Christmas Eve in the Front Range, Russia has another Soyuz rocket failure, and there is a Santa and his name is Tom.

Sunset at Tom's place.

 It’s Christmas Eve here in the Denver Metro area, and the sun is shining on the remnants of the snowstorm we got on Monday-Tuesday. Snow has melted off the asphalt, but is mounded where it was pushed by plows, shovels, and the occasional dog or rabbit digging in or scurrying away, as the case may be. People are rushing around hither and thither in their cars, pickups, vans, etc, doing what people do on Christmas Eve day, and I expect they will keep it up till after the sun sets, and this time of year, that happens at 4:40 PM Mountain time, according to the Old Farmers Almanac.

  The Russians suffered another Soyuz rocket failure early Friday Mountain Time. A Soyuz 2.1b carrying a Meridian military communications satellite apparently tipped over during the burn of the third stage about seven minutes into powered ascent into orbit, and exploded. People in the Siberian town of Yarovouye saw the explosion and fireball in the sky near their town, and a local resident, Mr. Andrey Krivoruchkin, had his house hit by a pressurization tank from the upper stage of the Soyuz 2.1b rocket. Mr. Krivoruchkin had been outside gathering firewood for his stove, heard sonic booms and then the crash of debris onto the roof and chimney of his house. Emergency Response team and Russian Federal Security personnell rushed to the scene and offered medical assistance, but no one was hurt Thank God.  Mr. Krivoruchkin refused to speak to the media about the incident, but news spread throughout Russia and the entire world within hours of the incident. Images were taken of the fireball and debris during and after the incident, and here are some of those pictures.

 

Fireball approaching Vagistevo Village.



Soyuz 2.1b launch with Meridain Dec 24 2011

 


 



Location of upper stage impact.





Fireball hits Vagistevo Village.



Pressurization tank from upper stage.

   Lifenews of Russia reported this about debris falling on the town and hitting the Krivoruchkin house :

“ The debris fell 3 kilometers away from the district’s centre right on a residential house in Vagaistevo village. During impact a titanium piece measuring 1 meter in diameter. A family was in the living room. At present moment, teams from Army and Federal Security Service are working at the scene”, said a source in the territorial Emergency Command.

  “The heavy piece of metal accelerated to a great speed fell on the house’s roof like a meteorite. Now all people are evacuated, the scene is under examination. According to eyewitneswses, a huge fireball plummeted down from the sky, hitting on a roof of a small house. The home’s owner Andrey at that moment was out to take firewood for his oven, while his wife and kids stayed inside.

  Now servicemen from the local FSS have already extracted a piece of the satellite from the destroyed house. It looks like a metal ball with 50cm radius.”

Vladimir Popovkin, head of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roskosmos made this statement for the press :

“Yes, there are problems, and we need to modernize,” Popovkin said, saying Russia needs to upgrade facilities at its spaceports and tracking facilities.

Popovkin also highlighted the aging of the Russian space workforce as a systemic problem. Sounds similar to problems NASA has in transferring both documented and tacit skills that are non-documental, non quantifiable, to a younger generation of space workers in the space industry in NASA and the space industry in general. Retiring workers cannot transfer anything to young people if they have no contact, no chance to mentor and rapport, no sense of community and history and continuity in the space industry and community, and this bodes ill for the future of space in the US and western civilization both. I have spoken out about this problem over and over thru the years to the space community and the larger non-space society both, so far my warnings and admonitions and advice have fallen on deaf ears. So much for activism as a way to get things done.

  As for myself, I’m sitting at the kitchen table working on my blog, reading news about what’s been happening both here in the Front Range, around the world, and up in space too. Christmas eve, with only Tomas upstairs for company. I made supper for us, and fed him a bit ago.

  I will have another welfare Christmas, with no family or friends around, and that’s just the way it is. I am glad I’m inside at Tom’s, and have a warm place to stay tonight, or I would be stuck outside somewhere else, probably freezing to death and probably found dead in the night or tomorrow at the latest by some0ne, and here comes the Police, Ambulance, coroner, etc. Thank God that’s not necessary tonight or tomorrow. I of course know I don’t have that many Christmases ahead of me, so I really don’t know if this will be my last Christmas or not. It is too bad I’m by myself, but I have always been alone, without a girlfriend/wife to be with me, nor a dog or cat either I’m sorry to say. That’s what happens when one is alone and “weird”, “Different”, whatever, so nothing new there. I do miss my mom and dad at this time of year, but since dad died in Feb 1989, I haven’t celebrated Christmas at all, not being with any people who could remotely be considered “family”, and Marci Duncan and her dysfunctional family and her too don’t count as “normal” people in my book.

  I do miss having mom and dad here for the Holidays, it truly is n0t the same without them. I remember mom cooking and baking in the kitchen, dad being in his lazy boy in the living room, watching TV and snacking, and the dog coming in the house for a visit and some treats, be the dog Happy in the late 60’s to 1980, or Hyper from Christmas 1985 till Christmas 1988, the last Christmas with dad and mom together till dad finally passed away in February 1989. I miss them both terribly, every day and especially at the Holidays. It just isn’t the same without them.

　

  I expected another welfare Christmas, with no family around, and that’s the way I expected it to be, when Tom and Deanna showed up with a new vacuum cleaner for Tom, and a present for me too. I didn’t expect this, and because of this, there may or may not be a Santa Claus, but there certainly is a Santa Tom !





