Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, dies aged 82

US astronaut who led the Apollo 11 mission underwent heart-bypass surgery earlier this month

The Guardian, The Observer, Cass Jones, Sunday 26 August 2012

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died aged 82. His
family described him as a 'reluctant American hero'. Photograph: AP

Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died aged 82. The former US astronaut, who will go down on history as the most famous pioneer of space exploration, passed away as the result of heart complications following surgery.

As commander of the Apollo 11 mission, he became the first person to set foot on the moon, on 20 July 1969, fulfilling the longheld dream of the United States to get there before the Soviet Union. His first words as he stepped on to the surface – "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" – instantly became one of the most recognisable phrases ever uttered.

Armstrong underwent heart bypass surgery earlier this month, just two days after his birthday on 5 August, to relieve blocked arteries.

His family released a statement on Saturday describing him as a "reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job".

It read: "We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures. Neil was our loving husband, father, grandfather, brother and friend. Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job. He served his nation proudly as a Navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut.

"While we mourn the loss of a very good man we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves."

Other tributes have come flooding in for the astronaut as news of his death spread across the world. US president Barack Obama hailed Armstrong as one of America's greatest heroes. In a statement issued by the White House, he said the crew of Apollo 11 carried with them the aspirations of an entire nation when they set out for the moon in 1969. He later tweeted: "Neil Armstrong was a hero not just of his time, but of all time. Thank you, Neil, for showing us the power of one small step."

Former astronaut Tom Jones, who completed four space shuttle flights between 1990 and 2001, said: "Mr Armstrong was one of the astronauts that was my hero when I was growing up and I watched his initial landing on the moon in 1969 with incredible interest. He really was an inspiration to an entire generation of people." The US space agency tweeted: "Nasa offers its condolences on today's passing of Neil Armstrong, former test pilot, astronaut & the 1st man on the moon. Neil was 82."

Armstrong grew up in Ohio with a keen interest in flight and earned his pilot's certificate when he was just 15. After flying combat missions during the Korean war, he became a test pilot and joined Nasa's astronaut programme in 1962.

Armstrong was joined on his moon landing by Buzz Aldrin and the pair spent nearly three hours walking on the lunar surface, collecting samples, conducting experiments and taking photographs. Last night Aldrin called Armstrong "a true American hero and the best pilot I ever knew". The Apollo 11 mission turned out to be Armstrong's last space flight. The following year he was appointed to a desk job at Nasa, later becoming a lecturer in engineering at Cincinnati University.

In 1961 President Kennedy had declared before the United States Congress that the US would have a man on the moon before the turn of the decade and the moon walk marked America's victory in the cold war space race. An estimated 600 million people – a fifth of the world's population – watched and listened to the moon landing, the largest audience for any single event in history.

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"The Quantum Factor" – Apr 10, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Galaxies, Universe, Intelligent design, Benevolent design, Aliens, Nikola Tesla (Quantum energy), Inter-Planetary Travel, DNA, Genes, Stem Cells, Cells, Rejuvenation, Shift of Human Consciousness, Spontaneous Remission, Religion, Dictators, Africa, China, Nuclear Power, Sustainable Development, Animals, Global Unity.. etc.) - (Text Version)

"... That will be the next largest discovery on the planet. It's been held back from you because it takes a higher vibrating consciousness to create and understand it. When any planet discovers a quantum energy and is able to use it, you could go to that planet and know that you will meet high-consciousness entities. This has never been given to you before that, for within the quantum factor contains the secret of interplanetary travel using large, entangled states. There are ways of doing things you never thought could happen. You can throw away your rocket ships. You're on the edge of that.... "

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - New

Chinese Shenzhou craft launches on key space mission

BBC News, By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent,  31 October 2011

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It will be a couple of days before Shenzhou 8 is in
a position to attempt the docking

China has taken the next step in its quest to become a major space power with the launch of the unmanned Shenzhou 8 vehicle.

The spacecraft rode a Long March 2F rocket into orbit where it will attempt to rendezvous and dock with the Tiangong-1 lab, launched in September.

It would be the first time China has joined two space vehicles together.

The capability is required if the country is to carry through its plan to build a space station by about 2020.

