Dashcam Video of Barker and DJ AM's Jet Crash Scene

All I can say is this is nuts and it still seems a little unreal.

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It's Getting Dark In The Kibo Space Lab

The newest additions to the International Space Station, JAXA's Kibo Space Laboratories, are facing an unforeseen challenge. Unforeseen because it's getting too dark to see anything. Over half of the 21 florescent bulbs in the labs have already burned out since the modules' installation early this summer. Unfortunately with other bulbs burning out in the station, there are no spares left on board. As it gets darker in Kibo's two modules, JAXA is concerned that performing experiments will be too difficult. Senior managers believe the problem is due to the vacuum inside the bulb deteriorating since being in orbit. The Japanese Space Agency is currently working on an LED replacement for the fluorescent tubes, but that new system won't be ready until 2010. Astronauts on board will just have to wait until at least November when the next ISS-servicing Shuttle flight arrives with some spare bulbs. Can you light a candle in space?

[Wired Science]

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C-17 Makes First Antarctic Night Landing Using NVG

A C-17 from McChord AFB made the first known after-dark landing in Antarctica using night vision goggles on September 11th. The Globemaster III landed at night on the Pegusus Ice Runway near McMurdo Station in a mission that was flown as part of Operation Deep Freeze. This long standing mission airlifts critical supplies to the National Science Foundation and U.S. Antarctic Program that operates at McMurdo. Typically these supplies can only be delivered during the Antarctic Summer months due to long night hours in the Winter and limited airfield lighting. With this successful test operation, the Air Force now has the ability to airlift supplies or medevac personnel out of McMurdo year round. The new procedure uses reflective cones to outline the edges of the ice runway. When the C-17's lights reflect off the cones, it is easily picked up in the night vision goggles used by the flight crew. Commander of the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, Lt. Col. Jim McGann said, "We found the cones to be very good at illuminating the runway and providing critical situational awareness." The real beauty of this system is that the markers require no electrical power at all.

Here is one of the reflective cones used at the Pegasus Ice Runway.

A C-17 Globemaster III sits on the Pegasus Ice Runway after a successful night landing.

[Photos: U.S. Air Force/Master Sgt. Chris Vadnais]
[AF Link]

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Struggling Air Force One To Begin Selling Passenger Tickets

WASHINGTON—With oil prices hitting record levels, the United States Air Force announced today that it has begun selling passenger tickets on all flights operated by its Air Force One fleet in order to maintain the service as a "feasible enterprise."

It no longer makes sense financially to let one passenger dictate when and where we travel," acting Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley said in a press conference at the Pentagon, the Air Force's corporate headquarters in Arlington, VA. "We've got a big plane here, and there's no reason we shouldn't be filling it."

Air Force One has been in operation since 1943. Like other "legacy carriers," it had trouble remaining solvent following industry deregulation in 1978, but the service was able to stay afloat thanks to increased summit travel to the Middle East through the early 1980s. Now, however, as costs continue to skyrocket, Air Force One has been forced to make changes to survive in the current economic climate.

"We've made some major changes to Air Force One in order to reflect our new emphasis on customer service," said Air Force chief of staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. "On each aircraft, the conference room, office, workout room, bedroom, and war room have been gutted and replaced with narrow rows and plush seats to accommodate additional passengers. Our former private chef service has been replaced by carts of drinks and economically priced prepackaged snacks. Even the escape hatch, originally designed for sneaking away from Kazakh hijackers but never used, has been converted into luggage storage."

One Washington resident and Air Force One frequent flyer, however, was unhappy. The 62-year-old government employee, who neglected to give his name, said he has used the airline for all his business trips since 2001 and "never had a problem before," but was surprised by the changes made under the new system. After 14 stops, he said, the Boeing 747 finally arrived at his destination city, where friends had been waiting seven hours to pick him up for the treaty signing they were attending.

"I've flown with [Air Force One] for a long time, but next time I may have to go on the Internet and see what else is out there," he said. "The government really needs to step in and do something about the fuel crisis in this country before it really gets out of hand."

If you're completely perplexed and haven't figured it out yet, this story is bogus. Bogus but funny. It's an exerpt from a bogus article you can read on The Onion. And yes, that's a bad photoshop in the phony ad above. Looks like they tried to add 2 more engines to an A320. They did go to the trouble of registering the domain flyairforceoneair.com, though.

