Hot damn!

Space shuttle Discovery was carefully placed atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier during mating operations in preparation for its ferry flight from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA photo / Tony Landis)

Improving weather conditions over the south and southeastern portions of the United States have led NASA managers to approve beginning space shuttle Discovery’s ferry flight from Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday morning.

Discovery, mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, is slated to lift off Edwards’ main runway 04R at about 6:20 a.m. Sunday, or about 20 minutes before sunrise, on the first leg of the ferry flight. The 747-shuttle combo is scheduled to make a refueling stop at Rick Husband International Airport in Amarillo, Texas, and one other intermediate stop before reaching Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, La., Sunday evening, and then continue on from Barksdale to Kennedy Monday morning.

United Space Alliance technicians and NASA personnel at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards finished preparations for the 2,500 mile ferry flight overnight Friday.

Although Edwards Air Force Base will not be open to the public for viewing of the shuttle /747 combo’s departure, good viewing is possible from a position along 20 Mule Team Road a few miles west of the town of Boron immediately north of the base’s northern boundary.

AVWK: Skunk works Unveils MQX Details

Posted by Graham Warwick

Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works has unveiled a concept for the US Air Force's planned MQ-X follow-on to its MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs. It's stealthy, as one would expect from the Skunks, and it's modular, which is the USAF's watchword for future unmanned aircraft, And it has a couple of unusual features.


Concept: Lockheed Martin

The propulsion system is a hybrid: a pair of jet engines for high transit and dash speed, and a turbo-diesel driving a propeller for longer, lower-speed loiter. Used together, the engines can push the UAV to higher altitudes so it can bridge the gap between the medium-altitude Reaper and high-altitude Global Hawk.

The 300hp-class turbo-diesel engine is housed in the pod on top of the central fin, which is there so the propeller can be mounted high between the V tails to shield it from radar.

The fuselage is F-22/F-35-sized, with internal sensor and weapons bays, and is designed to take mission-specific modular wings. A shorter wing would be fitted for the medium-altitude hunter/killer role, providing higher speed at the expense of endurance, which would be around 20-30h at 20,000-25,000ft. A longer wing would boost altitude capability to above 40,000ft and endurance beyond 40h for more-persistent ISR missions.

The USAF is putting the finishing touches to its requirements for MQ-X, so we should know more soon. Meanwhile, the Skunks' design may look familiar to some Ares readers, as something very similar appeared on a Raytheon briefing chart at the Paris air show. I haven't got to the bottom of that.

Shuttle ferry delayed again.

Space shuttle Discovery was carefully placed atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier during mating operations in preparation for its ferry flight from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. (NASA photo / Tony Landis)

Dynamic weather over the southern and eastern portions of the United States will keep space shuttle Discovery at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., at least through Saturday. NASA ferry flight managers and flight crews are now looking to begin the 2,500-mile cross-country trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlier than early Sunday morning, Sept. 20.

Managers decided Friday that a slow-moving low-pressure weather system over northeast Texas that has been influencing weather across the southeast was too dynamic and unstable to try to begin the flight Saturday. They will meet again with flight crews and the weather team Saturday at NASA Dryden to discuss a possible Sunday morning departure and decide the best route to get Discovery back to Kennedy within two days, weather permitting.

CNN) -- A terror plot that came to light this week following raids in New York may have been targeting a major transportation center, sources close to the investigation told CNN on Thursday.

A lawyer for Najibullah Zazi disputed claims that bomb-making plans were found on his client's computer.

There was planning and preparation for an attack, presumably in the New York area, where there would be a large number of people and where security screening is lax such as a large railroad or subway station, essentially where there is no airport-style screening, the sources said.

Authorities are taking the plot seriously, because, the sources said, they think it involves "real-deal terrorists" operating and planning an attack in America.

Because of that fear, an unprecedented level of resources is being devoted to the investigation, the sources said. That includes the placement of a hostage rescue team in New York for possible raids and the deployment of additional resources to the Denver area in Colorado, where another phase of the probe is taking place.

The federal terrorism probe emerged Monday with a series of raids in the New York borough of Queens.

A former counterterrorism official who has been briefed on the investigation said bomb instructions were found, but could not say where.

The former official said backpacks, computers and maps were found during the searches in New York, and field tests turned up positive for explosives. But initial tests often yield false positives, and the former official was unaware whether more definitive tests had been concluded.

The backpacks support a theory that an attack similar to the 2004 train bombings in Madrid, Spain, was being planned.

