Category: Points of Information

Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.

In response to the Obama administration’s request a judge has lifted her injunction against the purchase of Russian rocket engines for the Atlas 5 rocket.

7:27 pm

In response to the Obama administration’s request a judge has lifted her injunction against the purchase of Russian rocket engines for the Atlas 5 rocket.

More here. It appears that, at least for the moment, the Atlas 5 rocket will be allowed to buy these engines. Whether the Russians will continue to allow them to buy them however remains an open question, especially if things in the Ukraine get worse.

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Less than 24 hours after the House held Lois Lerner in contempt, the IRS has finally agreed to turn over all her emails to House investigators.

2:31 pm

Less than 24 hours after the House held Lois Lerner in contempt, the IRS has finally agreed to turn over all her emails to House investigators.

Republican lawmakers have been demanding the documents for months and, in March, Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa threatened to hold IRS commissioner John Koskinen in contempt if he did not produce the e-mails requested by the committee. Koskinen had told lawmakers it might take years to produce them. [emphasis mine]

Years, eh? That’s suddenly changed, hasn’t it?

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How to turn an American spacecraft ferrying astronauts to ISS serve as a lifeboat as well.

9:07 am

How to turn an American spacecraft ferrying astronauts to ISS serve as a lifeboat as well.

A very interesting read, as it outlines the specific technical problems faced by engineers that one wouldn’t normally consider. The capsule has to be able to remain functional and reliable after months in orbit, but it also has to become functional at a moment’s notice, should an emergency happen.

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The creation in the lab of an as yet unnamed superheavy element adds weight to the theory that there might exist even heavier elements that are stable in nature.

8:59 am

The creation in the lab of an as yet unnamed superheavy element adds weight to the theory that there might exist even heavier elements that are stable in nature.

The scientists did not observe element 117 directly. Instead, they searched for its daughter products after it radioactively decayed by emitting alpha particles—helium nuclei with two protons and two neutrons. “The heavy nuclei makes an alpha decay to produce element 115, and this also decays by alpha decay,” says Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar of GSI, lead author of a paper reporting the results published on 1 May in Physical Review Letters.

After a few more steps in this decay chain, one of the nuclei produced is the isotope lawrencium 266—a nucleus with 103 protons and 163 neutrons that had never been seen before. Previously known isotopes of lawrencium have fewer neutrons, and are less stable. This novel species, however, has an astonishingly long half-life of 11 hours, making it one of the longest-lived superheavy isotopes known to date. “Perhaps we are at the shore of the island of stability,” Düllmann says.

If these superheavy elements could be created, they would be the stuff of science fiction. They might have properties that we would find extremely useful.

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The IRS audited 10 percent of all Tea Party donors, a rate much higher than for average Americans.

9:52 pm

Working for the Democratic Party: The IRS audited 10 percent of all Tea Party donors, a rate much higher than for average Americans.

Republicans said 24 conservative groups were asked for their donor lists. The IRS initially told Congress that those lists were destroyed, but when they went through their files they discovered three lists that weren’t destroyed.

Rep. Dave Camp, Michigan Republican and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked the IRS to review the names on those lists to see whether any had been audited. The IRS reported back that 10 percent were audited — substantially higher than the average rate of 1 percent of average Americans who are audited each year.

In other words, the IRS acted as an agent of the Democratic Party to harass and strike fear into their opponents.

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According to a GAO report, the sequester cuts that were going to destroy civilization as we know it resulted in exactly one layoff across the entire federal government.

11:48 am

According to a GAO report, the sequester cuts that were going to destroy civilization as we know it resulted in exactly one layoff across the entire federal government.

That is not a typo. Only one person total was laid off to meet the mandated cuts imposed by sequestration. Most agencies froze hiring or imposed furloughs, though even the number of furloughs was less than predicted.

Remember this fact the next time a politician screams dire warnings about any cuts in the federal budget.

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Obama administration officials from three departments have asked a federal judge to lift her injunction against Lockheed Martin’s use of Russian engines in its Atlas 5 rocket.

9:31 am

Obama administration officials from three departments have asked a federal judge to lift her injunction against Lockheed Martin’s use of Russian engines in its Atlas 5 rocket.

Not much teeth in these sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, is there? They exempt ISS, which is the bulk of NASA’s effort with the Russians. Now they wish to exempt the Atlas 5. Pretty soon I expect them to exempt almost everything else.