[The Onion]

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Airborne Porn

You've got to know that this is bound to happen when you install Wi-Fi on commercial airliners like American Airlines is doing. So far 16 of their aircraft are testing the new systems that allow passengers to access the internet while in flight. Of course passengers aren't just checking PointNiner.com while airborne. Some are making visits to nudie sites which has got American Flight Attendants and fellow passengers concerned about the content. So as American Airlines, what do you do?

[MSNBC]

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Night Refueling Over Iraq

Came across this photo I liked and just wanted to share it as it's something you don't typically see. It's an F-16 from Joint Base Balad, Iraq getting refueled from a KC-135 during an Iraqi night sortie back on September 6. Not sure what town they're over in the picture but it's cool nonetheless.

(U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Aaron Allmon II)

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Kanye West Arrested At LAX

We love it here at PointNiner when celebs do stupid things at airports, simply for the fact it makes for easy cannon fodder. Rapper Kanye West is now doing his part for this blog by getting himself arrested at LAX airport yesterday due to an altercation with the paparazzi. West and his manager Don Crowley were taken into custody by airport police after they smashed a paparazzo’s camera on the floor of the terminal. Both were booked for investigation of felony vandalism, however prosecutors have yet to determine what charges they might face. Some witnesses were claiming it was an act as self defense as paparazzi typically stalk celebrities at LAX hoping to get that candid shot. Both were released later that day. Below is raw video from the celeb site TMZ that shows the smashing and altercation. Unfortunately, it doesn't show what led up to the incident. Either way, Kanye West, who is already known for his temper tantrums, has failed to impress anyone here at PointNiner with this escapade. What do you think?

[MSNBC]

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Man Sues American For Losing His Dead Wife

Miguel Olaya simply wanted to bring the remains of his late wife back to their native Ecuador as her final resting place. Unfortunately, the airline lost his baggage wife along the way. Now Olaya is suing American Airlines and the funeral home in New York he made transportation arrangements with for negligence. The funeral home is pointing the blame towards American and claims that instead of sending the remains to Guayaquil in Ecuador, they accidentally sent it to Guatemala. Apparently the code for Guayaquil is GYE, not GUA which is Guatemala. That little bit of information may have helped a certain American Airlines employee. When Olaya went to the airport on April 1st to claim his wife's remains the airline told him it had been sent to the wrong country. Finally arriving four days later, the body was starting to decompose. Lovely.

[Fox News]

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DoD Cancels Refueling Competition, Tankergate Lives On

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the kabosh on the Air Force's tanker replacement competition today marking yet another end to yet another chapter in what has got to be one of the biggest black eyes in military procurement history. The program termination is being based on the fact that the DoD won't be able to complete the competition process before the end of the current presidential administration. Now either Obama or McCain will have the pleasure of adopting the red-headed step child that is the KC-X tanker replacement program. Aimed at replacing the venerable KC-135 Stratotanker, the program has been an embarrassment for the current administration for all eight years in office and has even led to the sacking of a few high ranking Air Force officials.

Ironically, McCain is one of the responsible parties from the early days of Tankergate. Since then the Air Force had rehashed the bid process and stunned the nation by awarding a contract to Northrop Grumman/EADS for their KC-45A based on the Airbus A330 airframe back in February. Not going down without a nasty catfight, Boeing filed a formal protest with the GAO citing inconsistencies in the Air Force's decision to select the KC-45A. The GAO accepted the protest and helped push the stop button on the KC-45A program in June. The very next month, the Defense Department said to hell with the Air Force and reopened the competition all over again this time running it straight from that 5-sided building on the Potomac. Things got nastier with some other Air Force SNAFUs and people up high on the chain lost their jobs as a part of this mess. So now it is only appropriate in considering the entire nightmare that has been KC-X for the whole thing to be called off.

"Over the past seven years the process has become enormously complex and emotional - in no small part because of mistakes and missteps along the way by the Department of Defense," says Gates. "It is my judgment that in the time remaining to us, we can no longer complete a competition that would be viewed as fair and objective in this highly charged environment." Now we are forced to sit through a "cooling off" period before the next administration starts their own chapter in what was supposed to be an already late retirement for the KC-135. Anyone really surprised? And yes, I realize that is not the current SecDef. It just really captured the theme of this post.