Tuesday Happenings - New Planets, new crew for the International Space Station, same old crap down here on Earth, and Seasons Grettings despite it all.

  http://falkvinge.net/2011/12/16/do-we-really-have-to-prepare-for-the-fourth-box/

  I read on Claire Wolfe’s blog, available at Backwoods Home’s website, about a Swedish man that suggests the US is so far gone, that responsible civic minded citizens are trying the third box, and it isn’t working anymore, so the time to take up the fourth box is rapidly coming. Claire herself is merely a reader of different blogsites, as am I, and I leave the reader to follow this link and decide for yourself what box you reach for next.

 

  NASA announced that the Kepler terrestrial Planet Finder spacecraft has, from Earth orbit, discovered not one, but Two Earth mass planets orbiting a star. The two planets are inside the habitable zone where the temperature is just right, water can be liquid, and oxygen is a major component of the atmosphere. These two planets are too hot for that, but I predict that the discovery of an Earth like planet, at the right distance, with liquid water and oxygen a large percentage of it’s atmosphere is a matter of time, perhaps not much more time.

  The Souyz 2-U rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft inside the payload shroud, has moved from it’s assembly building, backed to the launch pad by a locomotive and short consist of rolling stock including the flatcar and erector with booster cradled on top, and installed the stack on the pad in obviously winter weather conditions, typical for the Baikonur Cosmodrome in December. The Expedition 30 crew, all veteran space flyers, consists of American ISS Astronaut Don Pettit, Dutchman Andre Kuipers, and Russian Oleg Kononenko, are scheduled to launch Wednesday morning in the US at 6:16:15 a.m. MST, on the typical two day rendezvous chase, leading to a docking and hatch opening, and Expedition 30 will be fully staffed on orbit, and officially underway.

  My debit card finally arrived at my brother’s address, but I got a phone call from him this morning, and he was basically acting like a dick, telling me he was not going to be home, would be a bell ringer for the Salvation Army at Safeway in Golden at 3 PM, hence was too busy to bother with me. His attitude was basically that me needing the card and the money on it for basic necessities because of my lack of work, and not asking a dime from him, is such an imposition and on the good order of the world, that he sees fit to be angry with me, and act like it’s a horrible thing for me to disrupt his schedule and take up any of his precious time. Me needing to get that debit card so I need not ask him or anyone beside the State of Colorado for anything, is an imposition and just plain wrong.

  I don’t understand why Noriega’s always get angry with me when I need something, and take every effort to get whatever I need, without asking anything, not so much as a dime from a Noriega, and that is bad bad bad. Noriega’s are, in my experience and opinion, dysfunctional autocratic jerks, always have been and always will be. Levi was that way. Grampo Bernie was that way. Dad could and was frequently like that. It would be much easier to be indifferent, either cold or warm/amused indifference, than with barely concealed contempt and hostile indifference. But that’s just a Noriega for you. At least in my blood family.

  I won’t mind having another welfare Christmas, as I haven’t celebrated Christmas since 1988, and haven’t been in a situation with the proper circumstances to be able to or care to celebrate Christmas. And I just don’t really care for what Christmas has morphed into, and I don’t expect to get anything for Christmas, and have no available money to buy anything for anyone for Christmas anyway, so it is a dead holiday to me, something other people celebrate, but not a holiday that applies to me.

  Nevertheless, I’m no Ebenezer Scrooge, so I say: Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday’s, Happy Chanukah, Happy Quanza, and Have a Cool Yule to one and all. God Bless us Every One !! We all need it, that’s for sure.

  No work again today, and with the weather being wintry the way it was this morning, I understand why no one wanted to work in the cold and snow this morning. If I had that debit card, that would help, but see above for why I don’t. So the year is closing on want and privation - still no Chevy Tahoe or Ford Ranger, no semi-automatic rifle for militia uses or self defense, hunting, etc, no food and no gear from my Ranger pickup, still at Medved in Castle Rock and still as far away from me and as useless as Ranger 4’s wreckage on the far side of the Moon.

  At least I fed Tom and I, and by a miracle he lets me stay here. That Man must have a heart because he knows I’m one step from living on the streets, and one step from death as a result of that eventuality, so I give thanks for Tom letting me stay here, as he has for months now, since June actually. It is very much to his credit to have helped me out as he has, and I hope and pray a Merciful and Almighty God sees fit to bless Tom and give him wisdom, patience, more money, peace of mind, and if it is his destiny, a woman who really loves him for him, and helps him out as he needs.

　

　　

Comet survives the sun, 4th Amendment shredded and Bill of Rights in tatters, new space lauch vehicle for the masses, no work again and waiting on debit card, England planning on chaos when the Euro collapses, NASA reverts to Space Act era language to keep CDEV on track due to Congressional budget cutting, and I told you so.



