Space Shuttle Discovery flight rescheduled for Dec 3

If all goes well, Discovery should be ready to launch on Dec. 3 at 2:52 a.m. EST (0752 GMT), NASA officials said in an update. A series of safety reviews is still ahead before the shuttle is completely cleared for flight, they added.

Discovery has been stuck on Earth since Nov. 5, when a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak on the shuttle's external tank forced NASA to stand down for repairs. Foul weather and other glitches thwarted several earlier launch attempts that week.

Since then, NASA engineers have replaced a misaligned seal to plug the hydrogen leak and are now working to reinforce metal ribs on the external tank where cracks were discovered while the leak repairs were being performed.

The cracks are on two of 108 metal ribs around the upper middle portion of the tank that provide structural support. There are two cracks on each of the ribs. NASA shuttle technicians are installing double-wide ribs – called doublers – to reinforce the cracked areas.

Another crack, this one in the exterior foam insulation on Discovery's fuel tank, will also be repaired.

While the fuel tank rib repairs are under way, NASA shuttle program managers plan to review their rationale for flying Discovery with the repairs. If during that meeting, slated for Nov. 24, shuttle officials agree that Discovery is ready to fly, the space agency will hold a final review on Nov. 29 to clear the shuttle for liftoff, NASA officials said.

NASA's upcoming STS-133 shuttle mission will be the final flight of shuttle Discovery before it is retired along with the rest of the U.S. orbiter fleet in 2011.

The 11-day mission will send a crew of six astronauts to the International Space Station to deliver a storage room for the orbiting lab, as well as a humanoid robot built designed to help astronauts with work in space. Two spacewalks are planned.

NASA's upcoming window to launch Discovery opens on Nov. 30 and will close around Dec. 6 to avoid heating concerns caused by unfavorable sun angles at the space station after that, agency officials have said. NASA's shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to fly to the station during the next available window, which opens in late February.

NASA is retiring the space shuttle fleet to make way for a new plan aimed at sending astronauts to visit an asteroid by 2025. After Discovery's flight, NASA has only one more mission – Endeavour's – scheduled before the fleet is retired.

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Search on for missing F-22 pilot

Dozens of Army and Air Force personnel and vehicles are heading into the Alaska wilderness 100 miles north of Anchorage to search for the missing pilot of an F-22 Raptor that crashed Tuesday night.

The stealth fighter jet vanished from radar and lost contact with its wingman at about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday. After spotting wreckage Wednesday morning, pararescuemen with the Alaska Air National Guard landed at the crash site.

"They said it looked like a crater," said Maj. Guy Hayes with the Guard's Rescue Coordination Center. "There was a stream nearby that was creating a lot of water in the crash site."

The searchers did not find the pilot, identified as Capt. Jeffrey Haney by his stepdad in the Jackson Citizen Patriot, a Michigan newspaper. The Air Force would not name the pilot until they found him, spokesmen said. Haney has a wife and two daughters, according to the Citizen Patriot.

After spending Tuesday night scanning the mountainous area southeast of Cantwell, searchers resumed Wednesday and spotted what looked like the crash site south of the Denali Highway The crater is in a drainage between two mountains and had partially filled with water, Hayes said.

First they had to get the right gear for hazardous materials from the crashed plane, Hayes said. It's normal to expect fuel and other hazardous material at a plane crash, he said. The searchers were on the ground at the site from 1 or 2 p.m. until dark, Hayes said.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson spokesman John Pennell said they plane was not carrying explosives but did have flares and chaff onboard, as well as training rounds.

Hundreds of Air Force and Army personnel are helping with the "huge logistical operation" of a ground search for the pilot, Pennell said. The state Department of Transportation is plowing roads in the area to help get equipment to the area as the search moves into a more long-term phase, Pennell said. A convoy of Army and Air Force vehicles was on its way to the area, he said.


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Scotts seek source of mystery blast ...

(CNN) -- Police in Scotland are investigating a mysterious explosion in a forest, authorities said Thursday.

Police received a report from a citizen of what sounded like a blast in Garadhban Forest in Gartocharn about noon local time Wednesday, Strathclyde police said in a written statement. Officials responding to the report "discovered some damage to the wooded area within the forest that would suggest some short of explosion had occurred," the statement said.