[Flight Global]

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ABL Fires High Energy Laser For First Time

The future of warfare is very very near. We're already seeing in Iraq and Afganistan autonomous drones that can loiter over combat for 24 hours and Humvee mounted microwave beams that can heat up the surface of the human skin. The Air Force also wants to develop laser gunships to replace AC-130s for precision ground...um...lasering. And now the Air Force's Airborne Laser program has reached a historic milestone in its quest to bring warfare into the 21st century when it achieved "first light" and fired its high-energy chemical laser during a ground test September 7th at Edwards AFB. The Air Force and the Missile Defense Agency are very optimistic about the future of the YAL-1 program and what it will mean for future combat. The prototype has been in testing for quite some time now and has had success in firing its beam control/fire control system, developed by Lockheed Martin. This has all lead up to the big ray gun (aka chemical oxygen iodine laser (COIL)) developed by Northrop Grumman which is mounted on the modified 747-400F produced by Boeing. The multi-contractor team and the Air Force are moving one step closer with the recent test towards its first missile shoot-down demonstration scheduled for 2009. After that, perhaps the Defense Department should look into an Imperial Death Star for it's next futuristic weapon.

[Boeing]

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ISS Gets Wi-Fi

Here's another case of NASA finally catching up to the rest of the world in terms of technology. Just a few weeks after finding out a computer on board the International Space Station had a virus, the orbiting ISS has officially gone wireless (internet that is). Now astronauts and cosmonauts can do all their web surfing and illegal movie downloading from the cozy confines of their bunks instead of always being in the labs. I sure hope they turn on the WEP key though. I'd hate to see those pesky Chinese trying to pirate some free WiFi on their rare and occasional space flights. Here's more from NASA Watch:

"After transitioning the JSL (Joint Station LAN) network to the new Netgear wireless APs (Access Points, WAPs) which provide the ISS with WiFi (wireless+Ethernet) connectivity, Gregory today repeated functionality tests, abandoned earlier this week, in three Kibo JPM (JEM Pressurized Module) locations from the wireless SSC -11 laptop, and later also in the COL (Columbus Orbital Laboratory). Afterwards switching to "Proxim" APs, the new WiFi "Dolphin" BCRs (Barcode Readers) were also tested."

[NASA Watch via Gizmodo]

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NASA UAV Is Micro Hurricane Hunter

With Gustav and Hanna under the belt, and Ike and Josephine right behind them, make no doubt, the 2008 Hurricane season is in full swing. With that, NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) are teaming up with Aerosonde North American to deploy a UAV that flies directly into hurricanes in an attempt to understand them better. While hurricane flying is nothing new, the new aerosonde will do it a little differently than its manned counterparts. The Aerosonde Hurricane Boundary Layer Mission takes the little UAV into the core of a hurricane system at only 500 feet off the water. This is an area of a hurricane typically considered too dangerous for manned missions, but also containing critical storm dynamics that scientists know little about. First deployed during Hurricane Noel last October, the aerosonde is controlled via satellite link from NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL.

[NASA]

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Cessna 152 Lands On New Jersey Parkway

I'm not sure what's more congested, the NY/NJ airspace, or a New Jersey highway. Unfortunately for 44-year-old flight instructor Joe Rubino, and 58-year-old John Hannon they had to experience both today when the Cessna 152 they were piloting lost power on takeoff and was forced to make an emergency landing near Tinton Falls, NJ. The most surprising part is that someone was courteous enough to allow them to merge into traffic on the Garden State Parkway in order to put her down. Bystanders actually helped move the aircraft to the shoulder so they could keep on their commute. The aircraft was later loaded onto a flatbed truck and moved to another site.

(Don't drive this truck too fast, it doesn't take much for a 152 to want to get airborne.)

[Photos: MyFOXNY.com]
[Fox News]

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First Air-To-Air Synthetic Fuel Transfer

The US Air Force is wasting no time in testing their new synthetic jet fuel. Just yesterday they marked another milestone when the 50/50 blend of JP-8 and fuel derived from the Fisher-Tropsch method was transferred via aerial refueling from a KC-135 to an F-22 Raptor. This also marks the first flight of a Raptor using the new fuel. Neither the KC-135 from March ARB or the F-22 from Edwards AFB were modified to perform the test. "Our goal was to complete the test plan and to support the certification," said Maj. Drew Allen, 411 FLTS chief of standardization and evaluation and also the test pilot. "We wanted to prove that there was no negative effect in performing the aerial refueling using the synthetic fuel." This test moves the USAF another step closer to certifying the synthetic fuel for the entire Air Force fleet as well as moving them another step away from dependence on foreign oil.