A lot has happened since I last posted, so here goes :

• Comet Lovejoy swung to within 180,000 miles of the Sun’s photosphere on Thursday evening December 15 Mountain Time, and it survived the passage thru the several million degree solar corona, but the comet’s tail detached during perihelion passage, and then redeveloped after the comet began its centuries long climb away from the sun. Several different spacecraft out in the solar system, along with one in Earth orbit imaged Comet Lovejoy during its close brush by the sun, and the dynamic nature of the comet’s tail in the corona has physicists baffled so far. To me, the view inbound showed the tail acting like a jet contrail, subject to winds at an angle to the path of the comet, and the tail detached and remained trapped in the corona for hours. Explain that ? After perihelion, Comet Lovejoy raced away from the sun and redeveloped both gas and dust tails, and definitely survived its death defying swoop to less than the moon’s distance from the earth from the 11,000 degree photosphere, and it’s bath in the million plus degrees of the corona. And spacecraft sensors saw it all. Amazing ! Comet Lovejoy gave everyone a pre-Christmas show of the awesome dynamic nature of our solar system, and that maybe comet nuclei aren’t the fragile dirty snowballs everyone thought.
• The U.S. House of Representatives passed their version of the completely Unconstitutional National Defense Authorization Act, specifically the section where the continental US becomes a “Battlefield”, and any US citizen could be detained, (whatever that can be construed to mean) and held till hell freezes over without charges, and with no hope of bonding out under Habeas Corpus, in short, the Fourth Amendment is history. How our House members could sell out the American people, shred the meaning and intent of the Bill of Rights limiting government power, and then claim they were just “doing the will of the American people”, is so far beyond my ability to comprehend, that I must conclude that Congress is either acting 0ut of overt stupidity, ignorance and apathy, or they are sinister actors in an ongoing plunge towards tyranny and slavery for the formerly free citizens of the US. There is still time to contact your US Senators and tell them to stop this overt cancellation of the 4^th Amendment, and basically a government takeover in it’s tracks, and restore power to the people, which is the point of having a limited, Constitutional republic, instead of mob rule or the tyranny of the majority. I can’t say it any plainer, or with more truth. It is time for a Housecleaning of monumental proportions in government at every level in the US- local, county, state, and federal. These two-faced, tyrannical so called representatives must be voted out en-masse come next November, or this nation is headed for a horrible fate- namely a fight for freedom and a Civil War. And to be frank with everyone, I don’t expect to survive such a war. I expect I will die in such a conflict. So be it. I WILL NOT LIVE AS A SLAVE UNDER TYRANTS !!!!! Time to live up to the standards our forefathers who gave their lives, fortunes and sacred honor did in the War of Independence, and those brave souls who fought for independence against a tyrannical federal government during the War Between the States. GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH !!!!!
• Burt Rutan and Paul Allen, amongst others, announced a new reusable launch system to put people and cargo into orbit by 2018, at much less cost than current systems. Their proposed Stratolaunch system would use the world’s largest aircraft to carry a Falcon 4 or 5 upper stage and crew/cargo compartment to altitude, then air drop the upper stage and crew/cargo module like the X-15 was so long ago, and the engine would fire up, and propel the spacecraft into earth orbit. Payload capacity is supposed to be equal to a Delta II, about 10,000t pounds to orbit, eventually including passengers to whatever destination they have bought and paid to get to. If this system works as Rutan and Allen and others intend, it could revolutionize flight to orbit, as well as craft a practical means of intercontinental travel in a few hours at most, as opposed to the ¾ of a day or more it now takes to get anywhere on Earth from anywhere else. Who knows, if I live long enough, I might even get a chance to fly into orbit at an affordable price-my lifelong dream, and one as yet unfulfilled for me. Maybe in a few years, if the coming collapse and war don‘t kill me first ……….
• Work has dried up for me, and with no vehicle yet in the offing to provide transport to or from a work assignment site, I await my loaded debit card from Chase Bank/the Colorado Division of Labor and Employment. I feel no shame at asking for unemployment-my steady work is anything but - and I have no work scheduled for tomorrow, so I take advantage of a state government program I am entitled to. The Great Depression of the 21^st Century has laid its heavy hand across my life, and it’s effects are felt by an ongoing want and a steady degradation of the quality of my life this entire decade. I can thank socialists, Republicans in Name Only, those who have successfully perpetrated a FRAUD on the American people by way of bank and insurance company bailouts, continued overregulation to the point of strangling commerce here in the homeland, bought and paid for co-conspirators-namely the US Senate and House of Representatives members who respond to lobby money rather than the needs of their constituents, the flood of illegal aliens that have bid down wages and taken work from US citizens, all to pad the pockets of employers who have been clever enough to lobby for a privatizing of benefits and socializing of costs, that people like me must pay, whether or not it’s moral, ethical, or just plain wrong. And it is most assuredly wrong.
• The British Government has advised the Home Office to prepare for Civil Unrest when the Euro collapses and the financial house of cards collapses under it’s ill advised crudely constructed flimsy structure. They are planning on rescuing British Nationals from European countries like Italy, Greece, Ireland, etc, where their countrymen and women could be in mortal danger from rioters and chaos in those countries where the Euro was once dominant, and now on the wane, with a final collapse to come in the next calendar year or so. And if you think the collapse and social unrest will be confined to Europe, think again. FEMA has solicited bids to construct camps on the fly, as soon as possible, to “relocate” people for whatever reason the national command authority, FEMA, the President, or his designee down the chain of command deem necessary and proper. Dark news indeed, for preppers and lovers of Liberty and a limited government.
• Congress passed a spending bill for Fiscal Year 2012, which includes only a $ 444 million cut to NASA, and causing NASA to return to the Space Act of 1958 in dealing out less money than planned to the participants like Space X and Sierra Nevada, amongst others, to create new rockets and spacecraft to supply the International Space Station with crew and supplies in as short a time as possible. NASA went back to the National Aeronautics and Space Act to find a rationale to fund CCDEV, because of a budget cut caused by, who else, Congress as a whole, who still “don’t get it”, as far as space policy and programs are concerned. $406 million instead of the requested $850 million, is better than nothing, but this action by NASA, whose hand is forced by Congress, has again reneged on an agreement with private industry to keep American astronauts flying to and from a Space Station we started with much fanfare and expectations, and cut back on, reduced it’s uses while escalating it’s costs, delaying it’s construction for years while scoping back it’s capabilities. Typical for the US Government as a whole, the new dysfunctional NASA, begging for money like a homeless person while making do with less, so typical of NASA vis a vis the Congress and the Administration, no matter who they are or what letter they have behind their names.

