Boeing has successfully completed a series of thruster tests for its CST-100 manned capsule.
The competition heats up: Boeing has successfully completed a series of thruster tests for its CST-100 manned capsule.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Check out this detailed overview of the upcoming launch of SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9, including yesterday’s static fire test.
Check out this detailed overview of the upcoming launch of SpaceX’s upgraded Falcon 9, including yesterday’s static fire test.
Orbital Sciences has now posted a detailed outline of Cygnus’s flight schedule for the next few days.
Orbital Sciences has now posted a detailed outline of Cygnus’s flight schedule for the next few days.
It appears the spacecraft continues to do well as it continues its tests prior to approaching ISS.
NASA has officially ended the Deep Impact mission.
NASA has officially ended the Deep Impact mission.
After several tries, SpaceX finally completed the static fire test of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket today.
The competition heats up: After several tries, SpaceX finally completed the static fire test of its upgraded Falcon 9 rocket today.
It appears it was a success, and that all systems are go for launch when the range becomes available in about 10 days.
Another leak from the IPCC shows that politicians in Belgium, Hungary, Germany, and the United States attempted to pressure the scientists writing the report to cover up the lack in global temperature rise since 1998.
Another leak from the IPCC shows that politicians in Belgium, Hungary, Germany, and the United States attempted to pressure the scientists writing the report to cover up the lack in global temperature rise since 1998.
[L]eaked documents seen by the Associated Press, yesterday revealed deep concerns among politicians about a lack of global warming over the past few years. Germany called for the references to the slowdown in warming to be deleted, saying looking at a time span of just 10 or 15 years was ‘misleading’ and they should focus on decades or centuries. Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for deniers of man-made climate change. Belgium objected to using 1998 as a starting year for statistics, as it was exceptionally warm and makes the graph look flat – and suggested using 1999 or 2000 instead to give a more upward-pointing curve. The United States delegation even weighed in, urging the authors of the report to explain away the lack of warming using the ‘leading hypothesis’ among scientists that the lower warming is down to more heat being absorbed by the ocean – which has got hotter.
Two points: First, for this article to refer to any legitimate scientist who questions the theory of human-caused global warming to be called a “denier” offends me beyond words, as regular readers of this website know.
Second, this leak proves once again the foolishness of allowing politicians to get involved in the scientific process. They should be kept as far away as possible, at all times.
Despite data from orbiting probes that say there is methane in Mars’ atmosphere, Curiosity has detected none.
Despite data from orbiting probes that say there is methane in Mars’ atmosphere, Curiosity has detected none.
The detection of methane by orbiting satellites in certain regions of Mars was intriguing as it suggested the possibility of Martian microbiological life. Curiosity is not in those regions, but apparently the scientists thought they’d detect evidence of it from a distance. That they did not reduces significantly the possibility of life on Mars.
An Australia test flight of a scramjet engine ended in failure today when the rocket carrying the engine failed to reach the require elevation for the test to begin.
An Australia test flight of a scramjet engine ended in failure today when the rocket carrying the engine failed to reach the require elevation for the test to begin.
“Close to 10% of the papers we receive show some sign of academic misconduct”
Modern science: “Close to 10% of the papers we receive show some sign of academic misconduct.”
This is not good news if an editor of a peer-reviewed science journal admits that 1 in 10 scientists routinely try to cheat when they submit a research paper.
All but two Democrats walk out of Benghazi hearing to avoid hearing testimony of victims’ families.
Leftwing open-mindedness: All but two Democrats walk out of Benghazi hearing to avoid hearing testimony from victims’ families.
Home Depot joins Walgreens in dumping tens of thousands of employees from their employer heath insurance plan, because of Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: Home Depot joins Walgreens in dumping tens of thousands of employees from their employer heath insurance plan, because of Obamacare. Key quote:
The accelerating shift of workers to Obama’s taxpayer-funded network will likely drive up costs to taxpayers, disadvantage companies that try to pay for their employees’ health-care and make more voters dependent on health-care decisions made by Democratic officials and legislators. The switch is also making a mockery of Obama’s promise that Americans would be able to keep their pre-Obamacare insurance if they prefer. “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what,” he said in June 2009. [emphasis mine]
Obama’s statement in 2009 was an obvious lie and an insult to everyone’s intelligence. Unfortunately, it appears he estimated the intelligence of too many Americans quite rightly.
A cop stops a student from handing out copies of the Constitution, on Constitution Day.
Free speech in modern America: A cop stops a student from handing out copies of the Constitution, on Constitution Day. Video here.
The video is so egregious that I have embedded it below the fold. Watch the college bureaucrat tell the student he has to schedule his speech, and that the next date is weeks away.
» Read more
Australia’s new government does the right thing, instantly shutting down its agenda-driven global warming bureaucracy.
Australia’s new government does the right thing, instantly shutting down its agenda-driven global warming bureaucracy. More details here.
The House vote to fund the government but not Obamacare will force vulnerable Senate Democrats to either endorse the unpopular law again or shut it down.
The House vote to fund the government but not Obamacare will force vulnerable Senate Democrats to either endorse the unpopular law again or shut it down.
Exactly. Force these Democrats to once again endorse this turkey of a law, just as it is about to go into effect. Even if the Republicans eventually back down, they will have successfully put these senators on record, only a year before the next election.
The media guide for identifying firearms.
The media guide for identifying firearms.
I think they actually use this guide at mainstream outlets like CNN.
The impending end of China’s first space station.
The impending end of China’s first space station.
Arianespace has signed a contract to build 18 more Ariane 5 rockets.
The competition heats up: Arianespace has signed a contract to build 18 more Ariane 5 rockets.
This order takes the number of Ariane 5 launchers in production for Arianespace to 38, and guarantees the continued provision of launch services for the European operator’s customers at the Guiana Space Centre through to the end of the decade.
Without doubt Arianespace is now in a solid position through the end of the decade. What will happen to them, however, when Falcon 9 and other cheaper rockets begin to fly regularly will be the real story. They have not yet found a way to cut their costs.
Voyager 1’s future.
Voyager 1 has enough nuclear fuel to keep doing science through to 2025, and then it will be dead, adrift. On its current trajectory, the probe should eventually end up within 1.5 light years of a star in Camelopardalis, a northern constellation that looks like a cross between a giraffe and a camel. No one knows if there are any planets around that star, nor if aliens will be in residence by the time the probe arrives. “But if they are there, maybe they will capture Voyager 1,” says mission scientist Tom Krimigis of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
In addition to the above silliness, the article gives a good summary of the real data that Voyager 1 is sending back about interstellar space.
Cygnus is operating well in orbit, with berthing to ISS scheduled for September 22.
Cygnus is operating well in orbit, with berthing to ISS scheduled for September 22.
More information here, including details about Orbital Sciences’ effort to replace the refurbished Soviet-era engines it uses on Antares in order for the rocket to have a long term viability.
Republicans in the House move to fund the government, excluding Obamacare.
Republicans in the House move to fund the government, excluding Obamacare.
If the government shuts down because of this budget proposal it will be because the Democrats refused to sign it. It will be because the Democrats would rather keep Obamacare then keep the government operating.