Aerospace, Technology, Paranormal and UFOs News

Possible UFO Escorted by Military Helicopters

2012-01-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

On the night on January 27, 2012; a flight of five or six military helicopters flew right over my property with their formation lights on. I live on the northwest side of Lubbock, Texas. Just outside the city limits.

Between the last two ships in the formation was a tiny red ball of light. If the helicopters were 2000 feet AGL, I am guessing that the light was smaller than a basketball.

The MOST likely answer is a helicopter had a forward formation light that was no longer working. Second most likely answer was this helicopter flight was excorting a drone from one base to another base.

Then the third option is a UFO that was being escorted. Now, whether that UFO was a alien spacecraft or some new high tech gimzo that the US military has cooked up, I don't know.

I know some of my friends posted online their experience and I am asking them to go ahead and post their observations in the comments field below.

Newt Gingrich's January 25, 2012 Space Policy Speech transcript.

2012-01-26T19:44:00.001-08:00

The National Space Society posted on their blog the entire transcript of Newt Gingrich January 25 Space Policy Speech in Cocoa, Florida.

On my other blog (the Shanks Dimension), I focus mostly on Newt Gingrich's actions of saying he was a supporter of President Ronald Reagan. But now, too many people are coming out of the woodwork that he was not THAT big a supporter of President Ronald Reagan after all. The link to that article is in the Ref section below.

Transcript of Newt Gingrich January 25 Space Policy Speech
Newt Gingrich Town Hall Meeting on Space Policy, January 25, 2012, Cocoa, Florida. Video of speech at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SpacePolic

What I’d like to do is a little different than most of the gatherings like this that we’ve done, and I’d like to use this as an opportunity to talk in a serious way about space and about how we reorganize what we’re doing and what we think about what we’re doing.

Now, I have a deep passion about this because I’m old enough that I used to read Missiles and Rockets magazine back in the – a couple of you are old enough to know what I’m talking about here – I’m talking about late 1950s, right? – before it merged with Aviation Week. And I was right at the right point as a youngster to be totally fascinated with Sputnik and I had been reading science fiction and Isaac Asimov in particular and it helped shape my life, so I come at space from the standpoint of romantic belief that it really is part of our destiny, and it has been tragic to see what has happened to our space program over the last 30 years [applause].

I actually wrote a section of a book called Windows of Opportunity in 1984 talking about what we could have done. We’ve had Bob Walker, who was chairman of the Science and Technology Committee and later on headed up the Walker Commission on Aerospace – he was with me in the early 1980s and we interviewed young NASA scientists and so I wrote a chapter in Windows of Opportunity about what would have happened if we had sustained the momentum of Apollo, and by the 1980s we would have had a permanent base on the Moon and we would have been on Mars. Just go back and look at the extraordinary trajectory.

I want to start, and because I used to be a history teacher, I want to put this in context, and what I want to talk to you about today is going to be very, very bold, and it’s going to be very different, and it’s going to make, frankly, some of the NASA bureaucracy uncomfortable, and there are going to be people in Washington who are going to say “Oh, my gosh – what if we are going to be flying rather than studying?” What if you were actually just getting things done instead of just having planning meetings? It will be a frightening change in the current pattern.

But let me put it in context, and I want to use three examples, the third of which is obvious and that’s John F. Kennedy. The first, though, is Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln in 1859 stands on the banks of the Missouri River at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and says we should build a Transcontinental Railroad. Now at the time that he says this we do not have the steel-making capacity to build the rails to get to California, and we do not have an engine powerful enough to get across the Sierra Nevadas.

In 1869 the railroad is completed.

Lincoln, however, is a fascinating study in the American passion for technology and progress. In 1832, as a very young man of 23, he runs for the state legislature for the first time. Part of his platform is to build a railroad in Illinois. Now, what makes this amazing is that the first railroad, the Rocket, built by Stephenson in Great Britain, was in 1829. The first railroad engine to reach the United States was in 1831. Lincoln has never seen a train. But he has read about it and he has imagination and he knows the prairie is long and he knows that a train would be better than walking. And he is campaigning in 1832 on an idea, the idea of progress, and I want to give you a few Lincolnian visions on space in here.

Second, the Wright Brothers. This is my core critique of NASA, and frankly of all government science in its current form, with the possible exception of DARPA. In the late 19th Century people were sort of right at the edge of flight. They kind of almost knew how to do it, they almost had the right engines, they were all looking at birds, and there were two parallel American projects that are fascinating.

The Smithsonian, arguably at that time the greatest scientific institution in the country, had a $50,000 grant from Congress to learn how to fly. And the Smithsonian had very smart scientists and they had connections to the best scientists in Germany and the best technicians and the best metallurgists, so they could order a really cool engine.

Meanwhile, in Dayton, Ohio, there were two brothers who ran a bicycle shop. Now, bicycles in the 1890s were a high-end technology. They actually merited a discussion in the census report of 1890 on the fact that bicycles were widespread and were allowing teenagers to escape from their parents and there were many sociological side effects from this new revolution.

