Report of plane crash in Lake Superior

The U.S. Coast Guard and local agencies are responding to a report of a downed single-engine aircraft with one person aboard, northeast of Duluth, Minn., in Lake Superior Saturday afternoon.

The name and hometown of the person is not being released at this time, the Coast Guard said in a press statement.

Coast Guard units received a report from personnel at the Duluth International Airport tower of a single engine white and maroon airplane spiraling down with a loss of communications approximately seven nautical miles east of Duluth.

A 45-foot Coast Guard response boat was launched from Duluth along with a Dolphin helicopter from Traverse City to search the area.

“Responders from local agencies have located a debris field approximately 250 yards in length which included the pilots log book and jet fuel,” Coast Guard officials said Saturday.

The Duluth Fire Department plans to deploy a remotely operated vehicle to assist in the search.

NASA hitching ride to GEO orbit to deploy 'Separating Space Vehicle'

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is soliciting information about potential sources for on orbit delivery service of a Separating Space Vehicle (SSV) to geosynchronous orbit (GEO), according to contract documents released Thursday.

“Specifically, NASA seeks information about potential sources to deliver an SSV to GEO while attached to another satellite, which shall be referred to as the Ride Share Satellite (RSS),” the agency said in contract documents.

The SSV would be delivered to a stable geosynchronous orbit and then released. The SSV would then continue on its own power to perform an independent mission in the GEO belt. The contract documents provide no details on the SSV's mission objective.

Kennedy Space Center is working with other government agencies to manage the integration between the SSV with the RSS and the overall service management. The SSV will have a weight in the range of 1,000 to 1,200 kilograms. The orbit for the mission is GEO at a 0 degree inclination with a launch readiness date of no later than first half of fiscal year 2017.

The government will provide a fully developed SSV for integration onto the RSS and will serve as the technical lead for the interface to the RSS. The SSV will have a hydrazine monopropellant propulsion system with up to 100 kg in commodities, NASA said.

The SSV must be launched on a U.S. built launch vehicle fabricated in a U.S. facility and launched from a U.S. launch site. The RSS provider will be responsible for obtaining a Federal Aviation Administration launch license, as well as securing any necessary range assets and approvals for the launch.

Critical heat shield installed on NASA's new Orion spacecraft

NASA and Lockheed Martin engineers have installed the largest heat shield ever constructed on the crew module of the agency's new Orion spacecraft. The work marks a major milestone on the path toward the spacecraft's first launch in December.

The heat shield is made of a coating called Avcoat, which burns away as it heats up in a process called ablation to prevent the transfer of extreme temperatures to the crew module. The Avcoat is covered with a silver reflective tape that protects the material from the extreme cold temperatures of space.

Orion’s flight test, known as Exploration Flight Test-1, will provide engineers with data about the heat shield's ability to protect Orion and its future crews from the 4,000-degree heat of reentry and an ocean splashdown following the spacecraft’s 20,000-mile per hour reentry from space.

Orion's missions will include exploring an asteroid and Mars.

Orion's flight test also will provide important data for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and ocean recovery of the spacecraft. Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., have built an advanced adapter to connect Orion to the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket that will launch the spacecraft during the December test. The adapter also will be used during future SLS missions. NASA’s Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, based at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, will recover the Orion crew module with the U.S. Navy after its splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The heat shield was manufactured at Lockheed Martin's Waterton Facility near Denver, Colo. Construction was completed at Textron Defense Systems near Boston, Mass., before the heat shield was shipped to the Operations and Checkout Building at Kennedy, where Orion is being assembled.

In the coming months, the Orion crew and service modules will be joined and put through functional tests before the spacecraft is transported to Kennedy’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility for fueling. The spacecraft then will be transferred to the Launch Abort System (LAS) Facility to be connected to the LAS before making the journey to Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37 for pad integration and launch operations.

Virginia-based Navy fighter jet crashes into sea

A U.S. Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 81 based at Naval Air Station (NAS) Oceana, Va., impacted the water during an approach to the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier Wednesday night. The jet was flying off the coast of Southern California.

“The pilot ejected from the aircraft, was recovered safely and is currently aboard Carl Vinson in stable condition,” the Navy said in a press statement. The F/A-18E Super Hornet has not been recovered. All remaining airborne aircraft were safely diverted to NAS North Island in Coronado, Calif. All air operations have ceased aboard Carl Vinson until further notice.
A safety investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of the mishap, Navy officials said.

The Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing 17 are currently conducting a Joint Task Force Exercise (JTFEX). JTFEX is designed to test a strike group's ability to operate in hostile and complex environments with other U.S. and coalition forces. The integrated exercise combines specific warfare areas with the purpose of making preparations for the strike group's upcoming deployment.