The Long March carrier rocket lifted away from the Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert at 05:58, Tuesday (21:58 GMT Monday). TV cameras relayed the ascent to orbit.

Shenzhou separated from the rocket's upper-stage about nine minutes into the flight. Confirmation that its solar panels had been deployed was received a short while after.

It will be a couple of days before Shenzhou is in a position to attempt the docking, which will occur some 340km above the Earth.

The vehicles will be using a radar-based system to compute their proximity to each other and guide their final approach and contact.

The pair will then spend 12 days circling the globe before they separate and attempt a re-docking. Finally, Shenzhou 8 will detach and its re-entry capsule will head back to Earth.

This will allow experiments carried into orbit to be recovered for analysis. The German space agency has supplied an experimental box containing fish, plants, worms, bacteria and even human cancer cells for a series of biological studies.

  

• Tiangong-1 was launched in September on a Long March 2F rocket
• The unmanned laboratory unit was put in a 350km-high orbit
• Shenzhou 8 will will try to rendezvous and dock with Tiangong-1
• The project will test key technologies such as life-support systems
• China aims to start building a 60-tonne space station by about 2020

Assuming the venture goes well, two manned missions (Shenzhou 9 and 10) are likely to try to make similar dockings in 2012.  

Shenzhou 8 carries experiments developed
 with the German space agency

Chinese astronauts - yuhangyuans - are expected to live aboard the conjoined vehicles for up to two weeks. There is speculation in the Chinese media that one of these missions could also include the country's first female yuhangyuan.

The 10.5m-long Tiangong-1 module was launched on 29 September and has been operating well, according to Chinese officials.

Its orbit has been lowered slightly and the vehicle turned 180 degrees in preparation for its upcoming union with Shenzhou 8.

Beijing sees the Tiangong and Shenzhou dockings as the next phase in its step-by-step approach to acquiring the skills of human spaceflight operations.

It is a learning curve China hopes will eventually lead to the construction of a space station, starting at the end of the decade.

At about 60 tonnes in mass, this future station would be considerably smaller than the 400-tonne international platform operated by the US, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, but its mere presence in the sky would nonetheless represent a remarkable achievement. 

Tiangong-1 was launched in September

Concept drawings describe a core module weighing some 20-22 tonnes, flanked by two slightly smaller laboratory vessels.

Officials say it would be supplied by freighters in exactly the same way that robotic cargo ships keep the International Space Station (ISS) today stocked with fuel, food, water, air, and spare parts.

China is investing billions of dollars in its space programme. It has a strong space science effort under way, with two orbiting satellites having already been launched to the Moon and a third mission expected to put a rover on the lunar surface.

Next week should see its first Mars orbiter - Yinghuo-1 - begin its journey to the Red Planet.

The Asian country is also deploying its own satellite-navigation system known as BeiDou-Compass.

Bigger rockets are coming, too. The Long March 5 will be capable of putting more than 20 tonnes in a low-Earth orbit. This lifting muscle, again, will be necessary for the construction of a space station.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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UN Bans Chemtrails

Geoengineering Moratorium Agreed at UN Ministerial in Japan

Foodfreedom, October 28, 2010 , By ETC Group

Chemtrail Rainbow

Risky Climate Techno-fixes Blocked

NAGOYA, Japan – In a landmark consensus decision, the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments. “Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus,” stated Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director of ETC Group.

The agreement, reached during the ministerial portion of the two-week meeting which included 110 environment ministers, asks governments to ensure that no geoengineering activities take place until risks to the environmental and biodiversity and associated social, cultural and economic impacts risks have been appropriately considered as well as the socio-economic impacts. The CBD secretariat was also instructed to report back on various geoengineering proposals and potential intergovernmental regulatory measures.

The unusually strong consensus decision builds on the 2008 moratorium on ocean fertilization. That agreement, negotiated at COP 9 in Bonn, put the brakes on a litany of failed “experiments” – both public and private – to sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide in the oceans’ depths by spreading nutrients on the sea surface. Since then, attention has turned to a range of futuristic proposals to block a percentage of solar radiation via large-scale interventions in the atmosphere, stratosphere and outer space that would alter global temperatures and precipitation patterns.

