelis and mutilating their bodies. Like Ibrahim Yunis, mastermind of a 2003 cafe bombing that left seven innocents dead, including an American-born doctor and his 20-year-old daughter on the eve of her wedding. Like Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian television personality who boasts of her role in organizing the 2001 bombing of a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, in which 15 people were killed, seven of them children.
Gilad Shalit has been released for 1000 Palestinians convicted prisoners. And who were these Palestinians? Some examples:
They include the perpetrators of some of the most ghastly terrorist attacks of recent years: Brutal killers like Abd al-Aziz Salehi, who gleefully displayed his blood-soaked hands to a cheering Ramallah crowd in 2000 after lynching two Israelis and mutilating their bodies. Like Ibrahim Yunis, mastermind of a 2003 cafe bombing that left seven innocents dead, including an American-born doctor and his 20-year-old daughter on the eve of her wedding. Like Ahlam Tamimi, a Palestinian television personality who boasts of her role in organizing the 2001 bombing of a pizzeria in downtown Jerusalem, in which 15 people were killed, seven of them children.
More details about SpaceShipTwo’s last test flight
More details about SpaceShipTwo’s last test flight and the initial stall after its release from WhiteKnightTwo.
More details about SpaceShipTwo’s last test flight and the initial stall after its release from WhiteKnightTwo.
North Cliffs collapse in Cornwall
An evening pause: The collapse of a entire cliff side in Cornwall. You can see the aftermath two weeks later here.
Three Redneck Tenors – Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
The designer of spy satellite finally reveals his life’s work
The designer of the spy satellite KH-9 HEXAGON (more generally known by its nickname “Big Bird”) has finally been able to describe his life’s work.
What surprised me most from this story is the fact that HEXAGON used film to record its images, not some form of digital or electronic technology. The film was returned to Earth in four “re-entry buckets” that were snatched out of the air by a modified C-130 airplane. I had assumed that by the time HEXAGON was launched they had abandoned film. Not so.
The designer of the spy satellite KH-9 HEXAGON (more generally known by its nickname “Big Bird”) has finally been able to describe his life’s work.
What surprised me most from this story is the fact that HEXAGON used film to record its images, not some form of digital or electronic technology. The film was returned to Earth in four “re-entry buckets” that were snatched out of the air by a modified C-130 airplane. I had assumed that by the time HEXAGON was launched they had abandoned film. Not so.
Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman – Time To Say Goodbye
An evening pause: As Diane and I head west today for our new life in Arizona, this song seems especially fitting.
NASA contracts two research flights using Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo
NASA has signed a contract with Virgin Galactic to use SpaceShipTwo for two suborbital research flights.
NASA has signed a contract with Virgin Galactic to use SpaceShipTwo for two suborbital research flights.
The Look of Love
Obama administration has pulled the plug on one part of Obamacare after admiting it cannot work
The Obama administration has pulled the plug on one part of Obamacare after admitting it cannot work.
Although sponsored by the government, CLASS was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life. Beneficiaries could use the money for services to help them stay at home, or to help with nursing home bills.
But a central design flaw dogged CLASS from the beginning. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout. After months insisting that problems could be resolved, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn’t see how that can be done.
Now we merely have to repeal the rest of this travesty.
The Obama administration has pulled the plug on one part of Obamacare after admitting it cannot work.
Although sponsored by the government, CLASS was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health. Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life. Beneficiaries could use the money for services to help them stay at home, or to help with nursing home bills.
But a central design flaw dogged CLASS from the beginning. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout. After months insisting that problems could be resolved, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, finally admitted Friday she doesn’t see how that can be done.
Now we merely have to repeal the rest of this travesty.
Ancient Greek ships shipped more than just wine
New data has shown that ancient Greek merchant ships transported a wide assortment of goods, not just wine.
What is interesting about this story is how it punctures a hole in an assumption too many archeologists have been making about the amphorae, the standard shipping container of the ancient Mediterranean:
Amphorae have been found in their thousands in wrecks all over the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them contain residues of food, such as olive pits and fish bones, but the vast majority of them are discovered empty and unmarked. Foley says historians tend to assume that these containers were used mainly to transport wine — in a survey of 27 peer-reviewed studies describing 5,860 amphorae, he found that 95% of the jars were described as having carried the beverage.
The new research found evidence for many things besides wine, illustrating again the dangers of assuming anything in science.
New data has shown that ancient Greek merchant ships transported a wide assortment of goods, not just wine.
What is interesting about this story is how it punctures a hole in an assumption too many archeologists have been making about the amphorae, the standard shipping container of the ancient Mediterranean:
Amphorae have been found in their thousands in wrecks all over the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them contain residues of food, such as olive pits and fish bones, but the vast majority of them are discovered empty and unmarked. Foley says historians tend to assume that these containers were used mainly to transport wine — in a survey of 27 peer-reviewed studies describing 5,860 amphorae, he found that 95% of the jars were described as having carried the beverage.
The new research found evidence for many things besides wine, illustrating again the dangers of assuming anything in science.
The scattered remains of Comet Elenin will pass the Earth on Sunday, 22 million miles away
Chicken Little was wrong again! The scattered remains of Comet Elenin will pass the Earth, on Sunday, 22 million miles away.
Chicken Little was wrong again! The scattered remains of Comet Elenin will pass the Earth, on Sunday, 22 million miles away.
Europe has invited Russia to join the US/ESA ExoMars mission as full partner
Lacking sufficient funds, Europe has invited Russia to join the US/ESA ExoMars program as full partner.
Lacking sufficient funds, Europe has invited Russia to join the US/ESA ExoMars program as full partner.
The man who created Unix, Dennis Richie, has died
Twenty-three Indian Ocean nations test their own tsumani warning system
Twenty-three Indian Ocean nations successful tested their own tsumani warning system on Wednesday.
Twenty-three Indian Ocean nations successful tested their own tsumani warning system on Wednesday.
Robot Gas Attendants Could Keep Old Satellites Chugging
Robot gas attendants could keep old satellites chugging.
MDA has a contract, and a good design. If they succeed in refueling an old communications satellite with a robot, it will be fundamentally change the launch industry. If satellites don’t have to be replaced as often, there will less need for launches, reducing the demand for rockets.
Robot gas attendants could keep old satellites chugging.
MDA has a contract, and a good design. If they succeed in refueling an old communications satellite with a robot, it will be fundamentally change the launch industry. If satellites don’t have to be replaced as often, there will less need for launches, reducing the demand for rockets.
An archeology discovery in Africa suggests that Stone Age humans had an understanding of basic chemistry
An archeology discovery in Africa suggests that Stone Age humans had an understanding of some basic but complicated chemistry.
Archaeologists have found evidence that, as long ago as 100,000 years, people used a specific recipe to create a mixture based on the iron-rich ochre pigment. The findings, published in the journal Science, “push back by 20,000 or 30,000 years” the evidence for when Homo sapiens evolved complex cognition, says Christopher Henshilwood of the universities of Bergen in Norway and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who led the work. “This isn’t just a chance mixture, it is early chemistry. It suggests conceptual and probably cognitive abilities which are the equivalent of modern humans,” he says.
An archeology discovery in Africa suggests that Stone Age humans had an understanding of some basic but complicated chemistry.
Archaeologists have found evidence that, as long ago as 100,000 years, people used a specific recipe to create a mixture based on the iron-rich ochre pigment. The findings, published in the journal Science, “push back by 20,000 or 30,000 years” the evidence for when Homo sapiens evolved complex cognition, says Christopher Henshilwood of the universities of Bergen in Norway and Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who led the work. “This isn’t just a chance mixture, it is early chemistry. It suggests conceptual and probably cognitive abilities which are the equivalent of modern humans,” he says.
Amateur astronomers discover near Earth asteroid
Amateur astronomers discover near Earth asteroid.
Amateur astronomers discover near Earth asteroid.
Hugh Laurie – All you gotta do is . . .
Placido Domingo – Furusato (My Country Home)
An evening pause: From a concert performed in Japan on April 10, 2011, only a month after the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Stay for the end, to see the audience’s response.
Space News suggests Congress use the billions for NASA’s heavy-lift rocket to fund JWST
In an editorial yesterday Space News suggested that Congress use the billions it is allocating for NASA’s heavy-lift rocket to fund the James Webb Space Telescope instead.
