forgot to bid

They need to consider launching the next one in severe clear conditions. Just cuz.

Speaking of that, what did they say, 8000 people get laid off when the last one goes?

I guess Embraer and others are headed into the area to try to take advantage of the brain trust that exists there.

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http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...hannel=defense

The stealthier H-60 Black Hawk helicopters used in the May 1 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound may have been modified at Sikorsky’s Hawk Works facilities near Elmira, N.Y. That is where the United Technologies Corp. helicopter company has completed specialized, low-volume Black Hawk variants and has conducted prototyping activities, such as the construction of the X2 demonstrator.

One indicator of the current sensitivity of the Hawk Works facilities may be that attempts have been made to alter images of them in Google Earth, the leading public portal for aerial and satellite imagery. The Elmira Corning Regional Airport has been blurred out of images supplied by government agencies to Google Earth.

Carl Spackler

Yup. 8,000 of the most unbelievably creative and skilled science minds in the world.

Better that we keep full funding for social programs though...

Carl

buzzpat

...and turning NASA into an organization for Muslim outreach (which their director has said is one of their missions).

Columbia

At least the Isle of Man is getting into the space race with plans to be one of the next countries to go to the moon.

FT.com / UK / Business - One small step for the Isle of Man

One small step for the Isle of Man

By Andrew Bounds
Published: May 13 2011
The Isle of Man has become an unlikely competitor in the space race with the unveiling on the island last month of two Soviet-era space stations and a team planning a moon landing.

The offshore jurisdiction between Ireland and the UK aims to move off-earth as it becomes a power in space commerce after attracting a host of pioneers.

It has been named the fifth most likely country to return to the moon – after the US, Russia, China and India – and is helping develop a space tourism industry.

Excalibur Almaz, a US-Russian company, has bought the tested but unused space stations, part of an abandoned secret military reconnaissance programme, to refurbish as hotels and launch into orbit from Russia.

Chris Stott, chairman of ManSat, the private sector agency that markets the island’s space offering, said it aimed to be a “Venetian Republic of space”, reflecting the role that the small Italian city state played in world commerce in the 14th and 15th centuries.

“Space is one of the world’s largest industries that nobody’s ever heard of,” he said, with annual turnover of $175bn a year.

Odyssey Moon, a competitor for the £30m Google Lunar X Prize, is based on the island. The prize goes to the first private venture to land a vehicle on the moon and send back images.

Ascend, an industry analyst, rated the island 50-1 to win the race back to the lunar surface.

The island of 80,000 is also home to manufacturers such as CVI Technical Optics, which supplied parts for the camera used by the Mars lander in 2008 to send back pictures of snow on the planet.

Four large satellite operators, SES, Inmarsat, Avanti and Telesat, have operations on the island.

Tim Craine, head of space at the Department of Economic Development, said there was money to be made from the industry. An analysis by PwC found that it brought in £33m of government revenue from 2006 to 2010 as well as work for the island’s network of lawyers, accountants, bankers and manufacturers.

Back in 2006 a space industry on the island seemed like science fiction, he admitted. Now Futron, a US consultancy, says the island “punches above its weight”.

“It is part of our efforts to diversify the economy,” he said. “We can be very quick when we spot a niche to exploit it.”

With financial services accounting for 38 per cent of the £3.1bn economy, the government is keen to attract new businesses.

Allan Bell, economic development minister, said space also helped the island stand out from its peers in the competition for inward investment. “It gives us a USP [unique selling point]. I can say we have financial services and manufacturing and they say, ‘OK that’s nice but so have other jurisdictions.’ Then I say the bookies have us fifth most likely to get back to the moon and they get really interested.”

Excalibur Almaz is working closely with MIC JSC NPO Mashinstroyenia, the Russian company that designed the stations, as well as contractors including EADS Astrium, the Franco-German aerospace company. Money was raised from international investors but Buckner Hightower and Art Dula, the founders, are now the sole shareholders. They require another fundraising of hundreds of millions of dollars before beginning commercial flights from 2013.

Until then EA will use an ex-Soviet capsule for three-day stays. It has flown into space nine times and is the only spacecraft to have done so now the shuttle is being decommissioned, said Brendan Hightower, chief executive of EA’s US arm. “No one else has a proved re-entry vehicle. We are ahead of the competition.”

Andrew Corlett, a partner at Cains law firm and lawyer for EA, said the UK government was backing the island, which is independent but has the Queen as sovereign. “The Isle of Man wants to drive the UK in this area.

“It is a small island but people in the space industry seem to have a different perspective of earth.”

forgot to bid

What did it say? FT wants $ to read it.

It blows that their ending the shuttle program with no bridge to the Orion/Constellation program as of yet. You know the NASA folks are top notch, but every time something goes wrong all we hear is how their culture is messed up and to an extent I wouldn't mind seeing American private sector enter the fray.

But I don't like seeing U.S. manned space flight end at all much less see us pay double the previous rate to ride the Russian's teal machines into orbit.

Well, let's hope American ingenuity continues...

forgot to bid

Speaking of American ingenuity...



Now that should be New's avatar unless he goes with Salma in a bikini or something: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicago...n/photostream/


Not to be left out, I'll throw a bone to Boeing, here is their best match to the 9, the 747, and a Delta 747 no less, shaking during the Japan earthquake. The Captain does come on to confirm an earthquake:

80ktsClamp

Great PA, Carl.

Bucking Bar

Do you guys really like that thing?

Now this my friends is an airplane:

satchip

I'll throw a bone to airbus. The one thing airbus does better than Boeing is the toilet seats go past the vertical. You have to put in three degrees of left rudder trim in to get the 737 seat to stay up.

Bucking Bar

... actually it's right rudder. (top rudder as the AF guys say) Need to establish a left slip. Takes about 2,500 off the max altitude calculated by the FMC.

If you hear the autopilot kick off on the Captain, get stowed in a hurry. Those anti - reverse flow flapper valve things can not be trusted.