So the Wright Brothers are here and in their spare time they are fascinated with flight. They actually build a wind tunnel. These are not unsophisticated people. They build a wind tunnel, they study birds, they go to the U.S. Government for important weather information. Where is the most continuous updraft in the United States? Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It comes off the ocean, comes up the hill.

So the Wright Brothers for several years go down to Kitty Hawk every summer, and they take a lot of wood. Now, the reason they take a lot of wood is they know something very profound: They don’t know how to fly! It may seem obvious, but trust me, most government planners don’t get this [laughter and applause].

So what do the Wright Brothers do? They get up in the morning, they have built a very light plane with a very weak engine, and it’s going to start at the top of the hill and it’s going to go downhill, it’s going to have an updraft, and it crashes. They average six or seven crashes a day. And they stop and they fix it and they think about it and they talk about it, have some more coffee, and they try it again. This would go on for several years.

Finally in December of 1903, they have the first powered flight in history. One brother runs alongside the plane to make sure it doesn’t flip over; it doesn’t fly fast enough to get ahead of him. The entire first flight is shorter than the wingspan of a Boeing 747, and it never gets high enough to get over the fuselage of a 747. Small article in AP, December 7, 1903.

In 1907, they made enough progress that they fly around the island of Manhattan and a million and a half people see an airplane for the first time. Four years. Because they figured out the core thing, which is how to fly.

Now, by contrast, the Smithsonian, being a large government establishment of great prestige, with too much money, orders from Germany a really cool engine. Now, there is a problem with a really cool engine. It’s heavy. And if you have a heavy engine you have to build a heavy plane. And if you have a heavy engine and a heavy plane and you’re a Washington bureaucrat, you don’t want to go to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, which was nowhere. Kitty Hawk was so isolated that these guys were living in a tent.

And so, you say, “How am I going to get wind?” and you invest in something that we still use today – a catapult, on a boat – the precursor of the modern aircraft carrier. And you put it in the Potomac. You’re going to launch it off a boat because you’re smart and you have a theoretical study. And you invite the news media to come and watch your very first test [laughter] – you all probably know where this is going, right? – so, they get out there in the morning, the mist comes off the river, they launch the plane, and it goes straight into the water. Now, here’s the problem: When you have a plane land on ground it’s fairly easy to recover. When you have a plane that is heavier than water land in the Potomac River, it goes down, the current tears it up, and you have no idea what was wrong. It’s a one-time perfection problem.

Now the Smithsonian is deeply embarrassed because they look like fools, and then they get this Associated Press report that two bicycle mechanics have flown. The Smithsonian hostility to the Wright Brothers was so great that the Wright Brothers would not give them the original airplane for 37 years, because bureaucracies hate things that aren’t invented in the bureaucracy. There may be a lesson here for people in NASA and the Air Force.

Okay, I’m coming around here, bear with me. Third example. May 1961. And this is the model for what I am about to talk to you about.

May 1961. John F. Kennedy, representing a new generation, having taken power from Dwight David Eisenhower, launching a new sense of a new frontier, announces to the Congress we will go to the Moon before the end of the decade.

We did a movie called A City upon a Hill and we had Buzz Aldrin in the movie, and he is so convincing, and he said you have to realize the only person who had gone around the Earth at that point was Yuri Gagarin, a Russian, and the only American who had been in space had been on a suborbital flight. And here’s the President saying we will get to the Moon inside this decade. And you had to invent everything. Yeah, we had all the precursors and we had the V-2 and we had this and we had that, but the truth was if you listed every problem they solved by July of 1969, its one of the great periods of development in human history. And they just did it.

I’m giving this background for our friends in the news media because twice recently Governor Romney has made fun of me for having bold ideas in space and has suggested that the idea of having a permanent lunar colony – he actually didn’t catch the weirdest thing I’ve ever done and I’m going to tell you all because sooner or later his researchers will find it – at one point early in my career I introduced the Northwest Ordinance for Space, and I said when we get – I think the number was 13,000 – when we have 13,000 Americans living on the Moon they can petition to become a state [laughter and applause].

And here’s the difference between romantics and so-called practical people. I wanted every young American to say to themselves: I could be one of those 13,000. I could be a pioneer. I need to study science and math and engineering. I need to learn how to be a technician. I can be part of building a bigger, better future. I can actually go out and live the future looking at the solar system and being part of a generation of courageous people who do something big and bold and heroic.

And I will as President encourage the introduction for the Northwest Ordinance for Space to put a marker down that we want Americans to think boldly about the future and we want Americans to go out and study hard and work hard, and together we are going to unleash the American people to rebuild the country we love [applause].

So, I’m going to give you a set of goals and then I’m going to make a set of observations about how to achieve those goals.

By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the Moon, and it will be American [applause].