Putin and the Russians are certainly watching this story unfold, and will use what happens here to help gauge how much they can get away with in the Ukraine. And based on some fascinating information conveyed by a caller to my appearance last night on the Space Show, the Russians are definitely going to have to grab more of the Ukraine to make their capture of the Crimea stick. Expect that situation to remain very hot for the near future.

I will again be discussing this subject in depth tonight on Coast to Coast with George Noory.

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SpaceX continues to acquire land in Texas for its planned spaceport in Brownsville.

8:40 am

The competition heats up: SpaceX continues to acquire land in Texas for its planned spaceport in Brownsville.

Elon Musk’s Dogleg Park LLC picked up an additional five lots in late April, bringing the total number of lots it has acquired in Cameron County to 95. The total land area that SpaceX now owns is roughly 38 acres of land, public records show. This is in addition to 56.5 acres that SpaceX has under lease at the site of what would be the world’s first private and commercial vertical launch site.

Compared to the acquisitions made by the federal government when it established its space centers in Florida and Wallops Island, these purchases are small. Nonetheless, they are likely sufficient for what the company plans to do.

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SpaceX releases spectacular footage of another vertical take-off and landing test of their Falcon 9R rocket.

8:33 am

The competition heats up: SpaceX releases spectacular footage of another vertical take-off and landing test of their Falcon 9R rocket, this time flying over 3,000 feet in the air.

Video below the fold. What I think everyone, including me, has missed so far about both the Grasshopper and the Falcon 9R test flights is that the test vehicle not only was able to land safely using its rockets, both vehicles were quickly turned around and flown again. This certainly lends weight to the feasibility of the company’s plan to make their first stage reusable.

» Read more

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It turns out that the object dubbed G2 that is zipping past the Milky Way’s central black hole is behaving not like a cloud but more like a star.

10:24 pm

The uncertainty of science: It turns out that the object dubbed G2 that is zipping past the Milky Way’s central black hole is behaving not like a cloud but more like a star.

The latest observations by the Keck Observatory in Hawaii show that the gas cloud called “G2” was surprisingly still intact, even during its closest approach to the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group reported today that observations obtained on March 19 and 20, 2014 show the object’s density was still “robust” enough to be detected. This means G2 is not just a gas cloud, but likely has a star inside.

When I wrote a piece about this object for Sky & Telescope I found that among astronomers there was great skepticism about it being just a gas cloud that would be ripped apart when it flew past the black hole. The early data was not conclusive, but enough of it suggested G2 was a star, not a cloud. It turns out here that the skeptics were right.

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On the radio

1:57 pm

In addition to my May 6 at 7 pm (Pacific) appearance on the Space Show with David Livingston to discuss the situation with the Russians and ISS, I am also going to appear on Coast to Coast with George Noory on May 7 from 10 to 11 pm (Pacific) to discuss the same topic.

The Russian situation is a difficult one for the United States, and the reason it is difficult is because of a long series of incredibly stupid decisions by our elected officials, from both parties, for the past decade. Nor is my complaint here 20-20 hindsight. From the day George Bush proposed retiring the shuttle in 2010 and not replacing it until 2014, at the earliest, I have said this is stupid and astonishingly short-sighted. Sadly, Congress liked Bush’s short-sightedness and has been endorsing it now for a decade. Hearing them complain now about our dependence on Russian space capabilities is more than infuriating. Where were they when they might have done something to prevent this situation?

Listen in. I think it will be entertaining.

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“Obama’s 3-Part Benghazi strategy: Lie, lie, and lie again.”

10:02 am

“Obama’s 3-Part Benghazi strategy: Lie, lie, and lie again.”

I haven’t posted much on Benghazi, but even a nonchalant read of the subject reveals the same pattern of blatant lies from the Obama administration as we saw with his promise that “If you like your healthplan you can keep it.” Why anyone with any intelligence trusts anything this administration says is beyond me.

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Iowa City police seized $48K in cash from a Minnesota couple during a traffic stop in March and now refuse to return it.

9:49 am

Theft by government: Iowa City police seized $48K in cash from a Minnesota couple during a traffic stop in March and now refuse to return it.

The publication says Kearnice C. Overton, of St. Paul, was pulled over March 16 for speeding. Overton’s kids were in the car at the time. Police say a K-9 signal gave them the authority to search the car, the Press-Citizen reports. So they did, found the $48,000 in cash, and seized it.

