Red Shrit Day!

Paul Calle RIP

NASA Artist Paul Calle passed away today. Here is the lunar landing stamp he did.

Forty years later, what has it meant to you to design the stamp that honored the first lunar landing?

Designing the First Man on the Moon stamp in 1969 was a great honor and especially significant because of my involvement in the NASA Fine Art Program. The design process was kept a secret until not long before the Apollo 11 launch I believe. I had been with the crew during their activities readying for the launch the morning of July 16, 1969, sketching their breakfast and suiting up and knowing that the engraved plates were traveling to the moon with the astronauts was exciting.

I remember when Armstrong stepped foot on the moon, my 8 year old son at the time Chris kept asking, "Where's the stamp? Where's the stamp!?"

From the moon 42 years ago....

1992 Shuttle Craft Ornament

Merry Christmas!

HT National Geographic here.

Apollo 8: First Broadcast from the Moon

Apollo 8 'Genesis' broadcast 1968, extended version

Apollo 8 Launch

Apollo 8 departs to Moon Orbit on this date in 1968

This day in History here.

Lunar Eclipse pictures

Lunar Eclipse/ Winter Solstice

Ht here at gizmoto.

Apollo 17 left the moon 38 years ago today

Dragon Capsule Returns From Space | AVIATION WEEK

Dragon Capsule Returns From Space | AVIATION WEEK

Lesile Nielsen RIP

HT Jeffbots here.

Happy B-Day Climate Gate!

This week marks the one-year anniversary of ‘ClimateGate,’ the release of thousands of damning emails between the most prominent alarmist ‘climate’ scientists, as well as computer code and annotations affirming that the books were being cooked. ClimateGate spelled the end for the global warming agenda in the U.S., at least through the front door of the cap-and-trade energy tax.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/16/on-climategate-anniversary-greens-try-new-science-tack/#ixzz15a8Ovp00

Missile Launch off the coast video

Mysterious Missile launch off LA

Question is whose is it? China or USA? News report here.

From San Diego here.

I'm a Denier!

Tea Party does not buy Global Warming

I guess I'm in the Tea Party. I don't buy Global Warming.

The dumbest criticism the Democrats’ media sheep make of Tea Party members is that Tea Partiers don’t accept the global warming nonsense that most Democrats and their media sheep have fallen for.

Most Tea Party members aren’t climate experts, but they are smart enough to recognize a political con when they see one. In business cons, police warn that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. In political cons, if something sounds too bad to be true it probably is too bad to be true.

Like most con artists, the people attempting to continue Enron’s global warming scam try to oversell their claims. The global warming scammers are essentially saying that if we don’t stop producing the “evil” gas carbon dioxide God will flood the world like he did in the time of Noah.

Supporters of Enron’s global warming scam falsely claim that carbon dioxide (CO2) possesses some magical power to increase the temperature of the atmosphere by interacting with low energy infrared radiation (IR).

In the 90’s Enron paid scientists and so called environmental groups to claim that an increase in atmospheric CO2 would cause significant temperature changes even though CO2 comprises less than 0.04% of the atmosphere. Enron even wrote the Kyoto Accords for the Clinton administration.

Enron wanted the opportunity to make a fortune by trading what the company called “carbon credits”. Enron had previously made a fortune trading sulfur dioxide credits under a program set up to allow northeastern power plants to continue producing the pollution associated with acid rain.

I wonder why Enron failed. Now I know!

SHAC Jam World Record 3200 Rockets Launched 10.9.10

NEO Incoming!

There is an NEO to pass by Earth at 33,000 miles today here.

Night of the Living Trekkies

Jupiter at Opposition

Tonight Jupiter will be closest to Earth. It has been very bright in the Eastern sky after dusk for months. Uranus is also at its closest but 1' off and unseen from the unaided eye.

 From Space Weather.com

NASA 41 years of covering up Global Warming

The long-trusted formula has been used by climatologists without question – until now. The researchers report that the numbers used in those equations are the “first assumption that climate science makes when predicting the Earth’s temperature.”

The “Stefan-Boltzmann” equation is, apparently, remarkably simplistic and arbitrary, so much so that NASA actually abandoned the use of that equation when preparing for the Apollo Mission in the 1960′s. You read that right; this equation was deemed not good enough for NASA more than forty years ago. And yet it is still the equation upon which climate scientists base their assumptions.

The problem with the equation is that it does not factor in the earth’s crust varying capacity for absorbing heat; instead treating it as a two-dimensional, uniform “black body.”

NASA had found that daytime temperatures on the lunar surface were lower than expected because planetary bodies also conduct heat to their inside rather than radiating it all into space – an empirical fact that challenges the GHG theory. Computer models supporting GHG theory had predicted that such heat energy would be ‘blanketed’ above a planet’s surface.

