August 2006 Archives

A new chapter in space flight began in July 1950 with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla: the Bumper 2, an ambitious two-stage rocket program that topped a V-2 missile base with a Corporal rocket. The upper stage was able to reach then-record altitudes of almost 250 miles, higher than the International Space Station's orbit.

Launched under the direction of the General Electric Company, Bumper 2 was used primarily for testing rocket systems and for research on the upper atmosphere. The rockets carried small payloads that allowed them to measure attributes including air temperature and cosmic ray impacts. Seven years later, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I and Sputnik II, the first satellites into Earth orbit.

Image credit: NASA

The person sending this in, wishes to remain anonymous.

Night to 25.august 2006.

03:30
went outside to take my last smoke before i should go to bed.
saw a bright light inbetween the sky layers, they seemd to slide
to the right "for me" several times. and then popped behind the skies.
i checked the velocity of the skyes, but they did not go that fast.
by the way, to my right there where a massive dark cloudlayer,
like almost thunder clouds. and to the left there where small
dotted skies here and there. back to the happening.
i was totaly amazed by this and started looking even more
intense and found several more lights that did just the same thing.
when i looked at them they moved like in weightless movements to
the right and sometimes to the left. and some even pulsated
with the brightness and then disapeard. when the pulsating
started i got the impression that they tryed to weaken my
focus and then straight after they dissolved or went
behind clouds. i sat like this for over an hour and spottet
many moving bright lights. mabe about 10-12 different places.
it might have been the same one messing around with me, hehe.
anyway after that time i started looking over to the
clear side (left of me) and found this big bright star in the
middle of the open part there. i focused on it and to my amazement
i saw that it was moving to. and here i thought that the lights where
playing around with me and had total control. anyway, it moved
from side to side... and gave off some strange movement that
seemd like a eye-trick.. like it was going up at 12oClock,
and then smeared down again at the same position almost.
It did this some times and started slowly to climb higher
at the skies. by that time i had to check out if this all
was just a trick of the eye or if it really was happening.
so i sat down on my knees and hands and tried to get it
stabile over the corner of the porch-rail. as i did this
it got really fast and moved at twice the speed. side to side,
and climbing with that smear movement. i could see clearly that
it moved all over the place. also saw 2 faster moving objects that
went with a osciliating (snakelike) movement over the skyline, but these
could possible be dismissed as satelites, moving from north to south west.
i was sitting out on the porch for 2 1/2 hours and looked at all the moving
lights. i even sat and watched the daylight come.
this was not my imagination as my girlfriend told me later this morning.
p.s.
i had clear vision of the space behind the skies and i could not see a star on the whole skyline.

please give me some feedback on this.

Image above: Liftoff of the Atlas V carrying NASA's New Horizons spacecraft to a distant date with Pluto! Image credit: NASA/KSC

STS-115 crew arrives for launch. Image above: The STS-115 crew arrived at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo credit: NASA TV

The Atlantis crew arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida today to begin final preparations for mission STS-115. Flying T-38 trainer jets, the astronauts landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility at 11:30 a.m. EDT.

This is a false-color image of the star AE Aurigae (bright source of light near the center of image) embedded in a region of space containing smoke-like filaments of carbon-rich dust grains. Such dust might be hiding deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen, and stymieing astronomers' efforts to study star and galaxy formation. NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) satellite has surveyed the local deuterium concentration in the galaxy and found far more than expected. Because deuterium is a tracer of star and galaxy evolution, this discovery has the potential to radically alter theories about how stars and galaxies form.

Image credit: T.A. Rector and B.A. Wolpa, NOAO, AURA and NSF

When kids head back to school this fall, they might have some brand new planets to memorize.

The International Astronomical Union, currently meeting in Prague, is expected to vote on the definition of a planet. The organization, which has named planets and moons since it was founded in 1919, is debating a plan to establish that our solar system has 12 planets.

Image right: Artist's concept of solar system montage. Image credit: NASA/JPL The designated dozen would include eight of the traditional nine -- Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune -- plus Ceres, the largest known asteroid. Pluto would still be a planet, but in a category to be called "plutons." It would be joined in that category by two other planetary newcomers: Charon, formerly known as Pluto's moon, and the recently-discovered 2003 UB313. The International Astronomical Union says a dozen additional objects are under consideration for planethood, and even more may be added later on.