[Lockheed Martin photo]
[AF Link]

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Helicopter Pilot Uses Helicopter to Cut His Birthday Cake

Crazy pilot cutting his birthday cake with a knife attached to the right skid on his helicopter.  And when I say cutting, I mean smashing and deforming.

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CRJ-1000 Makes First Flight

Bombardier's long and skinny CRJ-1000 prototype took to the Canadian skies for the first time during its maiden flight yesterday from their production facility at the Mirabel Airport in Montreal, Quebec. During the 25 minute flight, the CRJ-1000 reached an altitude of 30,000 feet and flew at a maximum speed of 260 knots. "We put the gear up, operated the flaps and slats and exercised our new 'fly-by-wire' rudder," says Jacques Thibaudeau, one of the test-flight crew members. Bombardier is saying it handles much like the CRJ-900 so transitioning flight crews to the larger 100-seater should be no problem. After a few more flights, the prototype will be flown to Bombardier's Test Flight Centre at Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita where it will be joined next year by the first production aircraft for its flight operations review and certification process. Entry into service is expected in the fourth quarter of 2009. Hopefully, the PointNiner crew will get a chance to see her during the testing phase like we have with the other CRJ stretches as Wichita is just down the road from our base of operations.



Pictures: Bombardier
[Bombardier via Flight Global]

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Frog In Aircraft Window

Not something you see every day. This little amphibian was spotted in a window of a Turkish Airlines' Airbus A320 in July during a flight from Moscow to Istanbul. A passenger quickly snapped this shot before he slid back in to the side wall. The frog was between the pressurized outer window and the inner cabin pane. After landing in Istanbul mechanics tore through the aircraft but could find no sign of the little guy. Earlier in the day the aircraft started out in the Turkish city of Adana which is known for having tons of frogs that eventually get shipped to China and Japan to end up on restaurant menus.

[Flight Global]

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PointNiner On Gustav

You won't hear much on Hurricane Gustav here at PointNiner. The national media has it pretty well covered. The closure of the airports, the airlifting of evacuees, the Air Force delivering supplies, the damage to aircraft. All of these are great aviation-related stories, but right now PointNiner will just be sitting back and watching what happens. New Orleans is and always will be a very special town to me. I was born there, my family is from there, and I've always considered it my real home as I grew up all over the country. That's why I just want to see what happens for now. My thoughts and prayers go out to the citizens of this fine town and everyone on the Gulf Coast, whether they have evacuated or are trying to ride out the storm.

Good Luck, New Orleans and may Godspeed.

Here are a couple pics from a few months after Hurricane Katrina that I took. Hopefully, Gustav will have a bit more mercy.

That's me with a dumb look on my face at the 17th St Canal breach site.

Some tangled mess of an aircraft at Lakefront Airport.

The old Million Air hangar at Lakefront Airport.

Another view of the same hangar.

What was left of Hangar 17.

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The Big Picture Highlights Upcoming Hubble Servicing Mission

We've made it clear on PointNiner before that the Boston Globe's The Big Picture is one of our favorite blogs. Today the site released a post of pictures from NASA highlighting its upcoming Space Shuttle mission, STS-125, that will provide the Hubble telescope with its final servicing. As always, The Big Picture delivered with some superb photography to document the preparations under way with this risky mission. Set to launch next month, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will deliver critical new instruments, batteries and gyroscopes to keep Hubble alive. Click HERE to see all of the sweet shots from The Big Picture's feature on this mission. I also found the video below in the forum on The Big Picture. It's a nice trailer for what NASA will do on STS-125. Enjoy.

Photo: NASA/Dimitri Gerondidakis
[The Big Picture]

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Guy Nearly Decapitated By Takeoff

Who's dumber, the Turbo Otter pilot taking off directly into a bunch of crap, or the guy sitting directly in his path?

[LiveLeak]

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Old 747 Becomes Jumbo Hostel

If you plan on traveling through Sweden this winter, and you're too poor like me to afford a stay at Stockholm's finest hotels, then maybe a low-cost hostel is up your alley. And what better place to stay for poor aviation buffs, than a 747 converted into a hotel? Thank goodness for guys like Oscar Diös who purchased this old Transjet 747 classic with the intention of making a place to stay for people passing through. But don't get any ideas about the mile high club here, because this old bird will be planted firmly on the ground for now on near the Arlanda airport. The aircraft is being outfitted for 25 rooms with the upper deck becoming a cafeteria. The whole 747 is being sanitized, rewired, insulated, and having a climate control system installed as the windows don't exactly slide open for a cool night's breeze. It's taken Diös two years since the time he purchased the aircraft, but bookings will finally start in December for its low cost accommodations. Here you have another case of aviation making the world a better place.