In fact, the Apollo data proves the Moon’s surface temperatures throughout its two-week night were higher than predicted by the blackbody equations because the moon “feeds on” the heat it had previously absorbed.

Thus the success of NASA’s moon landings becomes evidence against the unreliability of the Stefan- Boltzmann equations in real world science.

Worse, however, than the flaw in the equation, is that this fact has remained covered up by NASA from the first Lunar landing until now, nearly 41 years.

HT Back to Basics here.

Shuttle Astronaut Bill Lenoir Dies

Hurricane Earl as Seen from ISS

Enterprise made of Recyled Ink Cartridges

HT from Inhabitant here.

Space X Drop Test of Dragon

The Dragon Capsule was dropped from 14,000 feet off the Central California Coast. Space-X release here.

AccuWeather.com - Weather Video - Joe Bastardi Channel

AccuWeather.com - Weather Video - Joe Bastardi Channel
Why Hurricanes are low this year. (So far).

WhiteKnightTwo landing gear collapses

WhiteKnightTwo's landing gear collapses on landing.

If there was a gay gene the human race would die out

Here is an article that debunks the gay gene theory. Logical I think. Darwin said those species who where the fittest would survive. Those that are weak die off. If the human genome had gay genes then eventually the species would die out.

Therefore, if an alleged “gay gene” did exist, the homosexual population eventually would disappear altogether. We now know that it is not scientifically accurate to refer to a “gay gene” as the causative agent in homosexuality. The available evidence clearly establishes that no such gene has been identified. Additionally, evidence exists which documents that homosexuals can change their sexual orientation.

Poison Pill: The New Senate Energy Bill

Poison Pill: The New Senate Energy Bill
Hat tip to Ice Cap on the American Thinker article here:

And then there is the section of the Senate bill dedicated to the new federal building code. Originally rolled out in the House's energy plan, the code -- which supersedes all state and local measures and is thoroughly detailed in my book, Climategate -- now has a name: "The Home Star Retrofit Act of 2010." This Act places a hard squeeze on every property owner to spend thousands of dollars in environmental compliance upgrades in a time of economic stringency and falling home prices.

Federal dollars will be paid to those who decrease their energy usage. With the Smart Meters being installed across the country (mandated in the 2005 energy law and capable of recording your energy usage minute by minute), the government will be able to accurately determine your carbon footprint. To entice you to reduce your footprint, rewards of $3,000 will be given for a 25-percent reduction in energy consumption, and $1,000 more for each 5-percent reduction achieved -- up to a maximum of $8,000. A similar plan is proposed for water consumption.

Additionally, federal rebates of up to another $8,000 per home are available for upgrading doors, windows, insulation, roofs, water heaters, air conditioners, etc.

Even with the government kickbacks, if you're still unable to afford all of the upgrades, Section 3015 declares that Fannie Mae will be the official lender to provide you with a "Home Star Efficiency Loan." This means taxpayer sponsored Fannie will be taking on even more debt.

As one who has written extensively about the ideological machinations of the environmental movement and its leaders, I can tell you that this Senate bill is everything they wished could have been packed into the original House proposal.

If the Senate bites on this legislation, an airsickness bag will be required. The bill will go to committee, be conjoined with the massive House plan, and be presented to a lame duck Congress who will ram the bad medicine down our throats.

We need to hound the Senate now. Tell them to keep this poison pill away from their lips.

Brian Sussman is a former television meteorologist and the author of Climategate: a veteran meteorologist exposes the global warming scam. He hosts the morning show on KSFO, 560AM, in San Francisco.

AccuWeather.com - Climate Change | Ice Free Arctic Ocean not much of a CO2 Sink

AccuWeather.com - Climate Change | Ice Free Arctic Ocean not much of a CO2 Sink
Co2 dissolves quickly in cold water and becomes an equal part to the amount in the atmosphere.

New research, just published in the journal Science, and led by a University of Georgia biogeochemist indicates that an ice-free Arctic's future value as a potential carbon dioxide "sink" may be short-lived at best and minor in terms of what the planet will need to avoid future problems.

The Little Robot That Could

The Face of Mars

NASA's Muslim Outreach Is Real | Government IT Blog | InformationWeek Government

NASA's Muslim Outreach Is Real | Government IT Blog | InformationWeek Government

Science Turns Authoritarian — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

Science Turns Authoritarian — The American, A Magazine of Ideas

In the past, scientists were generally neutral on questions of what to do. Instead, they just told people what they found, such as “we have discovered that smoking vastly increases your risk of lung cancer” or “we have discovered that some people will have adverse health effects from consuming high levels of salt.” Or “we have found that obesity increases your risk of coronary heart disease.” Those were simply neutral observations that people could find empowering, useful, interesting, etc., but did not place demands on them. In fact, this kind of objectivity was the entire basis for trusting scientific claims.