Video: Sky watchers on the lookout for new meteor shower

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UPDATE - 12:33 a.m. EDT - Cameras for Allsky Meteor Surveillance Sunnyvale Station are active.

UPDATE - 12:24 a.m. EDT - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center video is active.

If predictions hold true, on Friday night Earth may experience a sandblasting of debris from comet 209P/LINEAR, resulting in a new meteor shower.

In 2012, meteor experts Esko Lyytinen of Finland and Peter Jenniskens at NASA Ames Research Center were the first to announce that Earth was due for a May 2014 encounter with debris from comet 209P/LINEAR. Other meteor experts quickly confirmed this prediction and some did use the words “meteor storm.” The most recent calculations, however, indicate we might get a strong shower, but perhaps not a storm of meteors.

What will you see? As with all meteor showers, the only way to know is to go outside on the night of the predicted peak and see for yourself.

The meteors will radiate from the constellation Camelopardalis (camelopard), a very obscure northern constellation.

Can't see the meteor shower from your location. Bookmark this page and stay tuned Friday night into Saturday morning for updates on where you can observe from online webcams.

Timeline of Events (all times Eastern Daylight Time)

• 8:24 p.m. - Friday – Sunset in Washington, D.C. area.
• 8:30 p.m. - Friday - Jeremie Vaubaillon of IMCCE in Paris, France, predicts debris from the comet will begin to impact the Moon at this point.
• 1:00 a.m. - Saturday - Peter Jenniskens, a scientist with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, will depart from Palo Alto, Calif. aboard an aircraft and head towards Seattle, Wash., in an attempt to observe the meteor shower above any cloud cover. The flight will return to Palo Alto approximately four hours later.
• 3:17 a.m. - Saturday – Moonrise in Washington, D.C. area.
• 3:39 a.m. - Saturday – The International Space Station will be visible in Washington, D.C., area 19 degrees above the horizon.
• 5:51 a.m. - Saturday - Sunrise in Washington, D.C. area.

Online resources:

• DCNewsroom Twitter
• NASA Marshall Space Flight Center video.

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Video: Great test today for NASA's Morpheus lander

NASA's Morpheus prototype lander performed its 13^th free-flight test Thursday from the Shuttle Landing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The 97-second test began at 2:30 p.m. EDT with the Morpheus lander launching from the ground over a flame trench and ascending more than 800 feet and safely touching down on lunar-like surface.

Morpheus is a prototype planetary lander capable of vertical takeoff and landing. Designed to serve as a vertical testbed for advanced spacecraft technologies, the vehicle provides a platform for bringing technologies from the laboratory into an integrated flight system at relatively low cost. This allows individual technologies to mature into capabilities that can be incorporated into human exploration missions.

Boeing gets order for 30 737 MAX jets

Boeing celebrated a milestone achievement Tuesday on the 737 MAX program, surpassing the 2000^th order for the single-aisle airplane. With the addition of 30 orders from unidentified customers this week, the 737 MAX now has a total of 2,010 orders from 39 customers worldwide, valued at $209 billion at list prices. The 737 MAX also has commitments for more than 250 additional airplanes.

The 737 MAX has reached 2,000 orders faster than any other Boeing airplane in history. This unprecedented demand is fueled by air traffic growth and the need for more fuel-efficient airplanes.

"Since its first order, the 737 MAX has received more than 50 percent of the new orders versus its direct competition,” said Keith Leverkuhn, vice president and general manager, 737 MAX Program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

"We have a lot of faith in Boeing and the 737 MAX, especially since this will be the narrowbody aircraft of the future for United Airlines," said United Airlines Vice President of Fleet Ron Baur.

"In addition to the latest technology LEAP-1B engines from CFM International, the MAX combines advanced aerodynamics including the Advanced Technology winglets, 787-style large screen flight deck displays and the passenger preferred Boeing Sky Interior to give customers an airplane that will enhance their fleets for decades to come,” said Leverkuhn.

The 737 MAX will be 14 percent more fuel-efficient than today's most efficient Next-Generation 737s – and 20 percent better than the original Next-Generation 737s when they first entered service, Boeing said in a company press release. “The 737 is more fuel efficient than the Airbus A320 today and will be more fuel efficient than the A320neo tomorrow. Airlines operating the 737 MAX will see an eight percent operating cost per seat advantage over the A320neo.”

On track to begin final assembly in mid-2015, the 737 MAX will fly in 2016 and deliver to launch customer Southwest Airlines in the third quarter of 2017.