FINALLY - Only ONE Engine for the F-35!

Pratt & Whitney has finally beaten out General Electric and Britain's Rolls-Royce to power the troubled F-35 fighter jet program.

And all it took was a coalition of Democrats and Tea Party Republicans to get it done. The U.S. House of Representatives finally voted down the mandate to have a backup engine design (which was a thinly disguise jobs aid program to GE for House Speaker John Boehner's southwestern Ohio and surrounding districts.

For years, going back to former President George W. Bush, and current President Barrack H. Obama; have tried to kill off the GE engine for the F-35. But the House kept on voting funds for that engine. And that added to the cost of the overall F-35 program.

For more information, check out the link below.

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Ref.

1. CT Now.com. "Pratt Wins F-35 Engine Battle" by Mara Lee. February 16, 2011. (http://www.ctnow.com/business/hc-pratt-engine-20110216,0,4274620.story).

Asteroid Mission - 2025

New idea being pitched around is a plan to visit a asteroid in the year 2025. The mission is nickname: Plymouth Rock.

Gee, that would be the perfect mission of a Orion class spaceship. Oops! Forgot President Obama axed that program. But, there is a resistance movment in Congress to keep Orion on life support until Obama can be kicked out of office.

Quoting the Space.com article: "We are pleased that the Orion project is included in the House and Senate bills as Lockheed Martin works toward a 2013 launch date," said Linda Singleton, Orion Communications Manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Houston.

This week, Josh Hopkins of Lockheed's Human Spaceflight Advanced Programs will detail an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. end quote.

But - back to what is referred to as "The Plymouth Rock" deep space exploration mission. A so-called dressed rehearsal for a manned mission to Mars.

Lockheed Martin has been spending its own cash on developing this mission plan. Josh Hopkins detail what an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft would be like, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

At that meeting, the proposed asteroid mission concept combines two Orion spacecraft with modifications to provide the necessary propulsion, living space and life-support capability for two astronauts. The dual-Orion configuration can probably support deep-space mission durations of five to six months.

Quote, "Because Orion is already designed to do missions far beyond low-Earth orbit, it already has most of the capabilities that we need," Hopkins said.

Thomas Jones, a former space shuttle astronaut, "NASA's plans for how to execute a NEO mission are still in the formative stage, but a key component of any mission concept is a small piloted re-entry vehicle," Jones told SPACE.com. "The updated Orion could serve this function, as part of a larger spacecraft capable of reaching and exploring a NEO."

NASA could build a NEO cruise vehicle in low-Earth orbit or at a stable point in space near Earth called a Lagrange point, Jones said. That craft would consist of a propulsion system, habitation volume, a small NEO surface exploration craft that Jones likened to a "space pod" and the re-entry vehicle.

"An attractive change for NASA between the lunar architecture and proposed NEO missions is that most of this cruise vehicle could be re-used," Jones said.

Only the re-entry vehicle would have to be replaced, he added. The rest of the mission's assets could be left in Earth orbit to be used on later flights.

Now this is where Robert Bigelow can come in with his inflatable haitats for a space mission. This could increase the crew size from two to four.

Anyway, use the link below for the entire article.

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Ref.

1. Space.com. August 30, 2010. "'Plymouth Rock' Deep Space Adteroid Mission Idea Gains Ground" by Leonard David. (http://www.space.com/news/asteroid-mission-plans-orion-spacecraft-100830.html).

2. Image from Space.com.

Four Women in Orbit at Same Time

Well, the old workhorse Discovery got off the pad on the first try today at 6:21am in a pre-dawn launch carrying seven astronauts and supplies up to the International Space Station (ISS).

Three on the launch of shuttlecraft Discovery and one up on the ISS already for a record of 4 females in outer space at the same time.

Here is a breakdown of the female crewmembers. Dorothy "Dottie" Metcalf-Lindenburger is 34 years old. Stephanie Wilson is the robot arm expert coming in at age 43. And Naoko Yamazaki who will be the second Japanese woman ever to fly into space. Yamazaki is 39 years old. On the station now is Tracy Caldwell Dyson and she is 40 years old.

Discovery will dock with the space station on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. There will be a total of 13 people (men and women) in orbit this time around.

And Discovery is expected to spend 13 days in orbit.

Now, while the shuttle is docked at the space station, President Barrack H. Obama is planning on holding some sort of summit to discuss the future of American manned spaceflight.