Overton says he got the money from his wife, Tiffani D.S. Barber, to buy some property in Iowa; he drove down there, the deal fell through so he was on his way home. Barber and Overton filed a petition stating the money was wrongly seized – no charges were filed, Overton was not arrested, and he claims it wasn’t illegally earned – and they want it back, the Press-Citizen reports. [emphasis mine]

So, police can take your money, even if you broke no law, and keep it. A good deal, especially since there is no one around to arrest them for theft.

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For the first time astronomers think they have measured the rotation rate of an exoplanet, thus determining the length of its day.

9:30 am

For the first time astronomers think they have measured the rotation rate of an exoplanet, thus determining the length of its day.

Ignas Snellen and his colleagues at Leiden University in the Netherlands report in Nature1 that a gaseous planet orbiting the star β Pictoris rotates at 25 kilometres per second at its equator — faster than any planet in the Solar System and about 50 times faster than Earth. A day on the planet, called β Pictoris b, lasts just over eight hours, even though the planet has a diameter more than 16 times that of Earth’s and carries more than 3,000 times Earth’s heft.

This result falls under my category of “the uncertainty of science.” Though quite cool, and based on real data, the uncertainties are great. Don’t bet the house that this result will stand up to closer observations in the future.

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Engineers commanded Curiosity to drill its third drill hole on Tuesday on what looks like an outcrop of sandstone in Gale Crater.

9:22 am

Engineers commanded Curiosity to drill its third drill hole on Tuesday on what looks like an outcrop of sandstone in Gale Crater.

This hole is shallow and is merely a test to see if a deeper full bore would be worthwhile geological.

That Curiosity has only drilled three holes, and is now only doing a test bore first is partly because engineers fear that using the drill too much will cause a short circuit that will disable the rover entirely. This fear is because of a design flaw in the construction of the rover and the drill.

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A gigantic forest fire threatens Russia’s new spaceport under construction in Vostochny.

9:12 am

A gigantic forest fire threatens Russia’s new spaceport under construction in Vostochny.

[Spaceport construction chief Konstantin] Chmarov reportedly characterized the fire-fighting effort in the region as “chaos.” Fueled by hot weather and strong winds, the fire approached the airport in Svobodny and was also moving toward Vostochny. In the meantime, satellite images showed heavy smoke blanketing the future space center.

The Putin government has been giving the completion of this spaceport a high priority. Having it burn down before completion is not what they want.

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SpaceX has won an injunction from a federal judge, preventing ULA from buying any further Russian engines.

9:03 am

SpaceX has won an injunction from a federal judge, preventing ULA from buying any further Russian engines.

Federal Claims Court Judge Susan Braden said her preliminary injunction was warranted because of the possibility that United Launch Alliance’s purchase of Russian-made engines might run afoul of the sanctions. NBC News’ past coverage of the issue was cited in Braden’s ruling.

Wednesday’s injunction prohibits any future purchases or payments by the Air Force or United Launch Alliance to NPO Energomash, unless and until the Treasury Department or the Commerce Department determines that the deal doesn’t run counter to the U.S. sanctions against Russian officials. Braden stressed that her ruling does not affect previous payments to the Russians, or purchase orders that have already been placed. United Launch Alliance says it already has some of the engines on hand.

This injunction is not directed specifically at the Air Force’s bulk buy from ULA, nor does it address the cartel-like nature of the ULA monopoly for Air Force launches that SpaceX is challenging. However, it does put a serious crimp, if temporary, on the use of Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 5 rocket, which depends on the engine for all its launches. Though the company has engines in stock, they will quickly run out with no way to immediately replace them.

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On the radio

10:49 pm

I will be making a special appearance on the Space Show this coming Tuesday, May 6, at 7 pm (Pacific) to discuss at length how the political friction between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine might impact the situation at ISS.

Should be quite fun. Feel free to tune in and to call in questions.

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Orbital Sciences is considering using ATK’s solid rocket motors to replace the refurbished Russian engines in the first stage of its Antares rocket.

7:40 pm

Orbital Sciences is considering using ATK’s solid rocket motors to replace the refurbished Russian engines in the first stage of its Antares rocket.

This helps explain the merger between the two companies, as it gives Orbital control over the equipment it needs to keep Antares viable. More important, it also could make it entirely American made, which will be attractive to both Congress and many U.S. commercial satellite companies.

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