Since most of us grew up memorizing nine planets, this news of a shakeup in the solar system might be startling. In reality, a controversy has been brewing for years about whether Pluto is truly a planet or simply an icy remnant of the planet-formation process orbiting in the far reaches of our solar system. A new twist was added to the controversy in the summer of 2005, when Caltech astronomer Dr. Mike Brown and his colleagues announced they had found a "tenth planet," an object larger and more distant than Pluto. This object, temporarily dubbed 2003 UB313, is one of the new additions to the solar system under the International Astronomical Union proposal.

In essence, the organization is proposing that two conditions must be met for an object to be called a planet. It must orbit around a star, but must not be a star itself. And the object must be massive enough for its own gravity to pull it into a nearly spherical shape.

The definition of a planet will have implications reaching beyond our own solar system. In the past decade, astronomers have used new technologies to discover planets around other stars besides our sun. These so-called "extrasolar planets" have raised great interest among scientists, who hope to determine whether any of these planets might be habitable.

While scientists in Prague and throughout the world debate the question, "What is a planet," there's one thing most everyone can agree on: our view of the solar system will never be the same.

For more information, visit the International Astronomical Union press release at http://www.iau2006.org/mirror/www.iau.org/iau0601/iau0601_release.html .

By IAN GILLESPIE

The two boys can hardly contain their excitement.

"At first, we thought it was just our imagination," says 13-year-old Anthony Crivea.

"But then other people saw it, too!" exclaims 11-year-old Jason Dean.

"And it started going in figure-eight shapes," says Crivea. "So then we thought it was a UFO."

The two friends claim they saw something strange in the sky late Sunday night, while they were watching the Perseid meteor shower at Dean's house on Vanneck Road near Komoka.

Dean's dad, Peter, can't add much to their report -- he says he was asleep in bed at the time. But he's convinced of one thing.

"Jason knows better than to fib or make up stories," he says.

NASA personnel continue to sift through 37-year-old records in their attempt to locate the magnetic tapes that recorded the original Apollo 11 video in 1969. The original tapes may be at the Goddard Space Flight Center, which requested their return from the National Archives in the 1970s, or at another location within the NASA archiving system. Despite the challenges of the search, NASA does not consider the tapes to be lost.

The tapes were sent from Goddard to a storage facility of the National Archives in late 1969. This kind of transfer is standard for government records, whether contracts, memos, photographs or space telemetry. Among the 2,614 boxes of Apollo mission tapes that went to the facility, the original Apollo 11 may have been among them. Between 1975 and 1979, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center recalled all but two of the 2,614 boxes. The remaining two boxes included telemetry tapes from Apollo 9, leading engineers to believe that these shipments contained most of the Apollo related materials.

Image left: The machines pictured read the 1-inch-wide magnetic data tape from their 14-inch round reels. Multiple machines are used because each reel only records about 15 minutes worth of data. As one reel fills, the next machine automatically starts recording a slight overlap for data continuity. Credit: NASA. First-generation copies of the converted video from Apollo 11 as well as other first-generation copies and some original versions of the converted video for the Apollo 12 through Apollo 17 flights are still in NASA Johnson Space Center's Informational Resources Directorate's video vault in Houston.

Astronaut Steve Smith works on Hubble during the second servicing mission in 1997, using a specially designed tool that can withstand the harsh environment of space. Hubble was specifically built to be serviced in orbit with replaceable parts and instruments.

Image credit: NASA

Image above: The Expedition 13 crew shows off food packets “kicked up a notch” by Chef Emeril Lagasse. Photo Credit: NASA TV.

The crew of the International Space Station joined Chef Emeril Lagasse today after tasting several of his gourmet creations, delivered to space by the shuttle Discovery last month.

Lagasse sent NASA some of his special recipes for potential use in space. After the required testing and processing, five different recipes were selected. Emeril's Mardi Gras jambalaya, mashed potatoes with bacon, green beans with garlic, rice pudding and mixed fruit were delivered to the station in July.

I remember a while back promising to message you my own personal ghost story. I'm afraid it's not exceptionally spooky or scary, but if you're still interested here it is.

Jonathan was a ghost who lived with my family for several years. He was mostly a benign spirit who made his presence known on more than a few occasions. He was very protective of the children in the home. I remember one day when my cousin who had recently moved in for a while discovered just how protective Jonathan was. My baby sister Mandi was probably about 9 years old at the time. She had been bugging Sean (my cousin) for quite some time when he finally got tired of it. He smacked her (not good self-control for a 20 year old adult, I might add.) Anyways, Sean smacked Mandi while they were standing in the hallway in front of the bathroom. Suddenly several toiletry items were being flung into the hallway at Sean from the apparently empty bathroom! Sean was hit with shampoo bottles, soap, toothpaste, and a razor among other things.

