Free Republic

Help if you can. A retired USAF friend took this photo this earlier this morning from Gulfport, MS (at the Armed Forces Retirement Home) and has been trying to find more info. He has called many sources, but has been unable to confirm a launch or ??? If you also saw it, please post anything you may know so I can give him an answer.

The Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah has begun its first combat operations in Syria, the opposition said. Opposition sources said Hizbullah fighters launched Russian-origin BM-21 Grad rockets toward civilian protesters on Jan. 16. The sources said the Hizbullah rocket attack took place near Damascus amid Iranian threats to increase intervention in Syria. Other opposition sources also reported Hizbullah rocket fire.

This Girl Snuck Into a Russian Military Rocket Factory Her name is Lana Sator and she snuck into one of NPO Energomash factories outside of Moscow. Her photos are amazing, like sets straight out of Star Wars or Alien. Now the Russian government is harassing her. It was easy to get in. She just went there, jumped over the fence and got right into the heart of the complex through a series of tunnels and pipes, which was very surprising. After all, this is an active industrial installation that belongs to one of the top manufacturers of liquid-fuel rockets in...

By establishing facilities in Egypt, group aims to protect its assets since it believes Israel won't strike targets inside Egypt due to affect it would have on bilateral relations. Hamas has established forward bases and rocket production facilities in the Sinai Peninsula in an effort to protect them from Israeli air strikes, The Jerusalem Post has learned. By establishing the facilities in Egypt, Hamas aims to protect its assets since it believes Israel will not strike targets inside Egypt due to the affect it would have on bilateral relations.

The Jerusalem Post reports today that the U.S. Army is considering the purchase of Israel’s Iron Dome short-range missile defense system to protect bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. Iron Dome was developed in response to persistent rocket attacks by the Palestinian Hamas terror group in Gaza, and the Hizbollah terror organization in southern Lebanon, both of which target Israeli civilians. The system was deployed in southern Israel earlier this year, and has been largely successful.

You can buy anything on the internet – even, until recently, a rocket engine. NASA has since confiscated the engine, which contains technology that could form the basis of missiles as well as spacecraft. But the incident highlights security concerns at the space agency . Called the RL-10, this type of engine powered NASA's Saturn-I rocket in the 1960s. That was a precursor to the larger Saturn-V, which took astronauts to the moon. In a recent report, NASA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) described how in July, it confiscated an RL-10 from a man who had put the engine up...

CAYENNE, French Guiana — An Ariane-5 rocket launch that was postponed because of a strike at the Kourou space centre in French Guiana is to go ahead on Wednesday after the dispute was resolved, officials said. The National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said that the deal to end the strike "includes an immediate resumption of work by Telespazio." The strike launched by Telezpazio, a business at the base specialised in radars, delayed Tuesday's launch that would have put two telecommunications satellites into orbit. "Without the radar, we can't follow the launch all along its trajectory," said Joel Barre, head...

U.S. Border Patrol agents have discovered a cache of several high-powered weapons along the Rio Grande river including a rocket launcher, assault rifles and plastic explosives, authorities said. Agents found the weapons on Tuesday in a black bag along a quiet stretch of the Rio Grande near Fronton, a small community about 210 miles south of San Antonio. No arrests have been made. “These deadly weapons could have had a devastating impact on communities on both sides of the border and to our agents and other law enforcement officers,” Rosendo Hinojosa, head of Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector, said...

The Obama administration on Wednesday will unveil its much-delayed general plans for its rocket design, called the Space Launch System, which will cost about $35 billion, according to senior administration sources and information obtained by The Associated Press. It will carry astronauts in a capsule on top and start test launching in six years. The size, shape and heavier reliance on liquid fuel as opposed to solid rocket boosters is much closer to Apollo than the recently retired space shuttles, which were winged, reusable ships that sat on top of a giant liquid fuel tank, with twin solid rocket boosters...

Rand Simberg’s witty, acerbic video series “Space Policy Explained” has a new chapter. Space Policy, Explained (Part 1)Space Policy, Explained (Part 2)Space Policy, Explained (Part 3)Space Policy, Explained (Part 4)Space Policy, Explained (Part 5)

The "Tzeva Adom" Code Red early warning alert system sounded late Saturday night as Gaza residents fired a rocket into Israel. The past month has seen a sharp increase in the number of rocket attacks. The rocket hit an open area of the ​​Ashkelon Coast Regional Council area. There are no known injuries or damage at this time. The short range rockets are often called Kassams, named after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, a Syrian leader who led riots against the Jewish communities in the land of Israel in the 1920s and 1930s. He also organized riots in Syria and Libya.

