Free Republic

Philosophy America The US Constitution is the finest and most enlightened governing document in the history of nations. The blessings of the Almighty were present as the men from the various former colonies crafted a system of republican rule that struck the fundamental balance between God-given individual freedoms, the autonomy of the States, and the necessity of a limited, but strong triumvirate federal government. The FALCON party recognizes not only the brilliance of our Constitution, but also the solemn duty to abide by its provisions. The Founders provided a mechanism to change the stipulations held within the Constitution, and the...

Alexander J. Madison – January 29, 2008 Fellow citizens, I was holding out hope that we could save the Republican Party from it’s slow, deliberate and painful march towards irrelevance. But with the only Reaganite in the primary election, Duncan Hunter, dropping out this past weekend, and Tom Tancredo long gone after being pilloried by the GOP cheerleaders on ‘conservative’ talk radio, and Fred Thompson, the only other reasonably traditional conservative, unable to get the necessary traction for a competitive race against the moderates, it is time to cut our losses and let the collapse take its natural course. The...

Late Tuesday night, ESPN.com, citing multiple sources, reported that Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank is pursuing USC coach Pete Carroll according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to the story, the Falcons "might be willing to grant Carroll far-reaching responsibilities." The Falcons on Tuesday said they were extending their simultaneous searches for a new head coach and general manager. On Tuesday, the Falcons were granted permission to interview Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. That interview is slated for this week. But the team was denied permission to talk to New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.

This is the second attempt to loft the rocket Privateer Elon Musk has launched his budget rocket, Falcon-1, from Omelek Island in the South Pacific. The 21m-long vehicle lifted off at 1810 California time (0110 GMT) and rose to an altitude of 200 miles (320km). Mr Musk, who co-founded the internet financial system PayPal, wants to lower the cost of access to space. The flight did not achieve all its goals, but the businessman said it demonstrated the vision of his Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. The mission was the second attempt to loft the rocket; the first ended when...

The second test flight of the low-cost SpaceX Falcon 1 rocket blasted off at 0110 GMT (9:10 p.m. EDT) tonight from a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. About five minutes into the flight, telemetry was lost as the second stage was firing.

Super Slab, the proposed 210-mile long road curving through Colorado's eastern plains from Fort Collins to Pueblo, has been reborn as the $2.5 billion "Prairie Falcon Parkway Express." The Front Range Toll Road Ltd., doing business as the Prairie Falcon Parkway Express Company, announced Monday it has filed a new corridor plan with the Colorado Secretary of State's office. The company is sending official notices via certified mail to owners of property along the project's path, said spokesman Jason Hopfer. About 4,000 notices were mailed, although the company figures there's only about 2,000 individual property owners -- some owning more...

ARAB JABUR, Iraq (Army News Service, Aug. 3, 2006) – In an effort to provide safety for local residents, reduce the number of IEDs and deny safe havens and supply routes for terrorists, Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad’s Troop B, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, worked alongside Iraqi soldiers from 5th Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division to conduct dismounted cordon and knock missions in support of Operation River Falcon. “This is the first time we’ve had a lot of troopers out here (Arab Jabur) in force,” said 1st Lt. Patrick Rice, scout platoon leader,...

I watched a tape of the Falcon and Snowman last night...It got my blood boiling. The same arguments that Anti-Americans are using today are the same Chris (Timothy Hutton) gave in 1974. No government or country is any better than another... even the Ditsy Chicks say why be patriotic.. Even his drug dealing friend knew it was wrong to sell out ones country...he did it because he thought he knew more than the leaders of the country.

SpaceX anticipates a maiden launch attempt of their Falcon 1 rocket on this Thursday, March 23rd, at 1pm California time (21:00 GMT), with a final decision pending a detailed data analysis of today's testing. A flawless flight readiness test with a three second engine firing was completed on the pad late Tuesday.

3/17/2006 - SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. (AFPN) -- Hundreds of physical and mental training hours go into being a part of one of the most advanced careers in the world -- an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot. The F-16’s multiple missions, such as air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, make it one of the most versatile aircraft in the Air Force, said Capt. Charlie Wolfsandle, 55th Fighter Squadron assistant training officer. To be selected to fly the F-16, an individual has to pass a battery of physical and mental tests. Pilots are selected for training when they receive a commission and are...