"I would stress that the site is secure and that there is no risk to public safety," said Chief Superintendent Calum Murray, divisional commander for Argyll, Bute and West Dunbartonshire, in the statement. He said agencies from across the United Kingdom are assisting in the investigation, and asked anyone who has seen anything suspicious to notify police.
Gartocharn is about 20 miles northwest of Glasgow, Scotland

F-22 Crashes in Alaska- Pilot missing

11/17/2010 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Search and rescue aircraft have discovered the apparent wreckage of an Air Force F-22 assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The aircraft lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time yesterday while on a nighttime training mission.

To continue searching for the missing pilot, a rescue team is being dispatched to the area, approximately 100 miles north of Anchorage, by the Alaska Air National Guard Rescue Coordination Center, the 3rd Wing and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Air Force Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander, held a press conference at 1 p.m. to make a statement and answer questions from the media.

"Last night a 'two-ship' of F-22s, Rocky one and Rocky three, were finished with training ... about 100 miles north of here," McMullen said.

Everything was normal until about 7:40 p.m., McMullen said, when Rocky 3 fell off the radar scope and the pilot lost communications.

"The other pilot (Rocky one) went to a tanker, got gas and then continued to look for the mishap pilot," McMullen continued. "He could not find him. At that time, the Alaska Air National Guard scrambled a C-130 and rescue helicopters. They searched the entire night."
About 10:15 a.m., an Alaska Air National Guard helicopter found a site that fits the data and the description of where we thought the mishap probably occurred, McMullen said.

"They found the crash site. They were unable to land at the crash site and take a closer look. We scrambled another helicopter that should be in the area in the next few moments." McMullen said.

McMullen thanked the Alaskan community and Alaska Air National Guard for their support at such a difficult time.

The name of the pilot is being withheld until the pilot's status is determined.

More information will be released as it becomes available.

Air Force searching for missing F-22.

BREAKING: Air Force says possible wreckage spotted. Search for pilot underway.

(Nov. 17) -- The Air Force is searching today for a missing F-22 fighter jet that lost contact with its Alaskan base during a training mission. The plane, which is based at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, was carrying one pilot when it lost communication at 7:42 p.m. Tuesday local time. The Air Force has not released the name of the pilot.

The F-22 is a single-seat, twin-engine stealth plane built by Lockheed Martin. The missing plane became active in the service in the mid 2000s and was sent to Elmendorf in 2007, according to The Washington Post.

The Air Force describes the jet in a publicly available fact sheet:
The F-22, a critical component of the Global Strike Task Force, is designed to project air dominance, rapidly and at great distances and defeat threats attempting to deny access to our nation's Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. The F-22 cannot be matched by any known or projected fighter aircraft.


The F-22 can "supercruise" or fly at supersonic speeds (greater than Mach 1.5) without using its afterburner. As of November 2009, each plane cost $143 million and the Air Force had 137 of them, according to Fox News. Last year, Congress put a hold on F-22 production by eliminating the $1.75 billion that would have paid for seven new fighter jets.


Update: According to several sources this morning, an Air Force F-22 Raptor is long overdue in returning from a training flight that left from Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. Air controllers lost contact with the jet Tuesday at 7:40 p.m. AKST, and a Pentagon spokesperson told CNN that the jet is "believed to be crashed."

The story is still developing, but a statement from JBER says that search and rescue crews are already on the job, and are focusing their attention on the aircraft's last known location, an area northeast of Cantwell.

The Air Force has not released the pilot's name, but Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander said in the statement that the pilot is the Wing's main concern. "Right now, our top priority is to try to bring the pilot home safely," he said. "We will continue to search until we find our pilot. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing Airman."

UPDATE: ANCHORAGE, Alaska —
Searchers are concentrating on an area near Alaska's Denali National Park for an overdue Air Force F-22 fighter jet.

The jet, from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage, was on a training mission when it lost contact with air traffic control Tuesday night. The plane carries one pilot.

The Alaska Air National Guard is leading the search effort, using three helicopters and a cargo plane. In a news release, the guard says the F-22 was flying with another fighter, which also lost contact with it.

The search area is concentrated near Cantwell on the east side of the national park and about 150 miles north of Anchorage.

Spokeswoman Corinna Jones said Tuesday night that the jet, with one pilot aboard, was on a training mission out of the base and lost contact with air traffic control at 7:40 p.m. Alaska time.
“Right now, our top priority is to try to bring the pilot home safely,” said Col. Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander, in a release. “We will continue to search until we find our pilot. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of this missing Airman.”

Jones says a search is under way. She declined to identify the pilot, but says the aircraft is assigned to Elmendorf's 3rd Wing.