My fellow conservative spacer Mark Whittington added this on the Space Politics website about the financial cutting and its deeper meaning : “The irony here cannot be more delicious. NASA has been forced not to go to the FAR approach solely because Congress was stingy with funding. I suppose that the supporters of Obama’s commercial crew will now thank the appropriators for keeping the space agency on a tight fiscal leash. Mind, commercial crew is still flawed with its subsidies and lack of private markets. But thankfully it is now less so.”

Well put.

For everyone who ever thought I was “weird” , “out there”, etc, this week’s events have vindicated me, and I was RIGHT, and all of you ill informed so called “critics”, were WRONG.

Vox Populi, Vox Humbug !

　

Cops gone bad, space programs gone awry, and work gone too. What's a man to do ?

There’s so much that’s happened in the last few weeks that it’s hard to choose where to start.

  First off, Pat Sullivan, the local law enforcement goon who made such outrageous anti-gun statements back in 1990 or so, was arrested for methamphetamine use, using younger men for sex in exchange for methamphetamine use, and in general being a law enforcement goon without peer in the Front Range. The man was crooked as a dog’s hind leg, and was this way for who knows how many years- I knew he was a bad guy Authoritarian Bureaucratic Hierarchicalist goon way back when he said in the media that civilians had no reason to own semi automatic firearms, and utilized the media misinformation machine to forward the mistaken ideas that citizens need governments permission to exercise a Constitutional Right. Bad from the Get Go ! Shame on you Sullivan - SHAME ON YOU !!!!!!! I’m glad you got found out and arrested. I hope justice is served and you spend the rest of your fallen life behind bars, and away from true innocent Patriots, gun owners/users, innocent civilians, drug addicts who reformed, and good people in general. The rest of you Crooked Cops and Goons, your next !

  Not much happening in space activity. NASA has revisited the L-1 space hub infrastructure build up/cislunar space station concept that was all the vogue about the year 2000. This time they would use the experience in building and operating the International Space Station and node hardware, along with Bigelow inflatable habitat technology along with an Orion/MPCV spacecraft for access to and from LEO/ISS and Earth’s surface. Also needed is the basic version of the SLS booster, along with the evolved version for heavier infrastructure elements later in the 2030’s. If any of this actually gets funded in the new era where everyone and every organization is broke and a new form of money that isn’t fiat/funny money that multiplies in quantity and decreases in value at a politician’s whim, a banker’s computer or an economist’s calculated gamble, comes to pass.

  Thanks to the Depression, the continued infighting in the dysfunctional Space Community, and the incompetence of NASA management, Congressional Members who supposedly “care” about space policy and programs, and the apathy and indifference of the American People, NASA might, MIGHT, be going to a point in space to a habitat/deep space station that might, MIGHT, be there in the late 2020’s. I’ll likely be dead by then, so I’ll never get to see Astronauts go beyond low earth orbit and go anywhere else in what’s left of my life.

  Work has dried up, so I have no money coming for week after next, hence I was relieved to the point of being overjoyed at successfully completing and submitting my application for unemployment with the State of Colorado. Now I hope Warning Lites sees fit to not interfere with me at least treading water financially, since working for Warning Lites, or any other company in Colorado whom I might choose to try and work for and whom might deem it desirable and necessary to hire me and put me to work, hasn’t happened. Work Attached, Baby- Work Attached.

  I take the attitude of the Incomparable Claire Wolfe, who advises when a man or woman has tried everything in their power to make a go of it in the system extant, and the system itself pulls the rug out from underneath you, the time comes when a man or woman should take advantage of every available government program, and have no shame about it. I certainly have no shame, and expect government, dysfunctional and increasingly schizophrenic in it’s way of doing things and choosing priorities, does the right thing and simply gives me my money, nothing more and nothing less, and nothing else either.

No work today yet life goes on but for the working class, poverty is here.

  I haven't posted in a long while, and it's time. A great deal of time has passed since my last post, and it will take me a while to write it all down here. So here goes.

  I had no work today, and tried applying for unemployment at the Colo. Division of Labor and Employment, and when I got to the point where you have to register for work, I did something wrong, that caused a weird error on their website, and I never could get back in to finish my application.

