Watching the last shuttle launch on your computer
Clark Lindsey has provided a list of websites where you can watch the shuttle launch live from your computer.
Also, Bill Harwood is updating his reports very regularly.
Category: Points of Information
Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
More evidence the debt crisis is about to go critical
More evidence the debt crisis is about to go critical.
As I say, the day of reckoning looms.
Highest Water in a Decade Expected at Lake Powell
The highest water level in a decade is expected at Lake Powell by August.
Lake Powell’s rising water level is a result of the long and wet winter this year. An above-average snowpack, with late snows and unseasonably cold weather has lead to a slower melt than usual. As of May, the snowpack that feeds Lake Powell was 30 percent higher than average, with only 50 percent of the accumulated snowpack melted. [emphasis mine]
I thought Al Gore told us this wasn’t going to happen anymore.
TSA agent accused of pilfering from passengers
Doesn’t this make you feel safer? A TSA agent was arrested in Florida earlier this week for stealing from passengers.
A new image of Vesta from Dawn
Dawn continues to approach the large asteroid Vesta. Below is an image taken July 1st from about 62,000 miles. The image has a resolution of 5.8 miles per pixel.
Despite Vesta’s large size, 330 miles in diameter, it is nonspherical. This fact, combined with data that says it is differentiated with a core and mantle, suggests that it is the remains of a larger object that subsequently broke up.
The billion pixel camera of Gaia
Private company hires former NASA engineers and astronauts
The transition to private space: Sierra Nevada hires former NASA engineers and astronauts.
House proposes cutting NOAA by $103 million
More science budget news: The House today proposed cutting NOAA’s $4.59 billion budget by $103 million.
There already is some squealing about this (see the link above), but note that a $4.49 billion budget for NOAA would still be half a billion dollars more than NOAA’s 2008 budget, which is hardly what I’d call a draconian cut.
Another Iceland volcano appears about to erupt
Another Iceland volcano, Hekla, is showing signs that it is about to erupt.
The volcano, dubbed by Icelanders in the Middle Ages as the “Gateway to Hell,” is one of Iceland’s most active, having erupted some 20 times over the past millennium, most recently on Feb. 26, 2000. It measures 4,891-feet (1,491-meters) and is located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) east of Reykjavik, not far from Eyjafjoell.
Ron Paul calls for the abolition of the TSA
Ron Paul (R-Texas) called for the abolition of the TSA yesterday.
House Spending Panel Flatlines NSF
More science budget news: The House proposes no budget increase for the National Science Foundation.
House proposes to drop NASA’s budget to 2008 levels, eliminate Webb Telescope
The House today proposed cutting NASA’s budget back to 2008 levels while eliminating all funds for the James Webb Space Telescope.
As much as I’d hate to see the Webb telescope die, it has cost far more than planned, is way behind schedule, and carries a gigantic risk of failure. However, if I had a choice, I’d rather they cut the $1.95 billion for Congress’s homemade heavy-lift rocket, the program-formerly-called-Constellation. There is a much better chance that Webb will get completed, launched, and work, than there is for this improvised and impossibly costly Congressionally conceived rocket.