A video of the laser-guided Kornet anti-tank rocket belies Hamas claims it did not know a school bus was targeted in last week’s attack that critically wounded Daniel Viflic, still hanging on to life. The Kornet is manufactured in Russia and reached Hamas terrorists in Gaza via Iran or Syria. Damascus was clearly marked as the destination of the advanced rockets that Hizbullah employed in the Second Lebanon War. The weapon gave Hizbullah a strategic and psychological advantage. Israeli intelligence, severely hampered since Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a hasty withdrawal from the “security region” in southern Lebanon in 2000,...

After two days of relative quiet on the Gaza front, Gaza terrorists fired a short range missile into Israel Thursday. It exploded south of Ashkelon, but caused no casualties or damage. Israeli security forces are looking for the remains of the rocket. The Iron Dome system, which is supposed to protect against missile strikes, is currently only stationed near Be'er Sheva. It did not go into action. IAF jets attacked a terrorist cell in Gaza Wednesday, in response to the rocket fire Tuesday. An Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed. Arab sources said the man was killed east of Rafiah.

IDF officers admitted Sunday that Israel had lost several important points opposite Hamas and terror groups for its way of responding to recent rocket fire. "One needs to carefully analyze what happened here and hope we won’t pay for the chosen course of action in the future," one officer told Ynet. While the IDF has yet to fully analyze recent events on the southern border, voices within the army can be heard addressing Israel's "soft" response to the firing of rockets at three major Israeli cities. Some officers believe Hamas has emerged stronger from the conflict.

Iran has launched its Kavoshgar-4 rocket carrying a test capsule into space, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday, quoting the president's office. The capsule is designed to carry a monkey but there were no living creatures on board, the report said,

Cape Canaveral, Fla. -- The Russians are hiking the price of rocket rides again for U.S. astronauts — to nearly $63 million. The price goes up in 2014 for an astronaut to fly to and from the International Space Station on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. NASA announced the news Monday. The previous contract charged just under $56 million apiece. The contract extension with the Russian Space Agency totals $753 million. That covers trips for a dozen astronauts from 2014 through 2016. NASA officials say inflation is the reason for the latest price increase.

Sierra Nevada is emerging as the likely front runner to use the former NASA X-34 reusable launch vehicle demonstrator as a flying testbed for its Dream Chaser orbital space vehicle. The two surviving Orbital Sciences-built X-34s were moved by road to Mojave, Calif., on Nov. 16 from Edwards AFB, Calif., where they had been in storage since the program was canceled in 2001. The two 58.3-ft. vehicles, now stored inside a hangar belonging to the National Test Pilots School, were developed under a NASA program begun in 1996 to provide a low-cost advanced technology flight demonstration testbed vehicle for space...

A private rocket development company has struck a deal that could allow for demonstration launches of its reusable suborbital spacecraft from Florida. Masten Space Systems, a private aerospace company based in Mojave, Calif., announced a partnership with Space Florida today (Nov. 22) to explore the possibility of demonstration launches from Launch Complex 36 – a rocket launching pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

11/20/2010 - CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla -- The 45th Space Wing launch of a Delta IV-Heavy Launch Vehicle carrying a National Reconnaissance Office payload has been rescheduled to Nov. 21, 2010, at 5:58 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (2:58p.m. PST) from Space Launch Complex 37 here. Following the scrubbed Nov. 19 launch attempt, the launch team examined the port and starboard common core strap-on boosters in the areas where they received anomalous temperature data signatures during Friday's launch countdown. After inspections by engineers, it was determined that the temperature data signatures were caused by issues with two temperature sensors....

Military police are investigating how a loaded rocket launcher with instructions on how to use it ended up on the side of the Malahat. A tree pruner discovered the weapon Thursday afternoon. It doesn't belong to the navy and it's a mystery how it ended up in the bush near a busy highway, CFB Esquimalt spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Nathalie Garcia said Friday. Steve Taylor, 33, couldn't believe his eyes when he looked down from the trees he was pruning, about 100 metres north of McCurdy Drive in Shawnigan Lake, and saw something that was cylindrical. Upon closer inspection he could...

