Falcon 1 Made it to Space

SpaceX has made history. Its privately developed rocket has made it into space.

After three failed launches, the company founded by Elon Musk worked all of the bugs out of their Falcon 1 launch vehicles.

The entire spectacle was broadcast live from Kwajalein Atoll in the South Pacific. Cameras mounted on the spacecraft showed our planet shrinking in the distance and the empty first stage engine falling back to Earth.

As the rocket ascended, cheers rang out during every crucial step of the launch sequence, and at the final stage their headquarters in Hawthorne, California erupted in excitement.

The tensest moment came just before stage separation. At that critical juncture, the third launch attempt had failed. This time, it worked out perfectly.

Eight minutes after leaving the ground, Falcon 1 reached a speed of 5200 meters per second and passed above the International Space Station.

"I don't know what to say... because my mind is just blown," said Musk, during a brief address to his staff after the successful launch. "This is just the first step of many."

The feat is a giant leap forward for privately-funded space ventures, and follows the spectacular 2004 suborbital flight of SpaceShipOne.

Musk seemed almost overcome with emotion. In the coming years, his company will try to make space transportation ten times cheaper and more reliable.

After making a fortune as the co-founder of PayPal, he recruited some of the best aerospace engineers in the world and challenged them to build a launch vehicle from scratch.

SpaceX had scrubbed its fourth launch attempt just a week earlier to swap out a liquid oxygen feed line, signaling the extreme caution of the group after three failed tries.

Falcon 1's first flight in 2006 lasted less than a minute, the second flight in 2007 fired for 7.5 minutes, and the third flight last month encountered a staging separation anomaly just shy of three minutes.

The team's analysis of Flight 3 suggested they didn't wait long enough after the first-stage engine was done firing to separate it from the second stage.

The recently beefed-up, first-stage Merlin engine had more kick in it than the previous version of the engine, and after separation still had enough energy to run into the second stage above it, sending it tumbling off course.



The solution: add more of a delay after the first-stage engine stops firing before separation to ensure a clean break.

With Flight 4 under its belt, SpaceX is gearing up for additional launches in 2009. Flight 5 could fly as soon as January, Flight 6 parts are on order and Flight 7 production will begin in early 2009.

Falcon 1 is a two stage rocket powered by liquid oxygen enriched rocket-grade kerosene, using two engines designed by SpaceX itself.

The first stage is powered by a single Merlin 1C engine, based partly on the engine used in the Apollo lunar lander. The engine uses a so-called open cycle system, in which some of the propellant is used to power the engine pumps and then exhausted separately, while the rest of the propellant flows through the main combustion chamber.

The first stage carries a parachute and is designed to be recoverable, although this has not yet worked out in practice.

The second stage uses a single SpaceX-designed Kestrel engine, also fueled by a mixture of liquid oxygen and kerosene, but with a simpler design and significantly less power. It is not recoverable.

In addition to Falcon 1, SpaceX is planning a second model two-stage, Merlin-powered rocket known as Falcon 9. It is expected to cost $35 million USD, and is designed to boost 9,900 kg to low earth orbit, and 4,900 kg to geostationary transfer orbit. SpaceX is also planning a Falcon 9 Heavy model capable of carrying bigger payloads, and also a space craft with a pressurized cabin unit known as Dragon.

"We're going to get Falcon 9 to orbit next year," said Musk. "The future of SpaceX is really great."

TOP TEN reasons why Palin was not endorsed by NOW:

10. NOW doesn't believe woman should have estrogen.
09 & 08. Palin not only kills Moose, but she eats them too.
07. Palin has children and is proud of them - and wouldn't think of aborting them.
06. Palin believes in daily bathing.
05. Palin shaves her arm pits.
04. Palin isn't the poster child for 'pants on every occasion'.
03. Palin is not afraid to wear some make-up.
02. Palin is too feminine.
01. Palin is a woman.

How Nature magazine featured Obama and McCain ... with an unfortunate ad on the back

First Debate Analysis

This guy catches the part where Jim Lehrer asks Obama "No matter which rescue plan prevails, what are you going to have to give up (in spending)" By the time Obama finished, he'd spent another 20 billion dollars!

Adam Winrich: Firewhips at Night

Famous Mexican actor rips Obama over abortion, warns U.S. Latinos

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Farmer Creates Corn Maze Out of Sarah Palin's Image

WHITEHOUSE, Ohio -- From the helicopter you can see it clearly, Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's face in a corn maze.

Duke Wheeler of Whitehouse, Ohio, who owns the Butterfly House and surrounding farm, said he did it to bring people to the farm this fall.

"She created a lot of excitement and we would like to see a lot of excitement out here at the maze," Wheeler said.

It wasn't an easy process.

"We contracted with an artist in Idaho who drew the picture and entered it into a GPS system, flew in and cut it with a John Deere tractor," Wheeler said. "It took him about 8-10 hours to cut it. We saw it from the helicopter it's just a great image of her. I think she'd be proud."

Wheeler expects thousands to come out and check out the corn maze, Butterfly House, and other activities he has planned for the season.