[A time frame is all well and good. But we have been given many different "time frames" before by the current administration and previous one. If Newt does get into office, we are going to have to see how he can meet this goal and will Congress (and more importantly, the American people) back him up on it.]

We will have commercial near-Earth activities that include science, tourism, and manufacturing, and are designed to create a robust industry precisely on the model that was developed by the airlines in the 1930s, because it is in our interest to acquire so much experience in space that we clearly have a capacity that the Chinese and the Russians will never come anywhere close to matching [applause].

And by the end of 2020 we will have the first continuous propulsion system in space capable of getting to Mars in a remarkably short time, because I am sick of being told we have to be timid, and I’m sick of being told we have to be limited to technologies that are 50 years old [applause].

Candidly, if we truly inspire the entrepreneurial spirits of America, we may get some of this stuff a lot faster. Now, I’m going to make some modest observations and some big observations.

Modest Observation Number 1: We should be practical about using equipment. That is, for example, the Atlas 5 ought to be interchangeable and ought to be as usable for NASA projects as it is for Air Force projects. We should get in the habit of absorbing small units of space. You know, it’s very difficult right now to get the bureaucracy to think about the fact that somebody is about to launch a commercial launch and it actually has a little extra space for 40 pounds, but that doesn’t fit either the NASA or the military model. When we fly troops around we normally fly them on commercial airliners with other people. So we’re used to the idea that you can share space. You can send things that don’t have to be a military-only aircraft, or a NASA-only aircraft. I just suspect that even the NASA administrators actually fly on commercial planes with other people. So I want to know if we break down all the bureaucratic barriers and we go to what I want to call a common sense model: If it’s cheaper, faster, and it works – do it! [applause].

Second: We need to learn how to do five or eight launches a day, not one. We need to get in the habit of saying: You know, this is going to be like an airport. We are going to be so busy – you know, if we are going to be getting to the Moon permanently and be starting to get to Mars and build this near-Earth capability, and do it all within eight years, we better start thinking more like airports than like space systems.

And we better start figuring out – so how are we going to manage this many things? It’s not that we can’t do it, it’s just that we just don’t push ourselves, we don’t think about it, we don’t design the systems for it. But I want constant activity. There’s a reason. The World War II generation built tons of airplanes, so the designers that came out of World War II made lots of mistakes. And they learned from them. If you are a military aircraft designer today, you are lucky if you work on more than one airplane in your lifetime. That’s how slow and cumbersome and bureaucratic we’ve become. You don’t have any learning curve.

[This part is very important I think. There is no risk, but no inspiration either with current defense aerospace projects that take decades to produce a fighter jet that is out of date by the time the prototype takes flight. i.e. the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter project. Maybe an even better illustration is the USAF tanker replacement boondoggle.]

I want us to have so much constant energetic, excited activities that people are learning again. And that we’re drawing the best talent in the country back to the Space Coast because it’s exciting and it’s dynamic and who knows what next week is going to be like. And does that mean I’m a visionary? You betcha! [applause].

You know, I was attacked the other night for being grandiose. I just want you to know: Lincoln standing at Council Bluffs was grandiose. The Wright Brothers going down to Kitty Hawk was grandiose. John F. Kennedy standing there saying we’ll get to the Moon in eight years was grandiose. I accept the charge that I am an American and Americans are instinctively grandiose because they believe in a bigger future [applause].

Now just a couple more core observations. I want you to understand where I’m coming from. I very much believe in a project you can Google called Strong America Now, which is an effort to develop “Lean Six Sigma” for the Federal Government. I believe we’ve got to become agile, lean, competent, constantly evolving, and that means replacing the civil service laws that are 130 years old with a totally new practical management system that comes much closer to the way Boeing is doing the Dreamliner. Callista and I went down to Boeing outside of Charleston and they were walking us through – I don’t know how many of you know this, but this is just an example – The Dreamliner is built in Italy, Wichita, Japan, and Korea, and it’s flown in in units that are then brought together at Charleston. And they are walking around and they said this particular work area currently takes sixteen days – our goal is to get it down to six with the same number of people.

And I looked at that and I thought to myself – Department of Housing and Urban Development [laughter]. But let’s be honest, I could have said Air Force Space Command, I could have said NASA. I mean we want to become lean and aggressive, and here’s my bias: They told me in the Corps of Engineers that in order to improve the Port of Charleston so they could receive ships that are starting to come through the Panama Canal in 2014 when they finish widening it, that to do the study of the project takes eight years. Not the project – the study! And I said to them: you know we fought the 2nd World War in three years and eight months, so we beat Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan, in 44 months.

[This kinda goes inline with what I said above as far as the F-35/USAF tanker project goes. We can fight a world war in four plus years, but to dredge a harbor for bigger ships, the study alone takes EIGHT YEARS? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to that I say!]

Now I want to imprint this on you because if I become your President…you will have a 365 day a year relentless pressure to be faster, quicker, leaner, more innovative, more thoughtful, more daring, more visionary.

