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Video: Camera Catches Mystery Fireball Streaking Across Texas Sky
Here’s footage of that mysterious fireball that streaked across the Texas sky yesterday…
Google Co-Founder Planning Space Trip
Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, is planning a trip to the International Space Station aboard a Russian rocket in 2011. A company called “Space Adventures” takes wealthy explorers to the ISS, and Brin invested $5 million dollars in the company which will serve as his deposit for the planned trip.
Picture: Earth From Mars
(click photo to enlarge)
This is a recently released picture of the earth and moon as seen from the the surface of Mars. This an amazing picture, imagine how far home would look if that was you standing on Mars.
(Via Boing Boing)
SHOCK: Video of Live Alien To Be Shown Tomorrow
A video will be shown to the media tomorrow in Denver, which allegedly shows a live alien for the first time. Supposedly, the video has been seen by “experts” and authenticated.
“It shows an extraterrestrial’s head popping up outside of a window at night, looking in the window, that’s visible through an infrared camera,” he said. The alien is about 4 feet tall and can be seen blinking…”
You can read the rest of this story over at Rocky Mountain News.
Mars Spacecraft Successfully Lands On Mars
NASA’s Phoenix spacecraft has successfully touched down on Mars.
Phoenix will be the first spacecraft to study the arctic plains on Mars’ north pole. The craft has a robotic arm that will drill into the Martian ice and retrieve samples which will be analyzed and studied remotely from earth.
Scientists will try to determine if the permafrost has the ingredients needed for life to emerge.
-Chris Jones
Pentagon To Shoot Down Broken Satellite
President Bush has authorized the Pentagon to perform the first ever shoot down of a broken satellite in space. The busted satellite is falling out of orbit and straight back to earth, but the problem according to the President is that it’s filled with rocket fuel.
Much of the 5,000 pound satellite is expected to survive re-entry with as much as 1,000 pounds of highly toxic and extremely combustible rocket fuel called Hydrazine still on board.
Depending on where the object lands it could cause serious damage to property or even loss of life.
Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said this at today’s Pentagon briefing:
Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the “window of opportunity” for such a shootdown, presumably to be launched from a Navy ship, will open in the next three or four days and last for seven or eight days. He did not say whether the Pentagon has decided on an exact launch date.
Cartwright said this will be an unprecedented effort; he would not say exactly what are the odds of success.
“This is the first time we’ve used a tactical missile to engage a spacecraft,” Cartwright said.
After extensive study and analysis, U.S. officials came to the conclusion that, “we’re better off taking the attempt than not,” Cartwright said.
He said a Navy missile known as Standard Missile 3 would be fired in an attempt to intercept the satellite just prior to it re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. It would be “next to impossible” to hit the satellite after that because of atmospheric disturbances, Cartwright said.
A second goal, he said, is to directly hit the fuel tank in order to minimize the amount of fuel that returns to Earth.
Software associated with the Standard Missile 3 has been modified to enhance the chances of the missile’s sensors recognizing that the satellite is its target; he noted that the missile normally is used to shoot down ballistic missiles, not satellites.
I think this might also be some kind of a statement to China that we can shoot things down in space too. If you recall, China shot down a satellite some months causing worldwide outrage.
-Chris Jones
Japan Successfully Shoots Down Missile In Space
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force successfully flight tested its first Raytheon built Standard Missile-3. The SM-3 Block IA missile engaged and destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile target more than 60 miles above the Pacific Ocean.
Personnel at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai launched the ballistic missile target while the crew of the Japanese destroyer JS KONGO (DDG-173) fired the intercepting missile.
During the test, the Japanese crew exchanged track information via satellite with U.S. naval assets, demonstrating missile defense interoperability between the two countries. This test was the 12th successful intercept for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system’s SM-3.
Space Shuttle Discovery Blasts Off
Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven rocketed away Tuesday in pursuit of the international space station, where a formidable construction job awaits them.
Discovery blasted off at 11:38 a.m., carrying up a giant Tinkertoy- type link that must be installed at the space station before European and Japanese laboratories can arrive.
Despite a forecast calling for rain right at launch time, the weather ended up cooperating. And a chunk of ice on plumbing between the external fuel tank and Discovery—4 inches by 1 1/2 inches—was deemed too small by NASA to pose a serious launch hazard. It appeared to be melting as the countdown entered its final minutes.
The shuttle is carrying up an Italian-built live-in compartment, about the size of a small bus, that the astronauts will attach to the space station. It’s named Harmony, the choice of schoolchildren who took part in a national competition. About 130 of those youngsters traveled to Cape Canaveral to witness the launch.
China to test space weapon
A Chinese submarine will send test signals that could change the course of a satellite when China launches its first moon orbiter, as part of the country’s effort to develop space war technology.
two survey ships are deployed in the South Pacific Ocean and South Atlantic Ocean to send signals to maneuver the lunar exploration satellite, expected to be launched Wednesday. At the same time, a nuclear-powered submarine will send simulated signals to the satellite as a test.
Once the satellite-maneuvering technology matures, China would have the know-how to destroy other satellites in space in wartime.
China could launch cheaply-made weapon-carrying objects into space and change their courses to destroy or damage satellites of other countries by sending signals from submarines.
China Considers Communist Party Branch in Space
China might not have a permanent presence in space yet, but the country’s rocket men are already thinking about setting up a Communist Party branch in the outer reaches.
Now 14-strong, the Chinese astronaut corps more than meets the party’s minimum requirement of at least three members for a branch.
China’s space communists would “carry out the regular activities of a Communist Party of China branch in space in the way we do on Earth,” Yang Liwei, the first Chinese astronaut to fly into space, was quoted by Xinhua as saying on the sidelines of the national party congress.
“Like foreign astronauts having their beliefs, we believe in communism, which is also a spiritual power,” he said. “We may not pray in the way our foreign counterparts do. But the common belief has made us more united in space, where there is no national boundary, to accomplish our missions.”
The questions I have are, What exactly are these “activities” that a communist party would carry out in space?
Is it really necessary to inject a political ideology into the space program?
What type of activities might a communist carry out in space that a capitalist would not?
Since China is becoming more Capitalist by the year, why must they hang on to the dying ideology of Communism?
-Chris Jones
US snubs Russian request for joint moon exploration: space chief
The head of Russia’s space agency Sunday said the US has rebuffed an offer from Moscow to jointly explore the moon, while announcing a separate contract with NASA for nearly one billion dollars for the International Space Station. Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia had proposed pooling resources to explore the moon.
“We were ready to cooperate but for unknown reasons, the United States have said they will undertake this programme themselves,” he said.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in December said it envisaged setting up a manned base, possibly on the moon’s south pole, by around 2020, powered by sunlight and perhaps hydrogen and oxygen, with astronauts cruising over the lunar surface in pressurized rovers.
Perminov said Roskosmos had meanwhile signed with NASA a “contract for nearly one billion dollars” — an unprecedented sum — to supply cargo shuttles between now and 2011 for the US segment of the International Space Station.
The US-led ISS draws upon the scientific and technological resources of 16 nations: Canada, Japan, Russia, 11 nations of the European Space Agency and Brazil.
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