Another spot on the calendar has been targeted for the maiden takeoff of the privately built Falcon 1 launch vehicle, designed and constructed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of El Segundo, California. “Looks like we are on for a March 20-25 launch window,” said Elon Musk, SpaceX chairman and chief executive officer. “We are also going to do another static fire to check out the system about four days before launch,” he told SPACE.com.

The long-awaited Israeli F-16I Sufa (‘Storm') rolled off Lockheed Martin's production line in Texas last week into the waiting hands of Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who was on scene to receive the new aircraft, the first of 102 ordered by Jerusalem in 1997. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) chose to acquire the latest version of the world renowned Lockheed Martin F-16 over additional purchases of the more expensive twin engine Boeing F-15I - for which the IAF placed an order for 25 in 1997. The estimated $4.5 billion dollar F-16I deal ($45 million per aircraft) will be financed by...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. A newly developed rocket designed to break into the orbital launch business with low-cost service is waiting on a Pacific atoll to make its maiden flight. The Falcon 1 had been scheduled for launch yesterday from a pad in the Marshall Islands but the launch was bumped back to 1 p-m today because of preparations for a missile defense test launch. The rocket's payload is a satellite for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force Academy. FalconSat-2 will measure space plasma phenomena, which can impair space-based communications. The Falcon 1 rocket is the first...

A fledgling rocket company will attempt its first commercial launch on Friday 25 November, carrying a satellite for the US air force. Space-X will challenge larger, more established launch companies with a simple, reusable rocket design. Lift-off for the Falcon 1 rocket is scheduled for 2100 GMT on Friday from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the western Pacific Ocean. If everything goes to plan, Falcon 1 will deploy the FalconSat-2 satellite for the US Air Force Academy. The satellite will investigate how the Earth's ionosphere interferes with the Global Positioning System (GPS) and military satellite communications.

he first flight of the Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) Falcon 1 launch vehicle has been delayed to the first week of December at the earliest. “Nozzle erosion problems and the need to complete performance testing before conducting an inaugural launch [caused further delay],” chief executive Elon Musk told Fight International at this year’s International Astronautical Congress held in Fukuoka, Japan. The launch had already been delayed to late September from August and then again to 31 October, due to the need to move the launch from Vandenberg AFB to the Kwajalein site in the Marshall Islands and technical issues. The...

The rear of the aircraft yawned open, and at the prompt of "five, four, three, two, one, green light," the loadmasters released the restraints and a 65-foot rocket slid out the back of the aircraft beginning its descent to the desert floor. The rocket drop was a test mission -- the first of a series dubbed the Falcon Small Launch Vehicle program. The program is a joint venture between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Air Force. It is designed to develop a new method of putting a 1,000-pound payload into low-Earth orbit. This first test was the...

SpaceX has scheduled its first launch of the Falcon I low-cost booster for 31 October from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific, carrying the US Air Force Academy’s FalconSat-2 space plasma research satellite into low Earth orbit.

El Segundo, CA – September 8, 2005 – SpaceX today announced its new launch vehicle, the Falcon 9, an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) class vehicle. With up to a 17 ft (5.2 m) diameter fairing, Falcon 9 is capable of launching approximately 21,000 lbs (9,500 kg) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in its medium configuration and 55,000 lbs (25,000 kg) to LEO in its heavy configuration, a lift capacity greater than any other launch vehicle. In the medium configuration, Falcon 9 is priced at $27 million per flight with a 12 ft (3.6 m) fairing and $35 million with...

VOLKEL AIR BASE, Netherlands -- Training young pilots to push the F-16 Fighting Falcon to its operational limits is a job Lt. Col. David Stine loves as much as flying. Even better is doing both those things with the Royal Netherlands Air Force, he said. That is just what he has done for three years as an exchange pilot at this busy fighter base. The colonel is a training instructor pilot with the Dutch air force’s 306th Tactical Fighter Training Squadron. He said the job is satisfying and has an important purpose. “From the start, I try to instill in...

In “Physics, economics, and reality, part deux”, (The Space Review, June 6, 2005) Joe Latrell reviewed “When Physics, Economics, and Reality Collide: The Challenge of Cheap Orbital Access” by John Jurist, David Livingston and myself. Latrell’s first criticism is that we do not “take into consideration the loss of vehicles that will occur during the program lifetime”. This is specifically accounted for in our huge line item for insurance. We either have to account for the insurance cost, including vehicle replacement (and the insurance of the insurance), or provision for first-party self-insurance, which is the expected actuarial loss. Purchasers of...