So let’s go back to how to do it. I would want 10% of the NASA budget set aside for prize money. Lindberg flies to Paris for $25,000. You set up prizes – for example, I forget what the Bush administration estimate was, but it was something like $450 billion to get to Mars with a manned mission. So let’s put up $10 billion. And if somebody figures it out, we save $440 billion. If they don’t figure it out, it didn’t cost us anything.

But you’ll have for $10 billion – and I’d make it tax free because Americans love things tax free so much. It’s not the monetary value, it’s the psychic thrill that Uncle doesn’t get any of it. And this is why you are going to have to learn to have a lot more launches every day because if we put up the right prizes – and Bob Walker and I, shortly before I left Congress, actually hosted a two-day National Academy of Engineering Workshop on prizes, which is online, as it was published, and we were talking about the historic use of prizes going back to the 17th Century. You put up a bunch of interesting prizes, you are going to have so many people showing up who want to fly, it’s going to be unbelievable.

So the model I want us to build is largely the model of the 20s and 30s, when the government was actively encouraging development, but the government wasn’t doing it. The government was paying a reward, it was subsidizing the airmail, it was doing a variety of things. There were prizes – you know, Jimmy Doolittle got famous winning prize money before World War II, then he got famous for bombing Tokyo; I mean, he had a life that was very interesting.

We had enormous breakthroughs in aviation in the 20s and 30s at very little cost to the government because lots of smart people did it. This is my closing bias – I just want to share it with you. I want people cutting metal, or nowadays I guess you would say creating various synthetics; I mean the Dreamliner is a composite aircraft, so I want people pouring composite. Is that a more accurate way to think of it now? Actually, they wrap it. It comes in a – it’s very strange – for a guy my age, I’m going to fly in it? – although it is apparently stronger than aluminum, and more durable.

But here’s the point: We’d be better off to do 1% of the current studies and ten times the number of experiments just flying. If it doesn’t work we’ll walk off saying, well, that was kind of interesting. There is a great story of Bernie Shriver, who had been the great leader of Air Force ICBM development, calling his successor, and his said: “You know, you’ve had 17 successful launches,” and the guy said – he was very proud – “You’re right.” And he [Bernie] said: “You’re not trying, because if you had been trying you would have inevitably made mistakes. You’re only doing stuff that’s safe, what you already know how to do.”

So I came here today to ask you, because you’re here, and you know people all over the country who believe in space, you know how exciting it can be at its best, you know what a total mess, what an embarrassment our current situation is. How can we build a bureaucracy this big and get into a period when we rely on the Russians, while we watch the Chinese plan to surpass us, and we sit around bureaucratically twiddling our thumbs with no real reform? [applause].

I want you to help me both in Florida and across the country so that you can someday say you were here the day it was announced that of course we’d have commercial space in near-space, that of course we’d have a manned colony on the Moon that flew an American flag, and of course we’d be moving towards Mars by the end of the next decade. After all, we are Americans and you were there at the beginning of the second great launch of the adventure that John F. Kennedy started.

Thank you. end transcript of Newt Gingrich.

For the most part, this blogger likes what he has seen in this transcript. Getting funding for "5 to 8" rocket launches a day I just don't see happening in our current finicial hard times. Prize money to get civilian/commercial operators to go in stages until eventually, there is a functional moon base on the moon is what alot of true believers have been thinking about for the past several years.

Personally, I think the number of people living in a lunar colony before it becomes a "state" should be higher than 13,000 people. I'm thinking maybe 30 to 40,000 people before it can happen. Plus, Newt didn't cover this in his speech, but eventually we should look at huge O'Neill class space colonies. Could each one of those with populations of 100-200,000 eventually become individual states themselves?

Letting the civilian sector come up with the technology to get us to the moon and Mars quicker than what we could do back in "Apollo" times is a great idea.

My concern is what the other politicians (namely Governor Mitt Romney) have for their space policy. I for one think that they will fall short of Newt Gingrich's version.

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Ref.
1. National space Society Blog. "Transcript of Newt Gingrich January 25 Space Policy Speech Newt Gingrich Town Hall Meeting on Space Policy, January 25, 2012, Cocoa, Florida" January 26, 2012. ( http://blog.nss.org/?p=3242 ). Transcript of 25-minute speech, courtesy of National Space Society [PDF version].
2. The Shanks Dimension blog. "Reagan and Gingrich – Newt Not The Supporter He Claims to be of Reagan!" by Don W. Shanks. January 25, 2012. (http://www.theshanksdimension.com/2012/01/reagan-and-gingrich-newt-not-the-supporter-he-claims-to-be-of-reagan/).

Life on Venus?

2012-01-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

There was a recent review of photographs from the Russian Venus-13 probe that landed on the planet Venus in 1982.

One scientist, Leonid Ksanfomaliti, of the Space Research Institute of Russia's Academy of Sciences; published an article in the Solar System Research magazine recently.