But along the way, an assortment of publicity-seeking, and often socially activist, scientists stopped saying, “Here are our findings. Read it and believe.” Instead, activist scientists such as NASA’s James Hansen, heads of quasi-scientific governmental organizations such as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, editors of major scientific journals, and heads of the various national scientific academies are more inclined to say, “Here are our findings, and those findings say that you must change your life in this way, that way, or the other way.”

Once objectivity is lost, individual choice is lost also.

The Science of skeptics

From Robert Zimmerman's Behind the Black here:

Science, however, is founded on skepticism and doubt. In order for scientists to figure out what is going on, it is essential that they have the freedom of thought to question everything. To deny anyone that freedom is to deny them the very essence of science. Or as Francis Bacon noted

Truth is to be sought for, not in the felicity of any age which is an unstable thing, but in the light of nature and experience, which is eternal. . . . Let every student of nature take this as a rule — that whatever his mind seizes and dwells upon with peculiar satisfaction is be held in suspicion. [Novum Organum, sections 56 and 58]

That the editors, reviewers, and scientists of a modern peer-review journal do not understand this basic point about the scientific method speaks volumes about the corruption of modern climate research. It also explains why a scandal such as climategate could happen, and why there is such a willingness by so many scientists to cover the scandal up.

Unfortunately, it appears that climate research today is not about in seeking after truth, but in defending the personal theories of powerful scientists, regardless of facts.

AccuWeather.com - Weather Video - Joe Bastardi Channel

AccuWeather.com - Weather Video - Joe Bastardi Channel

Ice Baby Ice!

Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann hides atop the climate change ivory tower | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann hides atop the climate change ivory tower | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Godspeed Rocket Project!

Today is Launch day! Godspeed to Rocket Project.

Sony has taken eight promising high school students from across the US, given them Vaio laptops, and challenged them to use the devices to build and launch a rocket. Sounds pretty cool, but why did Sony do this?

To answer a question that had never occurred to me until the press release hit my inbox: Can Vaio laptops (which, Sony reminds us, feature Intel processors) launch a rocket? Considering analog devices of 1960s could, we're betting on the "yes" end of the spectrum. But it's still fun to watch.

Follow the Rocket Project here.

Rocket Project

35 years ago the Handsake in Space

Soviet, US astronauts mark 35 years since space handshake

Elderly US astronauts reunited with their Soviet-era counterparts in Moscow on Wednesday to mark the 35th anniversary of their epic "handshake in space" in 1975 at the height of the Cold War.

Apollo 11 landing

From the Guardian here:

Docking of LM and CM

from the Guardian here:

We have Liftoff! Apollo 11

From the Guardian here:

Moon Landing Sound Restored in Mission Control

Now film maker and Apollo aficionado Stephen Slater, working with London-based archive film company Footagevault, has painstakingly united the visual material with high-quality recordings of the original mission audio.

Footagevault, which sourced and supplied the archive material for the award-winning documentary film In the Shadow of the Moon, started this process with the film's editor David Fairhead back in 2006, but only attempted to lip-sync a few seconds of footage.

Slater has taken it to a new level, synchronising more than eight minutes of the Apollo 11 landing. "Some of this footage has become almost as iconic as the shots of the Saturn V launching, or the Earth rising over the moon," says Slater. "But as a film maker I was always rather disappointed with the way the mission control shots were used in such a generic fashion, without any sense that it was the actual moment that the Eagle had landed."

It's awesome to watch the 2 min. version here:

NASA remarks ridiculous - Opinion

NASA remarks ridiculous - Opinion

NASA Muslim Outreach program: Impedes rather than advances

From Real Clear Politics:

The Obama directive to NASA also revealed a mental tic common to liberals -- the tendency to universalize the African-American experience. Just as African-Americans were denied their rights and dignity, goes this reasoning, so today fill-in-the-blank are being persecuted or demeaned -- women, gays, Muslims, the handicapped, illegal immigrants, Palestinians, "people of color."

But this line of reasoning impedes rather than advances understanding. The African-American experience in America was actually very different from that of women, gays, the handicapped, illegal immigrants, or others here, to say nothing of the experience of Palestinians or "people of color" worldwide. Invoking the emotionally charged civil rights paradigm closes the door on nuance and context and encourages dogmatism.

That's why this policy is totally wrong! NASA's goals should be EXPLORATION for the USA into SPACE. It will not advance but impede.

Byron York Asks NASA about WH

Here is the question and response asked by Bryon York Wash. Examiner:

Well, then, I asked, is Administrator Bolden's description of his assignment from the president -- is that accurate?

