Russian ISS supply rocket crashes ...

(CNN) -- A Russian space freighter carrying cargo to the International Space Station has crashed in a remote area of Siberia, Russian emergency officials said Wednesday.
The unmanned Progress cargo craft, which launched at 7 p.m. in Kazakhstan (9 a.m. ET) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was due to dock with the ISS on Friday.
Rescue teams have been dispatched to the crash site of the Progress-M12M, the regional branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told CNN.

Officials could not immediately confirm whether the crash might have caused any damage on the ground. Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the rocket had come down in the Altai region.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian government space agency Roscosmos reported that the cargo ship had deviated from its planned trajectory shortly after takeoff, failing to reach the target orbit, and had disappeared from radars.

"The engine system's erratic functioning and its subsequent breakdown occurred during the operation of the third stage at the 325th second of the flight of the Soyuz-U carrier rocket with the Progress M-12M resupply vehicle," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The spacecraft was to deliver more than 3.5 tonnes (about 3.85 U.S. tons) of cargo to the crew of the ISS now orbiting the Earth, Roscosmos said.
The load included food supplies, medical equipment, personal hygiene items, as well as scientific equipment needed for experiments aboard the ISS, according to space officials.
There are currently six astronauts at the ISS -- three from Russia, two from the United States and one from Japan.

Libyan rebels flying surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout.

WIRED DANGER ROOM: The Libyan revolutionaries are more of a band of enthusiastic amateurs than experienced soldiers. But it turns out the rebels have the kind of weaponry usually possessed by advanced militaries: their very own drone.

Aeryon Labs, a Canadian defense firm, revealed on Tuesday that it had quietly provided the rebel forces with a teeny, tiny surveillance drone, called the Aeryon Scout. Small enough to fit into a backpack, the 3-pound, four-rotor robot gave Libyan forces eyes in the sky independent of the Predators, Fire Scout surveillance copters and manned spy planes that NATO flew overhead. Don’t worry, it’s not armed.

So far, the rebels have just one Scout among them, according to Marni McVicar, Aeryon’s vice president for business development. Working with a Canadian private security company called Zariba, Aeryon delivered the Scout “several weeks” ago to rebels in the Western port city of Misurata who used it, according to McVicar, to hasten their surprisingly rapid march to Tripoli.

The rebels needed barely a day of training to use a technology that many national armies would love to acquire. “We like to joke that it’s designed for people who are not that bright, have fat fingers and break things,” McVicar told Danger Room in a phone interview.

Listening to McVicar’s description, the Aeryon Scout sounds user-friendly enough to be operated by the car dealers, medical students and teachers who formed the impromptu Libyan rebel army in the west. Unlike many minidrones, the Scout isn’t controlled by a joystick. It’s run by a touchscreen tablet powered by Windows XP. The interface divides the screen among imagery (still or video) that the drone collects and displays in real time, a control dashboard and a programmable map of the area to fly over.

“You simply press on the screen and that’s where the vehicle goes,” McVicar said. “Press where you want the camera to focus on, and you’re done.”

It also gives the rebels another advantage that lots of armies desire: night vision. A thermal-imagery camera aboard the Scout provides an alternative to night-vision goggles, and from arguably a better vantage point. In the video above, released by Aeryon on Tuesday, nighttime images of Libyan artillery positions come into view from the Scout.

McVicar wouldn’t say how much the Libyan rebels paid for the drone. But she noted when asked that the drone retails for $100,000.

How the rebels even got the drone is fascinating as well. Representatives of Libya’s rebel government checked out demos of the Scout in Ottawa, Ontario, a few months ago. They were frustrated with not being able to see the aerial imagery NATO collected from its satellites, spy planes and drones, and wanted their own flying robots — although it’s been reported that NATO has coordinated surveillance with the rebels ahead of the Tripoli offensive. Some rebels had even taken to strapping cameras onto model airplanes. After being impressed with the Scout, the Transitional National Council decided it wanted something a bit more professional.

