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Friday, March 30, 2012

Dallas/Fort Worth bids farewell to US military charter flights

More than one hundred employees and volunteers at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport bid farewell to the final departing U.S. military charter flight on Friday, bringing an end to eight years of scheduled rest and recuperation (R&R) flights at the airport. The flight departed from DFW with a shower of affection water cannon salute from DFW Airport Department of Public Safety fire trucks. With the final flight now airborne, the U.S. Army will close its Personnel Assistance Point (PAP) at DFW Airport, which had processed soldiers and worked with airport-based volunteer groups over the past eight years.

The start of R&R charter flights at DFW for a trial run in late 2003 prompted a grass roots volunteer greeter program known as "Welcome Home A Hero" to welcome each incoming soldier at DFW. That effort helped convince the Army to move the charter flights to DFW on a semi-permanent basis in 2004.

Over the life of the program, "Welcome Home A Hero" program volunteers greeted over 460,000 inbound soldiers transiting through DFW on their way home for two weeks of rest and recuperation from active duty in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Hundreds of local organizations and more than 10,000 individual volunteers greeted soldiers from a total of 2,700 incoming flights.

In January, the U.S. Army Human Resources Command announced it would end the daily R&R charters into DFW and close its PAP at DFW airport, consolidating flights into Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson International Airport as military deployment reductions continue overseas. The final arrival into DFW took place two weeks ago on March 14.

“We know it's good news that the Army charter flights are being reduced, because it means fewer of our nation's troops are in harm's way,” said Jeff Fegan, CEO of DFW International Airport.

The USO facility at DFW airport will remain in operation serving troops. DFW expects about 100,000 individual troops annually will transit through the airport on their travels between the United States and the Middle East.

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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Back to the drawing board for NASA

U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison told NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to go back to the drawing board so the agency will meet its goal of developing a new spacecraft that will go to the space station within a couple of years.

Hutchison made the remarks on Wednesday during a Congressional hearing on NASA’s fiscal year 2013 budget request. She is the Ranking Member of the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“I am concerned about the budget that the Administrator is putting forward today,” Hutchison said. “NASA's priorities as we all agreed to in a meeting in my office just a few months ago were, number one, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).”

James Webb Space Telescope

NASA's successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, and the agency’s largest science project—JWST—however, has experienced development cost growth of $3.6 billion—or 140 percent—and a schedule delay of over four years, according to a report released this month from the Government Accountability Office.

“It has been thoroughly reviewed and appropriately funded,” Hutchison said. “It is a priority which is funded as anticipated.”

The second priority is the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion capsule.

Space Launch System and Orion

These two systems would send astronauts on deep space missions beyond low Earth orbit. SLS and Orion were studied inside and outside of NASA, and again, independently, before finally being allowed to move forward, Hutchinson said.

“The resulting independent analysis said the budget assumed in that analysis for the first three to five years, which was what we had agreed would be the amount, was accurate and provided what was needed to maintain schedule,” she said. “So of course I was surprised when I got the call that NASA was going to cut this part of the budget by $174 million (Orion). This is a case where NASA has chosen to say it's a priority but has deliberately cut the funding that was assumed to assure that it could maintain its schedule. This is of course a great concern to me and to the members of congress who agreed with these priorities and thought we had the agreement from NASA.”

Hutchinson said, “NASA claims its priorities but what is said and what is being proposed don't really match.”

Number three, the final priority is the Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

Commercial Crew Program

The goal of CCP is to develop a new commercial crew space transportation capability that will carry astronauts to the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.

CCP received a proposed increase of 104 percent over last year in the budget request. This is being asked for without any type of independent cost verification for the program, and at $830 million, exceeds the authorized amount for CCP by $330 million.

“I do support commercial crew,” Hutchinson said. “However, I think NASA is continuing to throw money at too many companies with a hope of flying astronauts and not doing what it has done, which is to undertake a study for the commercial crew similar to what you've done with Orion and SLS, including an independent analysis of options and then funding the programs that NASA believes have the most hope of gaining what we all want, which is the quickest American provided commercial crew vehicle to the space station as possible.”

“So I hope NASA will go back to the drawing board and support commercial crew in a fiscally responsible way so that we can all, once again, be on the same page for our goals, which is a commercial crew vehicle that will go to the space station within a couple of years,” Hutchinson said.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Five science rockets wait for weather to clear

NASA has rescheduled the launch of five suborbital sounding rockets from the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to Monday night with liftoff set between midnight and 5 a.m. EDT.

The rockets are part of the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment, a mission that will gather information needed to better understand the process responsible for the high-altitude jet stream located 60 to 65 miles above the surface of the Earth.

