Turn your daily shopping receipts into cash

A fun and rewarding phone app called Receipt Hog can turn your everyday receipts from shopping into cash – no matter where you shop or what you buy.

Shop anywhere. Buy anything. Then take a picture of your receipt with Receipt Hog on your phone.

“Your receipt data along with the answers you provide to optional surveys is made anonymous and summarized in market research reports that brands purchase,” according to the Receipt Hog website. “These companies pay for information such as, 'Families in the Phoenix area are 20 percent more likely than the rest of the United States to shop for laundry detergent at a super center than a traditional grocery store.'" And its not just shopping receipts.

On Tuesday, Receipt Hog announced it now accepts all receipts from restaurants, cafes, and gas-only purchases and rewards users with sweepstakes entries.

Grabbing a pizza for dinner? Filling up the gas tank? Purchasing some new clothes or a new phone? All receipts count and can be converted into cash.

Users can receive their cash by PayPal or in the form of a Amazon gift card once they reach 1,000 coins in the app.

MDA modifies Boeing contract for Re-designed Kill Vehicle

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) intends to award a modification to the existing Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Development and Sustainment Contract (DSC) to The Boeing Company in Huntsville, Ala.

“This effort is for the acquisition of Re-designed Kill Vehicle (RKV) development including: payload development; payload ground testing; integration with the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) and GMD Ground System; flight testing; several test assets; and up to eight initial production units,” MDA said in contract documents released Friday. The anticipated period of performance for this effort will be six years, extending the current DSC period by three years, but only for this additional RKV development effort.

Boeing is the designer, developer, manufacturer, and integrator of the GMD GBI. Boeing, along with its RKV Cross-Industry team of sub-contractors, comprised of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, and The Raytheon Company, provide a consolidated product that includes the collective knowledge of all three contractors.

Currently, the GMD system is using a Exo-atmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) designed to intercept and defend U.S. territory against long-range missile attacks. The new RKV program was hatched following a string of EKV intercept failures.

“The Cross-Industry team will incorporate the most viable technical approaches from each contractor, combining resources that will complement each other's unique capabilities to shorten the learning curve, and reduce the time needed to develop and begin initial production,” MDA said in contract documents.

Air Force Helicopter Maintenance Services contract at four locations

The Specialized Contracting Division at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., intends to solicit competitive proposals to provide Helicopter Maintenance Services at four locations: three state-side Air Force bases and one location overseas at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The contractor will be responsible for Helicopter Maintenance Services for Headquarters Air Force Global Strike Command and the Pacific Command at the following locations for UH-1N model helicopters: Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., Minot Air Force Base, N.D., F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., and Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The Helicopter Maintenance Services consist of maintaining mission capable (in serviceable condition, safely operable, and properly configured to meet mission requirements) UH-1N helicopters to support safe operations, exercises, and Search and Rescue Support, off-station aircraft recovery, