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SPACE News:
20080525
-
 John
McCain -  Rick
Davis -  Criminal
-  Government
-  Money
-  Politics
-  Foreign
-  Military
- Satellite
- Imagery
-  Technology
-  Israel
-  Ukraine
-  Russia
-  Switzerland
-  Arizona
-  US
- 2008
Election - "Lobbying
labyrinth in McCain camp." ... "Rick Davis, the manager
of [Arizona Republican] Senator John McCain's [2008 Election] presidential
campaign, is a typical Washington insider in many ways, having long worked
as both a lobbyist and a political operative along the intersection of
politics, policy and money." ... "Take Davis's involvement with one of
his lesser-known lobbying clients, an Israeli company, Imagesat, which
sells satellite imagery. Along with lobbying for it, Davis became a consultant
to a private investment firm that had a financial
stake in it. That connection opened the door for him to get in on the ground
floor of other investments made by the firm, Pegasus Capital Advisors."
... "... Davis's business partner, Paul Manafort
[of the Davis Manafort lobbying firm], has met with the United States ambassador
in Ukrain e, a time when he was advising Viktor Yanukovich,
that country's onetime prime minister, a State Department official said.
Yanukovich's party was opposed by both the [Republican President] Bush
administration and McCain because it was closely tied to Vladimir Putin
[Russia's former President]." ... "Davis Manafort
received $120,000 from late 2004 to mid-2005 to lobby for Imagesat on both
defense and domestic security issues. Davis and Christian Ferry,
now McCain's deputy campaign manager, were the two lobbyists on the project,
the records show." ... "Along with his work as a lobbyist, Davis at the
time was also drawing a salary as the part-time president of the Reform
Institute, a Washington group that McCain helped found to reduce "the influence
of special interests" in politics and government." ... "In November 2005,
Pegasus bought a stake in a company called Traxys, which trades in industrial
metals." ... "In January 2006, just two months later, the subject of metals
trading came up in association with a social meeting Davis helped arrange
near Davos, Switzerland. At that meeting, first reported by The Washington
Post, McCain met the Russian aluminum magnate, Oleg Deripaska, who has
been barred from entering the United States apparently because of alleged
criminal ties." (1, 2)
-By Barry Meier with contributions by Kate Zernike
and Andrew E. Kramer -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
20080326
-
Antarctic
-
 Ice
-  History
- Global
-  Climate
- Science
- Space
- Cameras
- "Chunk
of Antarctic ice shelf collapses, putting larger area at risk:
Rapid melting on Wilkins Shelf is attributed to global warming." ... "A
chunk of Antarctic ice about seven times the size of Manhattan [island
borough of New York City, New York] has collapsed, scientists said Tuesday,
putting an even greater portion of glacial ice at risk." ... "Satellite
images show the runaway disintegration of a 160-square-mile chunk in western
Antarctica that started Feb. 28. It was the edge of the Wilkins Ice Shelf
and had been there for perhaps 1,500 years." ... "British
Antarctic Survey scientist David Vaughan attributed the melting to
rising sea temperature due to global warming." ... "Because scientists
noticed satellite images of the event within hours of its start, they diverted
satellite cameras and flew an airplane over the ongoing collapse to capture
rare
photos and video." -AP
via -LAtimes
20080312
-
John
McCain
- Corporate
- Politics
-
 European
- Built
-  Planes
- US
- Military
- Government
- Space
- Arizona
- Los
Angeles -  California
-  Texas
- 2008
Election - "McCain
Advisers Lobbied for Europeans to Win Air Force Tanker Deal."
... "A co-chairman of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
and Arizona] Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and other top
campaign advisers and supporters were lobbyists for the European Aeronautic
Defense and Space Company, part of a group that beat out Boeing for a $35
billion contract to build aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force."