I received this response:

NASA is focused on its core mission of exploration, from pushing the boundaries of known space to breakthrough innovations in science and technology here at home. Without question, that work includes collaboration with other nations who share our goals.

While space exploration may have once been a global competition, it is now a global collaboration. It is in this vein that Administrator Bolden has engaged with his colleagues around the world, to bring the world’s best minds and ideas together to expand our common knowledge and capabilities.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/NASA-responds-to-White-House-Outreach-mission-stands-98322919.html#ixzz0tfxPGfow

Gibbs says Bolden didn't get it from WH

OK then why does a NASA Chief go to a foreign country and speak on their media telling them before he became NASA Chief Obama wanted him to outreach Muslim nations? What? WH Press Sec. Gibbs said this:

"That was not his task, and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs told reporters.

Distance. Getting too hot for Gibbs I guess.

Why you should be mad about Charlie's Bolden's Al-Jazeera interview

The Flame Trench | Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center | FLORIDA TODAY and floridatoday.com space team

Space Disgrace

From WALTER CUNNINGHAM's editorial in the Houston Chronicle Here:

The $19 billion for 2011 is less than 0.5 percent of the proposed federal budget, one-ninth of what it was at its peak in the 1960s. The $300 million increase eliminates the program of human space exploration and sentences the agency to the same starvation diet it has existed on for the past several decades. NASA needs a $3 billion increase to continue operating a viable human space program.

NASA spin is touting “new technology development programs to expand the capabilities of future explorers”— in-orbit fuel depots, rendezvous and docking, closed-loop life support systems, heavy-lift research and development of new engines, propellants, materials and combustion processes. These may sound new to someone unfamiliar with what NASA has been doing for 50 years, but (with one exception) they are pursuits for which NASA already has an unmatched reputation. Each of these would have played an essential role in the now canceled Constellation program. Without the focus of a specific mission, the raison d'être for these technologies is now “to advance the field of space science.”

In the place of the canceled Ares and Orion hardware, we now have increased support for education, increased spending on the discredited global warming hypocrisy and subsidies to several new commercial rocket companies. And, oh yes, don't forget a new outreach program to Muslim countries without established space programs.

In canceling Constellation with nothing to take its place, the president is saying the U.S. should not have its own human space program and is directing funds to the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, or COTS. If NASA wants to participate in human spaceflight, it will have to be through contractors.

Rep. Pete Olson Needs A New News Watcher - NASA Watch

Rep. Pete Olson Needs A New News Watcher - NASA Watch

Did Obama Officailly Charge Bolden?

null

NASA and the Last Fig Leaf of Big Government

NASA and the Last Fig Leaf of Big Government

The Flame Trench | Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center | FLORIDA TODAY and floridatoday.com space team

The Flame Trench | Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center | FLORIDA TODAY and floridatoday.com space team

Jerry Pournelle Chimes in on NASA

From Transterrestrial Musings here.

Rush's comments on NASA Chief Bolden's remarks

from Rush Limbaugh here:

BOLDEN: Before I became the NASA administrator he charged me with three things. One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math. He wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

RUSH: Now, a lot of people are saying, "Rush, the guy really didn't mean it, he's just out there, this is just a bunch of pap for the al-Jazeera audience, didn't really mean it." Of course he meant it, and of course Obama said it. There's no question. Why would he say it if he didn't mean it? He certainly meant it for the Muslim audience and al-Jazeera. And, by the way, would somebody show me any Nobel prizes for math or science from the Muslim world? I'm going to get in a lot of trouble for this, but that's what we do here, we make the complex understandable, we deal with the truth. Most of these claims about Muslim contributions to science and math are myths. Even, folks, the so-called Arabic numbers were actually invented by the Hindus in 500 AD. I looked this up this weekend. It was even before there was such a thing as Islam. The Hindus created the so-called Arabic numerals and you can find this in Wikipedia if you want to believe it. Charles Bolden, NASA administrator, he was asked, "Why are you here in the region?" "Well, I'm here to spread the Muslim outreach." He said it, he meant it. "He couldn't possibly have meant this." He did mean it.

Video: NASA, Bolden, and Al Jazeera Make the Daily Show - NASA Watch

Video: NASA, Bolden, and Al Jazeera Make the Daily Show - NASA Watch

If you watch Al Jazeera, you know Obama's new mission for NASA: To help Muslim nations 'feel good'

If you watch Al Jazeera, you know Obama's new mission for NASA: To help Muslim nations 'feel good'

Lack of Space Technology Is Not the Muslim World’s Problem

NRO The Corner

Lack of Space Technology is not the Muslim World's Problem by M. Zuhdi Jasser at the Corner (NRO).