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – The first launch attempt of a homemade rocket built by two Danes failed on Sunday because of a technical glitch, according to Danish media. Live footage of the launch off the Baltic island of Bornholm appeared to show brown smoke coming out of the rocket after the countdown. Experts interviewed by TV2 News said the likely cause was a failure of the ignition system. After an inspection, the builders of the rocket decided against a second launch and did not set a date for a new attempt. Peter Madsen and Kristian von Bengtsson have toiled for over...

JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister issued a stern warning Sunday to Gaza's Hamas rulers after a weekend of rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on Israeli communities. Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that Israel holds the Islamic militant group responsible for the rare flare-up in violence and would retaliate for any attack against its people. "I see the Hamas as directly responsible for any attack that comes from the Gaza Strip toward the state of Israel and the international community should see it this way as well," Netanyahu said. "Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens and we will...

The tide has decisively turned against Lori Garver and her cohorts who created the disastrous NASA budget and plan for FY 2011. Congress could not be clearer in its rejection of the ill conceived plan Garver developed and sprung on Administrator Charlie Bolden in February. The Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee and House Science & Technology Space Subcommittee have all weighed in with well thought out plans which look far more like NASA’s baseline plan than the road to nowhere scheme proposed by Garver. Word has it Garver was intentionally left out of deliberations between Congress...

At the meeting Senators John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Republicans, got an earful from people who live in southeastern Arizona, along the border with Mexico. Huachuca City Mayor Byron Robertson told the lawmakers, "Last week when my police chief called me in and told me that an SUV-minivan had been stopped on I-10 with a 50-caliber machine gun mounted in the back and a rocket launcher."

SEOUL (Reuters) - A South Korean space rocket carrying a scientific satellite exploded two minutes into its flight in the second failure in two tries to put a payload in orbit, dealing a major setback to the country's space program. The launch had been delayed for a day due to technical glitches. Hopes were running high for its success after the country's first attempt to put a satellite into orbit failed last year due to problems in stage-separation mechanism. At 137 seconds into the flight, mission control lost contact with the rocket as it would have reached the altitude of...

The brand new commercial Falcon 9 rocket soared into orbit from Florida on its maiden flight Friday, the first test for a new era of private vehicles that could one day send cargo – and possibly astronauts – into space. The Falcon 9 rocket, built by private company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), blasted off at 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT) from its seaside launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Ads by Google Free Space Wallpapers Get Cool Space Desktop Wallpapers w Planets, Moons & Stars-Try Them Now wallpapers.smileycentral.com War of the Worlds - Now Watch Tom...

The White House’s charm offensive toward Israel’s supporters continued this week with a nice dividend for the Jewish state: financial backing for the country’s “Iron Dome” anti-missile system designed to protect Israeli towns against Palestinian rocket attacks. Haaretz reported yesterday that the Pentagon informed Israel’s Defense Ministry that the president had approved the transfer of $205 million for the purchase of 10 Iron Dome batteries that could help shield southern Israelis towns such as Sderot that have been battered in the past by Katyushas and Qassam missiles from Hamas terrorists in Gaza.

Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is reported to have received over a hundred M600 ballistic missiles from Syria. This weapon is a copy of the Iranian Fateh which, in turn, is a copy of the Chinese DF-11A (which had a range of 400 kilometers). The M600 is a 8.86 meter (27.5 foot), 3.5 ton rocket with a half ton warhead. Range is about 250 kilometers. This might account for the reports, late last year, that Syria had provided Hezbollah with SCUD missiles. Both the M600 and SCUD are ballistic missiles, but the M600 is a more modern design. SCUD was developed...

Butler of Aviation Week & Space Technology reported last week that the super-secret National Reconnaissance Office will be launching new spy satellites over the next two years at the highest rate since the Reagan era. Butler quotes NRO director Bruce Carlson as stating that several "very large, very critical" spacecraft will be sent into orbit by his agency -- presumably systems that collect imagery of surface targets or eavesdrop on the radio-frequency transmissions of potential adversaries. Combined with impending launches of new military-communications and missile-warning satellites, news of the spy-satellite payloads will come as welcome news to the nation's endangered...