“This decision clearly places the governance of geoengineering in the United Nations where it belongs,” said ETC Group Executive Director Pat Mooney.

“This decision is a victory for common sense, and for precaution. It will not inhibit legitimate scientific research. Decisions on geoengineering cannot be made by small groups of scientists from a small group of countries that establish self-serving ‘voluntary guidelines’ on climate hacking. What little credibility such efforts may have had in some policy circles in the global North has been shattered by this decision. The UK Royal Society and its partners should cancel their Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative and respect that the world’s governments have collectively decided that future deliberations on geoengineering should take place in the UN, where all countries have a seat at the table and where civil society can watch and influence what they are doing.”

Delegates in Nagoya have now clearly understood the potential threat that deployment – or even field testing – of geoengineering technologies poses to the protection of biodiversity. The decision was hammered out in long and difficult late night sessions of a “Friends of the chair” group, attended by ETC Group, and adopted by the Working Group 1 Plenary on 27 October 2010. The Chair of the climate and biodiversity negotiations called the final text “a highly delicate compromise.” All that remains to do now is gavel it through in the final plenary at 6 PM Friday (Nagoya time).

“The decision is not perfect,” said Neth Dano of ETC Group Philippines. “Some delegations are understandably concerned that the interim definition of geoengineering is too narrow because it does not include Carbon Capture and Storage technologies. Before the next CBD meeting, there will be ample opportunity to consider these questions in more detail. But climate techno-fixes are now firmly on the UN agenda and will lead to important debates as the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit approaches. A change of course is essential, and geoengineering is clearly not the way forward.”

Read More ....

Obama signs Nasa up to new future

BBC News, By Jonathan Amos, Science correspondent, 11 October 2010

The US space agency (Nasa) has been given a new direction, one that will seek to put astronauts in orbit using privately-run launch services.

The legislation calls for funds to be allocated to
the development of commercial crew launch services

The change comes into effect with the signing by President Barack Obama of the Nasa Authorization Act 2010.

The legislation, passed by Congress last week, mandates the agency to fly the space station until 2020 and to launch one extra shuttle next year.

It also instructs Nasa to start work on a rocket for deep-space exploration.

The president's signature on the act brings to an end eight months of fractious debate on Capitol Hill about the future course of the agency.

Nasa's Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters: "Our nation's leaders have come together and endorsed a blueprint for Nasa, one that requires us to think and act boldly as we move our agency into the future. This legislation supports the president's ambitious plan for Nasa to pioneer new frontiers of innovation and discovery."

The act will mark a sea change in the way Nasa does some of its business, particularly in the realm of human spaceflight.

The legislation calls for $1.3bn to be allocated to the development of commercial crew services over the next three years.

The money will seed private companies to design and build rockets and capsules capable of delivering astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

The legislation also signals a formal end to the Constellation programme begun under President George Bush that sought to return humans to the Moon with a new spaceship called Orion and two new rockets called Ares 1 and Ares 5.

Some $9bn was spent on Constellation. Much of its technology and know-how will now be directed into an alternative rocket system big enough to launch a spaceship, or at least some of its elements, on missions that go far beyond the ISS.

Nasa will aim to fly one last shuttle to the space
station, probably in June or July 2011

These ventures are likely to include asteroids and, eventually, Mars.

Legislators want Nasa to receive $11.5bn over the next six years to have the new heavy-lift rocket ready for operation by 31 December 2016.

Some critics of the legislation have questioned whether the funding being requested is sufficient for the task, but Florida Senator Bill Nelson who helped build bipartisan support for the legislation said it should be ample.

"If we can't develop a new rocket for $11.5bn, building on a lot of the technologies that were already developed in spending $9bn - if we can't do it for that then we ought to question whether we can build a rocket."

The act authorises $19bn for Nasa in the federal year 2011, a significant increase on 2010.

This would allow the agency to expand its activities in a number of areas, including in Earth observation where some missions have been allowed to run past their nominal lifetimes without replacements being ordered up in time to prevent data gaps.

Work done on Constellation will now be directed
into the new heavy-lift launch system

"I think it's wonderful that we're now at this stage," commented Dr Sally Ride, the first American woman in space and one of a group of experts tasked by President Obama with reviewing human spaceflight policy when he came into office.