Richard C. Hoagland talked about what might happen in President Obama's speech on April 15, 2010. But no one really knows what is going to happen then. What will be talked about. Even WHERE on Kennedy Space Center complex the event will be held. On Coast to Coast Am radio program on April 4/5, 2010; Richard C. Hoagland stated that he will be posting some information on his website this date. As of 7am CST, I only see the white paper entitled "The New Frontier of Hope" with a picture of President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, that has been 'bumped' to the top behind a promo for a DVD Hoagland is selling. That is entitled "Secrets-The Startling New NASA... Kennedy.. Obama Connection to 2012."

It might be taking longer to finish up the paper to upload to his website. But Hoagland also told the C2Cam audience that China and India will be present at this special summit on the 15th.

So once again, I guess the best way to sum this posting up is that NASA is still acting 'odd.'

UPDATE: Like the title to a 3rd season episode of the original Star Trek series "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky," Enterprise Mission has finally posted its white paper. Please use the link in the ref section below to read that posting. Basically in a nutshell: Mars moon Phobos is an ancient spacecraft. Its one third hollow! It will eventually break up due to the gravational pull of Mars. Quote: For, a Martian moon that is demonstrably "1/3 hollow" ... as measured by two totally independent space programs, and separated by ~20 yars ... under ANY likely astrophysical formation scenario CANNOT EXIST ... as just a "natural" moon! And this pulled quote: Which, according to the verbal description coming from our ESA source, is divided into "three ... or four, major, quarter-to-half-mile-wide geometric chambers ... distributed tetrahedrally inside a denser, partially-hollow RF-translucent interior structure ...."

So that is pretty cool.

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Ref.

Space.com. April 5, 2010. By Tariq Malik.(http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/most-women-in-space-100405.html).

Enterprise Mission.com white paper April 5, 2010. by Richard C. Hoagland and David Wilcock. (http://www.enterprisemission.com/newfrontier.htm).

"For the World is Hollow" Enterprise Mission (http://www.enterprisemission.com/Phobos.html).

The Next December 7th for the World

Take a brief look at the article posted by Alan Caruba entitled, "UN Climate Treaty: A Sneak Attack on Humanity."

December 7, 1941 vs. December 7, 2009.

The first attack took place in Hawaii at a place known as Pearl Harbor. The USA got its ass kicked up 'tween its ears. But we dusted ourselves off and began to fight World War Two. It took four years to mount the successful comeback.

The second December 7th will be taking place at Copenhagen. There, the world is looking forward to the U.S. President to sign some paperwork and thus they would then be able to "pick" America's pockets at will. Plus they will then think that their rules will over ride our Constitution.

So, what is the difference between Franklin D. Roosevelt and our current boy wonder-Barrack H. Obama. Well, FDR decided to fight back and BHO will surrender the USA up front without a fight.

Even after the release of those emails that now show Global Heating to be a sham. Anyway, check out Caruba's article for more information.

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REf. (http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2009/12/un-climate-treaty-next-sneak-attack.html)

Buzz Asks Prez Obama for Space Leadership

Found this article on the Huffington Post today. It was orginally posted there on October 21st.

The Special committee lead by Chairman Norm Augustine (aka the Augustine Panel), put forward several options to President Obama recently.

This article by Buzz Aldrin, second man on the moon and the biggest space promotor around is asking President to go along with Option 5 that the Augustine Panel put forth.

Bottom line of course is "No bucks, then No Buck Rogers!"

One can read the article on Huffington Post to read about options one thru four. Option Five known as the "Flexible Path" seems to get everyone who supports manned space exploration a tiggly senstion down their leg to modify a famous quote of Chris Matthews(ie reguarding his support for then candiate Barrack H. Obama).

Basically - Option Five uses as much shuttle hardware and ground support equipment as possible. And the mission makeup is very different than just returning to the moon. Such as visits to the Lagrane points, near-Earth objects, lunar fly-bys, and possible rendezvous with Mars's moons. There are still plans for a lunar landing by 2020.

Please use the url below to read the full article on the Huffington Post. Image is of President Obama at NASA's White House star party to view the LCROSS impact. Wife Michelle Obama is nearby.


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REf. Huffington Post, Oct 21, 2009 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/buzz-aldrin/mr-president-will-you-lea_b_328975.html)