Free Republic

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg couldn’t give a time frame Sunday for when debris from the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse will be cleared from the critical mega US shipping channel. “We haven’t received a timeline yet,” the country’s top transportation chief told CBS’ “Face the Nation” of the massive expected clean-up of the wreckage from the destroyed Baltimore span, which runs roughly 1.6 miles over the Patapsco River, a key transportation route that handled a whopping $80 billion in cargo last year. “This is going to be a very complex process, there are even now forces acting on that steel,”...

Chinese spy balloon spotted over US airspace in 2023 Commercial fishermen found what is believed to be a spy balloon off the coast of Alaska. The fishermen were instructed to bring the debris ashore and meet with FBI agents waiting at the port. CNN reported: Commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska have found what officials are concerned could be another spy balloon and are bringing it to shore with them, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. FBI agents will meet the fishing vessel when it comes into port, which is expected to be sometime over the weekend....

A debris field has been discovered within the search area by a remotely operated underwater vehicle near the Titanic, the US Coast Guard has said. The US Coast Guard had predicted that the air supply in the vessel would run out at 12.08pm UK time on Thursday. It disappeared on Sunday in the Atlantic Ocean, some 435 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada, during an expedition dive to see the wreck of the Titanic. Ships, planes and underwater craft from multiple countries were deployed to the area with rescuers searching a remote part of the Atlantic Ocean more than twice the...

A missing Japanese army helicopter carrying 10 crew members is believed to have crashed into the sea off a southern island after objects appearing to be aircraft parts were spotted in the area, an official said Thursday. The UH-60JA Black Hawk helicopter disappeared from radar on Thursday afternoon while on a reconnaissance mission north of Miyako island, the head of the Ground Self Defense Force, Yasunori Morishita, said at a news conference. Debris believed to be aircraft parts was spotted in the area, about 1,800 kilometers (1,120 miles) southwest of Tokyo, he said.

After the U.S. military shot down a total of three UFOs – the debris may be unable to be recovered The U.S. military shot down a total of three UFOs, one over Alaska on Friday, one over Canada on Saturday, and a third over Lake Huron on Sunday. Currently, information surrounding the UFOs or where these aircrafts came from is currently unknown. Unfortunately for those seeking answers, these answers may not be coming any time soon, as multiple officials have come out and made statements about the difficulty of recovering the debris from the UFOs. White House press secretary Karine...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) — After experiencing an atmospheric river that soaked Northern California New Year's weekend, Bay Area residents prepared for another, even stronger storm system set to arrive Wednesday that weather forecasters warn could have catastrophic impacts. A new weather system was predicted by afternoon or evening, but the National Weather Service (NWS) said the rain would be modest until the arrival late Tuesday of another strong atmospheric river delivering a long plume of Pacific Ocean moisture. The Bay Area office of the National Weather Service did not mince words about the approaching atmospheric river, warning it could...

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati have found evidence of a cosmic cataclysm 1,500 years that may be responsible for the downfall of the Hopewell Culture. The Hopewell Culture was a widely dispersed set of pre-Columbian Native American populations connected by a common network of trade routes from 100 BC to AD 500 in the Middle Woodland period. The researchers found evidence of a cosmic airburst at 11 Hopewell archaeological sites in three states stretching across the Ohio River Valley in the United States, which rained debris down into the Earth’s atmosphere creating a fiery explosion around 1,500 years ago...

Seven astronauts on the International Space Station were forced to take shelter in their transport spacecraft early Monday (Nov. 15) when the station passed uncomfortably closed to orbital debris, according to reports.

The Indonesian navy chief of staff said a scan had detected the submarine at 850 metres (2,788 feet), well beyond its survivable limits. The submarine, which disappeared as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill, is designed to withstand a depth of up to 500 metres (1,640 ft).

Some of the major components in most satellites include aluminum, Kevlar and aluminum alloys, which are able to withstand both temperature extremes and constant bombardment by radiation—all in a vacuum. Unfortunately, these characteristics also allow satellites to remain in orbit long after their usefulness has ended, resulting in constant additions to the space junk orbiting the planet. According to the World Economic Forum, there are currently approximately 6,000 satellites circling the Earth but only 60% of them are still in use. Some in the field have predicted that nearly 1,000 satellites will be launched into space each year over the...

Chilean officials say they have located debris believed to be from an air force plane that went missing on Monday. They said the wreckage was found floating 30km (19 miles) from where the C-130 Hercules cargo plane with 38 people on board last made contact. The wreckage was spotted in a body of water known as the Drake Passage. The plane was en route from Chile's southern city of Punta Arenas to the country's Presidente Eduardo Frei Montalva base in the Antarctic. The located debris "could be part of the remains of the sponges of the internal fuel tanks," Air...