In this article that the Times of India posted online, Ksanfomaliti states that there were several objects that quote, "emerge, fluctuate and disappear." Those objects being such things which resembled a "disk", a "black flap", and a "scorpion".

There have been no data proving the existence of life on the planet Venus. Ground temperatures reach up to 464 degrees Celsius.

Quoting Ksanfomaliti, "What if we forget about the current theories about the non-existence of life on Venus, let's boldly suggest that the objects' morphological features would allow us to say that they are living." end quote.

Is this a precusor for Russia to send more probes back to Venus? To this blogger, Russia seems to have better luck sending probes to Venus than they do to Mars.

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Ref.
1. Times of India. "Life spotted on Venus: Russian scientist" by . January 21, 2012. ( http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-01-21/science/30650231_1_venus-mission-russian-scientist-landing ).
2. ( http://en.ria.ru/science/20120120/170865269.html ).

Shag Harbour, Pan Am UFO Connection

2012-01-22T08:20:00.000-08:00

There was a recent article by Alexandra Holzer in the Huffington Post that connected the supposed UFO crash in Shag Harbour and a Pan Am Boeing 707 cargo jet flying out of New York to London.

Pan American World Airways pilot Captain Ralph Loewinger and his flight crew: co-pilot Captain Curt Olsen and flight engineer Mike Littlepage; plus there was another pilot and navigator that was with them on this trip. The Pan Am flight crew did not file a UFO report of the incident that took place on October 3, 1967. They were in contact with the Boston air traffic control center at the time of the encounter. Boston Center confirmed that there was no other traffic near the Beoing 707 at that time.

The Boeing 707 cargo aircraft was approaching Yarmouth, Nova Scotia at 33,000 feet when they spotted the UFO. Ralph Loewinger stated that the evening was quote: "clear, moonless and the lights of the south coast were plainly in view" end quote. The unknown "Lights" was at their eleven o'clock high position relative to their aircraft.

Both pilots kept their hands on the control yokes in case there was a chance to avoid a collision if need to.

On his return flight, Ralph Loewinger was listening to a Canadian radio station while the news announcer reproted that quote, "the RCMP had discontinued search operations for 'strange light formations reproted falling into the sea near Yarmouth." end quote.

This would appear to connect the Shag Harbour UFO with another group of witnesses. On the ground, the UFO that was seen by about 70 people from different vantage points disappeared underwater in Shag Harbour.

The seabed there has been checked over several times for unusual depressions. But it looks like that someone swept up the sea flood neatly leaving behind no clues. There was a History Channel program that focus on the Shag Harbour incident entitled "Deep Sea UFOs" that was aired on January 23, 2006. Ms. Holzer asked Captain Ralph Loewinger if he had seen this program and he confirmed that he did watch that show.

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Ref.
1. Huffington Post. "UFO Dances With Airplane" by Alexandra Holzer. January 20, 2012. ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexandra-holzer/ufo-dances-with-airplane-_b_1213784.html ).
2. image of Pan Am 707 comes from following website ( http://www.aviationexplorer.com/Various_Aircraft/Pan_Am_Boeing_707.jpg ).

Marines' Lockheed F-35 jet gets nod from Panetta

2012-01-21T20:48:00.000-08:00

Marines' Lockheed F-35 jet gets nod from Panetta

US joins effort to draw up space 'code of conduct'

2012-01-17T19:07:00.000-08:00

US joins effort to draw up space 'code of conduct'

George Lucas: Hollywood Wouldn't Back My Film About Tuskegee Airmen Due to All Black Cast

2012-01-11T18:59:00.000-08:00

George Lucas: Hollywood Wouldn't Back My Film About Tuskegee Airmen Due to All Black Cast

SPACE POLICY AND THE CONSTITUTION #6

2012-01-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

SPACE POLICY AND THE CONSTITUTION

America’s eroding geopolitical stature, highlighted by the July 21, 2011, end to flights of the United States Space Shuttle, has reached crisis proportions. Obama Administration officials now spin the nebulous thought of Astronauts flying many months to an undetermined asteroid in 2025 as an actual “National Space Policy”. On the other hand, Republican candidates for President have not yet recognized the importance of international civil space competition in the federal government’s constitutional function to provide for the nation’s “common defence”. Candidates appear to be uninterested in having the United States lead deep space exploration, including the establishment of American settlements on the Moon; or may actually consider Obama’s unfocused proposals as being credible rather than realizing that those proposals would transfer geopolitical dominance to China and control of American space transport to Russia.

