Not so secret-secret spaceplane launches!

A prototype spaceplane developed for the US military has been launched into orbit from Florida.
The X-37B, which has been likened to a scaled-down space shuttle, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 1952 EDT (2352 GMT) on Thursday.


The military vehicle is unpiloted and will carry out the first autonomous re-entry and landing in the history of the US space programme.
The spacecraft can return experiments to Earth for inspection and analysis.
At 9m (29ft) long and with a 4.5m (15ft) wingspan, the reusable spaceplane is about one-quarter the size of the shuttle, with a large engine mounted at the rear of the ship for orbit changing.


The project could lead to the military's first operational spaceplane

"It might be at this point in time that [the Air Force is] going to roll the dice and see if something good happens." Dr Joan Johnson-Freese US Naval War College

And while the space shuttle uses a fuel-cell power-system, the military vehicle is powered by a solar array and lithium-ion batteries.

The precise objectives and cost of the programme are secret, but the first few flights will allow officials to evaluate the vehicle's performance and ensure components and systems work the way they are supposed to.

"The top priority technology demonstration on this first flight is the vehicle itself," Gary Payton, the US Air Force's deputy under secretary for space programs, told journalists on a teleconference this week.

"Getting it into orbit, getting the payload bay doors open, the solar array deployed, learning about on-orbit attitude control and bringing it all back."

The X-37B was launched vertically atop an Atlas V rocket. The Air Force (USAF) says the vehicle will be used to test advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics and high temperature structures and seals.

The Pentagon has not specified a duration for this mission, but the X-37B is designed to operate on orbit for up to 270 days: "In all honesty, we don't know when it's coming back for sure. It depends on the progress that we make with the on-orbit experiments, the on-orbit demonstrations," said Mr Payton.


Once the mission is complete, a command will be sent from the ground prompting the 5,000kg (11,000lb) spaceplane to fire its engine to re-enter the atmosphere - reportedly for landing at Vandenberg AFB in California.

Another two senior terrorists bite the big one.

Iraqi security forces killed a suspected senior leader of al Qaeda in Iraq during an operation in the northern city of Mosul, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

On Monday Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said two of the most wanted terrorist figures in Iraq had been killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation.

Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq – an umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq – were killed in a security operation in al-Tharthar, north of Baghdad, al-Maliki said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the deaths of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri during a news conference in Baghdad on Monday, showing photos of their bloody corpses to reporters. U.S. military officials also confirmed their deaths.

Ground forces surrounded a house and used rockets to kill the two, who were hiding inside, al-Maliki said.

The U.S. military said an American helicopter crashed during the assault, killing one U.S. soldier.

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden called the killing of the two a "potentially devastating blow" to al-Qaeda in Iraq.

There have been false alarms before about the fate of al-Masri. At least twice — in 2006 and in May 2007 — reports circulated that al-Masri was dead, but they were later proven wrong.

Al-Masri took over al-Qaeda in Iraq after its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed June 7, 2006, in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.

Little is known about al-Baghdadi, who is credited with organizing the Sunni insurgent campaign over the past years.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/19/iraq-leaders-al-qaeda.html#ixzz0lkaXarpX

Discovery Lands in Florida

With Commander Alan G. Poindexter and Pilot James P. Dutton Jr. at the controls, space shuttle Discovery descended to a smooth landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The STS-131 crew members concluded their successful mission to the International Space Station when the shuttle touched down at 9:08 a.m. EDT.

Discovery arrived at the station April 7, delivering more than seven tons of equipment and supplies. During the 10-day stay, Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson conducted three spacewalks to install a 1,700-pound ammonia tank assembly on the station’s exterior to replace a depleted predecessor. They also replaced a rate gyro assembly, retrieved a Japanese experiment and two debris shie

FAS: HS SAYS IT CANNOT STOP PRIVATE POSTING OF SENSITIVE INFO

The law does not authorize the Department of Homeland Security to regulate or penalize the publication of sensitive transportation security-related information on private websites, the Department advised Congress (pdf) recently.

Last December, the Transportation Security Administration inadvertently posted a manual marked "sensitive security information" that described procedures for screening of airline passengers. Following its discovery, the manual was removed from government websites, but it had already been mirrored on non-governmental websites that continue to host the document.

What is DHS going to do about that?, several members of Congress wanted to know. The answer is this: nothing.

"How has the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?" wrote Reps. Peter T. King (R-NY), Charles W. Dent (R-PA) and Gus M. Bilirakis (R-FL) on December 9 (pdf).

"No action has been initiated by the agency to address reposting on other web sites," DHS replied in a February 7 response that was released this month under the Freedom of Information Act. Existing "statutes do not provide specific authority to remedy the dissemination of SSI [sensitive security information] by noncovered persons [who are not subject to DHS jurisdiction]."

If Congress wanted to try to compel removal of such material from public websites, DHS said, "specific new statutory authority... would be necessary to provide enhanced legal support to pursue the full range of civil and criminal remedies against unauthorized dissemination of SSI by persons who are not covered persons as defined by 49 C.F.R. §1520.7."

PLEASE VISIT FAS HERE

Monday Landings Waved Off

Mission Control Entry Flight Director Bryan Lunney has given Discovery's seven astronauts a "no go" to perform the deorbit burn and decided to wave off the 10:23 a.m. EDT landing opportunity because of continued low cloud coverage at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

The first Kennedy landing opportunity Tuesday is on orbit 237 with a deorbit burn at 6:28 a.m. and landing at 7:34 a.m. Edwards Air Force Base also is expected to be called up for Tuesday landing opportunities.