"The extensive discussion of the president's budget and the deliberation of the elements of this bill I believe have resulted in legislation that will strengthen Nasa and the space programme."

The $19bn is not completely guaranteed. The money still has to be allocated by congressional appropriators, but Senator Nelson said he thought wide support on Capitol Hill for Nasa would ensure its activities were not denied funding as a result of more general arguments over federal spending and the need to reduce the nation's deficit.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

Stargazing: Barack Obama signs the Nasa Authorization Act 2010 into law yesterday. The legislation aims to send man to explore asteroids and Mars

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New Zealand UFO Disclosure 2010

UFO Blogger

After UFO Disclosure by UK, Denmark, Sweden, Uruguay governments in last two years, now New Zealand government finally came forward to publish its own x-files in public domain in next few weeks.

It's just a coincident or more than that we don't know but just yesterday we reported about Chile government reopens special UFO investigations unit CEFAA and today few hour back according to UK news media Britains Royal Society Meets this week to Discuss The Possibility of Extraterrestrial Life. And now New Zealand government finally came forward to publish its own x-files.

If we look at big-picture UFO Alien Disclosure movement pacing up by every single passing day and we can say that Extraterrestrial Life, UFO Disclosure is Imminent in very near future.

According to New Zealand media Hundreds of pages of secret files on New Zealand UFO sightings will be released by the military this year.

The files include reports of UFO sightings from 1979 to 1984 and references to the Kaikoura sighting of December 1978.

The files are held by Archives New Zealand and were to have been made public this month, but the Defence Force is removing personal information from them to comply with the Privacy Act.

"At the moment we are working on making copies of these files, minus the personal information," a Defence Force spokeswoman said. "Once this work is completed, we are hoping to be able to release a copy of all the UFO files, including some ahead of their release time, within the year."

Lights were seen in the sky over Kaikoura in December 1978 and were filmed by an Australian news crew. Aircraft tracked the lights, which were also seen on radar.

A man who worked for the Transport Ministry's civil aviation division when the Kaikoura lights were seen said he would like to see the government files.

The man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he was working at Christchurch International Airport at the time. He saw United States Air Force planes with unusual call signs touring the area and believes the full story about the lights has not been disclosed.

"For the US Air Force to come all that way and spend three days here, there must have been something going on," he said.

The director of research group UFOCUS NZ, Suzanne Hansen, said she was frustrated by the delayed release but understood the privacy reasons.

"We have been in discussion with the New Zealand Defence Force for many years ... It is frustrating from a research perspective because we would like to collate these sightings with international research."

She said some sightings could have been alien technology. "There are cases that are certainly not our technology. It has been scientifically proven that this is entirely possible."

Jonas of Wellington who asked for his full name not to be used, spotted a craft in the sky on July 17 2008 .

He wrote via email, ''My wife and I were drinking coffee on the veranda, when she spotted what looked like an unnaturally low flying aircraft travelling roughly along the Broken Hill Road at around 90 to 140km/h at an altitude of about 400 to 500 metres.

''When I took the first picture I realised that it was not in fact an aircraft. I tried to take as many pictures as possible of the object, but after the third or fourth one, it literally disappeared into thin air. No smoke, no trail, nothing. I wouldn't have believed it myself if it wasn't for the pictures.''

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New Zealand UFO 2010 News - Truth Is Out There : 3News NZ 60 Minutes

Down below is latest 60 minutes program aired on 3News NZ in anticipation for the NZ governments upcoming UFO file release.

According to 3News NZ an amazing number of high ranking military officers, government officials and generally sensible folk believe we are being visited by aliens from other planets. They have seen unidentified flying objects for themselves.

With the New Zealand Government soon to release previously classified material on UFO sightings , reporter Sarah Hall goes looking for the evidence.

Alien hunters 'should look for artificial intelligence'

Futurist on UFOs: Time to grow up

Herald Tribune, by Billy Cox, August 17th, 2010 02:22pm

Last week’s directive by the Brazilian government ordering its air traffic controllers, as well as military and civilian pilots, to file all UFO reports into a central database runs counterintuitive to U.S. policy. But the announcement didn’t surprise Dr. John Petersen.