Although the Bush Administration and Congress did not follow through with adequate funding, at least the 2004 Vision for Space Exploration put forth by President Bush and approved by Congress was a legitimate formulation of a National Space Policy. It implicitly recognized that America’s best security interests would not be served by being dependent on Russia for access to space or by ceding to China both deep space exploration and access to space resources. Unfortunately, with the acquiescence of Congress in 2010, President Obama cancelled what had become known as NASA’s Constellation Program – a program designed to maintain and expand America’s hard-won position as the world’s leading space-faring nation. Meanwhile, China is building a major new deep space launch facility in Hainan and developing new rockets and spacecraft to take over the exploration of the Moon from the United States and the free world.

A properly funded Constellation Program, would have returned Americans and their partners to the Moon, begun creation of the infrastructure and operational capabilities to settle there and go to Mars and beyond, and provided a timely replacement for the aging Space Shuttle. Assuming that the Obama Administration actually requests authorization and budget authority to implement a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid (NEO), including the required heavy lift rockets, specialized spacecraft, operational infrastructure, and hiring authority, how would such a mission stack up relative to returning to the Moon?

For the rest of the article, click on the blue link above.

Woman astronaut to head 100-year Starship project | South Korea News.Net

2012-01-09T07:11:00.000-08:00

Woman astronaut to head 100-year Starship project | South Korea News.Net

This Week at War: Preparing for the Next Korean War - By Robert Haddick | Foreign Policy

2012-01-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

This Week at War: Preparing for the Next Korean War - By Robert Haddick | Foreign Policy

Mexican Grand Warlock predicts Obama loss in 2012

2012-01-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Mexican Grand Warlock predicts Obama loss in 2012

And now for a change of pace, we dip into the paranormal aspect of this blog. This blogger is more worried about President Obama getting a second term than the Mayan calender supposedly telling us that the world will come to an end in December 2012.

Russia Falls, China Rises in Space Efforts | AVIATION WEEK

2012-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

Russia Falls, China Rises in Space Efforts | AVIATION WEEK

Eric Palmer blog: A-29 Super Tucano selected by USAF

2011-12-31T07:53:00.000-08:00

Eric Palmer blog: A-29 Super Tucano selected by USAF: The A-29 Super Tucano has been selected for the USAF light air support mission.

UPDATE: January 5, 2011: The USAF has sent out a stop order on the recent contract awarded to Embraer due to legal action brought forth by Hawker Beechcraft. Check out the details in the link below.

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Ref.

1. bizjournals.com. "Air Force stops Jacksonville military plane contract" by Sarah Mueller. January 4, 2011. ( http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2012/01/04/air-force-stops-work-on-the-embraer.html?ana=RSS&s=article_search&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+vertical_46+%28Software+Industry+News%29 ).

Victoria Principal is Future Virgin Galactic tourist!

2011-12-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

Best known for her role as Pamela Ewing on the TV drama show "Dallas" from 1978 to 1987, Ms Victoria Principal will also be one of the future space tourists for Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tour service.

Now 61 years old, Victoria Principal is in training so that she can make the space trip. No date has been given yet as to when the first tourists will take flight.

In the article, the news about her being a future space tourist took second place to the news that she would not be a part of the big Dallas reboot to take place on TNT in the summer of 2012. The other actors of that series that will be reprising their roles. Larry Hagman as JR Ewing, Patrick Duffy as Bobby Ewing. Linda Grey will also be returning to the series as well.

The show will now focus on their children - now all grown up. Jessie Metcalfe will be playing Bobby and Pam Ewing's son Christopher.

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Ref.

1. Daily Mail. "As Dallas gets a reboot, original cast member Victoria Principal, 61 , proves that some classics really don't get old..." by Amelia Proud. December 26, 2011. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2078562/Dallas-star-Victoria-Principal-61--looks-youthful-Malibu.html). images are from same article.

Merry Christmas 2011

2011-12-24T18:14:00.000-08:00

To every one who has visited this and my other blogs, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Paul Allen's new Stratolaunch Systems Endeavour

2011-12-13T19:21:00.000-08:00

Billionaire Paul Allen and Burt Rutan announched a new venture for manned space travel. It will be the largest aircraft ever built based off of the carrier/space booster plan profile that the White Knight/SpaceShipOne was.

Broken down, you have the giant carrier aircraft which will built by Rutan's Scale Composites. The other part of the system is the multi-stage booster to be built by Elon Musk's SpaceX. The Mating and integration system that can handle up to 490,000 pounds will be built by Dynetics.

Quote: Stratolaunch Systems will bring airport-like operations to the launch of commercial and government payloads and, eventually, human missions. Plans call for a first flight within five years. The air-launch-to-orbit system will mean lower costs, greater safety, and more flexibility and responsiveness than is possible today with ground-based systems. Stratolaunch's quick turnaround between launches will enable new orbital missions as well as break the logjam of missions queued up for launch facilities and a chance at space. Rutan, who has joined Stratolaunch Systems as a board member, said he was thrilled to be back working with Allen. "Paul and I pioneered private space travel with SpaceShipOne, which led to Virgin Galactic's commercial suborbital SpaceShipTwo Program. end quote.

The new carrier aircraft if huge. It will have a wingspan of 380 feet which is longer than that of a football field. Quoting Burt Rutan: "You should never show this airplane, or a model of it, without right next to it, showing a plane that we know how big it is, like a little 747." end quote.

The carrier will have six turbofn engines - the type use of Boeing 747s. It will have a take-off weight of 1.2 million pounds and it will need a runway of 12,000 feet long to get off the ground. More than likely, it will have to take off from the Space Shuttle runway at the Kennedy Space Center.

Initially, Stratolaunch Systems will focus on cargo flights, but human flights quote: "will follow after safety, reliability, and operability are demonstrated."

First flight should take place before the end of the decade. Also, if you have problems viewing the video, just click on it to watch it on YouTube.

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Ref.

1. NSS Blog. "Stratolaunch Systems: New Space Launch System Announced by Paul Allen" December 13, 2011. (http://blog.nss.org/?p=3167).

2. cnet.com. "Paul Allen's Stratolaunch: Grand plan for next-gen space travel" by Daniel Terdiman. December 13, 2011. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-57342415-52/paul-allens-stratolaunch-grand-plan-for-next-gen-space-travel/). image from article.

3. Stratolaunch website (http://www.stratolaunch.com/)

4. New Space Journal.com. "Paul Allen to unveil Stratolaunch Systems today" December 13, 2011. (http://www.newspacejournal.com/2011/12/13/paul-allen-to-unveil-stratolaunch-systems-today/).

UFO Seen Over Moscow Protest Rally

2011-12-13T07:13:00.000-08:00

A recent daytime UFO sighting of what appears to this blogger to be of a helicopter-like drone, was seen at a political protest rally in Bolotnaya Square; in the Russian Capital of Moscow this month.

The video link here ( http://bcove.me/7ohwxeld ) and some of the screen captures were posted online by the Daily Mail recently. Poor picture quality and the videos taken by two individuals that the Daily Mail was able to reach are of poor quality too.

I am guessing both videos were taken by cellphone cameras. Hint to future video takers. Cellphone cameras do have a ZOOM in function if you will just take the time when you have your UFO moment to use it!

In the pictures, the object appears to have legs or other blade-like objects sticking out from the central body. Witnesses to this sighting state that they did not hear any rotor blade or engine sounds from this object.

The protesters were voicing their opposition to Vladimir Putin's United Russia party's contentious victory in elections the week before when the UFO sighting took place. And those present became more concern with the UFO instead of the main reason they were there.

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Ref.

1. Daily Mail. "Russian protesters distracted during Moscow demo against Putin... by 'UFO' flying over Kremlin" By Chris Parsons. December 13, 2011. ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073132/Russian-protesters-distracted-UFO-Moscow-demo-Vladimir-Putin.html ). images from same article.

70 Years After The World Changed for America!

2011-12-07T08:05:00.000-08:00

This day marks the 70th Anniversary of the Japanese attack on the US military in the Hawaiian Islands and Pearl Harbor specifically.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta will be placing a wreath at the Navy Memorial today. In a message released yesterday, Panetta said, Pearl Harbor survivors represent the best of America and serve as role models for the current generation that responded to another deadly surprise attack.

In another quote by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta: "In the memories of that day, we continue to draw determination and conviction to protect our freedoms, to sacrifice for our fellow citizens, and to serve a purpose larger than self. You, the survivors of Pearl Harbor and of the war that followed, embody this conviction, this determination to raise high the torch of freedom and sacrifice.”

The generation that live and fought through those times are dying off now. But their stories are legend. Every future Pearl Harbor remembrance becomes even more poignant with the passage of time.

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Ref.

1. Eavesdropping by John Eaves(http://johneaves.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/december-7-1941/).

2. US DOD. "Panetta to Honor Pearl Harbor Dead, Salutes Attack Survivors" by Jim Garamone. December 6, 2011. (http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=66371).

3. Personal photo from 2007 trip to Hawaii.

Mysterious Debris Crashes Through Plymouth Warehouse Roof « CBS Boston

2011-12-01T20:23:00.000-08:00

Mysterious Debris Crashes Through Plymouth Warehouse Roof « CBS Boston .

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Ref. Photo Credit: Kathy Curran.

Pits add to Stonehenge mystery

2011-11-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

Pits add to Stonehenge mystery

Earth Similarity Index Released

2011-11-24T06:59:00.000-08:00

A new paper has been released in the journal Astrobiology about how habitable nearby worlds would be. There are actually two indexes. First one is called: Earth Similarity Index (ESI) and the second one is the Planetary Habitability Index (PHI).

The most habitable alien worlds discovered so far that could harbour extraterrestrial life. Worlds such as Saturn's moon Titan and the exoplanet Gliese 581-g which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra.

Co-author Dr. Dirk Schulze-Makuch of Washington State University said the following: "The first question is whether Earth-like conditions can be found on other worlds, since we know empirically that those conditions could harbour life. The second question is whether conditions exist on exoplanets that suggest the possibility of other forms of life, whether known to us or not."

