Mini robot shuttle X-37B coming home soon.

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FLIGHTGLOBAL: US Air Force Space Command is preparing to receive the Boeing X-37B when it descends from a year-long orbit as early as this weekend to land at Vandenberg AFB, California.

 "While the exact landing date and time will depend on technical and weather considerations, it is expected to occur during the early- to mid-June timeframe," says USAF.

The landing will mark roughly 15 months in orbit for the vehicle, which was designed for 270-day flights. The landing will mark the end of the second X-37 flight. The first flight was launched in April, 2010, and recovered to Vandenberg that December.

The spacecraft will remain at Vandenberg for post-flight checks and refurbishment. "The next flight (re-flight of OTV-1) is on track for this fall, but the exact date is still awaiting wing level approval as part of the normal scheduling process," says Spacecom.

 While its mission remains classified, Spacecom officials have publically praised the spacecraft's performance in orbit. The spacecraft itself is considered experimental, hence the X-designation. The craft has a payload bay carrying classified equipment, which has been the subject of feverish speculation. The project was originally run by NASA, but it was cut for budgetary reasons. Soon afterwards the project was reactivated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and turned over to the USAF.

Top Gun for a day in Vegas.

HENDERSON, Nevada –  Just about everyone wants to be Maverick (aka Tom Cruise) from "Top Gun", right?  Who can resist the cool flight suit, the aviator sunglasses --and let's not forget the flying.

Sky Combat Ace in Henderson, Nev. let's you pretend you're a fighter pilot high above desert --and you better buckle up because you're about to have the flight of your life!

"Well, I call it the most extreme thrill ride you can do in Las Vegas," said Richard "Tex" Coe, president of  Sky Combat Ace.

His company lets thrill seekers jump into the cockpit of of a one-of-a-kind fighter plane and fly around the mountainous terrain of the Silver State. And if you're up for it, the pilot will let you take control of the plane to perform hammerheads, tailslides, and aerial loops.

"What you're flying is these world class Extra 330s," said Coe. "They are the world's most advanced FAA certified aircrafts."

Packages range from $200 up to around $1,300, with flights going as long as 45 minutes.

No experience is needed either since a highly-trained fighter pilot takes you through a quick briefing before hopping in the plane. After the training session, your equipped with a flight suit and a badge with a nickname of your choice. Once you're in the cockpit, a pilot joins you in the plane and is there to guide you on your aerial journey.

There are a range of packages from the blood-pumping  Top Gun and Adrenaline Rush packages, to the more sedate, site seeing tours over the Hoover Dam and Red Rock Mountains.

"The main thing is to relax and have fun," said Coe. "These are the safest aerobatic aircrafts in the world."

Sky Combat Ace is relatively close to the Las Vegas strip, so here's an important piece of advice before you make that trip.

"I would not recommend a Las Vegas buffet and I would not recommend a three-alarm hangover either," said Coe.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2012/05/30/fighter-pilot-for-day/#ixzz1wYCWSwTy

Is Israel to blame for "Flame" virus?

DENVER POST/LONDON — Iran and other Middle East countries have been hit with a cunning computer virus that can eavesdrop on computer users and their co-workers and filch information from nearby cellphones, cybersecurity experts said Tuesday. And suspicion immediately fell on Israel as the culprit.

The Russian Internet security firm Kaspersky Lab ZAO said the "Flame" virus is unprecedented in size and complexity, with researcher Roel Schouwenberg marveling at its versatility.

"It can be used to spy on everything that a user is doing," he said.

Computers in Iran appear to have been particularly affected, and Kaspersky's conclusion that the virus was crafted at the behest of a national government fueled speculation it could be part of an Israeli-backed campaign of electronic sabotage against the Jewish state's archenemy.

The virus can activate a computer's audio systems to listen in on Skype calls or office chatter. It also can take screen shots, log keystrokes and — in one of its more novel functions— steal data from Bluetooth-enabled cellphones.

Schouwenberg said there is evidence to suggest the people behind Flame also helped craft Stuxnet, a virus that is believed to have attacked nuclear centrifuges in Iran in 2010. Many suspect Stuxnet was the work of Israeli intelligence. Tehran has not said whether it lost any data to Flame, but a unit of the Iranian communications and information technology ministry said it has produced an anti-virus capable of identifying and removing Flame from its computers.

Read more:Suspicion falls on Israel in Mideast computer virus - The Denver Posthttp://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_20736810/suspicion-falls-israel-mideast-computer-virus#ixzz1wPmTjvK2
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Space X inks deal for heavy lift rocket.

