Free Republic

Get Out: Orionid Meteor Shower Peaks Overnight SPACE.com Robert Roy Britt editorial Director Tue Oct 20. The Orionid meteor shower is expected to put on a good show tonight into the predawn hours Wednesday, weather permitting. This annual meteor shower is created when Earth passes through trails of comet debris left in space long ago by Halley's Comet. The "shooting stars" develop when bits typically no larger than a pea , and mostly sand-grain-sized, vaporize in Earth's upper atmosphere. "Flakes of comet dust hitting the atmosphere should give us dozens of meteors per hour," said Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid...

The NYPD has installed a patrol tower in a Harlem neighborhood in an effort to cut crime in the high-risk neighborhood. The two-story booth tower, called Sky Watch, gives the officer sitting inside a better vantage point from which to monitor the area. Officers in the booth have access to a spotlight, sensors, and four cameras. The tower is portable and can be moved to the areas that need it most. Residents in Harlem say they like the idea, though some wonder if the appearance of Sky Watch has anything to do with the two new luxury condos built on...

11/16/2004 - NEW YORK (AFPN) -- Space-based assets are proving critical to winning the war on terrorism, according to the commander of Air Force Space Command. “You cannot go to war and win without space,” Gen. Lance W. Lord said during a live appearance on “Fox and Friends” here Nov. 11. The command comprises about 40,000 space professionals who provide combat forces and capabilities to North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Strategic Command, supporting various operations worldwide. Space allows precision attack on the battlefield, the general said, and has transformed the way American forces fight modern wars. Precision-guided munitions...

When you go outside tonight, look high in the southwest for the rusty-colored "star" and think about (Mars rover) Spirit, and what it must be like to remotely control a robot so far away. This is one of those weeks we'd be glad to spend in Big Sky country — we have so much to look at. First of all, the Mars rover Spirit should be taking its first road trip (the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory folks call this egress) to explore the Red Planet's surface. Not since August, when Mars was at its closest approach to Earth and had...

        One Night, Two Spaceships Sky watchers in North America can spot the ISS and the space shuttle Atlantis at the same time on Oct. 16 and 17. Listen to this story via streaming audio, a downloadable file, or get help.October 16, 2002: It's not every night you get to see a spaceship fly over your back yard. This week you can see two.The International Space Station (ISS) and the space shuttle Atlantis will soar over North America after sunset on Oct. 16th and again on the 17th. It's perfect timing for sky watchers. Light from the...