Two Shuttles Might Stick Around Through 2017!

Found this little bit of news on the nsmbc.mns.com website.

NASA is consider keeping shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis in flight-ready condition after Endeavour's last scheduled mission instead of turning it into a museum piece. Endeavour was the replacement shuttle for the space shuttle Challenger that was lost in a lift-off explosion 25 years ago this year.

Thanks to the proposal from Commercial Space Transportation Service, or CSTS. They would use Endeavour as well as a sister shuttle, Atlantis, to fly two missions a year from 2013 to 2017 at an annual cost of $1.5 billion.

The contractor that currently manages the shuttle program on NASA’s behalf, United Space Alliance; has offered this proposal for the second round of funding from the space agency’s Commercial Crew Development initiative, also known as CCDev 2. United Space Alliance is the only company that proposes keeping the shuttles operational.

Other companies like Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp, SpaceX, etc. plan on their own replacement vehicles to the shuttle. SpaceX has just successfully flown their Dragon capsule that they propose to make it human-rated.

For more information, check out the link below.

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Ref.

1. msnbc.msn.com. "NASA weighs plan to keep space shuttle until 2017" by Rob Coppinger. February 3, 2011. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41397955/ns/technology_and_science-space/).

2. Picture of a space shuttle on launch pad.

Challenger Disaster 25 years Ago Today

I was driving to work that morning with the radio on and heard a news report that the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch that morning. Later, I was able to see the video. I was sad for the families, but more so for the American spirit.

Then there was the President - Ronald W. Reagan whos speech tried to make things right again. We would later discover the reasons why the Challenger Disaster took place and tried to correct those mistakes.

On Michelle Malkin's website today, she ran President Reagan's video of his speech. She also posted the transcript of that speech.

Also included in that post is the most beautiful poem (my opionion) I have ever heard in my life... High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. I'm going to copy and paste that poem here into this post. But please use the link info below to go to her site to read President Reagan's speech. Searching on YouTube, I have randomly selected a link to view the explosion and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaKSrOpLJPo .

High Flight — John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

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REf. Michelle Malkin. "The Challenger Disaster: 73 seconds, 25 years" by Michelle Malkin. January 28, 2011. (http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/28/the-challenger-disaster-73-seconds-25-years/).

Unexpected Ghost Hunting

Its weird sometimes how one person (me) can help another to solve a mystery by telling a co-worker that you know who does do paranormal investigations; something odd is going on in someone else's house.

That co-worker of mine let the rest of his team of investigators know about what was happening in my friend's house and they did a initial investigate and "got a hit" was what I was told at work the next day.

Tonight however, I was invited to take part in their first investigation of my friend's house and auto repair business.

I stayed out in the garage for about an hour with two members of the Caprock Paranormal Investigation team. I was with Brad and Billy Don while my friend and co-worker Mitch went with the other team members into my friend Ricky's house.

Just like on the TV show (which by the way, I hardly ever watch), they set up their gear, asked questions to the empty, dark air. Nothing happens for the majority of the time I was present. Then a air compressor that Ricky said he turned off after work this afternoon - came on all by itself. No timer or nothing. A switch as to be turned to teh correct position and a lever valve moved from the down position to the up position for the compressor to start running and filling up the big holding tank.

It was interesting watching them do the setups and equipment checks. But I've been sick today and my back and left ankle were killing me. But the air compressor coming on all by itself got my attention.

When the CPI team have finished their work and posted their report, I hope to be able to cross-post the results here as well.

Anyway, the Caprock Paranormal website link info is below so check it out.

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Ref.

1. Caprock Paranormal Investigations. (http://www.caprockparanormal.com/)

The F-35 in the News Again

Two pieces of news dealing with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

With China's increased military buildup, countries are looking harder at the progress being made with the F-35 test program. And in light of the recent release of information covering China's new J-20 "Fifth Generation" jet fighter. A stealthy, radar-eluding high end fighter aircraft. (F-35B picture shows aircraft in SVTOL mode. Smaller picture shows the J-20 in flight).

Lochkeed Martin's Tom Burbage, the general manager of the F-35 program; said that China's J-20 progress has created a "Stronger sense of urgency" throughout the Asian-Pacific region about air force modernization. Japan, South Korea, Singapore are indiscussions with U.S. government over the future of the F-35 and their purchase of the F-35.