... "Boeing, which has filed an appeal with the Government Accountability
Office, is expected to focus at least in part on Mr. McCain’s role in the
deal, including letters that he sent urging the Defense Department, in
evaluating the tanker bids, not to consider the potential effects of a
separate United States-Airbus trade dispute." ... "That contract was won
by the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, known as EADS, the
corporate parent of Airbus, and Northrop Grumman, the military contractor
based in Los Angeles [California]." ... "Mr. McCain’s campaign co-chairman,
former Representative Thomas Loeffler, a Texas Republican, also runs a
lobbying firm, the Loeffler Group, which earned $220,000 working for EADS
in 2007. Mr. Loeffler was the McCain campaign national finance chairman
when his firm was hired to lobby for EADS." ... "Two other Loeffler executives
who were registered to lobby for EADS are now top campaign advisers for
Mr. McCain: Susan Nelson, the finance director, and William L. Ball III,
the former Navy secretary. Ms. Nelson and Mr. Ball left the lobbying firm
to join the campaign." ... "Another major money raiser for Mr. McCain,
Wayne Berman, who was named vice chairman of the campaign last year, also
worked for EADS through another lobbying firm, Ogilvy Government Relations,
where he is a partner. Ogilvy earned $240,000 from EADS in 2007." ... "Also
supporting Mr. McCain and lobbying on behalf of EADS was Kirk Blalock,
a national chairman of Young Professionals for McCain and a former aide
to [Republican] President Bush. Mr. Blalock’s lobbying firm, Fierce, Isakowitz
& Blalock, earned $320,000 from EADS in 2007, according to disclosure
forms required by Congress. " -By David
M. Herszenhorn with contributions by Michael Cooper and Steven R. Weisman
-NYTimes
20080127
-
Government
-
 Spy
-  Intelligence
- Imagery
- Technology
-  Communications
- California
- "U.S.
Spy Satellite, Power Gone, May Hit Earth." ... "A
disabled American spy satellite is rapidly descending and is likely to
plunge to Earth by late February or early March, posing a potential danger
from its debris, officials said Saturday." ... "Officials said that they
had no control over the nonfunctioning satellite and that it was unknown
where the debris might land." ... "Specialists who follow spy satellite
operations suspect it is an experimental imagery satellite built by Lockheed
Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December
2006 aboard a Delta II rocket. Shortly after the satellite reached orbit,
ground controllers lost the ability to control it and were never able to
regain communication." ... ""It's not necessarily dead, but deaf," said
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and an analyst of various government space programs."
-NYTimes
20071216
-
Secret
- Surveillance
-
 Terrorism
- Crime
- Telecommunications
- Companies
- Government
-  Legislation
- Politics
- Intelligence
-  Drug
- Consumer
- Wireless
- Technology
- United
States - Global
- Space
-  Colorado
-  New
Jersey - "Wider
Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry." ...
"For months, the [Republican President] Bush administration has waged a
high-profile campaign, including personal lobbying by President Bush and
closed-door briefings by top officials, to persuade Congress to pass legislation
protecting companies from lawsuits for aiding the National Security Agency’s
warrantless eavesdropping program." ... "But the battle is really about
something much bigger. At stake is the federal government’s extensive but
uneasy partnership with industry to conduct a wide range of secret surveillance
operations in fighting terrorism and crime." ... "The N.S.A.’s reliance
on telecommunications companies is broader and deeper than ever before,
according to government and industry officials, yet that alliance is strained
by legal worries and the fear of public exposure." ... "To detect narcotics
trafficking, for example, the government has been collecting the phone
records of thousands of Americans and others inside the United States who
call people in Latin America, according to several government officials
who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the program remains classified.
But in 2004, one major phone carrier balked at turning over its customers’
records. Worried about possible privacy violations or public relations
problems, company executives declined to help the operation, which has
not been previously disclosed." ... "In a separate N.S.A. [National Security
Agency] project, executives at a Denver [Colorado] phone carrier, Qwest,
refused in early 2001 to give the agency access to their most localized
communications switches, which primarily carry domestic calls, according
to people aware of the request, which has not been previously reported.
They say the arrangement could have permitted neighborhood-by-neighborhood
surveillance of phone traffic without a court order, which alarmed them."
... "The federal government’s reliance on private industry has been driven
by changes in technology. Two decades ago, telephone calls and other communications
traveled mostly through the air, relayed along microwave towers or bounced
off satellites. The N.S.A. could vacuum up phone, fax and data traffic
merely by erecting its own satellite dishes. But the fiber optics revolution
has sent more and more international communications by land and undersea
cable, forcing the agency to seek company cooperation to get access." ...