This is not surprising. Webb already has a strong constiuency (astronomers, the public) while the Space Launch System has little support outside of Congress and the specific aerospace contractors who want the work. With tight budgets as far as the eye can see into the future, and the likelihood that Congress is going to become more fiscal conservative after the next election, it would not shock me in the slightest if SLS gets eliminated and the money is given to Webb. And if the SpaceX and Orbital Sciences cargo missions to ISS go well then cutting SLS would almost be a certainty, as this success would demonstrate that these private companies should be able to replace SLS for a tenth of the cost.
And I also think this would be a much wiser use of the taxpayers money.
In an editorial yesterday Space News suggested that Congress use the billions it is allocating for NASA’s heavy-lift rocket to fund the James Webb Space Telescope instead.
This is not surprising. Webb already has a strong constiuency (astronomers, the public) while the Space Launch System has little support outside of Congress and the specific aerospace contractors who want the work. With tight budgets as far as the eye can see into the future, and the likelihood that Congress is going to become more fiscal conservative after the next election, it would not shock me in the slightest if SLS gets eliminated and the money is given to Webb. And if the SpaceX and Orbital Sciences cargo missions to ISS go well then cutting SLS would almost be a certainty, as this success would demonstrate that these private companies should be able to replace SLS for a tenth of the cost.
And I also think this would be a much wiser use of the taxpayers money.
India puts four satellites in orbit with one rocket
Success for India: Its PSLV rocket yesterday lifted four satellites into orbit.
Success for India: Its PSLV rocket yesterday lifted four satellites into orbit.
ROSAT predicted to re-enter the atmosphere October 20 to October 25
The defunct 2.4 ton ROSAT space telescope is now predicted to crash to Earth sometime between October 20 and October 25.
The defunct 2.4 ton ROSAT space telescope is now predicted to crash to Earth sometime between October 20 and October 25.
A giant lava basin on Mars appears to have instead once been a lake of water
The uncertainty of science: Hesperia Planum, a giant basin on Mars, assumed for decades to have been formed by volcanic activity, now appears to have instead been formed by water.
The uncertainty of science: Hesperia Planum, a giant basin on Mars, assumed for decades to have been formed by volcanic activity, now appears to have instead been formed by water.
Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser to get its first test flight in the summer of 2012
Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada’s space plane, is to get its first test flight this coming summer.
For the unmanned test flight, it will be carried into the skies by WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft for the commercial suborbital passenger ship SpaceShipTwo, backed by Virgin Galactic, a U.S. company owned by Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Group.
Dream Chaser, Sierra Nevada’s space plane, is to get its first test flight this coming summer.
For the unmanned test flight, it will be carried into the skies by WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier aircraft for the commercial suborbital passenger ship SpaceShipTwo, backed by Virgin Galactic, a U.S. company owned by Richard Branson’s London-based Virgin Group.
A UN report says that nearly one billion people are hungry because of biofuels such as ethanol from corn
A UN report this week says that nearly one billion people are hungry, partly because of biofuels such as ethanol from corn.
The findings are echoed in a report published today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), based in Washington DC. Maximo Torero, one of the report’s authors, says policymakers must “curtail biofuels subsidies” and “discourage the use of food crops in biofuel production” to limit food price volatility.
A UN report this week says that nearly one billion people are hungry, partly because of biofuels such as ethanol from corn.
The findings are echoed in a report published today by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), based in Washington DC. Maximo Torero, one of the report’s authors, says policymakers must “curtail biofuels subsidies” and “discourage the use of food crops in biofuel production” to limit food price volatility.
The Democratic Senate rejects Obama’s jobs plan
Just another indication of how politically weak Obama is: The Democratic Senate has rejected Obama’s jobs plan.
Just another indication of how politically weak Obama is: The Democratic Senate has rejected Obama’s jobs plan.
Gilad Shalit freed: Israel agrees to swap a thousand Palestinian prisoners for him
Gilad Shalit freed: Israel agrees to swap a thousand Palestinian prisoners for him.
I wonder how many of those Palestinian prisoners, many imprisoned for terrorist acts, will come back to do more harm.
Gilad Shalit freed: Israel agrees to swap a thousand Palestinian prisoners for him.
I wonder how many of those Palestinian prisoners, many imprisoned for terrorist acts, will come back to do more harm.