Iran close to having the bomb

GTON (CNN) -- Iranian scientists have reached "nuclear weapons breakout capability," according to a new report based on findings of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.


A building housing the reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the Iranian port town of Bushehr.

The Institute for Science and International Security report concludes Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon but does have enough low-enriched uranium for a single nuclear weapon.

The type of uranium the International Atomic Energy Agency report says Iran has would have to be further enriched to make it weapons-grade.

The institute drew its conclusions from an IAEA report dated February 19, 2009. An official in the IAEA confirmed the authenticity of the report for CNN, but didn't want to be named.

The IAEA report is posted on the Web site of ISIS, a Washington-based non-profit and non-partisan institution focused on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

It also finds that while Iran has dramatically increased installation of centrifuges that can be used for enriching uranium -- from 4,000 to 5,400 -- its scientists aren't using the new units yet. They remain in "research and development mode."

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In the IAEA report, the agency also says no substantive progress has been made in resolving issues about possible "military dimensions" to Iran's nuclear program.

Iran has consistently denied the weapons allegations, calling them "baseless" and "fabricated."

Texas Fireball Found?

UNT astronomers say they found 2 samples of meteor
By REGINA L. BURNS
Associated Press Writer

DALLAS — Two samples of fresh material the "size of large pecans" from a meteor that alarmed numerous residents when it streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday have been found by two University of North Texas astronomers in a pasture east of the small town of West.

"The pieces that we found have beautiful ablation crust. And it's black like charcoal. Underneath this crust the color of the rock is concrete like gray," said Ron DiLulio, director of the planetarium and astronomy lab program at the University of North Texas in Denton.

DiLulio and Preston Starr, UNT's observatory manager, said they found the pieces Wednesday about 5 p.m. after starting their search from Fort Worth at 3 a.m. using calculations from all of the calls they had received.

DiLulio said they had just about given up looking and were driving back when a friend called and asked to meet them at a certain intersection. They said that coincided with conversations they had had earlier that day with citizens at a restaurant.

"We decided rather than try to get permission from landowners, there would be pieces in a line that would spread out a mile across. We decided to just do the county roads and we just started walking down that road and it's fairly easy to see. It jumped out at us within 15 minutes," DiLulio said.

"We came back to where our gut instinct told us," Starr said. He said the McLennan County sheriff and deputies confirmed what citizens had told them.

"The sheriff told his deputy to take us out there," DiLulio said.

The astronomers placed the samples in ZipLoc bags to keep out the air. They plan to transfer the samples to membrane cases and take them to the university for additional study.

People on Sunday reported seeing a fireball streak across the sky and DiLulio said the reason it created such a fireball was because the meteor expanded and broke into pieces.

The pair said they were not alone in the search and ran into others including "a commercial meteorite hunter and we wanted to get there so we could have it first for science," DiLulio said.

Starr said the pair had been gathering information since they initially learned of the meteor's appearance.

"We did a lot of pre-planning. We looked at the angles of what they saw in the sky and we were able to map it all out. We put a plan together and we drove around small country roads. Texas has lots of small farm to market roads," Starr said.

DiLulio said he thinks there are larger pieces still to be found.

"We feel that there are probably several hundred pieces. What happens when these things fall — they may break apart. We want to find these early and study the primitive material before our atmosphere affects them," DiLulio said

He said the pair planned on returning to the areas where they had searched.

"Everytime we find one we mark where it is on the map and we can measure how much material actually hit the surface of the earth," DiLulio said.

West is about 70 miles south of Dallas.

Marines Eye Consolidation Of V-22 Basing

Marines Eye Consolidation Of V-22 Basing: "Proposed action to base up to 10 MV-22 squadrons on the West Coast to replace nine squadrons in California"

(Via Aerospace Daily & Defense Report on AviationWeek.com.)

Pop Mech Article on UFO myths.

in Popular Mechanics ( March issue) this month there is an excellent cover story by my friend and fellow writer Phil Patton.

I'm not just saying it is excellent because I am quoted within, but because it is a well researched piece, exploring the current UFO myths and in particular the recent Stephenville, Texas UFO sighting.

True Believers will hate it, but Interceptors will concur, that most of what UFO buffs are seeing, are most likely the products of a even more mysterious world known as the Black World.

Some of these "UFOs" are being flown by little green men - but by "men" - I do mean humans wearing OD green flight suits.

In any event, its a good read and I hope you buy a copy.

-Steve Douglass

PM Investigates: UFO Myths
Glowing orbs
Strings of lights
Odd Phenomena
- what's really behind the new sightings.

Satellites that keep on working

Satellites that keep on working: "

The US Air Force’s Defense Satellite Communications System III constellation has bragging rights as the longest-serving on-orbit military communications system in US history.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the system has surpassed 200 years of uninterrupted secure voice and high-data rate communications for Defense Department users worldwide. In all, 14 DSCS III spacecraft have been built at the company’s Sunnyvale, Calif., facility.''

Their design life is 10 years but smart management of station keeping fuel, plus a solid design and construction, mean that 10 of them have provided a total of 71 years beyond their design life.'

There are nine operating currently, beginning with B12 launched on July 2, 1992, through the latest, B6 launched August 29, 2003'

Alas, all good things come to an end.''

DSCS’ replacement, the Boeing-built Wideband Global Satcom constellation,'is on its way. WGS-1 is in operation; WGS-2 is due for launch Mar. 13 and WGS-3 in July. The new spacecraft take advantage of innovations in commercial comsat technology and are more capable than the older DSCS III design.'

Phase-out of DSCS III is expected in 2011 after the launch of WGS-5. The network will grow to six satellites in 2013.'

Meanwhile, LockMart is busy on the Advanced Extremely High Frequency program, a replacement for the Milstar constellation. The first AEHF is to be delivered to the Air Force nest year. AEHF will increase data rates by a factor of five over Milstar and double the number of possible connections.'

Milstar will pass its 50^th year of on orbit operations in April.

''"

(Via On Space.)