"[An ATT engineer is claiming in a lawsuit that as early as February 2001,]
“What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs
along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of
taking office, the [Republican] Bush administration was planning a comprehensive
effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”" (1,
2)
-By Eric Lichtblau, James Risen, and Scott Shane
-NYTimes
20070816
-
Secret
- Military
- Government
- Space
- Aircraft
- Surveillance
- Imagery
- Technology
- Law
- Enforcement
- Intelligence
- Liberty
- Politics
- "Domestic
Use of Spy Satellites To Widen: Law Enforcement Getting
New Access To Secret Imagery." ... "The Bush administration has approved
a plan to expand domestic access to some of the most powerful tools of
21st-century spycraft, giving law enforcement officials and others the
ability to view data obtained from satellite and aircraft sensors that
can see through cloud cover and even penetrate buildings and underground
bunkers." ... "A program approved by the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security will allow broader
domestic use of secret overhead imagery beginning as early as this fall,
with the expectation that state and local law enforcement officials will
eventually be able to tap into technology once largely restricted to foreign
surveillance." ... "But the program, described yesterday by the Wall Street
Journal, quickly provoked opposition from civil liberties advocates, who
said the government is crossing a well-established line against the use
of military assets in domestic law enforcement." ... ""They want to turn
these enormous spy capabilities, built to be used against overseas enemies,
onto Americans," [Center for National Security Studies director Kate] Martin
said. "They are laying the bricks one at a time for a police state."" -By
Joby Warrick -WashingtonPost
20070529
-
US
-
 Australian
- Science
- "Planet
hunters spy distant haul: A haul of 28 new planets
beyond our solar system has been detected by the world's most prolific
planet hunters." ... "The finds were among 37 objects seen orbiting distant
stars by a US and Anglo-Australian team in the last year." ... "Other objects
reported by the group, at an American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu,
included five failed stars, known as brown dwarfs." ... "The finds increase
the total number of known exoplanets to 236, more than half of which were
discovered by the team." -BBC
/News
20051229
-
EU
- Global
- Russia
- US
- Military
- Politics
- "EU
sends up 1st of 30 satellites in GPS network." ...
"The European Union on Wednesday launched the first satellite in its $4.5
billion Galileo global positioning system, a bid to enhance the world's
growing reliance on satellite navigation and to break the U.S. monopoly
on networks in space." ... "Many Europeans see political significance in
the project too: The world's only civilian-controlled system will give
Europe and its partner nations self-sufficiency from the United States,
which has warned it could diminish or cut off GPS satellite coverage to
countries considered enemies in times of national emergency." ... "The
launch comes at a time when Russia is moving forward with a positioning
system known as GLONASS. On Sunday it put into orbit three new satellites
for the network, which is scheduled to be operational in 2010." -By
Molly Moore-WashingtonPost
via -ChicagoTribune
-
EU
- Global
- Russia
- US
- Military
- Technology
- "Sky-High
Ambitions: Europe attempts to find its own place
in the world of satellite navigation with the launch of GIOVE-A." ... "Europe
has moved one giant step closer to operating its own long-awaited global
navigation satellite system, Galileo, designed to challenge the domination
of the U.S. military's GPS, or Global Positioning System." ... "GIOVE-A
(or Galileo In-Orbit Validation Element) will be testing new technologies
— including atomic clocks, signal generators and user receivers — for what
has been a dream of the European Union since the early 1990s: a wide-ranging
navigation system that is faster and more precise than GPS, provides an
uninterrupted service under civilian control, and offers a commercial alternative
to the U.S. system and its Russian counterpart, GLONASS (Global Navigation
Satellite System)." -By Maryann Bird
-TIME.com
20051222
-
Science
- California
-
 Los
Angeles -  Hawaii
- "Man-Made
"Star" Illuminates Milky Way's Mysterious Center."
