Does Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Flier Really Take You To Space?

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May 15, 2014

Image Caption: Close up of SS2 during a successful rocket-powered flight. Credit: Virgin Galactic

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports Your Universe Online

As Virgin Galactic sent its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane out for a test drive on Tuesday, the company found itself the subject of reports claiming that its commercial space flight operation would be delayed, as well as speculation that its passengers might not technically be traveling into space after all.

According to a Monday article from David Gilbert of the International Business Times, those media reports claim that the company would fail to meet Virgin Galactic owner Sir Richard Bransons January prediction that flights would begin by this summer. Instead, those flights would have to be pushed back until at least 2015 due to a defect found in the spacecrafts wings.

Branson, who first announced that he was investing in Virgin Galactic in 2004, initially predicted that commercial space flight would be a reality by 2007. Obviously, those predictions have not come to fruition, and now Gilbert said that it is highly unlikely that the vehicle will be ready for travel before the end of the summer.

However, President and CEO George T. Whitesides offered a different viewpoint, telling the IB Times that the company should reach space in just a few short months from now and that the companys current timetable has Richards flight taking place around the end of the year.

As for the other issue, Gizmodos Jamie Condliffe reports that members of the media had analyzed the small print in Virgin Galactics customer contract, and found that it promises to transport passengers to heights of at least 50 miles. According to Condliffe, that is some 12 miles short of the widely accepted boundary between the Earths atmosphere and outer space known as the Karman Line which lies at an altitude of 62 miles.

Virgin counters that it is using the 50 mile definition established by NASA first in the 1960s and most recently in 2005 to allow pilots of the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft as astronauts, the Gizmodo reporter said. However, the World Air Sports Federation, which serves as the governing body for astronautical world records, will only officially recognize an individual as an astronaut if they journey beyond the Karman Line, he added.

NASA and the US Air Force have a long tradition of celebrating everything above 50 miles (~80km) as spaceflight, and we look forward to joining those ranks soon as we push onward and upward, Whitesides said in a statement. We are still targeting 100km [62 miles]. As we have always noted, we will have to prove our numerical predictions via test flights as we continue through the latter phase of the test program.

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Does Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Flier Really Take You To Space?

Jupiter's Great Red Spot turning into little red dot

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The Hubble Space Telescope captures a picture of the raging Jovian storm at its smallest size ever.

Jupiter might be losing its most iconic feature, as these Hubble shots from 1995, 2009, and 2014 show. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center)

The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is the planet's most defining feature -- and humanity has been watching it for a while. There is speculation that a mention of Jupiter's "permanent spot" from writings in the 1600s are a reference to the raging storm. And in the 1800s, observations of the spot put its measurement at about 25,476 miles wide -- which would be big enough to engulf three Earths.

"Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the spot is now just under 16,500 kilometres (about 10,252 miles) across, the smallest diameter we've ever measured," Amy Simon of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said in a statement.

Not only is the spot shrinking, but it's doing so faster than ever, NASA says. Yet the cause is largely unknown.

"In our new observations it is apparent that very small eddies are feeding into the storm," said Simon, who plans further studies of these eddies. "We hypothesized that these may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics of the Great Red Spot."

Winds at the edge of the spot, which is a storm that's been raging for hundreds of years, spin in a counterclockwise direction and are estimated to reach 450 mph at the storm's edge. Considering that even at its current size, the spot could still swallow our planet whole, it's a good thing that Jupiter is over 350 million miles away.

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Jupiter's Great Red Spot turning into little red dot

Red Sox battling Twins in extra innings

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- If anyone needed a game-winning hit in extra innings, it was Aaron Hicks .

The once-prized Minnesota Twins prospect was hitting just .161 and was challenged by manager Ron Gardenhire and acting general manager Rob Antony the day before to take a more professional approach to the game.

Hicks responded with an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th and Phil Hughes struck out eight in six innings to help the Twins beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 in the series finale on Thursday.

Many think the only reason Hicks was not sent down already was because of the injuries that have decimated an already thin outfield group. Gardenhire and Antony both said they didn't feel Hicks was doing the necessary homework behind the scenes to be ready every day.

" Maybe preparing is something I need to try to do more," Hicks said. " Try things to be able to make my game better and have an edge on the game."

All-Star closer Glen Perkins blew his second save of the season, giving up a two-run single to Will Middlebrooks with the bases loaded that tied the game in the ninth. But Kurt Suzuki doubled down the left-field line and Hicks lined a 3-2 pitch to left field off of Andrew Miller (1-2) to win it.

" It's such a big hit in a big situation," Hicks said. " It just comes down to how much heart you have in the game. That's the kind of player I am. I like to play with passion and I don't like the way I've been playing so far. But it's something that sometimes you've got to go through in order to be able to make that next step into becoming a better player."

