Category: World News

  • NASA Launches Next-Gen Landsat Spacecraft

    NASA on Monday successfully launched its new Landsat satellite from California’s Vandendberg Air Force Base, the space agency said.
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    NASA on Monday successfully launched its new Landsat satellite from California’s Vandendberg Air Force Base, the space agency said.

    The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft, part of NASA’s ongoing mission to capture images and data from the Earth’s surface, “roared into space” atop an Atlas V rocket at 1:02 p.m. Eastern, space agency officials said. Satellites operated by NASA have monitored Earth from space continuously for the past four decades.

    “Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA’s Earth Science program, and today’s successful launch will extend the longest continuous data record of Earth’s surface as seen from space,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

    “This data is a key tool for monitoring climate change and has led to the improvement of human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture monitoring—all resulting in incalculable benefits to the U.S. and world economy,” he added.

    The satellite separated from its booster rocket 79 minutes after launch, a signal was received at a Svalbard, Norway station from the spacecraft at about 82 minutes into its flight, and the LCDM deployed its solar arrays just a few minutes later, NASA said. In about two months, the Landsat spacecraft is expected to reach its “operational, sun-synchronous, polar orbit” about 440 miles above the Earth.

    Control of the LDCM, the eighth in a series of NASA Landsat satellites first launched in 1972, will be transferred to the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in about three months when it goes fully operational, NASA said. At that point, the satellite will be renamed Landsat 8.

    Data gathered by the satellite will be made available to the public through an online archive.

    “Landsat has been delivering invaluable scientific information about our planet for more than forty years. It’s an honor to be a part of today’s launch to ensure this critical data will continue to help us better understand our natural resources and help people like water managers, farmers, and resource managers make informed decisions,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

    NASA scientists stressed advances made to the latest Landsat spacecraft, including the addition of improved instruments like the LDCM’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS).

    “LDCM is the best Landsat satellite ever built. The technology will advance and improve the array of scientific investigations and resource management applications supported by Landsat images,” said LDCM project scientist Jim Irons of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

    “I anticipate new knowledge and applications to emerge with an increasing demand for the data.”
    For more, check out NASA’s video of the LDCM separating from its Atlas V booster below.

  • World leaders send wishes for the Chinese New Year

    Global leaders are wishing the best for those celebrating the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake.
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    Global leaders are wishing the best for those celebrating the Chinese New Year and the beginning of the Year of the Snake.

    Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement Friday to extend his best wishes to those celebrating Chinese New Year in Canada and elsewhere in the world.

    “The many fireworks and parades marking this special occasion always remind me of how alive and well the vibrant Chinese culture is in our country,” Harper said. “It also reminds us of the enormous contributions by Chinese Canadians to build the great nation we have today.”

    Harper said that as Chinese Canadians usher in the New Year, “they can rest assured that our government is working to create the jobs and economic conditions that will help ensure that the Year of the Snake is one marked by good fortune and prosperity.”

    Separately, Sir Arthur Alexander Foulkes, governor-general of the Bahamas, wished a happy Chinese New Year to the Chinese people at a reception in the Chinese Embassy to the Bahamas on Saturday.

    “On behalf of the government and people of the Bahamas, I wish the Chinese people a very happy new year. We value very highly our friendship with China,” Foulkes said.

  • Univisión staffer attacks Sen. Marco Rubio on Facebook

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    Responding to news that Marco Rubio will give the GOP rebuttal to the president’s State of the Union address, a Univisión employee referred to the senator as a ‘loser.’

    (more…)

  • Gasoline prices hit record, pushed by bets that prices will rise

    Hedge funds, commodity pools and other high-roller investors have thrown close to $12.5 billion into a collective bet that gasoline prices will rise.
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    Hedge funds, commodity pools and other high-roller investors have thrown close to $12.5 billion into a collective bet that gasoline prices will rise, and some analysts say its one reason why gasoline prices are at a record for this date in California and nationally.

    The details were contained in the Commodity Futures Trading Commission report released Friday, showing that betting on higher gasoline prices was closing in on the highest level ever of $13 billion, set last March.

    “There has never been this much money bet on higher gasoline prices this early in the year,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

    The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. is $3.587, which is 7.8 cents higher than the record for Feb. 11, set last year.

    In California, the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline jumped 14 cents over the past week to $4.054.

    Jeff Spring, a spokesman for the Auto Club of Southern California, said that was not only a record for today. Spring said it was also the earliest week in the year that the state’s average topped $4 a gallon.

    Analysts said was suffering mostly because its refineries have more scheduled maintenance than usual and because it is heavily dependent on more expensive foreign oil.

  • Gun control takes center stage

    When President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, gun violence will be center stage.
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    When President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, gun violence will be center stage, both literally and politically.

    The White House and Democratic lawmakers have invited more than 30 shooting victims or their surviving family members and friends to attend Obama’s speech, including several people tied to the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), severely wounded in a Jan. 2011 shooting, will be there. And first lady Michelle Obama will be accompanied by the parents of Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old Chicago teenager shot to death last month, shortly after she took part in the inaugural parade.

    “These people by their presence will send a message more powerful than any words from me or my colleagues,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “I think that picture will be worth a thousand words. And when the president looks to the gallery, sees the faces and voices of victims it will powerfully reinforce his message that we need to do something about gun violence.”

    On the other side of the issue, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), reelected to Congress last year after one term in the mid-1990s, is bringing musician Ted Nugent. The one-time rock star has become an outspoken critic of the president, especially over gun control.
    (Also on POLITICO: Stockman: Obama’s No. 1 needler)

    Obama has pushed for new gun-control measures since the December shooting in Newton, which left 20 children and six adults dead. The president is expected to renew his call for a ban on assault weapons and restrictions of high-capacity ammunition magazines, two measures strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association and its allies on Capitol Hill.

    Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), confined to a wheelchair since being hurt in an accidental shooting when he was a teenager, has led the effort by House Democrats to bring gun-violence victims to Tuesday’s address. Langevin aides said 23 House offices are participating in the effort. The Democrats will also hold a press conference Tuesday with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the organization, backed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg that is pouring tens of millions of dollars into the political struggle over gun control.

    Also Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a close Obama ally, chaired a subcommittee hearing in the Judiciary Committee on reducing gun violence while “respecting the Second Amendment,” focusing on current gun trafficking laws and proposals to strengthen them.

    Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is planning to mark up a gun control bill later this month. A big question remain whether Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) will offer her proposal to ban assault weapons during that session.

    Feinstein, who became mayor of San Francisco in 1978 following the shooting death of Mayor George Moscone, is weighing whether to offer the proposal in committee or to wait until Leahy’s bill reaches the Senate floor, an option favored by Democratic leaders and her colleagues facing reelection in 2014 in red states where the NRA is strong.

    Democratic leaders, thus far, have thrown their support to a universal background check proposal, which would require such reviews on all gun sales, including private transactions. The NRA also opposes this measure, and GOP leaders have not said whether they will back in on Senate floor or in the House.

  • Levi’s GranFondo Video Example

    Take a look into the inner workings of an event that bills itself as “the best day out on two wheels.”
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    NASA on Monday successfully launched its new Landsat satellite from California’s Vandendberg Air Force Base, the space agency said.

    The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft, part of NASA’s ongoing mission to capture images and data from the Earth’s surface, “roared into space” atop an Atlas V rocket at 1:02 p.m. Eastern, space agency officials said. Satellites operated by NASA have monitored Earth from space continuously for the past four decades.

    “Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA’s Earth Science program, and today’s successful launch will extend the longest continuous data record of Earth’s surface as seen from space,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

    “This data is a key tool for monitoring climate change and has led to the improvement of human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture monitoring—all resulting in incalculable benefits to the U.S. and world economy,” he added.

    The satellite separated from its booster rocket 79 minutes after launch, a signal was received at a Svalbard, Norway station from the spacecraft at about 82 minutes into its flight, and the LCDM deployed its solar arrays just a few minutes later, NASA said. In about two months, the Landsat spacecraft is expected to reach its “operational, sun-synchronous, polar orbit” about 440 miles above the Earth.

    Control of the LDCM, the eighth in a series of NASA Landsat satellites first launched in 1972, will be transferred to the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in about three months when it goes fully operational, NASA said. At that point, the satellite will be renamed Landsat 8.

    Data gathered by the satellite will be made available to the public through an online archive.

    “Landsat has been delivering invaluable scientific information about our planet for more than forty years. It’s an honor to be a part of today’s launch to ensure this critical data will continue to help us better understand our natural resources and help people like water managers, farmers, and resource managers make informed decisions,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

    NASA scientists stressed advances made to the latest Landsat spacecraft, including the addition of improved instruments like the LDCM’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS).

    “LDCM is the best Landsat satellite ever built. The technology will advance and improve the array of scientific investigations and resource management applications supported by Landsat images,” said LDCM project scientist Jim Irons of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

    “I anticipate new knowledge and applications to emerge with an increasing demand for the data.”
    For more, check out NASA’s video of the LDCM separating from its Atlas V booster below.

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    0 Comments

    NASA on Monday successfully launched its new Landsat satellite from California’s Vandendberg Air Force Base, the space agency said.

    The Landsat Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) spacecraft, part of NASA’s ongoing mission to capture images and data from the Earth’s surface, “roared into space” atop an Atlas V rocket at 1:02 p.m. Eastern, space agency officials said. Satellites operated by NASA have monitored Earth from space continuously for the past four decades.

    “Landsat is a centerpiece of NASA’s Earth Science program, and today’s successful launch will extend the longest continuous data record of Earth’s surface as seen from space,” NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

    “This data is a key tool for monitoring climate change and has led to the improvement of human and biodiversity health, energy and water management, urban planning, disaster recovery and agriculture monitoring—all resulting in incalculable benefits to the U.S. and world economy,” he added.

    The satellite separated from its booster rocket 79 minutes after launch, a signal was received at a Svalbard, Norway station from the spacecraft at about 82 minutes into its flight, and the LCDM deployed its solar arrays just a few minutes later, NASA said. In about two months, the Landsat spacecraft is expected to reach its “operational, sun-synchronous, polar orbit” about 440 miles above the Earth.

    Control of the LDCM, the eighth in a series of NASA Landsat satellites first launched in 1972, will be transferred to the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in about three months when it goes fully operational, NASA said. At that point, the satellite will be renamed Landsat 8.

    Data gathered by the satellite will be made available to the public through an online archive.

    “Landsat has been delivering invaluable scientific information about our planet for more than forty years. It’s an honor to be a part of today’s launch to ensure this critical data will continue to help us better understand our natural resources and help people like water managers, farmers, and resource managers make informed decisions,” Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

    NASA scientists stressed advances made to the latest Landsat spacecraft, including the addition of improved instruments like the LDCM’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS).

    “LDCM is the best Landsat satellite ever built. The technology will advance and improve the array of scientific investigations and resource management applications supported by Landsat images,” said LDCM project scientist Jim Irons of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

    “I anticipate new knowledge and applications to emerge with an increasing demand for the data.”
    For more, check out NASA’s video of the LDCM separating from its Atlas V booster below.

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