NASA's $424 Million Global Warming Satellite Fails to Reach Orbit

Oops. A half a billion here, a half a billion there. Pretty soon all this wasted money starts adding up.

A rocket that blasted off early Friday carrying an Earth-observation satellite has failed to reach orbit, NASA said.

The Taurus XL rocket carrying NASA's Glory satellite lifted off about 2:10 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base, officials said .

But NASA said in a brief statement that a protective shell or fairing atop the rocket did not separate from the satellite as it should have about three minutes after the launch.

That left the Glory spacecraft without the velocity to reach orbit, NASA launch commentator George Diller said.

"The flight was going well until the time of fairing separation," Diller said. "We did not have a successful fairing separation from the Taurus and there was insufficient velocity with the fairing still on for the vehicle to achieve orbit."

We're always told what a waste of money missile defense is, but those tests actually work.

The $424 million mission is managed by the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

Friday's launch came after engineers spent more than a week troubleshooting a glitch that led to a last-minute scrub.

Glory was supposed to study tiny atmospheric particles known as aerosols, which reflect and trap sunlight. The vast majority occurs naturally, spewed into the atmosphere by volcanoes, forest fires and desert storms. Aerosols can also come from manmade sources such as the burning of fossil fuel.

But don't worry. Despite repeated failures now, we'll continues to waste billions pursuing the causes of mythical global warming.

NASA suffered a mishap two years ago when a global warming satellite also destined to join the Earth-observation network crashed into the ocean near Antarctica after launching from the same kind of rocket that carried Glory. An accident board was formed to investigate and corrective action was taken to prevent future problems. A duplicate is now scheduled to fly from Vandenberg in 2013.

Neil Armstrong Hammers Obama: A 'Long Downhill Slide to Mediocrity'

What these astronauts fail to realize is Barack Obama's plans just aren't by happenstance, they're by design. He hates the fact that America is the leader in anything, let alone in space. The guy will spend trillions to wreck our healthcare system and throw a few billion to NASA and call it some grand achievement.

The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort.

Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong’s open letter was also signed by Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; and Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, who is marking the 40th anniversary of his famous lunar non-landing this week.

The letter was released to NBC News just two days in advance of Obama’s trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a space policy summit. Obama is expected to flesh out his vision for the space agency's future during his speech at the summit.

The most controversial part of the president's policy is the cancellation of the Constellation program, which was aimed at developing a new generation of Ares rockets and Orion spacecraft to send astronauts into Earth orbit and beyond.

The idea was that such spacecraft would replace NASA's space shuttle fleet, which is to be retired by the end of this year. But acting on the advice of an independent panel, the Obama administration determined that the Constellation program could not fulfill NASA's goals on the required timetable. NASA's budget proposal, released in February, puts the return to the moon on indefinite hold and instead focuses of developing technologies for future exploration.

Canceling Constellation could lead to thousands of layoffs at some of America's biggest aerospace contractors, including Lockheed Martin, the Boeing Co. and ATK. Such job losses are among the factors behind congressional opposition to the cancellation. Armstrong and his fellow astronauts emphasize the bigger implications, however, and say in their letter that the decision would put the nation on a "long downhill slide to mediocrity."

The letter notes that the U.S. space effort will be dependent for years to come on the Russians for transport to the International Space Station, at a cost of more than $50 million per seat.

And just like his many speeches on healthcare when most doctors were ignored in favor of a handpicked audience dressed p in lab coats, Obama will again appear before an adoring audience at NASA.

But the trip became clouded in controversy when Nasa workers who face losing their jobs claimed they were being excluded in favour of a hand picked audience that would give the President a sympathetic hearing.

Thousands of space shuttle engineers and other agency workers staged a weekend rally outside the space centre to protest against the job cuts.

Meanwhile, Senators representing Florida and Texas, where most of Nasa’s workers are employed, have promised to fight Obama’s proposals in Congress.

Missed Us By Thatttt Much

Last night, while you were sleeping and Stupak and Stevens were putting the finishing touches on their resignation announcements an asteroid passed between the earth and the moon, in what NASA calls a near miss.