  After that I tried to call the Colo Division of Labor and Employment, but the first three times I got a "Your call cannot be completed as dialed, all circuits are busy. Please try your call again. Message D-E-N." So no way to get thru to a real human being to assist with filing for job attached unemployment. Typical bureaucracy : not enough help and droves of applicants all trying to do the same thing.

  Then Tomas, Tom's roommate was dropped off by his friend Dale, and Tomas went upstairs, and promptly fell down and knocked his table over, was incoherent, and I struggled mightily to get him to lay down on his bed or sit in his chair, and still he wants to get around and flail and flop around, and he won't eat the hot dog I made for him. Had to feed him the hot dog and almost got bit for my trouble, and still he won't eat it. I'm going to try and get him to eat one of his fruit cups, and this gets his blood sugar up fast, and it works if he will eat it down.

  I sure am tired of helping him out, and he won't do anything to help himself, won't eat on schedule, can't get more money on his food stamps and get food, and his so called friends just drop him off an leave him here, and I have to deal with him. Tomas needs to go into a care facility, and the sooner the better.

  In Washington D.C., the so called Super Committee in Washington has failed to come to a deal to cut the budget, and they have till tomorrow night to come to an agreement, and if they don't, who knows what will happen. Some more chaotic drops in the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and OTC stock markets here and similar plunges in stock markets around the world, led over the cliff by Wall Street brokers more than likely. These people in the Congress obviously don't care, so why should I, or anyone else in the nation who isn't a politician, lobbyist, or bankster, care about them ? WHY ????? I sure don't.

  I had no work again today, and had no work Friday, so another work week gone with only 29 hours pay coming, and this week is another short week of work, so the check coming this week is going to be correspondingly short again, as has been the case all this year, since I started working at my current job, and most of this century so far to tell the truth. This whole century so far has been a wash financially, and I have finally concluded that it's not going to get any better financially for me, or for many of the working class, former middle class, non-degreed professional working people whose degrees are no longer in demand or applicable to the work structure and environment we have today. The system extant has failed us, and we can't have an entire nation of paper pushers, bureaucrats, service workers, and illegal aliens all competing for a fixed or shrinking pool of jobs. Not everyone can or should have to have an advanced degree to have a decent paying job, or be expected to jump right into a job right out of college and be willing to work six days a week, ten or twelve hours a week for a salary that is less than the amount they thought they would be compensated for their years of discipline and study. That is wrong, but like so much else this century, that is the norm.

I still do not have my truck, and I called Dale earlier, and he said my truck should be ready in a day or two. How many times have I heard that since July ? I hope he is telling me the real situation, as I have a whole four months of work to do in my storage unit, and this is the 21st already, and I owe for my phone and internet and must pay this by the 23rd, and maybe a day's leeway, then both the Internet and my phone will be turned off, and I will be out of contact with everyone and everything. Another consequence of not enough pay and fixed and growing expenses that never get less.

  I do know I am tired of chasing the carrot on a stick in front of me, continuing to try to get that carrot but never getting any closer to it, nor getting more money or getting ahead financially from working a job for a living. A degreed professional in the Wealthy Criminal Class can earn a fortune by just getting inside information from his crony buddies and need not work harder than a few keystrokes an moving a mouse on a computer at work, or even at home. The working/middle class drone is a SUCKER, and why the middle class continues to be a sucker is beyond me. Obviously the so-called Scientific Management mantra of the Protestant Work Ethic/Operant Conditioning works to keep the drones in line, and in their place. But I have learned it is a sham and a delusion, and don’t believe what the government-media complex says, and haven’t for some time now.

  I have started making connections with people on three new sites that represent farming, survival and self sufficient living, but it is too soon to have any results from these sites, and it will take time. I do know the way of life I have been living is coming to an end, and it is time to connect and network with other people who see the reality of what is coming, and are making preparations for whatever is coming, as much as one can prepare for the end of the world as we know it. But the end is in sight, and the final phase of whatever is going to happen is about to start.

　

　

　

Soyuz TMA 22 is in orbit, I worked today, and a new restaurant I like.

 The Soyuz TMA 22 spacecraft is in its final hours of it's rendezvous chase of the International Space Station, having completed thirty orbits of the earth, and is closing in on the orbital complex. I've heard of no problems with the spacecraft, and the crew is up now and in the last few hours of its approach and the first few hours of their second day in space.

 I also worked for Century Link on Tennyson and 38th Ave today. Got six hours today, and it was actually a normal fall day, chilly but no killer cold breeze, and sunny and nice. It was an easy workday, with my partner slow paddling eastbounds, and I worked the north-south traffic, waving northbound and southbound traffic around the lane closures, and stopping left turners who could not see around the Century Link van.

 Cat, the man from Century Link and I finished around 1 PM, and I went to catch the bus to go home,when I saw this Mexican restaurant across the street and decided to charge the battery in my laptop and cell phone there, and get something to eat and some coffee.

 This place is called Javier & C, and the food was good, the decor is modern yet rustic, and the waitress was hot and easy on the eyes. She is a younger woman going to college for a nursing certificate, and boy, is she a HOTTIE ! Too bad she has a boyfriend, and too bad I am too old for her too. If was thirty or even twenty years younger, I would be all over her like a rat on a cheeto. It Sucks to be older and fat dumpy and disgusting, I could be such a good man to a hottie younger woman who just had to have me and who had to "save"me. Oh, for that ! Youth is wasted on the young.