Obama’s NASA - Jay Nordlinger - The Corner on National Review Online

Obama’s NASA - Jay Nordlinger - The Corner on National Review Online

White House Defends Bolden

The White House clams that NASA Chief Bolden misspoke when he gave the three main objectives that Obama wanted Charlie to initiate in NASA's Mission. What? From HotAir Here:

After NASA Administrator Charles Bolden got blasted for revealing the three objectives tasked for him by Barack Obama, the White House has decided to fight back — by basically claiming that Bolden misspoke. Jake Tapper reports from the White House that the Obama administration now claims that the mission will still be to “push the boundaries of exploration”:

Ed Morrissey is saying that NASA under Charles Bolden and Obama Presidency is giving up on:
1. Going Back to the MOON
2. Scraping Aries
3. Replacing the Shuttle (i.e. go to ISS on Russian launch vehicles.)

Again the three objects that Charlie is saying is none of them cover "Space Exploration!" Bolden's words here:

When I became the NASA Administrator — before I became the NASA Administrator — [Obama] charged me with three things: One was he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

Morrissey is right in the mission of NASA is going off "the rails." We need new direction and a new NASA Chief!

Cernan wants Bolden to resign

HT Gateway Pundit. More here at NASA Watch.

The end of US Manned space program?

Is the Manned space program going to die? From Bob Zimmerman here:

Though it has appeared that many if not most members of Congress have been unhappy with the Obama administration’s efforts to shut down the Constellation program, I have always believed that in the end, Congress wouldn’t have the fortitude to force its desires on the President. The action yesterday by the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA to take a neutral position on Obama’s proposals demonstrates this. They are willing to give NASA the extra money that Obama propopses, but they also have said that a compromise between Congress and the President on the future of the manned program must be agreed to before the money can be spent.

Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world | Washington Examiner

Obama’s new mission for NASA: Reach out to Muslim world | Washington Examiner

“NASA is not only a space exploration agency,” Bolden concluded, “but also an earth improvement agency.”

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/obamas-new-mission-for-nasa-reach-out-to-muslim-world-97785979.html#ixzz0suLtDXif

NASA Muslim Outreach program

HT from Gateway Pundit. NASA's goal was to get us to the Moon and keep the USA in Outer Space. Our mission is to explore space not to build up Muslim self-esteem!

Satellite to Monitor space debris

From WSJ here.

DENVER—A new U.S. Air Force satellite will provide the first full-time, space-based surveillance of hundreds of satellites and thousands of pieces of debris that could crash into American and allied assets circling the Earth.
[spacecam0703] Associated Press

Satellite made by Ball Aerospace and Technologies; the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite in Boulder, Colo.

If all goes as planned, the Space-Based Space Surveillance satellite, scheduled for launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on Thursday, will have an unobstructed, around-the-clock view of the heavy traffic in Earth orbit—something the Air Force doesn't have now.

July snow falls on Mt. Washington - Local News Updates - MetroDesk - The Boston Globe

July snow falls on Mt. Washington - Local News Updates - MetroDesk - The Boston GlobeHere comes Global Cooling!

When I was in High School I went hiking on the John Muir Trail we were about 6,000 to 7,000 Feet and it is common for a snowfall to occur up in the Sierra's even in July.

Pleistocene Global Warming

Grazing animals produce methane through natural fermentation of feed in their guts. Today, cattle produce about 20% of annual global methane emissions. "This influence may have been greater in the Pleistocene epoch, when atmospheric methane concentrations were considerably lower," says the study.

What are they higher today because of Man?
HT Watts Up

The Black Hole - The Glory Hole

We Choose to go to the Moon

Retro Rocket

HT to Mars Blog:



Check out Space Cadet's here.

No sex for astronauts in space

No sex for astronauts in space
O Darn!

Israel launches new spy satellite

Israel launches new spy satellite

Armadillo Aerospace Free Flight

Not Your Father's Space Program - Magazine - The Atlantic

Not Your Father's Space Program - Magazine - The Atlantic
A great piece on how space advocates have matured and become more professional.

Space-X Launch a Success!

Great picture here on Twitpic.

The Coke and Mentos Rocket

The sink hole in Guatemala

Neil Armstorng opposes Obama's Space Plan

Neil Armstrong opposes Obama's Space Plan and the cancellation of Constellation.

"A plan that was invisible to so many was likely contrived by a very small group in secret who persuaded the President that this was a unique opportunity to put his stamp on a new and innovative program," Armstrong, 79, said in a statement to a Senate subcommittee reviewing NASA's new space plan. "I believe the President was poorly advised."

The United States is risking losing its role as a leader in space exploration with its new plan, Armstrong said, adding that he was concerned with the looming gap in American human spaceflight.

"Other nations will surely step in where we have faltered," Armstrong said.

