Free Republic

Russia has hoped to building laser ranging station for the Glonass navigation system in Israel, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday. When meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said currently experts from both countries were studying the feasibility of constructing such laser distance-measuring stations in Israel, which will be linked to Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (Glonass). Putin also hailed bilateral cooperation in the military sector. "We have viable projects in the area of military and transport aviation. We bought several drones from Israel and launched several satellites in Israel's interests,"...

For 15 years, scientists have benefited from data gleaned by U.S. classified satellites of natural fireball events in Earth's atmosphere – but no longer. A recent U.S. military policy decision now explicitly states that observations by hush-hush government spacecraft of incoming bolides and fireballs are classified secret and are not to be released, SPACE.com has learned. The satellites' main objectives include detecting nuclear bomb tests, and their characterizations of asteroids and lesser meteoroids as they crash through the atmosphere has been a byproduct data bonanza for scientists. The upshot: Space rocks that explode in the atmosphere are now classified. "It's...

Washington Times articles are excerpt only.

The pro-terrorist Al-Jazeera International will debut early next year as a 24-hour English-language news network headquartered in the Middle East. And efforts to bring the network to the U.S. have been "very interesting and extremely encouraging," according to Commercial Director Lindsey Oliver. At launch the network will have a staff of "hundreds," said Oliver, a former director of CNBC Europe. The advertising-supported network will operate out of four broadcast centers – Washington, London, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia - and Doha, Qatar, its headquarters. The international version of Al-Jazeera, which has been accused by Washington of having an anti-American, pro-terrorist bias,...

Iraq could try to jam U.S. military satellite signals during a possible invasion, but the United States has defenses against such attempts, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. Indonesia reportedly jammed signals from a commercial satellite leased by the Pacific nation of Tonga in 1997, and Iraq could try to do the same thing, said the Air Force's space operations director, Brig. Gen. Franklin Blaisdell. Iraq also reportedly is seeking ways to jam the Global Positioning Satellite signals that help guide U.S. bombs. "Any enemy that would depend on GPS jammers for their livelihood is in grave trouble," Blaisdell said at a...