Have Blue?

I received this very interesting image today. It has no camera-related metadata attached so I don't know if it is authentic. It appears to be a photo of one of the Have Blue prototypes flying over the Groom Range. Can anyone verify this?

Disclaimer: As usual I am highly skeptical of anonymous sources and digital images without any EXIF data. Until it is proven otherwise - do not consider this image as genuine.

-Steve Douglass

Other previous published photos of Have Blue:





UPDATE: download full resolution image HERE

Contrast adjusted ( in Photoshop ) reveals what look like scratches. This may be a scan of a print or slide.

F-117 Stealth Trainer?

A friend of mine (Dean Muskett) was out at the local airport today and shot this photo of one of Holloman's T-38 jet trainers on the ramp. What surprised me was to see the tail stripe adorned with F-117s and not the usual F-22 Raptors.

There have been many (recent) sighting reports of F-117s still flying - even though they were retired a few years ago. Could this mean the F-117 and a training squadron has been reactivated? Something to look into.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.


Normal Holloman T-38 sporting Raptors on the tail.
USAF photo.



DISCUSSION LINK

Space X lifts off!

(CNN) -- The SpaceX commercial rocket lifted off at 10:43 a.m. ET.
The first commercial spacecraft slated to orbit Earth and re-enter successfully was originally scheduled to lift off shortly after 9 a.m. but was delayed.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule had a 9 a.m. to 12:22 p.m. ET launch window.

A successful launch and re-entry would be the latest steps toward commercial space ventures that could eventually ferry astronauts and cargo to the international space station.

In July, a test launch of the Falcon 9 rocket was "essentially a bullseye," SpaceX officials said after the rocket successfully pushed past the earth's atmosphere and deposited a mock-up of its Dragon space capsule in orbit.
NASA has been flying shuttles in low Earth orbit and going to and from the space station for 30 years. The administration would like to see whether private companies can do it cheaper and more efficiently, as the shuttle program is about to fly into retirement.


NASA has selected SpaceX and another company, Orbital Sciences, to each develop an orbital vehicle because the United States will not have its own way to get to the space station. The United States will be renting space from the Russians aboard their Soyuz spacecraft.

But the competition is rabid. SpaceX is the first company to reach the launchpad. By this summer, it had spent almost $400 million to get there.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, said in July that if all goes well after a series of test flights, SpaceX will be ready to begin flying cargo to the space station next year.
Musk says they can begin ferrying astronauts to the space station within three years.

WikiLeaks Assange jailed

London (CNN) -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was sent to jail Tuesday while a London court decides whether to order his extradition to Sweden.
The judge at the City of Westminster Magistrate's Court refused to grant Assange bail, despite several celebrities coming forward and offering to pay his surety.

Assange, who was in court with security guards on either side of him and his lawyer in front, must now stay in custody until December 14. It was not immediately clear if the court would decide on that date whether to release him.

In making his decision, the judge cited the fact that Assange gave no permanent address and has a nomadic lifestyle, and that he has access to significant funding that would make it easy for him to abscond.
English socialite Jemima Khan had offered to pay surety of 20,000 pounds ($31,500) and journalist John Pilger also offered a sum of money.

At the start of the proceedings, Assange was asked for his address and at first gave a post office box. When told that wasn't sufficient, he wrote a location on a piece of paper and handed it to the judge; it was later revealed that Assange wrote "Parkville, Victoria, Australia" on the paper.

The judge repeatedly said the case is "not about WikiLeaks," but about serious sexual offenses that allegedly occurred on three occasions with two women.
The media was allowed inside the courtroom initially but was later ordered to leave.
Assange appeared in court after turning himself in at a London police station. He was arrested on a Swedish warrant, though he has not been charged with any crime.


READ THE FULL STORY AT CNN

Blades ...

Army Chinooks photographed at Rick Husband Airport in Amarillo.

Photo by Steve Douglass