A Better Way to Spend $700 Billion!

Stolen from Rodger



I'm against the $700,000,000,000.00 bailout

Instead, I'm in favor of giving $700,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bona fide U.S. Citizens 18+.

Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every man, woman and child.
So 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and up..

So divide 200 million adults 18+ into $700 billion that equals $3,500.00

My plan is to give $3,500.00 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free. So let's assume a tax rate of 30%.

Every individual 18+ has to pay $1050.00 in taxes.

That sends $210,000,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam.

But it means that every adult 18+ has $2,450,00 in their pocket.
A husband and wife has $4,900.00

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is cutting back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that is being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $700 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult U S Citizen 18+!

Sure it's a crazy idea that can "never work."

But can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

How to torment telemarketers with one word

Top Recipients of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Campaign Contributions, 1989-2008


Name
Office
Party/State
Total

1. Dodd, Christopher J
S
D-CT
$133,900

2. Kerry, John
S
D-MA
$111,000

3. Obama, Barack S
D-IL
$105,849

4. Clinton, Hillary
S
D-NY
$75,550

5. Kanjorski, Paul E
H
D-PA
$65,500

6. Bennett, Robert F
S
R-UT
$61,499

7. Johnson, Tim
S
D-SD
$61,000

8. Conrad, Kent
S
D-ND
$58,991

9. Davis, Tom
H
R-VA
$55,499

10. Bond, Christopher S 'Kit'
S
R-MO
$55,400

11. Bachus, Spencer
H
R-AL
$55,300

12. Shelby, Richard C
S
R-AL
$55,000

13. Emanuel, Rahm
H
D-IL
$51,750

14. Reed, Jack
S
D-RI
$50,750

15. Carper, Tom
S
D-DE
$44,389

16. Frank, Barney
H
D-MA
$40,100

17. Maloney, Carolyn B
H
D-NY
$38,750

18. Bean, Melissa
H
D-IL
$37,249

19. Blunt, Roy
H
R-MO
$36,500

20. Pryce, Deborah
H
R-OH
$34,750

21. Miller, Gary
H
R-CA
$33,000

22. Pelosi, Nancy
H
D-CA
$32,750

23. Reynolds, Tom
H
R-NY
$32,700

24. Hoyer, Steny H
H
D-MD
$30,500

25. Hooley, Darlene
H
D-OR
$28,750

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/07/top-senate-recipients-of-fanni.html

Spirit of the West 2008

Spent last weekend at Spirit of the West, Here's a few pictures.







Cowboy Mike was back from Florida.





Kg and the Ranger was back for their third Spirit of the West.



Whip cracker Adam Winrich shows his stuff.



Adam serves as guinea pig for two time world champ gun spinner Garret Popek.





Trick rider Brian Bausch and his wife Paula also performed.





Special guests this year were Peter Brown from TV series Laredo and Robert Fuller from Wagon Train, Laramie and Emergency.

Remembering Those Who Never Came Home

Rev. Manning Preaches To The Media

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Dumber than Dumb

Aspen-DNC carbon partnership sputters

Results of a program using Aspen’s Canary Initiative to sell carbon offset credits to Democratic National Convention attendees are a little underwhelming.

The program, set up by the DNC Host Committee through the Denver Convention and Visitors Bureau and rolled out about a week before the convention started, raised a total of $18.34 worth of Canary Tags, offsetting 0.9 tons of carbon emissions.

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/129327

Turkish Superman

Eating veggies shrinks the brain

MELBOURNE: Scientists have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain-with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.



Vegans and vegetarians are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish. Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system. Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HealthSci/Eating_veggies_shrinks_the_brain/articleshow/3480629.cms

Sarah Palin sparks an Annie Oakley woman's movement

"Excuses"

Dear Mr. Obama: My sacrifice was no mistake

This made me laugh

Barack Obama is NOT a Christian, he is an ENEMY of God!!!

Welcome to the Unofficial Dept of Peace

No, Really.

Fifty-two bags of heroin in bags stamped both with letters spelling out OBAMA and an image in the likeness of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama were confiscated following a routine car stop on Interstate 95 in Upper Chichester, according to Pennsylvania State Police.


http://www.allaroundphilly.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20117917&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6

POTD

Fidel and Barry

Obama Admits Muslim Faith

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/07/obama-verbal-slip-fuels-his-critics/

Sarah

An excerpt from Palin's speech;

"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities."


"I was particularly impressed with how she was able to stick the knife into Obama several times, and do it with a smile. "
-Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson

My only wish is that she was the head of the ticket.

The Worst Hard Time

"The Worst Hard Time is an epic story of blind hope and endurance almost beyond belief; it is also, as Tim Egan has told it, a riveting tale of bumptious charlatans, con men, and tricksters, environmental arrogance and hubris, political chicanery, and a ruinous ignorance of nature's ways. Egan has reached across the generations and brought us the people who played out the drama in this devastated land, and uses their voices to tell the story as well as it could ever be told."



-Marq De Villiers, author of Water:The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource

I highly recommend everyone read this book.