A top secret space plane developed by the US military has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage. Billed as a small shuttle, the unmanned X-37B heralds the next generation of space exploration. It will be the first craft to carry out an autonomous re-entry in the history of the US programme. But its mission - and its cost - remain shrouded in secrecy. The Air Force said the launch was a success but would give no further details.

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

http://news.oneindia.in/2010/04/04/alqaeda-urges-uk-fanatics-to-build-diy-cruise-missiles.html “Al-Qaeda urges UK fanatics to build DIY cruise missiles” Sunday, April 4, 2010,10:30 [IST] SNIPPET: “London, Apr 4(ANI): Fears of a terror attack during the UK General Election have been further fueled by reports that the Al-Qaeda has urged British fanatics to build DIY cruise missiles to attack passenger jets. According to reports, an Al-Qaeda website explains how to build missiles with solid fuel engines using operating manuals for the Russian 107mm Katyusha rocket. Numerous links are also available for guides to make explosives, including C4 plastic explosive, acetone peroxide and TNT. The same site was used to explain...

A few years ago a company by the name of AirLaunch had a novel idea for a rocket—put it in a C-17 cargo plane and then slide it out the back at high altitude. The rocket would rotate until it was vertical and then fire, heading into orbit. You can watch video of the drop tests. “We examined a wide variety of propellants ranging from storable hypergolics, RP/LOX, to fluorine/deuterium.” That may sound exotic, but Ehrlich joked that “this was a paper study!” Now imagine that instead of a relatively small rocket, there was a much larger rocket, with a...

American space transportation company SpaceX, which has designed the Falcon 9 heavy-lift launch vehicle, has aborted its test launch due to technical reasons. The two stage liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene propelled launch vehicle was scheduled to be test launched on March 9 but it encountered some problem just before the countdown, SpaceX said. "We counted down to an T-2 seconds and aborted on Spin Start. Given that this was our first abort event on this pad, we decided to scrub for the day to get a good look at the rocket before trying again," the company said. No damage...

Space Exploration Technologies aborted a test firing of its Falcon 9 rocket on Tuesday, in what was to be a key milestone in its quest to fly cargo -- and eventually astronauts -- to the International Space Station. The test was aborted two seconds before engine ignition at the privately owned company's Cape Canaveral, Florida, launch site, where the Falcon 9 rocket is being prepared for a company-sponsored demonstration flight this spring. During the test, flames and small puffs of smoke could be seen around the base of the rocket via a NASA video camera. In a statement Tuesday night,...

North Korea has set up an independent military division to deploy and operate its medium-range ballistic missiles, a report said Tuesday. A South Korean government source quoted by Yonhap news agency said the move indicates the North's determination to continue developing IRBMs (intermediate-range ballistic missiles). With a range of more than 3,000 kilometres, these are capable of hitting US military bases in Japan and Guam. North Korea has defied a UN Security Council resolution ordering it to halt work on its ballistic missile programme. "We believe the operation of this separate unit indicates North Korea's intention to produce new IRBMs,"...

Get old-time hot-rodders together and utter the name "Turbonique." The entire conversation will shift to legends and half-truths of the '60s company supposedly created by NASA subcontractors to create a consumer market for rocket technology. Now there's video. Turbonique Inc. was established in Orlando in 1962 as a mail-order speed parts company producing some of the most amazingly insane automotive upgrades ever to see the light of day. Iowahawk called the company "The Real Acme," and he's probably right. He says ...mere mention of the name "Turbonique" still inspires a shudder of awe among drag racing enthusiast, the company's principle...

Iran is building a new rocket launch site a short distance from an existing complex in the north of the country, and seems to be working with North Korea, information group IHS Jane's has said. Construction visible from satellite imagery of the new site, near the city of Semnan east of Tehran, seems to suggest that Tehran has been collaborating with Pyongyang, said the London-based defence intelligence group. Iran unveiled the Simorgh space-launch vehicle (SLV) on February 3, but had not yet publicly revealed the location of the rocket's launch complex, it reported on Friday. But Jane's said it had...

Industry advocates are voicing concern with U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Moon-bound Constellation program and the threat it poses to America’s aerospace work force and U.S. strategic missile arsenals, but Defense Department officials said the two agencies are forging a plan to sustain the nation’s solid-rocket motor industrial base. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is among those railing against Obama’s proposal to scrap NASA’s plan to replace its space shuttle fleet with new rockets and spacecraft in favor of relying on commercial crew taxis to get astronauts to the international space station and back. “This is not money-saving....