 I had a green chili burrito, cinnamon roll, coffee, lots of coffee, and water, and it went down well. I am stuffed and could get along very well not eating till tomorrow morning, I am that full. So my lunch//dinner/supper is taken care of till the morrow.

 Now I have to go home to a cold place, because Xcel turned the power off at Tom's yesterday, and he has no lights or heat, but still has hot water suprisingly enough. So  I boiled some water for coffee this moring, and made some Chili from a pound of ground beef, and ate that before I got the phone call from Joanne to work where I worked at today. Fourteen hours of work so far this week, and I have an assignment for tomorrow at 37th and Tejon for Quest/Century Link at 8:30 AM. Thank God ! - it's been a terrible year financially, and this whole year will be a wash financially I'm sure. So much for the Middle Class life, I fear it's gone like a hook torn off a fishing line by an underwater snag.

 My perception of the Great Depression of the Twenty First century is that the post World War II boom is gone, the various real estate, tech, dot-com, and other speculative booms are long over, and there is no boom other than the Bakken Oil Field in North Dakota and Saskatchewan that pays boomtown wages to skilled, unskilled, and entry level workers all, but that's it for the US and canada. The bottom is out of the barrel, and most of us are struggling to keep our heads above water financially, and many many people like Tom, Cat, and others are suffering terribly from the worldwide depression that is clearly here.

 So today was a respite from the gloomy financial situation I and many others are going thru. I enjoyed the time I spent at Javier & C's, and hope to come back, if for no other reason than to see the hot younger waitress again.

Meet Soyuz, the spacecraft.

 Meet Soyuz, the updated TMA version that will carry Expedition 29 Commander Dan Burbank, and Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin into orbit and on a two day rendezvous chase of the International Space Station. The spacecraft is inside the payload shroud on top of the upper stage of the Ol' number 7 booster, what Semyorka roughly translates to from Russian.

  Soyuz first flew atop a Semyorka in 1967, the spacecraft has been redesigned and updated several times since then, and has performed excellently for many years. The current version, optomized for taller people than previous spacecraft could carry, debuted in 2002. The modern version has flat panel displays, modern modularized lightweight avionics, a lighter weight structure, and the typical cozy Descent module pressure vessel layout.  Soyuz is 22.9  feet long, 7.20 feet across the body of the service module, and 35.1 feet across the deployed solar arrays. It weighs 15,900 pounds. It can carry three people on a typical two day rendezvous chase of the International Space Station, followed by proximity formation flying, then closing in for a docking.

 Soyuz TMA normally takes two days to make an automated rendezvous chase, making engine burns to increase its speed and close the gap of severalthousand miles from the International Space Station  to yards, then dock. Chasing the station around the world in thirty two or more orbis  and climbing  from an initial lower orbit to the space station's orbital altitude of 235 statute miles is basically a road to orbit much travelled by the redoubtable Soyuz TMA.

 Soyuz TMA has proven it can do the job of flying into and back from space, and the American and other nations professional and tourist astronauts report the ride is dynamic, being pushed back into your seat liner in the descent module during the powered flight to orbit, the enrapturing experience of microgravity while in orbit, and the incomporable views of Earth that change by the minute, and never gets boring to look at.

 Get used to Soyuz TMA America. It will be how our Astronauts will be flying into and back from space for the next several years, till an alternative crewed spacecraft made in the USA begins to launch into orbit and fly in space.

Soyuz TMA-22 moved to the launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 28s crew launch on Sunday.

 The SP Korolev RSC Energia corporation has moved the Semyorka rocket with the Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft atop it, to the launch pad at Baikonur in Kazakhstan, in preparation for the next crew launch to the International Space Station. This launch will be the first one with a crew atop the same kind of upper stage that failed to put a Progress resupply spacecraft into orbit in August. Two months of intensive tests and investigation into the causes of the launch failure in August found the cause: a clogged fuel line that kept the upper stage from firing for the proper length of time to put the Progress spacecraft into obit. This problem has been corrected and the Semyorka rocket that will send the 3 man crew of Expedition 28s to the International Space Station on this coming Sunday was railed to the launch pad this morning, before dawn.

 By the light of a just after Full Moon, the Semyorka was pulled out if it’s assembly building, and backed down a rail spur by a locomotive. The rocket with spacecraft inside the payload shroud reached the pad without incident, and was erected from horizontal to vertical in a move done more than 1,800 times since mid 1957.

Expedition 28s, with Commander Dan Burbank , Flight Engineer Anton Shkaplerov, and Anatoly Inavishin, will launch at 8:14 PM Mountain Standard time Sunday night, which of course will be early Monday morning UT and in Kazakhstan. Early start for a workweek for Dan, Anton and Anatoly.

 Much more than a new crew for the International Space Station is at stake. IF this launch to the ISS fails for any reason, and I say IF, it is likely the crew aboard the station will place the station in a mode where it can be controlled from the ground, but little or no science will be done, and the station basically mothballed and on automatic pilot as it were, with no one aboard for who knows how long. So the success of ths flight to the International Space Station is critical to our presence in space, and if it fails, what it will say about our fragile daisy chain of access to our own space station, and those who got us into this precarious position will be obvious.