Another time, my step-father was getting onto me (unjustly if I do say so myself). He was berating me for one thing or another and was about to spank me for something I didn't do when several decorative items flew off the mantlepiece and crashed to the floor.

Most of the time, however, Jonathan was simply there. At times he even seemed playful. We had company over one evening, and we kids had been playing with the keyboard in the livingroom floor earlier that day. The keyboard turned on and began playing (in full view of everyone and not close to anybody). My parents' friends tried to laugh it off with some comment about the automatic demos that come on when you leave them on, but then they realized the keys were actually moving... it wasn't just sound from the speakers. Mom said, "Jonathan, stop!", and it stopped for a while. Then it began playing again. Mom got up, picked the keyboard up, and said, "Jonathan, if you want to play, you can play in the bedroom." Then she took the keyboard back to the bedroom where we could hear it playing for about 20 minutes. Then it stopped of its own accord. Needless to say, those people never came back to our house, but we have a good time retelling that story!

Feel free to edit my story as necessary as I am do not know what kind of space limitation you have (if you choose to use it at all).

Jennifer P., Oklahoma

Image Above: The three men responsible for the success of Explorer 1, America's first satellite, launched Jan. 31, 1958. From left, William H. Pickering, James Van Allen and Wernher von Braun. Photo Credit: NASA.

NASA is remembering pioneering astrophysicist James Van Allen, who died Aug. 9 at the age of 91.

"James Van Allen was one of the greatest and most accomplished American space scientists of our time and few researchers had such wide range of expertise in so many scientific disciplines," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. "NASA's path of space exploration is far more advanced today because of Dr. Van Allen's ground breaking work."

Two slim crescents smile toward the Cassini spacecraft following an occultation event.

Taken only five minutes after Enceladus (505 kilometers, or 314 miles across) first approached the limb of Rhea (1,528 kilometers, or 949 miles across), this view shows the bright little moon emerging from behind the larger moon's crescent. (See PIA08229 for the earlier view.)

The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on July 4, 2006 at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (800,000 miles) from Rhea and 1.9 million kilometers (1.2 million miles) from Enceladus. The view was obtained at a Sun-moon-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 142 degrees relative to both moons. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel on Rhea and 11 kilometers (7 miles) on Enceladus.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The Cassini imaging team homepage is at http://ciclops.org.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Sunderland Today

Since the Echo reported the mysterious activity earlier this week we have been contacted by more than 20 readers who witnessed the lights.

They all reported seeing bright, orange-coloured orbs floating over East Durham residents and parts of Sunderland.
Now, after being contacted by someone who saw nine UFOs in the sky, the MoD is to investigate.
An MoD spokeswoman said: "We examine any UFO sighting reports to establish whether there is any evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity."
The probe is under way after Seaham couple Harry and Elizabeth McCall filmed the orbs flying over the town last Saturday night.
Mr McCall, 67, told the Echo: "They were silent, as if they were floating. There was no noise.
"It was unbelievaable and until someone convinces me otherwise, they were UFOs."
Since then Echo readers from Westlea, Eastlea, Northlea, Deneside, Dalton-le-Dale, and Hollycarrside, in Sunderland, have reported seeing the lights.

There might be a bigger version of this one soon. For now though I will give you what has been sent in.

Okay this is a really bad place my friends had visited a few times one of which afterwards their lug nuts on their tires were falling off...

When i finally decided to go with them i was shocked. Upon walking in the church pews literally lifted and slammed off the ground and a loud evil laughter came from the 2nd floor. It was crazy.

I can tell you more about the story of Bear Creek so you could post it to your website viewers. Just thought id tell you its an exteremly haunted place.

This Story is in from a reader. Thank you.

I am a sensitive and one day a policeman asked me if I had ever checked out the old jail. When I said no he gave me a tour.

First we checked out the scaffolding, when I didn't feel anything we went to the basement where they used to keep the black prisoners. He told me they had filled the area in with dirt up to chest level.

As I leaned in to look through a window into the area a smell of death came out at me all at once. I had to jump back it was so strong. I asked the officer if he had smelled it and he said no.

I asked if I could take a picture into that area he said I could. What I got shocked us both, imbedded in the brick wall is the image of an angery black man from the waist up.

