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Video at link, worth watching. A California lawman whose department is investigating the brutal rape and bludgeoning death of a 64-year-old Air Force veteran pointed the finger Friday at state and federal policies he said allowed the illegal immigrant suspect to roam the streets despite a lengthy arrest record. “I think this is a national issue - it starts with administration and their policies,” Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin said days after Marilyn Pharis died from injuries suffered in the July 24 attack. “You can draw a direct line to this governor and Legislature. “I am not remiss to...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A team of Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle today at 3:53 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The test reentry vehicle impacted in a pre-established test area in the Pacific Ocean near the island of Guam approximately 40 minutes after launch. All test launches verify the accuracy and reliability of the ICBM weapon system, providing valuable data to ensure a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent. The launch team, under the direction of the 576th...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (KTLA) — The 30th Space Wing and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency conducted a flight test of the Ground-Based Mid-course Defense system Saturday. The missile test was designed to demonstrate the latest version of the advanced kill vehicle.

Making a crucial deliveryPlane loaded with supplies to help in Japanese crisis By Janene Scully/Associate Editor Posted: Thursday, March 17, 2011 11:10 pm For some Vandenberg Air Force Base airmen, Thursday’s mission was like any other — beyond the fact they were helping to transport a critical chemical officials hope will avert a full-fledged nuclear meltdown in Japan. Military crews loaded four pallets of boric acid bound for Japan on a C-17 Globemaster plane at Vandenberg on Thursday, a mission that originated less than 24 hours earlier and sounds like something out of an action movie. “I’m glad that Vandenberg...

A test of the United States' only long-range missile defense system failed Wednesday -- the second failure this year in two tries. The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said both the intermediate-range ballistic missile target and the long-range interceptor missile launched successfully, radar and sensors worked properly and the "kill vehicle" deployed. But the "kill vehicle" didn't hit the target. "Program officials will conduct an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the failure to intercept the target," the agency said. "The next flight test will be determined after identification of the cause of the failure." The last test, in January,...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. Air Force's secrecy-shrouded X-37B unmanned spaceplane returned to Earth early Friday after more than seven months in orbit on a classified mission, officials said.

MONDAY VANDENBERG LAUNCH An Atlas V booster carrying a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload is scheduled for launch from Vandenberg AFB Monday evening. The Atlas is set to lift-off from south base at 20:29 PDT. Following lift-off, the Atlas will probably will head southward. Several minutes later, the vehicle will place the NROL-41 payload into orbit. Weather permitting, tomorrow's launch should be visible to the unaided eye for more than 150 miles. Atlas V Launch Scheduled (SEP 17) VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. - Team Vandenberg is scheduled to launch an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-3 Sept. 20...

Arms Deal: President Obama signs away U.S. nuclear security and gives the Russians a veto over whether we can defend ourselves. Our nuclear umbrella is in tatters as another piece of paper proclaims peace in our time. Completing a process of disarmament and appeasement that manifested itself in the dismantling and defunding of U.S. military power that began with his inauguration, President Obama signed a new strategic arms limitation treaty with a grinning and very happy Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday in the Czech capital. How fitting this document was signed in Prague, which isn't far from Munich where...

Defense: A ballistic missile launched from Alaska is shot down by an interceptor launched from California. With threats from North Korea to Iran, it's time to ignore the skeptics and fully fund missile defense.It was the most realistic and most successful missile defense test ever in a Strategic Defense Initiative that could one day save an American city from a rogue missile strike. Yet the "yeah, but" media greeted this triumph with claims the concept is still unproven. It was as if the Wright brothers had announced man's first flight, only to be greeted with cries that they hadn't built...

Security: An Iranian mullah once said "a world without America and Zionism" was a real possibility. Our sellout of Eastern Europe and missile defense brings that dream closer to reality. It would take only one warhead."Is it possible for us to witness a world without America and Zionism?" Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asked at a "World Without Zionism" conference in Tehran in 2005. "But you had best know that this slogan and this goal are attainable, and surely can be achieved." He added that Iran had a strategic "war preparation plan" for what it called "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." A...

