Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The years-long dispute between lawmakers from Alabama and Colorado over the location of US Space Command’s permanent headquarters erupted today during a House Armed Services Committee hearing, stoked in part by political attacks on President Joe Biden over his choice of Colorado Springs — leaving the final result, and the some 1,000 personnel involved, in limbo. Biden’s move in July overturned former President Donald Trump’s January 2021 decision by President Donald Trump to move SPACECOM HQ to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. — a decision that also became embroiled in political maneuvering at the time. HASC Chair Rep....

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

Crystal Mysticism Invades Astrobiology March 20, 2009 — Mystical ideas about the life-giving power of crystals usually go with New Age movies and storefronts. Science is above all that, right? Then what is a reader supposed to think of this opening line by Leslie Mullen on Space.com?...

By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, July 5, 2006 – U.S. Northern Command detected "each and every" North Korean missile launch and had interceptors operational and ready to respond if needed, a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters today. NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command officials quickly recognized that the seven ballistic missiles fired yesterday and early today did not pose a threat to the United States or its territories, Bryan Whitman, deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, said today. North Korea fired a long-range Taepodong-2 missile and six short- and medium-range Scud and Nodong...

Is This the Right Way to Return to the Moon? By Glenn Harlan Reynolds Published 09/21/2005 President George W. Bush has called for Americans to return to the moon by 2020. Now NASA has come out with a more detailed presentation, reported in Space.com, of what they have in mind: NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key...

City-Sized Asteroid to Pass Earth This FallBy Robert Roy BrittSenior Science Writerposted: 06:30 am ET03 May 2004 A minor rumor has hatched on the Internet that a large and deadly asteroid will strike Earth this fall. Bulletin board discussions cite a 63 percent chance of impact, while concerned readers have e-mailed SPACE.com wondering if it is true.Astronomers know of no such impending doom.The rumors are likely rooted in a real event, however. On Sept. 29, 2004 an asteroid the size of a small city will make the closest known pass of such a very large space rock anytime this...