Just a warm up for 2012?

Just Another Military Family

During the latest space shuttle mission one of the astronauts, Randy Bresnik, left behind a wife who was due to deliver a baby. The baby was indeed born while he was in space. What I didn't know what that Bresnik is a Colonel in the Marines. I thought he was Navy since while on one of his space walks he was wearing a wrist note pad with the sentiment of "Go Navy! Beat Army!" on it.

What I liked best about this interview is the response of the wife concerning having to give birth without her husband there.


"I am lucky in the fact that he was going to be home within a week, rather then 6 months to a year because he was deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan."

The good Colonel closes it out by thanking Fox News for supporting our service members.

Look Up!

Here is a screen grab I got from the video feed of the spacewalk taking place thousands of miles overhead. It gave me a chance to check out a new screen grab utility from Firefox and also give you a break from the usual news.

International Space Station

View With Earth in Background

Special Message

A Programming Note

Whether you call it Troofer White Paper____ or Kosling Conspiracy Theory No.___, National Geographic Channel has it.

There's Conspiracy Moon Landing, The Real Roswell and Secrets of the Freemasons.

Tonight.

As they say, check your local listings.

Assuming, of course, that the menehunes haven't taken control of your cable box.

Griffin: Not Sure Global Warming A Problem

Well, this surely will get the treehuggers in a lather. Actually, I see it already has greatly upset one of the Kos Kids. Aw, the poor baby.

Michael Griffin NASA Administrator has told America's National Public Radio that while he has no doubt a trend of global warming exists "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep that will air in Thursday's edition of NPR News' Morning Edition, Administrator Griffin explains: "I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Considering one of the pillars of liberalism is arrogance, that's not a stretch.

Meanwhile, a House panel will hold a "mountaintop summit" to hear from climate change experts. I'm sure sure that'll be a balanced discussion.

The U.S. House's special panel on global warming will hold a "mountaintop summit" next week to hear from climate change experts.

The Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming will hold a hearing at a mountain lodge in Franconia, N.H., Monday morning, chairman Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, announced today in a pun-laden press release.

"With concern over global warming reaching new peaks, the will ascend a White Mountain peak to hold the first ever mountaintop 'summit' on the issue," read the release.

Markey will call on several local witnesses to hear how global warming may affect New England and its tourism, jobs, and culture.

"I think it is important for the members of this new committee to get out of Washington, where concern about this issue has lagged, and engage directly with businesses, government and concerned citizens at the local level," Markey said.

With any luck, a spring blizzard will hit.

Goracle Mentor Issues Hysterical New Report

With much fanfare and dire warnings, ABC News has a report out citing a paper from James Hansen, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

Even "moderate additional" greenhouse emissions are likely to push Earth past "critical tipping points" with "dangerous consequences for the planet," according to research conducted by NASA and the Columbia University Earth Institute.

With just 10 more years of "business as usual" emissions from the burning of coal, oil and gas, says the NASA/Columbia paper, "it becomes impractical" to avoid "disastrous effects."

Oh no, the tipping point!

As the tipping points pass, "there is an acceleration, potentially uncontrollable, of emissions of vast natural stores of greenhouse gas," according to Hansen, who reviewed the study for ABC News today.

Hansen explains that dangerous feedback loops are being tracked in various regions of the planet.

Now one would think that since Hansen is of such high repute that ABC rushes this story out, they would tell a bit more about Hansen and his agenda. After all, they are major news outlet with bottomless resources and supposedly don't have any agenda (OK, stop laughing).

Well, a simple search let's us know just who James Hansen is.

As NASA scientist James Hansen, Al Gore's mentor on the global warming issue, concluded, "Empirical evidence does not lend much support to the notion that climate is headed precipitately toward more extreme heat and drought."

If Hansen has as little credibility as Gore, then this "report" is a worthless, agenda-driven study paid for by taxpayers.

Curious how ABC doesn't even mention Hansen's ties to Gore, isn't it?

Rock Star Goracle Plays Capitol Hill

Environmental extremist and gaseous windbag Al Gore takes to Capitol Hill today to lecture us all once again on the myths of global warming. Or climate change. Or whatever he and his cronies will decide to call it next. This is sure to turn into a circus and we'll be told that debate is over and we're all doomed.