[Jumbo Hostel via Gizmodo]

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Diddy Complains Jet Fuel Prices Are "Too Motherf----g High"

That's right, even celebrities are feeling the pinch of these high gas prices. So much so that Sean "Diddy" Combs published a video blog on YouTube to complain that it is starting to cramp his style. "Gas prices are too motherf-----g high," the hip-hop mogul proclaims. "As you know, I do have my own jet, but I've been having to fly back and forth to L.A. pursuing my acting career . Now, if I'm flying back and forth twice a month, that's like $200,000, $250,00 round trip. F--- that. I'm back on American Airlines!" Diddy even makes a plea to his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" to help him out and send him some fuel for his private jet. Somehow I don't think his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" or any Americans are going to have much sympathy for Diddy. He does' add later to the site, "Attention all media and hate bloggers. This blog is just me making a joke about gas prices. Loosen up." Not sure if that's going to work. You can check out the whole video below and make up your own mind.

WARNING: Audio is NSFW

[Fox News]

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Political Conventions: TSA Busts Out New Technology, Uniforms

It's political convention season and if you're a delegate, like Jerry Springer, and you've flown into either Denver or Minneapolis/St. Paul recently, you may have noticed something new and different from our beloved TSA. In an attempt to bolster security for the added masses transiting these airports, the agency decided to throw in a few new technological gizmos like passive millimeter wave radar. This portable system, also known as standoff detection technology, measures energy generated by the human body to detect explosives hidden on a person. Used for years in other environments, this is the first time it has been employed at U.S. airports. The TSA claims the devices are safe and non-invasive, but don't be surprised if you develop webbing between your toes after getting a dosage. Another new gadget being used is the hand-held spectrometer which has the ability to penetrate sealed containers using laser technology to detect solid and liquid explosives. It cannot, however, tell you what's in that old tupperware dish that's been in your fridge for the last six months. Of course, not to be outdone by all of it's new toys, the TSA has had their Transportation Security Officers screeners at Denver and Minneapolis break out the controversial new uniforms to highlight their professionalism to the delegates and politicians alike. Convinced?



[Evolution of Security]

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SWA Tells The FAA Where To Stick Their Fine

This Friday marks the deadline for Southwest Airlines to pay the $10.2 million fine imposed by the FAA for failure to comply with its maintenance program and flying uninspected aircraft. Southwest does not intend on paying the fine, however. If you recall from the PointNiner archives, this scandal set off an embarrassing chain events both within the FAA and the airlines that led to numerous aircraft inspections and even some additional fines for other airlines. As far as the hefty price Southwest was slapped with, the airline is saying they plan on fighting it. A Wall Street Journal article claims a Southwest spokeswoman as saying "we simply don't agree with [the penalty] and want to talk about it further." The FAA hasn't said what they would do if Southwest doesn't pay up by Friday, but they do have a few options in their deck. The Journal says "typically, the next step is for the agency to ask the Justice Department to file suit on its behalf. With a number of other sizable enforcement cases already pending against other carriers it would be problematic for the FAA's leadership to back down now.” The other option, which is dicey, is to threaten to revoke Southwest's operating certificate but would require some major cojones on the part of the FAA. Let's sit back and see what happens next.

[Today In The Sky]

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Laser JDAM Gets First Kill

The two main types of precision guided bombs in the US arsenal today are guided by either GPS or lasers. But what if there was a way to combine the two on one bomb? That's exactly what the USAF did when it developed the GBU-54 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition. The GBU-54 is essentially a 500-lb dummy bomb with a strap-on GPS guided tail and a laser guidance sight mounted to the tip. On August 12th this new munition scored its first kill when an F-16 from the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Balad Air Base destroyed a "moving enemy vehicle in the Diyala province to support a combined Iraqi army and U.S. Marine operation." An urgent operational need for this type of munition was identified in 2007 and took only 17 months of testing and development before it was in theater for deployment. Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, the U.S. Air Forces Central commander and U.S. Central Commands Combined Force Air Component commander said, "The first combat employment of this weapon is the validation of the exacting hard work of an entire team of professionals who developed, tested and fielded this weapon on an extremely short timeline, based on an urgent needs request we established in the combat zone." While a regular GPS JDAM is perfect for hitting stationary targets, the new Laser JDAM allows the Air Force to strike mobile ground targets as well. This is especially crucial in the fight against VBIEDs. The footage from this engagement is allegedly depicted below.