A space enthusiast from Chennai who worked independently, found a debris from the Vikram moonlander that scientists had been looking for and helped guide them to the spot where it had crashed. Shanmuga Subramanian...looked for it on the images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbital (LRO) Camera that the US space agency had released to the public. LRO Project Scientist Noah Petro... said that Subramanian "is totally indpendent of the LRO, totally independent of the Chandraayan 2 team, just someone who is very interested in the Chandraayan 2 mission (who) used our data and identified a spot where there was a...

The CHP says the bar bounced and went through a Chevrolet Impala driving behind the truck. Officials say the bar went through the car’s engine compartment and into the front passenger area, where it struck the woman in the right leg. Officials say the driver stopped and dialed 911 but the driver of the big rig did not stop. CHP officers and firefighters responded and the woman was taken to a hospital.

A ball of light that blinked into South Florida’s inky predawn sky Wednesday before bursting into pieces with dazzling long-lived tails was a hunk of cosmic scrap metal, one of 25,000 objects the Air Force tracks in space. The flaming debris, part of a Chinese CZ3 rocket body, was forecast to reenter the atmosphere Wednesday morning but no one predicted the delight and awe it would spark in those who saw it lazily fall toward Earth just after 2 a.m. At least two people called the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, one who said there were UFOs over the skies...

The half-brother of Rev. Al Sharpton, also an activist whose group participated in Saturday’s anti-gun March For Our Lives, has been charged in a Sunday shooting death in Dothan, Ala. Dothan police said that Rev. Kenneth Glasgow was the driver in a car linked to the murder of 23-year-old Breunia Jennings of Dothan by passenger Jamie Townes, 26. Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish said that Glasgow and Townes allegedly searched for Jennings, who they believe had stolen Townes’ car. When they found her, Townes allegedly shot Jennings as she drove, hitting her in the head. She died later. Modern Conservatives:...

The recent failure of PT Telkom’s 18-year-old Telkom-1 satellite highlighted the risk associated with prolonged operations of aging satellites. Announced as a pointing anomaly on August 26, the incident may indeed be much more serious than initially thought. As video evidence collected by ExoAnalytic Solutions suggest, the satellite is seemingly breaking apart, leaving behind a track of reflective material...

Ground-based observations of PT Telkom's 18-year old Telkom-1 satellite show a large cloud of debris generated the night the satellite lost contact with customers across Indonesia. ExoAnalytic Solutions, a commercial space-situational-awareness company that employs a network of telescopes to track satellites and other orbital objects, recorded the event Aug. 25. ... ExoAnalytic Solutions uses a network of more than 160 optical telescopes to monitor the geostationary arc, a 36,000 kilometer-high belt around the Earth where most telecommunications satellites reside. Those telescopes can detect objects down to 0.4 meters in size, Hendrix said, and with post-processing, down to 10 centimeters. ......

Launchspace Technologies Corp. proposes sending platforms as large as football fields into low Earth orbit to sweep up space debris. The platforms also would be equipped with sensors to help U.S. government agencies detect and track orbiting satellites and debris. Launchspace Technologies' patented plan to clean up debris calls for sending Debris Collection Units into equatorial orbit to capture debris ranging in size from 1 millimeter to five centimeters. ... To keep debris from ruining the most desirable orbits, Launchspace Technologies proposes sending Debris Collection Units with replaceable, mesh Debris Impact Pads into orbits shaped and synchronized to clean up...

CANNON BALL, N.D – After seven months of protests, beating drums, freezing nights and canned chili, police shut down campsites once occupied by tens of thousands of environmentalists and Native Americans fighting the North Dakota Access Pipeline project. At least one person was injured Wednesday after protesters set fire to a handful of wooden structures at the makeshift campsite. Cecily Fong, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Emergency Services, says the extent of the unidentified female's injuries weren't known. Fong said an ambulance was being sent to the encampment. Most of the 200 to 300 protesters who remained at...

Officials at Lake Oroville reduced the rate of water release once again Friday as workers continued make repairs to a damaged spillway and clear debris from a hydroelectric plant. State Department of Water Resources engineers will decrease the flow of water in the Oroville Dam's main spillway from 80,000 cubic feet per second to 60,000 by Saturday morning, giving crews space to dredge debris from a pool at the bottom of the spillway, said DWR acting director Bill Croyle. Engineers had been pumping water out of the lake at 100,000 cfs for several days to make room for incoming storm...