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is beginning integration of the first Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral, Fla., and says it won’t be hurried to complete work despite continuing delays of the first launch. “Our primary objective is a successful first launch and we are taking whatever time necessary to work through the data to our satisfaction before moving forward,” says SpaceX director of Florida launch operations Brian Mosdell, who adds that the expected launch will take place “one to three months after completing full vehicle integration.” The final delivery to the SpaceX launch site, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), included the...

Engineers and officials are still not sure what caused the nation's Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) rocket to fail to deliver its payload satellite into orbit on its maiden flight last August. The KSLV-1 achieved the desired speed and altitude during its Aug. 25 launch from the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province, but failed to properly unload the Science and Technology Satellite No. 1 (STSAT-1). The spacecraft is believed to have burned up in the atmosphere as it crashed back to Earth. An independent panel, led by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) aerospace expert Lee...

SNIPPET: "(CNSNews.com) – With a message to Beijing to “stop sending your spies here,” a U.S. judge on Monday sentenced a Chinese-born former Boeing engineer to more than 15 years in prison for economic espionage and acting as an agent for China. Although former Boeing engineer Dongfan Chung was convicted last July, his sentencing in the District Court in the Central District of California coincides with a rocky period in U.S.-China relations, amid disputes over Tibet, arms sales to Taiwan, Internet surveillance, and trade and climate change issues. Sentencing Chung, 73, to 188 months in prison, Judge Cormac Carney said...

Iran sent rats, worms and turtles into Space Check the source for more details.

Investigators said they were told by witnesses that the 62-year-old man had been drinking when he fashioned a device using a motorcycle muffler, a piece of pipe, gunpowder, match heads and gasoline.

NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) have successfully launched a nine-foot rocket to a height of 1,300ft using an environmentally-friendly propellant made from aluminum powder and water ice. The fuel, called ALICE, has the consistency of toothpaste with a high burn rate and achieved a maximum thrust of 650 pounds during this test. ALICE propelled the craft over Purdue University's Scholer farms in Indiana earlier this month. The fuel is safer to handle to traditional fuels and can be fitted into molds before being cooled to –30C 24 hours before flight. What has researchers excited is...

As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama prepares to propose changes to NASA’s human spaceflight program in the president’s 2011 budget request to lawmakers Feb. 1, an independent NASA safety advisory panel is warning the space agency against abandoning its current plans. In an annual report issued Jan. 15, the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel cautioned the United States against halting work on NASA’s Ares 1 rocket to fund unproven commercial alternatives. “To abandon Ares I as a baseline vehicle for an alternative without demonstrated capability nor proven superiority (or even equivalence) is unwise and probably not cost-effective,” the report...

A high-visibility test on a second-stage developmental rocket motor set a new record in the Arnold Engineering Development Center's J-6 large-rocket motor-testing facility Dec. 9. Joe Migliaccio, the Aerospace Testing Alliance engineer who conducted the test, said the team fired an Alliant Techsystems, Inc., or ATK, Castor 30 rocket motor for approximately two and a half minutes, which is longer than any previous rocket-motor test entry since the testing facility became operational in 1994. He explained that the motor's long burn time is essential to its primary mission. "The reason this rocket motor will burn more than some is its...

Butte-Silver Bow County will erect a permanent building in its TIFID for the testing of rocket engines. Kristen Rosa, administrator of the Tax Increment Finance Industrial District, said that the steel-sided structure could be in operation by next spring. "It will help them be able to test bigger and bigger rocket engines," Rosa said. (cut) Space Propulsion Group Inc., a Stanford University-affiliated company, visited Butte a number of times last year to test fuels used in hybrid rockets. The approximately eight-second tests were done on the smaller 11-inch models, but thanks to the new building companies will be able to...

A mysterious blue spiral light that appeared in the skies above Norway was likely the result of a failed test launch of a jinxed new Russian missile, the UK’s Mail Online reported. Several newspapers in Moscow today ran a story explaining that the Bulava missile was test-fired from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine in the White Sea early on Wednesday but failed at the third stage. However, earlier reports from Moscow denied a missile launch yesterday and even early today there was no formal confirmation from the Russian Defense Ministry. Some speculators felt the lights were connected with the aurora borealis,...