So a Canadian military vet, Charles Barlow, brought it personally into Misurata. Armed with a Canadian export license and the backpack-sized Scout, Barlow boarded a retrofitted tuna boat at Malta that was used to send humanitarian aid to Misurata despite NATO’s maritime blockade in late July. As far as Barlow is aware, Canada licensed the drone for sale to the Libyan rebels, but NATO didn’t know that the boat carried it into port, even after multiple hailings by NATO vessels.

Barlow, who runs a Canadian private-security firm called the Zariba Security Corporation, told Danger Room that he spent only about 24 hours teaching Misurata’s rebels how to use the Scout. On the bombed-out airfield near the port, Barlow launched about 10 test flights while Gadhafi’s artillery crashed down only a few miles away.

There was also little doubt about where the Libyan rebels wanted to use it. “The only imagery they wanted loaded on was Misurata to Tripoli, on that coastal road,” Barlow said. “I can’t hand-on-heart tell you it’s in Tripoli, but this was the main front out of Misurata.”

As Paul McLeary at Ares notes, the arrival of drone technology — even in micromachine form — to a band of rebels is yet another example of the rapid proliferation of unmanned vehicles away from the control of powerful state militaries. It was a big deal in 2005 when Hezbollah flew Iranian surveillance drones into Israel. “It’s certainly not the last time a nonstate actor gets its hands on this kind of technology,” McLeary writes.

READ MORE AT WIRED

Breaking: Gaddafi has lost Libya.

ABC NEWS: After 42 years, the dictator Colonel Moamar Gaddafi has lost power in Libya.

Most of Libya's capital city is now under rebel control. In the early hours of this morning Australian time, rebel troops swept into Gaddafi's last bastion, Tripoli.

His spokesman had warned that 65,000 troops would defend the city but if they were there they seem to have melted away.

Instead of resistance a camera crew from Britain's Sky News filmed thousands of Tripoli citizens celebrating in the central Green Square.

It's not clear where Colonel Gaddafi is though the Washington Post says he's left the capital but is still in Libya.

It's six months since the rebellion broke out in the east, in the second city of Benghazi.

Intense gunfire can and battles are reported in Tripoli - with reports of 95% of the city under control of rebel forces. There are reports that Gaddafi has left Tripoli but his whereabouts are unknown.

Pilot killed in Kansas City airshow ...

(CNN) -- The pilot of a high-performance biplane died Saturday afternoon when his aircraft crashed at an air show in Kansas City, Missouri, officials said.

The plane was doing maneuvers around 1:45 p.m. CT (2:45 p.m. ET) when it crashed into grass near a runway at the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, said Joe McBride, spokesman for the Kansas City Aviation Department.

Footage from CNN affiliate KMBC showed smoke and flames rising from the site. KMBC 9's Cliff Judy said he saw the scene from a distance and that the plane had been doing aerial stunts when it dipped below the tree line.

Air show director Ed Noyallis identified the victim as Bryan Jensen, who grew up in Iowa and flies for Delta Air Lines.

According to the show's website, Jensen piloted the "Beast," described as "a one of a kind aircraft."

The Kansas City Aviation Expo Air Show was closed for the remainder of the day. It will reopen Sunday, officials said.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were on site.

The public was never in any danger, Noyallis told reporters.

Red Arrow pilot killed in airshow crash.

BOURNEMOUTH, England, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A member of the elite Red Arrow stunt flying team was killed in a crash Saturday at an airshow in southern England, the British Ministry of Defense said.

The pilot was identified as Flight Lt. Jon Egging, British Forces News reported. Group Capt. Simon Blake, commandant of the RAF's Central Flying School, said Egging, nicknamed "Eggman," joined the Red Arrows last fall.

"A gifted aviator, he was chosen to fly in the Red 4 slot, on the right hand outside of the famous Diamond Nine formation -- an accolade in itself being the most demanding position allocated to a first-year pilot," Blake said.

The Red Arrows were performing at the Bournemouth Air Festival, which was scheduled to end Sunday. The team had completed a flawless series of acrobatics when one plane vanished, the Bournemouth Echo reported.

Witnesses described the rest of the team waiting on the tarmac at Bournemouth Airport for the ninth plane to land.

The plane crashed in the village of Throop.



Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/08/20/RAF-Red-Arrow-pilot-dies-in-airshow-crash/UPI-51851313867866/#ixzz1VcRCp4iW