The Madrid bombings -- coordinated attacks on four morning-rush commuter trains -- killed 191 people and wounded more than 1,800.

A 24-year-old Colorado resident is at the center of the probe and met Thursday with FBI agents in Denver for a second day as his lawyer disputed a report that bomb-making plans were found on the man's computer. Watch why Colorado man is being questioned by authorities »

Federal agents searched Najibullah Zazi's apartment and another home in the same Denver suburb on Wednesday in connection with the terrorism investigation. A law enforcement official told CNN that diagrams showing how to make bombs were found on the computer that Zazi had with him when he was stopped in New York during a recent visit, but his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, dismissed that allegation.

"There's no diagram of a bomb. There's no information like that," Folsom told reporters as he walked his client to his second meeting with federal agents. If something like that had turned up on Zazi's computer, he asked, "Do you really think the FBI would have allowed us to walk out of here last night?"

Zazi, an Afghan national, gave writing, fingerprint and DNA samples to FBI agents Wednesday during a "very friendly, very cordial" interview, Folsom said. He said Zazi has no ties to terrorism, and he thinks his client drew investigators' attention "because he stayed at a house owned by an old friend of his who was under observation from the FBI."

According to law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation, the Colorado searches were part of a probe that began with Zazi and led to New York.

Zazi has driven limousines for First ABC Transportation in suburban Aurora, near Denver International Airport, for about six months, according to a worker who answered the phone at the company.

The man, who identified himself only as "Joe," said he was startled to hear Zazi was under investigation. He said Zazi was a hard-working man who was single-handedly supporting his family.

"He is a young, nerdy, kind of good kid -- nothing to do with religious or anything," the man said. "He is a kid."

Joe said co-workers called Zazi "the bearded one" in a lighthearted way. When he heard that Zazi might be associated with a bomb plot, he said, "I was literally laughing."

"I agree with his lawyer he has nothing to do with that kind of stuff. His character is much better than that," Joe said.

The case began with a New York police informant, with authorized FBI wiretaps used to further develop the case, the former counterterrorism official said. Agents launched the raids after police stopped Zazi on the George Washington Bridge during a recent visit to New York, raising concerns that he would figure out he was under surveillance, the former official told CNN.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Colorado man questioned in terror probe.

DENVER, Colorado (CNN) -- A Colorado resident at the center of a federal terrorism probe met with FBI agents for a second day Thursday as his lawyer disputed a report that bomb-making plans were found on the man's computer.


FBI agents search the apartment of Naijbullah Zazi on Wednesday in connection with a terror investigation.

Federal agents searched Najibullah Zazi's apartment and another home in the same Denver suburb on Wednesday in connection with the terrorism probe, which emerged Monday with a series of raids in the New York borough of Queens. A law enforcement official told CNN that diagrams showing how to make bombs were found on the computer Zazi had with him when he was stopped in New York during a recent visit, but his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, dismissed that allegation.

"There's no diagram of a bomb. There's no information like that," Folsom told reporters as he walked his client to his second meeting with federal agents. If something like that had turned up on Zazi's computer, he said, "Do you really think the FBI would have allowed us to walk out of here last night?"

Zazi, an Afghan national, gave writing, fingerprint and DNA samples to FBI agents Wednesday during a "very friendly, very cordial" interview, Folsom said. He said Zazi has no ties to terrorism, and he believes his client drew investigators' attention "because he stayed at a house owned by an old friend of his who was under observation from the FBI."

A former counterterrorism official briefed on the investigation also said bomb instructions were found, but could not say where. The former official said backpacks, computers and maps were found during the searches in New York, and field tests turned up positive for explosives. But initial tests often yield false positives, and the former official was unaware whether more definitive tests had been concluded.

The case began with a New York police informant, with authorized FBI wiretaps used to further develop the case, the former counterterrorism official said. Agents launched the raids after police stopped Zazi on the George Washington Bridge during a recent visit to New York, raising concerns that he would figure out he was under surveillance, the former official told CNN.

Wednesday, Folsom said Zazi stayed in one of the apartments that was raided after he drove to New York from Denver to sort out a business issue. Sources close to the investigation told CNN that the Queens raids were spurred by a confluence of events in the city -- including the upcoming U.N. General Assembly session and President Obama's Wall Street speech on Monday.

It's believed to be the first time Afghan nationals are suspected of possible involvement in an alleged terror plot targeting the United States. But FBI director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee Wednesday that he did not believe the investigation had revealed any "imminent danger."