Defense: The Air Force airborne laser program successfully completes a simulated kill from a plane able to find, track and destroy a live ballistic missile. We can shoot down enemy missiles. Instead, we're shooting down the laser program.The Aug. 10 effort was the third such test — sort of like a sniper sighting the target with the red dot of a laser without actually pulling the trigger. In early June, the airborne laser (ABL) program engaged two un-instrumented missiles. This was the first in-flight test against an instrumented target missile. A modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft took off from Edwards Air...

As Defense Secretary Gates tours our missile defense site at Fort Greely, Alaska, Gov. Sarah Palin calls for restoration of the missile defense cuts. Meanwhile, North Korea points another missile at the U.S. Robert Gates' visit to our missile defense facility at Fort Greely on Monday was a pointed reminder to the North Koreans that while we have been talking softly, we still have a few big sticks in the ground ready to turn the North Korean missile program into so much scrap metal.

SDI: If you missed the news, which isn't hard given how poorly these things are covered, our "unproven" missile defense proved itself again last week, when a U.S. warship downed a simulated North Korean missile in flight.The test, conducted in Hawaiian waters by the Navy and the Department of Defense's Missile Defense Agency (MDA), was the 23rd firing by ships equipped with the Aegis ballistic missile defense system. It was the 19th success, including the shoot-down of a dead U.S. spy satellite last year. A short-range ballistic missile simulating a missile like North Korea's Nodongs or Scuds was fired from...

The Obama administration is reacting to the anticipated launch of another North Korean long-range ballistic missile, expected to fly over the Pacific toward Hawaii sometime soon, by putting missile defense on alert. That's a big change from last time. Back in April, in advance of North Korea's last missile test, the administration pretty much pooh-poohed the threat posed by the Taepo Dong launch, characterizing Pyongyang's saber-rattling as bluster. Indeed, from all outward indications, Team Obama did just about nothing but bloviate to defend U.S. territory and interests from the missile that, by almost all accounts, has the potential to reach...

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. — Beefed up security at Vandenberg Air Force Base is preventing public access to the state's Point Sal Beach, which can only be reached on foot through military base property. Outdoor recreational activity has also been banned on most of Vandenberg's 98,000 acres near Lompoc. The military says the heightened state of security will be in place indefinitely. Officials with Vandenberg's 30th Space Wing says the Department of Defense ordered the increase in security and no details are being released. However, the measures were imposed after Osama bin Laden released an audio recording threatening Americans.

Under beautiful clear skies, countdown preparations are underway at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex-2 for this evening's liftoff of the Delta 2 rocket carrying Italy's COSMO 3 spacecraft. The 177-foot tall mobile service tower has been retracted from the United Launch Alliance-built rocket. The gantry was used to stack the two-stage vehicle, the four strap-on solid rocket motors and the COSMO payload atop the pad's launch mount. The tower also provided the primary weather protection and worker access to the rocket during its stay at the oceanside complex on North Vandenberg. Ground teams will spend the next couple...

A joint American and European oceanography satellite designed to continue a growing legacy of monitoring changes in sea levels and the impacts on the global climate awaits an overnight blastoff Friday morning from California.

The Atlas 5 rocket’s planned Thursday liftoff cleared a final hurdle during a routine pre-launch review today at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Officials confirmed the mission is targeting departure at 3:02 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-3 on South Base. While the window remains classified, the launch could occur anytime before 4 a.m., according to officials. The West Coast’s first Atlas 5 rocket will carry a top-secret satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The US missile defense system was put to its first real test Tuesday and Wednesday with North Korea's launch of a long-range missile and a half dozen shorter range missiles. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was on and off the phone with top US commanders almost continuously for days before the missile tests. "I received the notification of the launch of these missiles probably within of a minute of when they occurred," he told reporters before a meeting with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. Pentagon officials were circumspect, though, about how the multi-billion dollar missile defense system performed. "What...

Since this launch is just after sunset, weather permitting and no scubs, it will be visable over a wide area, best views of powered stage of launch, Southern Nevada, Arizona, southeastern California. Cheer the Delta IV on! her first west coast flight with a secret payload that are the eyes and ears of our nations defense in the high frontier. Another bird to watch the bad guys. Updates here..... http://www.spaceflightnow.com/delta/d317/status.html