The old guard doesn't like the cutting funds to NASA. Sure NASA needs to re-group and re-direct its policy. Let the Exploration to Moon and Mars left to NASA. Let Space-X and others to maintain the Low Earth Orbit endeavors. Like supplying and shipping the crews back and forth from the ISS. Likewise, the commercial space industry to support launching Satellites for cell phones and DirecTV.

I would like to see a permanent USA Moon Base. Keep the High Frontier ours, not China's!

Lego Star Wars Short

Gene Kranz on Obama Space policy

HUNTSVILLE, AL - Gene Kranz, the legendary NASA flight director who controlled the first flights to the moon and helped save Apollo 13, says President Barack Obama "has put our nation on a dangerous path" with his proposed new space program.

"My concern is this might possibly be the epitaph for the manned space program for the next decade," Kranz said Thursday night at an international conference of space mission controllers here.

The president wants to scrap most of the Constellation rocket program currently under way. It employs 2,200 NASA and contractor employees here.

From AL.com here.

Gene Cernan on Fox about Obama Space Policy

Video from Fox here.

Gene Cernan's personal site here.

Neil Armstrong and other Apollo Astronauts Blast Obama

I am glad that Neil and the other Apollo Astronauts are complaining about the audacity of dismantling of the Moon-Mars program.

The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort.

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong’s open letter was also signed by Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who is marking the 40th anniversary of his famous lunar non-landing this week.

The letter was released to NBC News just two days in advance of Obama’s trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a space policy summit. Obama is expected to flesh out his vision for the space agency's future during his speech at the summit.

Here is the letter that Neil Armstrong, Eugene Cernan and James Lovell wrote:

The United States entered into the challenge of space exploration under President Eisenhower’s first term, however, it was the Soviet Union who excelled in those early years. Under the bold vision of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and with the overwhelming approval of the American people, we rapidly closed the gap in the final third; of the 20th century, and became the world leader in space exploration.


America’s space accomplishments earned the respect and admiration of the world. Science probes were unlocking the secrets of the cosmos; space technology was providing instantaneous world wide communication; orbital sentinels were helping man understand the vagaries of nature. Above all else, the people around the world were inspired by the human exploration of space and the expanding of man’s frontier. It suggested that what had been thought to be impossible was now within reach. Students were inspired to prepare themselves to be a part of this new age. No government program in modern history has been so effective in motivating the young to do “what has never been done before.”


World leadership in space was not achieved easily. In the first half century of the space age, our country made a significant financial investment, thousands of Americans dedicated themselves to the effort, and some gave their lives to achieve the dream of a nation. In the latter part of the first half century of the space age, Americans and their international partners focused primarily on exploiting the near frontiers of space with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station.


As a result of the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, it was concluded that our space policy required a new strategic vision. Extensive studies and analysis led to this new mandate: meet our existing commitments, return to our exploration roots, return to the moon, and prepare to venture further outward to the asteroids and to Mars. The program was named 'Constellation'. In the ensuing years, this plan was endorsed by two Presidents of different parties and approved by both Democratic and Republican congresses.


The Columbia Accident Board had given NASA a number of recommendations fundamental to the Constellation architecture which were duly incorporated. The Ares rocket family was patterned after the Von Braun Modular concept so essential to the success of the Saturn 1B and the Saturn 5. A number of components in the Ares 1 rocket would become the foundation of the very large heavy lift Ares V, thus reducing the total development costs substantially. After the Ares 1 becomes operational, the only major new components necessary for the Ares V would be the larger propellant tanks to support the heavy lift requirements.


The design and the production of the flight components and infrastructure to implement this vision was well underway. Detailed planning of all the major sectors of the program had begun. Enthusiasm within NASA and throughout the country was very high.


When President Obama recently released his budget for NASA, he proposed a slight increase in total funding, substantial research and technology development, an extension of the International Space Station operation until 2020, long range planning for a new but undefined heavy lift rocket and significant funding for the development of commercial access to low earth orbit.


Although some of these proposals have merit, the accompanying decision to cancel the Constellation program, its Ares 1 and Ares V rockets, and the Orion spacecraft, is devastating.


America’s only path to low Earth orbit and the International Space Station will now be subject to an agreement with Russia to purchase space on their Soyuz (at a price of over 50 million dollars per seat with significant increases expected in the near future) until we have the capacity to provide transportation for ourselves. The availability of a commercial transport to orbit as envisioned in the President’s proposal cannot be predicted with any certainty, but is likely to take substantially longer and be more expensive than we would hope.


It appears that we will have wasted our current ten plus billion dollar investment in Constellation and, equally importantly., we will have lost the many years required to recreate the equivalent of what we will have discarded.