[AF Link]

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Sikorsky X2 Makes First Flight

Sikorsky's high speed technology demonstrator, the X2, made its first flight yesterday from the Schweizer Aircraft's rapid prototyping facility in Horseheads, New York. The 30 minute flight was a long awaited milestone as it was originally scheduled to take place two years ago. Designed to cruise at a whopping 250 kts, the X2 will start a test phase with work on hovering with its coaxial main rotors before completing a four phase program wrapping up with high speed flight. The test program is intended to assist Sikorsky with deciding whether or not to develop the X2 for civilian production by 2010. The X2 gets its power from a Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Co. (LHTEC) T800 engine that was originally developed for the now defunct RAH-66 Comanche helicopter. While its design is not completely original, it does feature new fly-by-wire controls and advanced avionics that engineers hope will counter the high vibration issues found in other coaxial rotor designs. Sikorsky could use the X2 as a stepping stone for both civil and military products featuring the coaxial, compound design which already improves over previous designs in the sexiness department.



Images: Sikorsky
[Flight Global]

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What I Want For Christmas: The Draganflyer X6

We see a lot of UAVs pop up on PointNiner, but this one has got to be one of the coolest. You've got to check out the videos on their website. They were enough to sell me on the Draganflyer X6. It's a remote controlled UAV with a carbon-fiber body that has three tips that contain two rotors each for control. The X6 has a oil-dampening vibration-killing mount that can be used to place a hi-def camera or night vision scope under the body for some James Bondish spying. It even has an on-board GPS and the ability to fly up to 30 mph as well as a 23 foot per second climb...straight up! Here you go, Aaron. This post takes all the guess work out of your Christmas shopping for me this year.






[Draganfly via Gizmodo]

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The Dawn Of Robot Wars

No, I'm not talking about Battle Bots here. I speaking about full on unmanned system vs. unmanned system in actual combat. This new era got off with a real bang when an MQ-9 Reaper dropped a 500-lb laser guided bomb on a remotely controlled Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) in Iraq last week marking a historic first. The Reaper, which began combat patrols in Iraq last month is really proving its mettle to the battlefield commanders over there as it starts to assume the roles previously occupied by manned systems. 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Micah Morgan, said that they "searched for, found, fixed, targeted and destroyed a [threat] with just one aircraft." The Air Force already has an entire wing of UCAVs, but I'm thinking that's just the start. It won't be long before unmanned systems outnumber manned aircraft and pilots are exiled to air conditioned trailers where they play war half a world away. Countries around the world are following suit with development of their unmanned systems as well. Perhaps it will be the Major League Gamers that help us usher in the robotic apocalypse. Can anyone say Skynet?

[Aviation Week via Gizmodo]

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Astrospies, Satisfying My Unnatural Infatuation With Cold War Space Espionage

Thank goodness the boys over at Danger Room picked up on this one, because I would have died with a unfulfilled life if I had not seen it. Back in February the PBS program NOVA (one of my favorites) ran a show called Astrospies. The episode told the story of the U.S. and Soviet Union's attempts to get military spies into orbit during the 1960s. The U.S. Department of Defense tried to do this with something called the Manned Orbital Laboratory or MOL. I've heard about the MOL before through other channels but there always seemed to be a void of useful information on this secretive project, until now. The craziest part of these programs was their intentions to turn space into the eventual battlefield of tomorrow. If you're like me and a huge fan of space exploration and Cold War espionage then you've got to take an hour out of your day and geek out on Astrospies here on the NOVA site. As a bonus, you get all the sweet 1960's animations you could ever ask for.

Here's a little teaser to peak your curiosity.

[Astrospies via Danger Room]

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PointNiner's on vacation

If you're a PointNiner regular or subscriber and have wondered where we've been all week, don't fear. We didn't get indicted in the Patty Wagstaff Oshkosh DUI scandal as accomplices. Instead, the PointNiner crew has been on vacation. I did manage a little vacation-blogging by throwing a few things out there on Saturday and Monday, but it's been quiet around here otherwise. Things should swing back in to motion on Thursday with some more juicy aviation goodiness but you'll just have to wait until then.

P.S., that really is Aaron at the beach in a Speedo.

See ya tomorrow,

Steve

PointNiner

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