SPACEFLIGHT NOW:

SpaceX announced the first commercial contract for the Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday, unveiling a deal with Intelsat, the world's largest communications satellite operator.

The company's statement did not say when or where the launch will occur, but one industry source said Intelsat is eyeing 2017 or 2018 for the mission.

Intelsat has not identified a satellite for the launch, and Alex Horwitz, an Intelsat spokesperson, said the company has not decided whether the flight would launch a single or multiple payloads.

The contract's monetary value was also not disclosed, but SpaceX has said the Falcon Heavy would sell for between $80 million and $125 million per flight, about one-third the price of a less powerful 

SpaceX announced the first commercial contract for the Falcon Heavy rocket Tuesday, unveiling a deal with Intelsat, the world's largest communications satellite operator.

The Falcon Heavy is designed to haul the largest U.S. government and commercial satellites into orbit, and it could dispatch up to 30,000 pounds of payload on a trajectory to Mars.

Thierry Guillemin, Intelsat's chief technical officer, said Falcon Heavy would need to complete multiple test launches before Intelsat assigns one of its satellites for a flight.

"Intelsat has exacting technical standards and requirements for proven flight heritage for our satellite launches," Guillemin said. "We will work closely with SpaceX as the Falcon Heavy completes rigorous flight tests prior to our future launch requirements."

Powered off the ground by 27 engines, the 227-foot-tall rocket can lift up to 117,000 pounds into low Earth orbit. It is composed of three core stages and a single-engine upper stage based on the Falcon 9 rocket.

SpaceX is finishing development of the huge Falcon Heavy before shipping the first rocket to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for liftoff on a test flight in mid-2013.

SpaceX is paying for the demonstration flight in 2013 with internal funding.

"Access to space is essential for commercial operators and we want to support a new entrant with reliable products able to launch large spacecraft into [geosynchronous transfer orbit]," Horwitz said in a statement. "We believe SpaceX should be supported in their effort to develop reliable and powerful launch vehicles."

SpaceX spokesperson Kirstin Brost Grantham said the Intelsat mission's launch site has not been determined. The Vandenberg facility under construction for next year's test flight is positioned for launches into polar orbit, while Intelsat and other communications satellite operators deploy spacecraft into orbit over the equator.

SpaceX is considering a former shuttle launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center for future Falcon Heavy missions. The huge booster could also lift off from SpaceX's existing Cape Canaveral pad or a potential private launch site in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, or Puerto Rico.

Space taxi flies over Colorado

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. -- A space craft was tested in Broomfield on Tuesday.

The Dream Chaser is a crew space transportation system. It was built by Sierra Nevada Corporation in partnership with NASA.

The Dream Chaser was flown in Jefferson County on Tuesday. The crew of AirTracker7 spotted the space craft on the grass near Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Broomfield.


Officials told 7NEWS the spacecraft went through what's called a "captive carry" flight test on Tuesday.

The next test will be to put the spacecraft on an Atlas rocket and let it fly back to the ground, officials said.

Sierra Nevada hopes the Dream Chaser will be a fully-reusable spacecraft to transport people and cargo to the International Space Station and return them to Earth with a runway landing.

Learn more on Sierra Nevada's website.


The flight tests will initially prove the Dream Chaser's aerodynamic qualities using an engineering article being outfitted at Sierra Nevada's space campus in Louisville, Colo.

Using a combination of public and private funding, Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser to carry up to seven astronauts to the International Space Station and back to Earth. NASA has promised the company $125 million so far, with the bulk of the money already awarded to Sierra Nevada upon completion of predetermined development milestones.

"Our mission is very specific: to take crew and cargo to the International Space Station and to low Earth orbit," said Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada's executive vice president and chairman of its space systems division.

Sierra Nevada has provided the Dream Chaser program with "tens of millions" of dollars in internal funding, but less than NASA's total investment, according to Sirangelo.

The remaining NASA funds will be released after the Dream Chaser's preliminary design review, scheduled for late May, and captive and free flight tests over Colorado and California.

"We've made amazing progress without a lot of money," Sirangelo said.

The Dream Chaser is based on the HL-20 lifting body concept studied by NASA's Langley Research Center from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. Launching into orbit on top of a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, the spaceship will dock with the International Space Station and can stay there for more than six months. At the end of its mission, the craft will enter the atmosphere and make a piloted touchdown at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.