For The United States, the leading space faring nation for nearly half a century, to be without carriage to low Earth orbit and with no human exploration capability to go beyond Earth orbit for an indeterminate time into the future, destines our nation to become one of second or even third rate stature. While the President's plan envisages humans traveling away from Earth and perhaps toward Mars at some time in the future, the lack of developed rockets and spacecraft will assure that ability will not be available for many years.


Without the skill and experience that actual spacecraft operation provides, the USA is far too likely to be on a long downhill slide to mediocrity. America must decide if it wishes to remain a leader in space. If it does, we should institute a program which will give us the very best chance of achieving that goal.




Neil Armstrong
Commander, Apollo 11


James Lovell
Commander, Apollo 13


Eugene Cernan
Commander, Apollo 17

40 years ago Apollo 13

History of the Mission here NASA - Apollo 13.

STS-1 April 12, 1981

A clip of Bob Crippen on the mission and Yuri's night here.

Yuri's Night 49 years ago

From About.com:

Yuri A. Gagarin was born on a collective farm in a region west of Moscow, Russia on March 9, 1934. His father was a carpenter. Yuri attended the local school for six years and continued his education at vocational and technical schools.

Yuri Gagarin joined the Russian Air Force in 1955 and graduated with honors from the Soviet Air Force Academy in 1957. Soon afterward, he became a military fighter pilot. By 1959, he had been selected for cosmonaut training as part of the first group of USSR cosmonauts.

Yuri Gagarin flew only one space mission. On April 12, 1961 he became the first human to orbit Earth. Major Yuri Gagarin's spacecraft, Vostok 1, circled Earth at a speed of 27,400 kilometers per hour. The flight lasted 108 minutes. At the highest point, Yuri Gagarin was about 327 kilometers above Earth.

Once in orbit, Yuri Gagarin had no control over his spacecraft. Vostok's reentry was controlled by a computer program sending radio commands to the space capsule. Although the controls were locked, a key had been placed in a sealed envelope in case an emergency situation made it necessary for Yuri Gagarin to take control. As was planned, Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin ejected after reentry into Earth's atmosphere and landed by parachute.

Colonel Yuri Gagarin died on March 27, 1968 when the MiG-15 he was piloting crashed near Moscow. At the time of his death, Yuri Gagarin was in training for a second space mission.

Science Dude says good bye to OCRegister

Science Dude Gary Robbins will hang up his hat at the Orange County Register after twenty years. He now will report at the San Diego Union. I hope he'll have a blog over there so we can still follow. (I'm sure he will!)

Save Space rally draws 4,000

Thousands packed Cocoa Expo on Sunday in a unified plea to President Obama to extend the shuttle program, send astronauts to the moon and Mars, and maintain America's lead in space and the inspiration the program inspires.

They waved signs that read, "Save Space." They warned of the national security implications of ceding dominance in space to Russia and China. And they worried about the estimated 8,000 Kennedy Space Center jobs that will go away when the shuttle lands for the last time.

From Florida Today here.

I advocate for Space and wish I could have been at the rally. My husband works for one of the big aerospace companies. Space is the High Frontier. We need to stay in the leadership role of space. Obama wants to dismiss the USA as a space faring Nation. We need to be ahead. And Space is one of them.

Cows aren't the cause of Climate Change--Go ahead and have steak today!

Telegraph here

Bessie and her gas bag! LOL!

However a new study found that cattle grazed on the grasslands of China actually reduce another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide.

Authors of the paper, published in Nature, say the research does not mean that producing livestock to eat is good for the environment in all countries. However in certain circumstances, it can be better for global warming to let animals graze on grassland.

ISS Welcomes STS-131

STS-131 Pitch Roll

STS-131 Launch

Happy Birthday Yeoman Rand

Grace Lee Whitney turns 80 today. Many more happy birthdays to come!


American Journal - on Star Trek's Grace Lee Whitney, 1993!
Uploaded by videohollic. - Full seasons and entire episodes online.

Holes in GISS data

From Fox News here.

Concerns about the validity of NASA's climate research are being raised following revelations that the space agency admitted its data was less accurate than other weather trackers'. Disturbed by these reports, as well as the growing Climate-gate scandal that has left global-warming theorists reeling, Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and David Vitter (R-La.) have written a letter to space agency chief Charles Bolden demanding answers.

"The American people deserve to learn the truth about the data," Barrasso told FoxNews.com, stressing the risks of basing public policy on science that remains largely undecided.