The ESI rating comes from several factors such as size, density, and distance from the parent star. The PHI looks at different set of factors like if the world has a rocky or frozen surface, has an atmosphere or a magnetic field. PHI also takes into account chemistry such as if organic compounds are present. And if liquid solvents are available for vital chemical reactions.

Earth Similarity Index (ESI)

Earth - 1.00

Gliese 581g - 0.89

Gliese 581d - 0.74

Gliese 581c - 0.70

Mercury - 0.60Mars - 0.70

HD 69830 d - 0.60

55 Cnc c - 0.56

Moon - 0.56

Gliese 581e - 0.53

The Gliese 581 system has been well studied by astronomers and comprises four or five planets orbiting a red dwarf star. Gliese 581g, Gliese 581d, and Gliese 581c come is first, second, and third, place on the ESI after Earth.

The next exo-planet on the list is HD 69830d. This is a Neptune-size world located in the constellation Puppis because it lies in what is known as the "Goldilocks Zone." This is a area around a parent star where surface temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for life.

Planetary Habitability Index (PHI)

Titan - 0.64

Mars - 0.59

Europa - 0.49

Gliese 581g - 0.45

Gliese 581d - 0.43

Gliese 581c - 0.41

Jupiter - 0.37

Saturn - 0.37

Venus - 0.37

Enceladus - 0.35

The PHI produced different results with Saturn's moon Titan scoring at the top with a 0.64 followed by Mars (0.59) and Jupiter's moon Europa (0.47) for its subsurface water ocean that is thought to be heated by tidal flexing.

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Ref.

1. BBC. "Most liveable alien worlds ranked" by ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15863549 ).

2. Liebertonline. Astrobiology > A Two-Tiered Approach to Assessing the Habitability of Exoplanets. ( http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/ast.2010.0592 ).

Photographer captures stunning images of UFOs above Hatfield - News - Welwyn Hatfield Times

2011-11-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

Photographer captures stunning images of UFOs above Hatfield - News - Welwyn Hatfield Times

China's Gigantic Desert Puzzles - Why?

2011-11-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

There has been arecent discovery made on Google Maps. In the middle of a Chinese desert, there are intricate networks of lines in the desert.

What are they made of, metal of white plastic material or something else. Or the lines could have been made by digging in the dirt.

The mystery location is in Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu. Which is north of the Shule River which crosses the Tibetan Plateau over to the west of the Kumtag Desert.

These lines are huge, viewable from outer space-like a targetting grid. Some even look like the American HAARP (High Frequency Active Auroral Research) project. HAARP is located near Gakona, Alaska, and is funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, DARPA, and the University of Alaska.

One of these "structures" is about 18 miles in length.

In another photo, the Chinese built a 1:20th scale model of the disputed border region between China and India. A terrain model that is .7 by 1 kilometer sand table to play wargames with 1:20th scale tanks???

So what is really going on here? I don't think we are going to like the answers no matter what is really going on here.

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Ref.

1. Gizmodo.com. "" by Jesus Diaz. November 13, 2011. (http://gizmodo.com/5859081/why-is-china-building-these-gigantic-structures-in-the-middle-of-the-desert).

2. slashgear.com. "" by Shane McGlaun. November 14, 2011. (http://www.slashgear.com/massive-networks-of-stripes-appear-in-chinese-desert-14194983/).

US Navy Marine Corps are Buying Decommissioned British Harriers

2011-11-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2011/11/navy-marine-buying-decommissioned-british-harriers-111311w/

There's no UFO cover-up says the White House

2011-11-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

The White House has responded to two petitions asking the government to acknowledge formally that extraterrestrial beings have interacted with the US government.

Quote: The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," Phil Larson from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy reported on the WhiteHouse.gov website."In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye."

The msnbc news article reporting this says that hundreds of military and government agency witnesses have confirm the ET/US government interaction with their testimony. They also report that opinion polls show that 50% of the American people believe that there are, or have been a alien presence on earth. And that more than 80% believe that the US government is not telling the truth about the phenomenon.

One of the groups that went out promoting the petitions, The Paradigm Research Group; stated that the response from a "low-level staffer" was unacceptable and that it would begin a new petition campaign.

The White House, as a result of this petition campaign, has raised the bar for online signing to petitions before they will respond. What once required 5,000 online signatures within 30 days now requires 25,000.

And this blogger is NOT surprise by the answer the White House delivered. In my opinion, First Contact will have to take place OUTSIDE the boarders of the United States of America in another country. And even then, I doubt that our government will be forth coming with any details from previous contacts with ET since the end of World War Two.

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Ref.

1. msnbc.com. "White House: There's no sign of E.T. or UFO cover-up" by Nancy Atkinson. ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45176460/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.Tra0j_QUq7s ).

2. image of UFO from old British tv series "UFO"