Leading up to this, there are an assortment of stories this morning. Check out this absurd piece from the Contra Costa Times.

Boxer criticized for Gore e-mail

Attackers say call for campaign contributions in thank-you letter to former vice president is ethically questionable

Al Gore, global warming rock star, will grab the media spotlight today before Sen. Barbara Boxer's Environment and Public Works Committee -- and Boxer is using Gore's appearance to help raise money for her 2010 re-election campaign.

In an e-mail sent earlier this month, Boxer asked her supporters to sign an online thank-you card to Gore "for his many years of leadership and hard work," which she plans to give to him today. So far, more than 63,000 people have signed the card, according to a campaign consultant.

Next to the link for signing the card is a link to "contribute today" to the Friends of Barbara Boxer, which takes the user to instructions on how to donate online.

One campaign finance watchdog, Melanie Sloan, called the e-mail "inappropriate, coming close to an ethical line," because it suggests a link between a congressional hearing, legislative activity and campaign contributions.

Critics are referred to as "attackers" and Gore is called a rock star in the first sentence. No editorializing there.

Be it unethical or of questionable legality, it doesn't matter. Barbara Boxer is a Democrat. She can do as she pleases.

Not to be outdone, the Washington Post slavishly fawns over The Goracle:

Gore Returns to Capitol Hill a Hero and a Target

Al Gore wowed moviegoers and Hollywood elites with his Oscar-winning documentary on global warming. Today he faces a far tougher audience in Congress.

The 2000 Democratic presidential nominee will testify about the urgency of addressing climate change in two appearances on Capitol Hill before panels that include skeptics of the sort that Gore probably hasn't met on the red carpet.

For instance, Sen. James M. Inhofe (Okla.), senior Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee, once called global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetuated on the American people." The other witness scheduled to appear at the House Energy and Commerce Committee is Bjorn Lomborg of Copenhagen Business School, who asserts that global warming is real but argues that "the trouble is that the climate models show we can do very little" about it.

Look for Inhofe and Lomborg to be called deniers at some point. The audience will likely be stacked with environmental wackos and other assorted leftist nutcases preaching apocalyptic doom.

"He's the leader on global warming," said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the environmental committee and who invited Gore to testify. "He's world-famous," said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), another fan, who attended the premiere of "An Inconvenient Truth" and requested a personal photo op with Gore this afternoon.

Sounds like they want his autograph. Goodness, can they gush a little more?

Meanwhile, as noted over at Hot Air, actual scientists from NASA, not divinity school dropouts like Gore, note the sun could actually play a role in the earth's temperature rising all of one degree the past century. This is truly shocking news. Perhaps climatologists like Harry Reid and Barbara Boxer will put down their pom-poms and subpoena the sun to come down and explain itself.

Long-term climate records are a key to understanding how Earth's climate changed in the past and how it may change in the future. Direct measurements of light energy emitted by the sun, taken by satellites and other modern scientific techniques, suggest variations in the sun's activity influence Earth's long-term climate. However, there were no measured climate records of this type until the relatively recent scientific past.

Scientists have traditionally relied upon indirect data gathering methods to study climate in the Earth's past, such as drilling ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica. Such samples of accumulated snow and ice drilled from deep within ice sheets or glaciers contain trapped air bubbles whose composition can provide a picture of past climate conditions. Now, however, a group of NASA and university scientists has found a convincing link between long-term solar and climate variability in a unique and unexpected source: directly measured ancient water level records of the Nile, Earth's longest river.

In the end, expect a circus-like atmosphere on Capitol Hill and nothing of substance to arise out of this sham other than excessively fawning coverage from the networks.

Sister Toldjah exposes more Goracle hypocrisy.

UPDATE: After showing up late and avoiding the GOP, in his typical understated fashion, The Goracle warned of a planetary emergency. How original.

Former Vice President Al Gore, who organized the first congressional hearings on climate change three decades ago, returned to Capitol Hill today to urge lawmakers to address a ``planetary emergency'' by passing legislation to cut emissions that cause global warming.