April Fool's Global Warming Forcast

Global warming has unthawed an entire race of warrior mermen and mermaids in the Arctic, scientists revealed today. At a packed press conference in Boulder, Colorado, Dr. Mark Xyzzy of the National Institute for Cryosphere Exploration and Tertiary Research on Yetis (NICETRY) revealed the details of the discovery: "We've been operating robot research submarines under the sea ice in the Chukchi Sea north of Barrow, Alaska this winter, as part of International Geophysical Year studies on the dynamics of arctic sea ice loss," commented Dr. Xyzzy. "Last week, one of our submersibles caught a remarkable video of a warrior mermaid, armed with a trident, riding past the submarine on the back of a narwhal. We were able to track the mermaid to her home--an underwater merfolk city at the bottom of the Chukchi Sea. The city had been thawed out in 2005 by warm water currents invading the Arctic due to global warming. These mermaids and mermen had been frozen into the underwater permafrost since the onset of the last ice age, 115,000 years ago. We undertook immediate efforts to establish communications with the merfolk, by sending in divers with underwater writing boards who were able to work out a simple symbol-based language. We learned that the Chukchi Sea merfolk are at war with a tribe of rival merfolk in the Greenland Sea. The two tribes have been fighting a heated underwater battle for dominance of the Arctic Ocean ever since global warming thawed out both tribes in 2005. It is the explosions from their undersea battles that have been the dominant cause of arctic sea ice loss since 2005, not global warming, as had been previously assumed. A team of experienced United Nations negotiators is now in the Arctic, attempting to broker a truce between the rivals and save the arctic sea ice from further destruction."

From Wunder Blog here.

Tsunami Map

Live stream here from Hawaii.

Green Police Audi commercial (great!)

Hail Columbia!

Day of Remeberance

NASA has a site dedicated to the lost NASA astronauts here.

Challenger 24 years ago

A memory from Holyoke here:

The effects of the Challenger explosion were far reaching in both location and time. It seems no matter where people were, they heard about the tragedy. HJHS teacher Kevin Asbury noted he was underwater, on a submarine when it happened. They heard via radio communication, but it wasn’t until they resurfaced that he and the other men finally saw the stories and watched the explosion.

To this day, the Challenger is still influencing the nation. When asked about their memories of the explosion, most people still stop, taking a moment to reflect on all that was lost on that day. Even those who were too young to remember the actual event learned about it in school, and McAuliffe’s face is still seen in classrooms here in Holyoke.

For some, the Challenger played a larger role than others. Clark Ginapp shared that his nephew, who was in grade school at the time of the Challenger launch, was so impacted by the event that he went on to a career at Johnson Space Center. It’s hard to tell just how extensive the effect of the explosion is on people today, but it is certainly still an event that lives on in people’s memories.

Great link here from Timelines with videos.

It's ironic the day Obama Axes Return to Moon and Apollo 1 fire

I truly want the US to get back to the Moon. Maybe this time it will be done from Private Enterprise. The Obama Administration will axe Constellation/Ares Project here. It's sad that today is the 43rd anniversary of the Apollo 1 fire on the pad that ended the life of three astronauts, Grissom, White and Chaffe. For their sake we must forge on to discovery and continue our exploring of space. If NASA won't do it, private enterprise will.

Apollo 1 Pure Oxygen Fire 1967

Apollo 1

There You'll Be: Apollo 1 Tribute

3 Dem HCR sign on to veto EPA!

I'm amazed that three senators who sold their Health Care votes signed on with Republican Murkowski to Anti EPA. here.

Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., on Thursday signed on as co-sponsors to a new resolution offered by Murkowski that would effectively veto the Environmental Protection Agency's formal declaration last year that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare.

The Senators want to use a congressional act to put a stop to the EPA's Carbon regulations:

Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she wanted to ensure the EPA could not "issue backdoor climate regulations under the Clean Air Act," a tactic she called "our worst option for reducing the emissions blamed for climate change."

Murkowski and other critics of what they call the EPA's "command-and-control approach" to regulating greenhouse gases say it is a blunt tool for cutting carbon dioxide emissions that would not apply across all sectors of the U.S. economy and cannot be tailored for different regions.

Murkowski said she wanted more time before EPA regulations kicked in -- to allow for Congress to draft and pass its own broad climate change and energy legislation. But though the House passed such a measure last year, hopes are dimming on Capitol Hill for swift passage of any similar bill in the Senate this spring.

Lies about Ice Melting

Strait from Planet Gore here:
More at Cosmic Conservative here:

Data was not verified here at Mail Online.

ESA first satellite map of Haiti

From ESA Portal here

Object wizzed by Earth today

From Mail Online here.

It made its closest pass at 12.46pm (GMT) streaking past just 76,000 miles away, which is a third the distance to the Moon. Amateur astronomers were able to track it in the United States.

The object was discovered by MIT's Linear survey on January 10 and astronomers are divided about what it is.

Here are more video and pictures of the object from Universe Today.

Gallelon Moons

It's cold in the MidWest!

Al Gore Interactive Ice Carving

aLGORE is smoking!