The other bit of news was the progress the F-35B was finally making in the SVTOL flight test program. The F-35A and C models test flight program has been making better progress than the Marine's Harrier replacment. Test between January 6 and the 13th are among the 42 expected test flights that must be completed before the F-35B can be tested at sea on a amphibious assault ship.

Problem with the verticle fan lift doors have forced the delay of the F-35B part of the JSF program.

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1. ELP Defens(c)e Blog. "In the wrong league–the F-35 won’t handle growing Pacific Rim threats" by Eric Palmer. January 18, 2011. (http://ericpalmer.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/in-the-wrong-league-the-f-35-wont-handle-growing-pacific-rim-threats/).

2. "F-35B Shows Progress With 5 Vertical Landings: Analysts" by Dave Majumdar. January 18, 2011.(http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=5475628&c=AIR&s=TOP).

Viking Did Find Evidence of Organic Material 30 Years Ago!

NASA re-examine the Viking 1 & 2 Lander science findings recently. Scientists conducted a new experiment on Mars-like soil and discovered that Viking did indeed discover organic material 30 years ago.

Prompted by a August 2008 discovery of some powerful oxygen-busting compounds called perchlorates at the landing site of the Mars Phoenix probe landing site.

Quote: Scientists repeated a key Viking experiment using perchlorate-enhanced soil from Chile's Atacama Desert, which is considered one of the driest and most Mars-like places on Earth, and found telltale fingerprints of combusted organics -- the same chemicals Viking scientists dismissed as contaminants from Earth.

"Contrary to 30 years of perceived wisdom, Viking did detect organic materials on Mars," planetary scientist Christopher McKay, with NASA's Ames Research Center in California, told Discovery News. "It's like a 30-year-old cold case suddenly solved with new facts." End quote.

For more information, please read the article. Link below.

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Ref.

1. Discovery.com. "VIKING FOUND ORGANICS ON MARS, EXPERIMENT CONFIRMS" by Irene Klotz. January 4, 2011. (http://news.discovery.com/space/viking-mars-organics-experiment.html).

Orbital Sciences Corp Offers Up Shuttle Replacement

The Dulles, Viginia, based Orbital Scien

ces Corp. announced on Tuesday, that it had

officially submitted a proposal to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to build a winged space vehicle for astronaut transportation to and from earth orbit once NASA’s space shuttle is retired.

The design is of the "blended lifting body" type. Its design history goes back to 2002/2003 when Orbital did a study for NASA back then. The vehicle is designed with four seats allowing room for commercial passengers.

This new vehicle would normally use the Atlas V rocket as its booster and return for a conventional landing on a runway after its mission was completed.

Lockheed Martin Corp however, is going along with a capsule sim

ilar to Apollo/Orion with parachute landing.

My personal opinion on this matter is that I hope Orbital beats the pants off of the Lochkeed Martin proposal. Does anybody remember VentureStar? I personally do not want to see our nation just turns its back to the idea of a winged spacecraft that is able to land on a regular runway.

UPDATE December 18, 2010: At the NASA Dryden space center, a 15% scale model of Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser spacecraft design was test dropped from a helicopter.

The company's full size version is based upon NASA's HL-20 lifting body. The Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Dream Chaser is designed to carry up to seven people to the ISS and back. It will be launched vertically on a Atlas V rocket and recover horizontally on conventional runways.

Using a Bell 206B3 Jet Ranger helicopter, the model was attached to a 100-foot long cable and dropped from an altitude of 14,000 feet. Landing this time was done via a parachute. The scale model was built by a team of experts from SNC and the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles at the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU).

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Ref.

1. Bizjournals.com "Orbital Sciences proposes shuttle replacement" by Tucker Echols. December 15, 2010.(http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2010/12/15/orbital-proposes-shuttle-replace.html).

2.SpaceFellowship.com (http://spacefellowship.com/news/art24418/orbital-submits-proposal-for-nasa-s-commercial-crew-development-program.html).

3. Update link "Dream Chaser Model Drops in at NASA Dryden" (http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewsr.rss.html?pid=35563).

X-37B is back on the ground

The mysterious X-37B has returned from orbit and its secret mission. Another X-37 will soon go back up again.

Personally, I hope that "they" scale it up to allow humans to fly in it sometime in the future.

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Ref. Wired.com/Dangerroom (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/12/air-force-on-secret-space-plane-nothing-to-see-here-move-along/). Photo comes from same article.