Mike Carp had two hits and an RBI for the Red Sox, but David Ortiz was a quiet 1 for 4 with a single after going deep twice in each of the first two games of the series.

Hughes gave up five hits and no walks and Chris Parmelee hit a two-run homer for the Twins, who took two of three from the defending champions. Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar each had three hits and Brian Duensing (1-1) picked up the win.

Clay Buchholz gave up three runs on 10 hits and struck out six in six innings for the Red Sox.

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Red Sox battling Twins in extra innings

Hicks' single in 10th helps Twins down Red Sox

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- If anyone needed a game-winning hit in extra innings, it was Aaron Hicks .

The once-prized Minnesota Twins prospect was hitting just .161 and was challenged by manager Ron Gardenhire and acting general manager Rob Antony the day before to take a more professional approach to the game.

Hicks responded with an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th and Phil Hughes struck out eight in six innings to help the Twins beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3 in the series finale on Thursday.

Many think the only reason Hicks was not sent down already was because of the injuries that have decimated an already thin outfield group. Gardenhire and Antony both said they didn't feel Hicks was doing the necessary homework behind the scenes to be ready every day.

" Maybe preparing is something I need to try to do more," Hicks said. " Try things to be able to make my game better and have an edge on the game."

All-Star closer Glen Perkins blew his second save of the season, giving up a two-run single to Will Middlebrooks with the bases loaded that tied the game in the ninth. But Kurt Suzuki doubled down the left-field line and Hicks lined a 3-2 pitch to left field off of Andrew Miller (1-2) to win it.

" It's such a big hit in a big situation," Hicks said. " It just comes down to how much heart you have in the game. That's the kind of player I am. I like to play with passion and I don't like the way I've been playing so far. But it's something that sometimes you've got to go through in order to be able to make that next step into becoming a better player."

Mike Carp had two hits and an RBI for the Red Sox, but David Ortiz was a quiet 1 for 4 with a single after going deep twice in each of the first two games of the series.

Hughes gave up five hits and no walks and Chris Parmelee hit a two-run homer for the Twins, who took two of three from the defending champions. Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar each had three hits and Brian Duensing (1-1) picked up the win.

Clay Buchholz gave up three runs on 10 hits and struck out six in six innings for the Red Sox.

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Hicks' single in 10th helps Twins down Red Sox

G.M.W.G. S2ep28 – Galacticraft: Oxygen Collector, Oxygen Compressor, Oxygen Tank, NASA Workbench – Video

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G.M.W.G. S2ep28 - Galacticraft: Oxygen Collector, Oxygen Compressor, Oxygen Tank, NASA Workbench
G.M.W.G.: GOING to MARS WITH GREGTECH (Irny a Mars GregTech-el) Single Player Minecraft survival jtk, Feed The Beast 1.6.4 T.P.P.I mdostott modpack-al. A modok amiket hozzraktam...

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G.M.W.G. S2ep28 - Galacticraft: Oxygen Collector, Oxygen Compressor, Oxygen Tank, NASA Workbench - Video

NASA's Newest Wind Watcher Arrives at Launch Site

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A new NASA Earth-observing mission that will measure ocean winds from the International Space Station has arrived at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin final preparations for launch.

The International Space Station (ISS)-RapidScat scatterometer instrument arrived May 12 after a cross-country trip from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. The instrument, built at JPL, now will undergo final tests before being stowed aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo resupply spacecraft. The Dragon will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, no earlier than August.

ISS-RapidScat is NASA's first scientific Earth-observing instrument specifically designed and developed to operate from the exterior of the space station. It will measure near-surface ocean wind speed and direction in Earths low and middle latitudes during its two-year mission. Its data will be used to support weather and marine forecasting, including tracking storms and hurricanes, as well as climate studies.

Winds over the ocean are a critical factor in determining regional weather patterns and studying climate. High winds in severe storms also can inflict major damage to shore populations and shipping. In some regions, ocean winds drive warm surface ocean waters away from coastlines, causing nutrient-rich deep water to rise to the surface, where they provide a major source of food for coastal fisheries. Changes in ocean winds also help us monitor large-scale changes in Earths climate variations, such as El Nino and La Nina.

Since 1999, NASAs QuikScat satellite, along with satellites operated by international partners, has provided ocean surface winds information for use by the science and operational weather forecasting communities. In 2009, after 10 years of successful operations, QuikScats scatterometer instrument stopped providing ocean wind data.

Scatterometers are radar sensors that bounce microwaves off the ocean surface and measure the strength and direction of the echoes that return. The echoes are scattered by the presence of wind-driven waves on the ocean surface. ISS-RapidScat will help fill the gap left by the loss of these data and will extend a 15-year ocean wind climate record.

ISS-RapidScats berth on the space station will put it in an orbit that is unique from any other wind-measuring instrument currently in space. This orbit, with an altitude that varies from 233 to 270 miles (375 to 435 kilometers), will give scientists the first near-global direct observations of how ocean winds vary over the course of the day, while adding extra eyes in the tropics and midlatitudes to track the formation and movement of tropical cyclones. Its 560-mile-wide (900-kilometer) observation swath creates a map of winds over most of the ocean between 51.6 degrees north and south of the equator every 48 hours. ISS-RapidScat also will extend the continuity and usefulness of the scatterometer data record from the international constellation of ocean wind satellites. Currently, satellites in the constellation observe at different times of the day. Using the space stations orbit, it will be possible for ISS-RapidScat to observe areas where the orbits of the other scatterometers in the constellation intersect at the same time. This capacity will allow scientists to correct for previously unknown relative errors between the different wind satellites and extend QuikScats 10-plus-year record to create a continuous record.

ISS-RapidScat was developed in just a year-and-a-half, at roughly one-tenth the cost of developing a traditional satellite mission. Its development approach leverages space station capabilities and a combination of new industrial-grade hardware and older inherited hardware used to develop and test QuikScat. Additional cost savings are achieved by launching the instrument aboard a scheduled space station cargo resupply mission.

After arriving at the space station, ISS-RapidScat will be installed on the external payload facility on the Columbus module using the stations robotic arm. The arm will be controlled from the ground during installation. ISS-RapidScat is an autonomous payload, requiring no interaction from station crew members.

ISS-RapidScat is a partnership between JPL and the International Space Station Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, with support from the Earth Science Division of NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Other mission partners include Kennedy; NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama; the European Space Agency; and SpaceX. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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NASA's Newest Wind Watcher Arrives at Launch Site

NASA Ranked High in J.D. Powers Inaugural Social Media Study of Government

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NASA ranked high in the J.D. Power 2014 Social Media Benchmark Study: Government, released Thursday. In the two focus areas measured, servicing and marking engagement, J.D. Power reports, "Among the government agencies included in the study, only the National Aeronautics and Space Administration performs particularly well in both types of social interactions.

Increasingly, more and more people are getting their news from online sources, and we strive to share our story of exploration and discovery with the public through these digital channels, including social media, said David Weaver, associate administrator for Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington. As NASA embarks on missions to go farther in space than ever before, we will look for new ways to engage the public and share the experience.

NASA has been at the forefront of social media since 2008, when the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) created the agencys first Twitter account, @MarsPhoenix, for the Mars Phoenix Lander. NASA has since grown and expanded its digital footprint to more than 480 accounts spread across 10 different social media platforms that consistently communicate the agencys mission and engage with followers around the world.

NASA maintains strong presences on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram and other popular platforms. The @NASA Twitter account and NASAs Instagram account are the most followed in the federal government on those platforms.

NASA Socials, formerly known as NASA Tweetups, have brought thousands of people who engage with the agency via social media together for unique in-person experiences of exploration and discovery. Since 2009, NASA has hosted 80 NASA Socials at more than a dozen locations. Attendees have had the opportunity to witness space shuttle launches, spacecraft launches to the moon, Jupiter and Mars, fly an F/A-18 flight simulator and rub elbows with astronauts and NASAs administrator.

NASA Social participants go behind the scenes at NASA facilities, take photos, ask questions and share the experience with their social media followers. Other events have embedded these participants into media events at NASA and given them the same access as professional journalists.

NASA has won three consecutive Shorty Awards for the best government use of social media. The Shorty Awards also recognized NASA's @MarsCuriosity account as Foursquare Mayor of the Year. In addition, the agency won in 2009 for its use of Twitter for the Mars Phoenix Lander mission, and astronaut Doug Wheelock was awarded the Real Time Photo of the Year in 2011 for his "Moon from Space" picture. NASA now has six total Shorty Awards.

In 2013, NASA was also recognized in Forbes Magazine and on Mashable as the 8th most engaged brand on Twitter as calculated by Nestivity, a community engagement platform for Twitter. Also in 2013, NASAs Mars Curiosity won the SXSW Interactive award for a campaign that creatively connects and shares the experience on social media.

Additionally, NASA's social media team received the Space Foundation's Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award in 2012, which is presented annually to an individual, team or organization that has made significant contributions to public awareness and understanding of space programs.

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NASA Ranked High in J.D. Powers Inaugural Social Media Study of Government

ZEN to energize Nano complex

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Albany

The SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is asking the city of Albany to help it finance its new $200 million ZEN building, which the school says will be used to house a 30,000-square-foot high-security data center for the state in addition to Tech Valley High School and other tenants.

Officials from the NanoCollege presented an application to the Albany Industrial Development Agency on Thursday asking it to issue $186 million in tax-exempt bonds on its behalf to pay for construction and design costs.

The building, which will have 356,000 square feet of space, is scheduled to be completed during the third quarter of 2015.

The NanoCollege has said little about the building until now, but it had to submit detailed plans to the Albany IDA board as part of its request for the bonds.

ZEN stands for Zero Energy Nanotechnology because the building is expected to house much of the NanoCollege's renewable energy and clean-tech research operations and operate as a zero-energy building that generates its own power.

The NanoCollege, which is run by a private nonprofit called Fuller Road Management Corp., has financed its various buildings in a variety of ways, including bonds issued on Wall Street and from banks and other private sources. Fuller Road Management will be responsible for making payments on the IDA bonds, which the city often issues for major private development projects in the city. Fuller Road says it plans to pay off the bonds over 31 years.

Plans submitted by the school show another building known as the NanoFabXX that will sit between ZEN and the existing NanoFabX building housing the Global 450 Consortium, a next generation computer chip factory being set up by the world's largest chip-makers, including Intel, Samsung and GlobalFoundries. NanoFabXX would provide expansion space to the G450C.

ZEN will be the largest single building ever built at the college, although all of the facilities at the 1.3 million-square-foot complex are connected by sky bridges.

More than 3,100 people work for the NanoCollege and hundreds of tenants and research partners, the largest of which is IBM.

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ZEN to energize Nano complex

Mother claims CMS did not call after bus accident

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A 13-year-old Whitewater Middle School student told Channel 9 he was terrified after the bus he was on Tuesday afternoon was hit by another school bus on Moores Chapel Road after 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Elaine Lehmann told Channel 9 it took hours for her to hear from the district.

Lehmann said she first heard about the accident from one of her son's friends within an hour of the crash. Her sons, Nassir and Muhammad Abdullah, were home from school Wednesday with notes from emergency room doctors.

It's my first time being in a crash and it hurt, like, every part of my body, said Nassir.

Chopper 9 Skyzoom flew over the scene Tuesday.

The 12- and 13-year-old brothers said they were sitting three to a seat when they were rear-ended by another school bus.

All the kids flew in different directions. The bus was smoking, said Lehmann.

Lehmann said about an hour after the accident, she got a call from her son's friend, thinking the accident was minor.

But at 5:30 p.m., her son called to say they were hurt and among nine students headed to the hospital.

She said she did not hear from the school district until 7 p.m., when she got a recorded call from Whitewater's principal. The message said there were two buses that had been in an accident.

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Mother claims CMS did not call after bus accident

The FCC doesnt have to authorize Internet fast lanestheyre already legal

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FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler speaking to the cable industry in April 2014.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler repeatedly said today that his network neutrality proposal doesnt authorize Internet fast lanes.

This proposal does not provide or mandate paid prioritization, he said to reporters after the FCCs vote. There is nothing in this proposal that authorizes a fast lane. We ask questions but dont jump to conclusions.

Chairman: "There is one Internet: Not a fast internet. Not a slow Internet."

As Commissioner Mignon Clyburn said during today'smeeting, there are no rules at all against Internet service providers blocking traffic or prioritizing some content over others. Thats because a federal appeals court this year overturned the FCCs previous net neutrality order, issued in 2010.

While the FCCs latest proposal doesnt specifically authorize fast lanes, it didnt have to: theyre already legal. ISPs can charge Web services like Netflix (edge providers in regulatory parlance) for a faster path to consumers over the last mile of the network because there arent any enforceable rules against it.

The important thing is that today's proposal apparently doesnt ban fast lanes. The entire text of the FCCs order hasnt been released yet. It may become available today. (UPDATE: Here it is.) But a fact sheet the FCC releasedmakes it pretty obvious that paid prioritization won't be banned.

The fact sheet says the FCC is going to "Enhance the transparency rules to provide increased and specific information aboutbroadband providers practices for edge providers, consumers." This could include disclosing information on network practices, performance characteristics like upload and download speeds, latency and packet loss, and data caps.

But the important thing regarding fast lanes is that the FCC said it has "tentatively" concluded that disclosures to the public should include "congestion that may adversely impact the experience of end users, including atinterconnection points, and information about new practices, like any paidprioritization, to the extent that it is otherwise permitted." (Emphasis ours.)

Despite that admission, Wheeler repeatedlystressed the fact that the order itself doesn't authorize fast lanes without noting that they're already legal.

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The FCC doesnt have to authorize Internet fast lanestheyre already legal