We went to tell his captain what we had found and I said I thought that they only hung two white prisoners here, he said they did but there were a few black prisoners who disappeared and they didn't escape.

He said they were probably buried out back. I guess that explains why the face on the wall looks so angery.

Found this while surfing this morning. Thought I would throw it a small plug, so here it is.

Project Camelot

PROJECT CAMELOT's purpose is to provide a vehicle for researchers and 'whistleblowers' to get their stories out.

Project Goals:

• To provide researchers, activists and ‘whistleblowers’ – in the area of exopolitics, free energy and investigation into conspiracies that threaten the current paradigm – with access to all forms of media in order to get the truth out.

• To establish ‘safety in numbers’ and unite these disparate factions under an umbrella of protection for activists and ‘whistleblowers’ who may have concerns for the safety of themselves and their loved ones.

• To provide a tribute to all activists in paradigm-challenging fields who have worked for the benefit of humanity... and who have suffered or been silenced for speaking the truth.

I would say that it is very much like The disclosure project, that doesn't mean it's any less valid though.

The Disclosure Project is a nonprofit research project working to fully disclose the facts about UFOs, extraterrestrial intelligence, and classified advanced energy and propulsion systems. We have over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology, and the cover-up that keeps this information secret.

New Straits Times

The sketch of the eyes featured on the johorhominid.org website is said to have been based on a clear photograph of a female hominid in Johor’s jungles.

The website also claims that the sclera (the white of the eye) surrounding the iris, which is meant for enhancing gaze signal in communication, showed that the creature had some kind of basic language.

One of the website founders, Sean Ang, said a morphological analysis of the eyes showed that the creature closely resembled homo sapiens (humans) than the Pan troglodytes (chimpanzees).

Space Station crew members Jeff Williams and Thomas Reiter will work to avoid future shocks during a scheduled 6-hour-plus spacewalk Aug. 3.

They also will have a third station crew member for the first time in more than three years. Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov will coach them through their prebreathe exercise program and help them suit up for their outing.

Image above: Jeff Williams participates in the first session of extravehicular activity performed by the Expedition 13 crew. Image credit: NASA

The station crew was reduced to two members in May 2003 in the wake of the Columbia accident. Since then, spacewalkers have had to reconfigure station systems before donning their spacesuits without help.

Once the spacewalk begins, Williams and Reiter will be coached through their tasks by Astronaut Steve Bowen. He will act as spacewalk intravehicular officer from the International Space Station Flight Control Room in Houston's Mission Control Center.

The first and longest major task of the spacewalk is installation of the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU). That device is designed to measure the electrical potential of the station so ways can be verified or devised to minimize arcing hazards as the ISS grows.

Williams, designated lead spacewalker (EV1), will wear the U.S. spacesuit with red stripes. Reiter, EV2, will wear the all-white suit.

They will spend about half an hour setting up equipment after they emerge from the Quest airlock shortly before 10 a.m. EDT. They'll then move with the FPMU to a camera mount near the upper outboard end of the S1 (starboard one) truss. Total time allotted for the installation is 1 hour, 50 minutes.
+ Interactive: Station Truss Structure

Next they'll move back to the airlock. There they'll install two Materials on International Space Station Experiment (MISSE) containers. MISSE 3 goes on one of the high-pressure tanks around the crew lock, while MISSE 4 is set up on Quest's outboard end.

The experiment, housed in suitcase-like containers left open, looks at the long-time effects of space on a variety of materials. The idea is to identify optimal materials for use in future spacecraft.

A little over three hours into the spacewalk, Williams will install a controller for a thermal radiator rotary joint on the S1 truss. Meanwhile, Reiter will replace a computer on S1.

While Reiter finishes that task, Williams will begin installation of a starboard jumper and spool positioning device (SPD) on S1. Reiter will inspect a radiator beam valve module SPD site and install one there if necessary, then move on to install a port jumper and SPD.

The jumpers are designed to improve the flow of ammonia through the radiators once that coolant is installed.

Williams will begin setup for the final major task, test of an infrared camera designed to detect damage in a shuttle's reinforced carbon carbon (RCC) thermal protection. The camera is designed to detect damage by variations in temperature between sound and damaged RCC test sections.

After possible get-ahead tasks by Reiter and perhaps Williams and 30 minutes of cleanup, airlock entry and pressurization, the spacewalk is scheduled to end at 4:15 p.m.

This is the third spacewalk for both Williams and Reiter. It is the 69th spacewalk to support station assembly and maintenance and the 22nd from the Quest airlock.