``The consequences of inaction would be devastating to both the environment and the economy,'' Gore said in remarks to a joint hearing of the energy and science committees in the House of Representatives. He previously served on both panels.

Gore called for a freeze on the level of carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., followed by mandatory reductions. He also backed revising the tax code to discourage such pollution; raising fuel-economy standards for cars; having the U.S. spearhead a new international climate change treaty; requiring companies to disclose their carbon emissions; and banning the construction of new coal-fired power plants that can't capture and contain carbon pollution.

In other words, wreck the economy.

UPDATE II: Hot Air has had continuous coverage today. Turns out Gore delivered a copy of his testimony almost 24 hours late. What a fraud.

NASA Fires Astronut

Lisa Nowak has been jettisoned.

An astronaut charged with trying to kidnap a woman she allegedly believed was a romantic rival was fired by NASA on Wednesday, a month after she was arrested in Florida.

NASA officials said Lisa Nowak's dismissal did not reflect on the space agency's belief in her guilt or innocence. The agency said it lacked an administrative system to handle the allegations.

"Because Nowak is a naval officer on assignment to NASA, rather than a NASA civil servant, she is not subject to administrative action by NASA," agency officials said in a statement.

NASA's Amy Fisher

Sure, this might be a reach. Though we'll be trying to unravel this one for some time. Andrea Peyser takes a crack at it.

ON EARTH, Lisa Nowak masqueraded as a brilliant rocket scientist, wife and mother of three.

But the diaper-wearing wacko-naut went into orbit - transforming into a scary, yet strangely familiar, creature.

She is the Amy Fisher of the space program.

This widely accomplished space lady, nicknamed "Robochick" for her skill at handling the space shuttle's robotic arm, turns out to be just another sexually needy, fiercely aggressive wild child. Only this wackjob was armed with pepper spray and - for reasons too icky to contemplate - a rubber hose.

It makes you wonder if NASA should channel Dr. Freud. Or maybe Oprah. Because Lisa Nowak proves two things beyond doubt.

No matter how educated and accomplished a woman is, down below, there can live a murderous teen, equipped with a wicked jealous streak and a hair-trigger temper.

And Lisa has revealed to the taxpaying public the answer to a question that has baffled space-watchers since the Mercury program. How do astronauts deal with space-related incontinence?

Depends.

When Astronauts Attack

She seems a little spaced out.

A NASA astronaut is being held without bail after police say she attacked her rival for another astronaut's attention at Orlando International Airport Monday.

Lisa Marie Nowak drove more than 12 hours from Texas to meet the 1 a.m. flight of a younger woman who had also been seeing the astronaut Nowak pined for, according to Orlando police.

Nowak -- who was a mission specialist on a Discovery launch last summer -- was wearing a trench coat and wig and had a knife, BB pistol, and latex gloves in her car, reports show. They also found diapers, which Nowak said she used so she wouldn't have to stop on the 1,000-mile drive. Reports show that after U.S. Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman's flight arrived, Nowak followed her to the airport's Blue Lot for long-term parking, tried to get into Shipman's car and then doused her with pepper spray.

Nowak, 43, is charged with attempted kidnapping, battery, attempted vehicle burglary with battery and destruction of evidence. Police considered her such a danger that they requested she be held without bail in the Orange County Jail, reports show.

Election Law Violated in Kerry's Bunny Suit Visit

The ignominy continues for the hapless Lerch. Not only was the NASA visit a campaign violation, it revives the infamous bunny suit photo once again.

He was against looking like an idiot before he looked like an idiot.

Sen. John Kerry's visit to Kennedy Space Center during the 2004 presidential campaign violated the law, according to a federal watchdog agency.

NASA allowed Kerry to conduct a political stump speech and rally at the space center and broadcasted it to KSC employees, and the latter part violates the law, the Office of Special Counsel ruled, according to Local 6 News partner Florida Today.

Beaming the presidential campaign rally to government employees all over the spaceport violates laws prohibiting electioneering using federal resources, according to the report.

Hot Air has more.