Very brief descriptions, with appropriate links, of current or recent news items.
Progress! The University of Colorado and the Goddard Space Flight Center are forming a collaborative research center to study the Sun’s effect on the Earth’s Climate.
Lockheed Martin is moving ahead with its plan to launch the first Orion capsule on a Delta 4 Heavy rocket, notwithstanding the desire of NASA that Lockheed instead focus on using NASA’s own as yet unbuilt rocket system.
NASA engineers continue to struggle to analyze the cause of the cracks in Discovery’s external tank. Key quote:
Forty-three tanks have been constructed with the lighter alloy, requiring just more than 4,600 stringers. So far, 31 cracks have been found, including those on Discovery.
“All of those have been known assembly issues,” Shannon said of the previous cracks, which were traced to misalignments of the stringers as they were fastened to the tank or to mishandling in which the fragile stringers struck or were struck by other hardware. Discovery’s cracks were the first found and repaired at the launch pad using techniques previously employed only at the production plant.
The ongoing detective work is immune to schedule and budget pressure, according to Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.
Will the squealing never stop? The National Space Society has called on Congress to fully fund NASA, as per the authorization bill passed in September, even though the money doesn’t exist, and even if it did exist the amount authorized is insufficient anyway to accomplish what it is intended.
It appears the squealing is working: Obama’s deficit commission on balancing the U.S. budget appears gridlocked, and is not expected to approve any budget-cutting plan when it votes on Wednesday.
A dark Jupiter may haunt the edge of the solar system.
A New Jersey man is serving a seven year sentence for posessing guns he owned legally.
How one astronomer became the unofficial exoplanet record keeper.
This bill is going to dog Democrats for years: The Obama healthcare bill is forcing a New York union to drop insurance coverage for the children of its members.
I feel so much safer! Wheelchair-bound nun searched by TSA. With a picture!
The hurricane season is about to end, and though it appears that the predictions for this season were just about right, no hurricanes touched down in North America for the second year in a row. Key quote:
“There was only a 2% or 3% chance of getting this many hurricanes and not having one hit the U.S.”
The squealing ain’t just coming from cheese-eating social program advocates: The Defense Department is gearing up to protest proposed cuts in the military budget as outlined by the deficit commission.
Jeff Foust has noticed that the Obama’s deficit commission has rewritten its recommendation that the NASA subsidies to commercial space be cut. The rewrite doesn’t really change the recommendation. Instead, it merely corrects the language to more accurately describe the subsidy program.
The radiation risks from the TSA scanners.
Japanese scientists have determined that a programming error was the reason why Hayabusa failed to fire its projectile at the asteroid Itokawa in 2005.
It seems I’m not the only one avoiding the airport security madness. A poll finds that travelers are shifting to charter jets and rental cars to avoid airport security.
Thugs and boneheads: Two TSA agents steal a pizza and assault a store clerk, after using one of their credit cards to purchase liquor (which is how the police identified them).
Leslie Nielsen Dead at 84. R.I.P.
As the court proceedings occurred during Thanksgiving week, I am late reporting this: On November 23 Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff had her court hearing in Austria, where she faces imprisonment for speaking out against Islam. You can see a very detailed report of the hearing here. The next hearing is now scheduled for January 18, 2011.
All in all, this whole trial is a travesty of justice. Sabaditsch-Wolff merely quoted the Koran in describing why she considers it a threat. More importantly, doesn’t freedom of speech mean freedom of speech? That some Muslims were offended by her comments is completely irrelevant.
You can send money to Sabaditsch-Wolff’s legal fund here.
Then again, this is taking land ownership a bit too far: Spanish woman claims ownership of the Sun.
And on a similar note: Twelve more government regulations that are as stupid as killing bats to save them.
From the “We’re all gonna die!” department: A billion people will lose their homes due to climate change, according to a global warming advocacy group.
And for those who don’t notice the sarcasm above, let me state unequivocally that I consider this report to be total twaddle, propaganda timed for release just before the start of the Cancun summit on climate.
Reality strikes! Laid off NASA workers can’t find comparable paying jobs in Florida.
Sarah Palin comments on the Obama administration’s policies towards NASA.
Thugs! Animal rights terrorists have repeatedly threatened a scientist with death, including blowing up his car . Key quote:
The researcher, who experiments on monkeys, opened a letter left in his mailbox to discover razor blades and a death threat. “We follow you on campus,” Jentsch recalled the note reading. “One day, when you’re walking by, we’ll come up behind you, and cut your throat.”
You can’t make this stuff up: Six people arrested after melee at an anti-violence rally in northern New Jersey.
Progress! The Met Office of the UK admitted in a report today that global warming has slowed down over the past 10 years.
Link fixed. Sorry!
In the spirit of Christmas shopping: Woman, trying to cut ahead of others in line, is arrested for threatening to shoot the other shoppers with a gun.
What pilots think of the TSA. I like this one:
THEY THINK THE AVERAGE TSA WORKER IS AN IDIOT.
If there is one theme that emerges clearly time and again in pilots’ online discussions, it’s disdain for the TSA checkpoint worker. They are “the government equivalent of being a Wendy’s burger flipper,” according to one typical comment from AirlinePilotForums.com. “Barney Fife is more suited for their job,” writes another. Anecdotes frequently portray TSA workers as mindlessly hewing to procedures at the expense of exercising the judgment needed to sniff out the evildoers.
Why NASA recently pulled the X-34 out of storage. Key quote:
The idea to ship the X-34s to Mojave and inspect them originated with a Dryden-based NASA engineer, Brown said. “When he found out this thing still existed … he decided people should take a look to see if it could be refurbished and made flightworthy.” That’s when the contractors came to retrieve the two neglected spacecraft, pictured above en route to the Mojave.
But that doesn’t mean NASA has formal plans to operate the X-34s under its own auspices, now or ever, Brown stressed. Provided they’re in flyable shape, it’s far more likely the space agency will make the X-34s available to private industry. “There are a number of firms interested in these things, developing communications and other technologies,” Brown said. “It would be helpful if they had a vehicle.”
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