 I have included two views of the rollout to the pad of Soyuz TMA-22/Expedition 28’s Semyorka so everyone who reads this blog will get a sense of what’s at stake with this launch, as well as the time proven Russian Semyorka/Soyuz combination that has worked very well over many decades to sent people into space.

　

　

　

The Government Media takeover didn't work very well, thanks be to God. Phobos-Grunt is in Earth orbit, but not for long no matter what happens, and Herman Cain is being lynched by the Leftist mainstream media, and we are all the losers for it.

I listened today at noon Mountain time when the Emergency Alert System test was being done, and it was on most of the stations I switched to on AM and FM both, but there was a lag time between stations, and a few stations audio feed was weaker than others, and some were broken audio, with gaps and lags like a file download that is lagging and hanging or both. Maybe a takeover of all broadcasts by the Fedgov is not as easy as we fear. Lets hope so !

The Russians are going to try to upload software to Phobos-Grunt in hopes it will respond and make the two burns to get into an elliptical orbit around Earth first, then a Mars Injection burn. They have four days till the spacecraft dies for lack of a charge in the batteries, because the solar arrays are not deployed and unable to recharge the batteries from the initial charge they had at launch. I hope the flight controllers and support people are able to salvage this mission; I would like to see it touch down on Phobos and gather soil samples and return them to Earth.

The furor over what Herman Cain  did or did not do rages on. It seems like at least one and maybe more women are coming forth with external prompting, bribes, ect, instead of in and of themselves. They could have done this years ago, but didn't- Gee, I wonder why ? It does seem to me that he is being set up for a fall, and there is more to what is happening to him than what he is supposed to have done or not done as far as inappropriate conduct with these women is concerned. Or not. I personally like the public persona of Herman Cain, and if he is being set up for a fall and the powers that be really don't want him to be a serious challenger to President Obama, this troubles me enormously. What it says about those people who influence our pre election political process is likewise troubling. I wonder if our systems, political, economic and otherwise, are so corrupted that the only way to fix them is to get rid of them and start over, but the Occupy (fill in the blank) groups claim they are already doing this. Vox Populi, Vox Humbug. Maybe.

2005 YU 55 passes Earth without incident, Phobos-Grunt is in trouble.

The Near Earth Asteroid 2005 YU 55 passed Earth late this afternoon Mountain Daylight time in the US, and this evening no doubt many amateur and professional astronomers are looking thru eyepieces and making exposures with different types of cameras, hoping to capture images of the asteroid as it passed our planet.

 Closer to home the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft made it into low earth parking orbit, but the burn of the upper stage to propel the spacecraft first into an elliptical orbit, then onto a Mars transfer orbit around the sun apparently never took place. Observers in South America reported seeing two separate objects orbiting the Earth, but not in a trans Martian trajectory leaving Earth orbit.

It appears the upper stage, based on the sometime troublesome Fregat liquid fueled system, may have failed to commence or complete its firing to send the spacecraft on its way to Mars. I'll report more when I have more definitive information.

11 years in space on the International Space Station today, and China does it - first docking between Shenzhou and Tiangong.

11 years ago today, the first Expediton crew boarded the International Space Staton for the first time, beginning the continuous occupation of the station by crews from then to now. Twenty nine expeditions of Astronauts and Cosmonauts from many different countries have either visited the orbiting complex or lived aboard it for many months at a time since November 2 2000.  And in a further bit of good news for the international partners, the Progress 45 supply spacecraft successfully docked to the station bringing 2 1/2 tons of food, fuel, experimental hardware and spare parts to the station's three man crew.

The successful launch, orbital rendezvous and docking of the Progress makes almost certain the upcoming launc of the remainder of the Expedition 29 crew to the orbiting outpost November 14.

 And China successfully docked their unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft to the already orbiting Tiangong experimental space station module in orbit, bolstering hopes that China will be able to launch and operate a future crewed space station, starting in the middle of the decade, and send crews on missions in earth orbit for much the same reasons the US and international partners do with the International Space Station.

 China repeatedly asked to become a partner with the US, but their human rights abuses and increasingly military might weighed against both the Bush and Obama Administrations from letting China join the 16 nation project, working for 11 years in orbit now.

 I personally wish any and all spacefaring nations success in their ventures beyond the Earth's atomsphere, as there is plenty for every nation to do in opeining up the Final Frontier for everyone.

China Moves ahead with launch of its test space station module.

China successfully launched a new Shenzhou spacecraft to automatically rendezvous and dock with its new Tiangong 1 space station test module. The unmanned Shenhou 8 spacecraft will test automatic rendezvous and docking hardware, maneuvers and techniques, essential to China's ability to build up and operate infrastructure in low earth orbit and elsewhere in space as well. First docking is scheduled Thursday, and the linked combination will stay docked for 12 days, then undock and orbit the earth in formation for a time, then automatically dock again before undocking for a final time, then returning to Earth.

This module is unmanned, but a future version equipped to house a crew is scheduled to be launched in 2016, and following a four year buildup, will be completed and fully operational in 2020. This station will have several modules, and be resupplied by an unmanned cargo spacecraft similar in concept to the Progress series of spacecraft that have serviced Soviet and Russian space stations since 1980.

It isn't known if the Chinese intend to keep a crew in orbit continuously, or fly expeditions and keep crews in orbit for a time, then return them home, leaving an uncrewed spacecraft in orbit.