... "[...] even on the clearest night, the earth's atmosphere obscures
the true brilliance of our galaxy and astronomers have long struggled with
images blurred by its mix of gases and turbulence. Now researchers have
used a new laser-generated star to obtain the clearest pictures yet of
the Milky Way's center. " ... "Astronomer Andrea Ghez of the University
of California, Los Angeles, and her colleagues used the 10-meter Keck 2
telescope in Hawaii, which has a laser attached to it, to observe our galaxy.
The skywatchers employed the 14-watt laser to generate a fake star. By
continuously imaging this false star along with the real ones, they could
correct any fuzziness or other distortions introduced by the earth's atmosphere."
-By David Biello -ScientificAmerican
20050930
-
GOV
- Business
- Space
- Privacy
- "Review
Leads to Upheaval in Spy Satellite Programs." ...
"A high-level review led by John D. Negroponte, the new intelligence director,
is stirring a major upheaval within the country's spy satellite programs,
beginning with an overhaul of a $15 billion program plagued by delays and
cost overruns." ... "In a terse announcement last week, the National Reconnaissance
Office, responsible for developing and launching the devices, said only
that a Boeing Company contract to provide the next generation of reconnaissance
satellites, known as the Future Imagery Architecture, was being "restructured.""
... "But government officials and outside experts said Mr. Negroponte had
ordered that Boeing stop work on a significant part of the project, involving
satellites with powerful cameras, under a plan to shift the mission to
Lockheed Martin, Boeing's chief competitor." -By Douglas
Jehl -NYTimes
20050811
-
-
-
- CA
- "Scientists
find errors in global warming data." ... "After examining
the satellite data, collected since 1979 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration weather satellites, Carl Mears and Frank Wentz of Remote
Sensing Systems in Santa Rosa, Calif. [California], found that the satellites
had drifted in orbit, throwing off the timing of temperature measures.
Essentially, the satellites were increasingly reporting nighttime temperatures
as daytime ones, leading to a false cooling trend. The team also found
a math error in the calculations." -By Dan Vergano
-USATODAY
20050810
-
Travel
-
- "Trips
around the moon for sale - for $100 million." ...
"The company that pioneered commercial space travel by sending "tourists"
up to the International Space Station is planning a new mission: rocketing
people around the far side of the moon." ... "The price of a round-trip
ticket: $100 million." ... "The first mission by Space Adventures could
happen in 2008 or 2009 and is planned as a stepping stone to an eventual
lunar
landing by private citizens." -AP
via -azcentral.com
20050809
-
CA
- Space
Shuttle Columbia Disaster
-
- "U.S.
space shuttle Discovery lands safely." ... "The space
shuttle Discovery and its seven astronauts returned to Earth safely on
Tuesday, bringing a successful end to NASA's troubled return to human space
flight 2 1/2 years after the Columbia disaster." ... "NASA accomplished
its main goal for the mission -- safely launching and landing the aging
shuttle. But when chunks of insulation flew off Discovery's fuel tank during
launch, the U.S. space agency learned it had failed to fix the problem
that doomed Columbia on Feb. 1, 2003." -By Nichola
Groom -Reuters
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- "Experts:
New Data Show Global Warming." ... "Climate scientists
armed with new data from deep in the ocean and far into space have found
that Earth is absorbing much more heat than it is giving off, a conclusion
they say validates projections of global warming." ... "Lead scientist
James Hansen, a prominent NASA climatologist, described the findings on
the planet's out-of-balance energy exchange as a "smoking gun" that should
dispel doubts about forecasts of climate change. A European climate expert
called it a valuable contribution to climate research." ... "Hansen's team,
reporting Thursday in the journal Science, said they also determined that
global temperatures will rise 1 degree Fahrenheit this century even if
greenhouse gases are capped tomorrow." -By Charles
J. Hanley -WashingtonPost
- "Japanese
Rocket Places Satellite in Orbit: Japanese Rocket
Roars Off Launchpad, Places Satellite in Orbit 15 Months After Aborted
Liftoff." ... "Japan was the fourth country to launch a satellite, in 1972,
and along with a major lunar exploration mission in the works now has a
probe on its way to collect and retrieve samples from an asteroid a mission
that, if successful, would be a first." (1, 2)
-AP via -ABCNEWS
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