As part the mission, the five rockets will release a chemical tracer that will form milky, white clouds that allow scientists and the public to "see" the winds in space. These clouds may be visible for up to 20 minutes by residents from South Carolina to southern New Hampshire and Vermont.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Another day of delays and cancellations for Air Canada

Although Air Canada ground handling employees at Toronto and Montreal international airports have returned to work following an illegal work stoppage this morning, delays and cancellations of Air Canada-operated flights primarily to Canadian and U.S. destinations are expected for the remainder of the day, the airline said in a press statement on Friday.

"We recognize that many customers are being inconvenienced and our focus right now is on getting them to their destination safely, and as quickly as we can," said Duncan Dee, Air Canada’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "We thank our customers for their patience and loyalty as we work doubly hard to restore their confidence in Air Canada. We would also like to thank those employees who worked tirelessly throughout the night to minimize impact on our customers."

Air Canada is the country's largest domestic and international full-service airline providing scheduled and charter air transportation for passengers and cargo to more than 180 destinations on five continents.

Customers are requested to check the status of their flight at aircanada.com before leaving for the airport.

On Sunday, a fire at Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto caused major flight delays and cancellations in the morning for Air Canada and other air traffic. The fire disabled the lights on runway 05/23 and reduced the airport's operating capacity, airport officials said.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Heli-Expo 2012 highlights

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Thursday, February 9, 2012

High ratings for National Geographic Channel’s “Doomsday Preppers” series

Doomsday Preppers is a big hit. The National Geographic Channel's two-episode premiere of the new series became the highest-rated Tuesday night telecasts in the channel's 11-year history, with both episodes (Bullets, Lots of Bullets; and I Hope I Am Crazy) averaging P25–54 0.8 ratings.

Nearly 4.3 million total viewers over age 2 and 2.3 million viewers in the key P25–54 demo tuned in to the two-hour premiere.

Each episode of the 10-part series explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it. Preppers go to whatever lengths they can to make sure they are prepared for any of life's uncertainties – from constructing a home out of shipping containers, stockpiling 50,000 pounds of food, practicing evacuation drills or hand-to-hand combat to working on a solar-powered satellite system.

Catch the next episode Tuesday night at 9 p.m. EST.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Are you ready for Doomsday?

With tsunamis, earthquakes and financial concerns dominating the headlines over the past year, National Geographic Channel (NGC) and Kelton Research on Tuesday released the results of a survey gauging Americans' preparedness levels and mind-set related to a potential "Doomsday" scenario.

Most Americans are fearful of catastrophes, yet are poorly prepared, according to the new survey. Eighty-five percent of the nation is not ready for a devastating event, blame the recession for being unprepared and are more fearful of a man-made catastrophe if a Republican wins the presidential election.

NGC is launching a new TV series on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. EST, Doomsday Preppers, focusing on Americans with an unshakable certainty that America soon faces tougher times - when grocery stores are empty, water is in short supply and electricity is unavailable - and are stockpiling for survival.

In the survey of more than 1,000 men and women conducted online from Jan. 3 to Jan. 10 with a 3.1 percent margin of error, the question was asked, "Which of the following, if any, do you think might happen in the United States in the next 25 years?" Earthquakes (64 percent), hurricanes (63 percent) and terrorism (55 percent) are the most feared, followed by financial collapse (51 percent), significant blackout (37 percent), a pandemic (29 percent) and nuclear fallout (14 percent).

Regardless of the incident, more than 62 percent Americans think the world will experience a major catastrophe in less than 20 years. And nearly three out of every four people (71 percent) envision a major disaster in their lifetime as an act of God, not man. Nearly one-third (27 percent) believe that the Mayan calendar's prediction about a calamitous event in December 2012 will be at least "somewhat true."

With the presidential election this November, politics also factored into the results, with more than half of the nation (52 percent) believing that if Mitt Romney or one of his Republican counterparts overtake Barack Obama, a man-made catastrophe is more likely.

Among those who feel unprepared, 40 percent cite the lasting effects of the recession as the reason for being unprepared. But the same number (40 percent) is saying "to hell with a 401(k)" to save money for catastrophe arrangements. Nearly half (49 percent) of Americans would forgo new high-end appliances in a new home if it had a safe room or bomb shelter instead.

While one in four Americans have done nothing to prepare, among those who have prepared, actions they have taken are very basic: 60 percent have stored canned food; 58 percent drinking water; and 56 percent batteries. However, only 12 percent of the population has practiced drills, and 39 percent have learned basic survival skills.

Were "doomsday to arrive," nearly four in 10 (39 percent) don't think they would last two weeks based on the supplies they have on hand.

Other post by Keith Stein:

Examiner: DC Aviation News