The Chinese view space as important to their reemergence as a world power, and a  modern analog to the voyages of exploration undertaken in the 15h Century by Admiral Cheng Ho's fleet, throughout Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and eastern Africa and the Persian Gulf region. They rightly understand the link between opening a fronter outside of China, and the flow of newly created wealth from the utilization of resources and energy from that frontier. Something the US used to understand, but has apparently chosen to ignore.

Europe's ATV to merge with America's Orion MPCV ?

  It appears that NASA management is seriously considering merging the still birthing Orion/Multi Puropse Crew Vehicle program (MPCV) with the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV). This marriage of convienence would take advantage of the already built ATV which has flown two vehicles to the International Space Station and would save NASA money in buying an already in production space worthy craft rather than spending money on developing and testing a domestic service module that would cost increaingly hard to come by dollars to develop, build, test, and fly.

  Whether Lockheed Martin approves of giving up development work in lieu of handing over their crew module to be shotgun wedded to a European service module remains to be seen. Bill Gersteinmaier of NASA is optomistic that melding the ATV to Orion's command module is the way to go, and would soldify already firm ties beween US and European space poliy goals and paralell hardware developments. the ATV was built with an eventual human rating in mind to carry a crew to and from orbit , but the ongoing scourge of budgetary limitations in Europe as well as the US dictate that if Europe wants a crewed version of the ATV, merging with the American Orion/MPCV might be the best way forward for both parties.

  The ATV changing into and Orion/MPCV service module would happen after 2015 though hardware modifications and management could change much sooner. The first unmanned flight of a crew capable but still test version of Orion will happen when it is launched to orbit atop a Delta IV-H booster at the end of 2013 for a EFT -1 (Exploration Flight Test) involving multiple orbits of the earth and reentry and splashdown in the Pacific as would happen at the end of a Orion/MPCV crewed mission anyway. A fully crew capable merged spacecraf able to launch atop the SLS booster for rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station or other destination beyond low Earth orbit is still slated for late 2015, or possibly later with this newly announced prospedtive program merger.

  Will the merging of the Orion and ATV be a marriage made in heaven, or a hybrid bastard with less capability than a purely American spacecraft, accompanied by the usual delays, cost overruns and loss of capability such hardware and program mergers have produce in the past ? No one knows. But the Orion and ATV programs are poised for a hardware and program merger sooner than later it appears.

Dale Sommers is alive and well and heading back to Florida.

Dale Sommers A.K.A. The Truckin Bozo is alive and well and is apparently heading back to Florida after having spent the summer in Cincinnati Ohio, where he reports the weather was hot and muggy and not to his or his wife's liking. I used to listen to the Truckin Bozo show on AM radio from 2000-2004 when I would be up nights doing what I'm doing now, reading, writing, and research, and Dale Sommers commentary on the state of the Union and how things are for the working class echoed my observations and sentiments pretty closely.

His wife Lumpy had surgery that unfortunately did not work out, and they are going to try a surgeon in Florida after they arrive back at their place in the western part of the state. I wish Dale and Lumpy the best of luck and success in her surgery to come, and health and happiness to the both of them. Dale was like an old friend for four years and I'm relieved to hear he is still in this world and still has his website up and running. (www.thebozo.com) God Bless you and Lumpy both !

Patriot Spaceman is Online

At long last, the time has come to speak to the world, and speak my mind about important issues of our times, in the US, the Western world, and out in space. There is much happening in many different realms of endeavor now, and to speak out is to affect outcomes and help to make positive things happen, and keep negative things from affecting any or all of us.An informed person has the chance to influence the direction of events, and Americans traditionally have been a proactive outspoken direct people.

From the earliest times of the settlement of America, people have used the technology of their times to speak out on major issues of the day, and this tradition continues today. With this in mind, I begin this blog-the Patriot Spaceman is now online.

There is much occuring in our blessed United States of America, enough both good and bad to occupy the time of the thoughtful man or woman. The advent of the Internet, the proliferation of the personal computer, Droid, and all other manner or personal computing device has enabled anyone to access information in enormous quantities, something that would awe Leonardo daVinci, Thomas Edison, Sun Tzu, or any other expansive mind throughout history. A proper use of modern means for modern ends is obvious to me, and should be obvious to any thinking person. I thank the Almighty for access to modern technology and tools, and intend to make the best use of them for preserving freedom and Constitutional Rights in our Rebublic, using technology to improve the quality and quantity of life, and reach beyond our planet to the Solar System, and establish both self sustaining settlements on the Moon, Near Earth Asteroids, Mars, and O'Neill style space colonies.

I also have a wide variety of interests in down to Earth subjects, and have decades of learning and experience to back my conclusions up with facts and informed opinion. I like too many subjects to list here, but will address these in the course of my postings. I also value the conclusions and opinions of more than a few people in different callings, fields of endeavor, and professions, as well as good old salt of the Earth working class men and women who keep our nation and its systems working and in good repair day in and day out. Their conclusions, experiences and opninons are also important and will find a home and a forum for their expression here in this blog.

So, welcome to the Patriot Spaceman blog. Freedom and Limited Constitutional Government in the USA. The Moon, Mars, Asteroids, the Inner Solar System in the 21st Century. With Liberty and Justice for All !