The Arlington Institute founder/director
John Petersen says the adult conversation
could begin if NASA places its UFO photos
in the public domain / CREDIT: cherie-beck.com

“I don’t think anything stays the same as it is, and there’s a growing kind of awareness on this subject around the world,” says Petersen, founder of a nonprofit futurist think tank called The Arlington Institute. “It’s inevitable that humans — and Americans — will get to a place where this issue can be discussed openly, in a non-threatening manner.

“It’s demeaning to presume that most people will freak out or somehow panic when this reality is confirmed. When I talk about it with my wife, she goes, ‘What’s the big deal, I don’t understand. Are we going to stop shopping, are we going to go to work in a different way? What?’”

Brazil’s announcement just happened to coincide with the release of UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, in which journalist Leslie Kean chronicles the accelerating worldwide efforts to address the phenomenon, then lobbies for the formation of a new U.S. scientific study. Among those endorsing the book was Petersen, whose resume includes a stretch with the National Security Council. Citing an idea advanced by author Whitley Strieber, Petersen says it wouldn’t take much for Uncle Sam to join the conversation.

“If NASA would just say, look, we’ve got these pictures, we don’t know what they are, that would give the National Science Foundation something to work with,” says Petersen, who lives in Berkeley Springs, W.Va. “Suddenly everybody follows the money and it’ll be legitimized.

“You wouldn’t have to get into the conspiracy stuff — who knows where conspiracies start and end? Throwing rocks at people certainly is not the way to get people at the top to cooperate. You let the facts lead the way and let people find out what’s there to be found out.”

Petersen, a retired naval flight officer with a background in electrical engineering, describes UFOs On the Record as “a good start” toward that end. With any luck, he says, American mainstream science will take a cue and explore Kean’s book. As far as anticipating professional blowback from putting his name out there, Petersen is unconcerned.

“I don’t worry about that stuff,” he says from a cell phone between airline flights. “The folks I deal with, they come to me because I don’t think the same way as everybody else.”

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Brazil air force to record UFO sightings

BBC News, 12 August 2010 Last updated at 01:47 GMT

Brazil's government has ordered its air force to officially record any sighting of unidentified flying objects.

If they see something like this, Brazilian pilots
will have to report it (computer illustration).

A government decree said all military and civilian pilots as well as air traffic controllers should register any UFO sightings with the national aerospace defence command.

The information will be stored in the national archives in Rio de Janeiro.

It will be made available to researchers, including those seeking evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Anything unusual that is seen, photographed or video filmed in Brazil's air space will now have to be reported and catalogued.

But the air force said it would limit itself to collecting information, and would not be chasing UFOs.

"Air force command does not have a specialized structure to carry out scientific experiments on these phenomena and will limit itself to recording any events" the air force said in a statement.

Out there somewhere?

There have been several reports of UFOs in Brazil in recent decades.

In 1986, air force jets were scrambled to investigate unidentified objects in the skies above Sao Paulo, but the phenomenon was never fully explained.

And in 1977 the Amazon town of Vigia asked for military help after some residents said they had been attacked by extra-terrestrials.

One anonymous air traffic controller told the Brazilian newspaper O Dia that sightings had been reported at the highest level.

"I have heard of ministers and even a president who said they had seen a UFO", he said.

Brazilian UFO watchers have welcomed the decision to make such information public in future.

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Sun storms may bring northern lights farther south

Yahoo/AP, Mon Aug 2, 7:10 pm ET

WASHINGTON – The sun may be about to put on a colorful light show.

AP – In this x-ray photo provided by
NASA, the sun is shown early in the
morning of Sunday, Aug. 1, 2010.

That's because of two minor solar storms that flared on Sunday and are shooting tons of plasma directly at Earth.

Scientists said residents of northern regions — from Maine to Michigan and anywhere farther north around the globe — may see unusual northern lights.

Usually only regions closer to the Arctic can see the aurora of rippling reds and greens, but solar storms pull them south.

The federal Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., said the plasma will likely arrive late Tuesday night or early Wednesday. The storms are not much of a threat to satellites or power grids.

Until recently, the sun was in a phase with few storms.

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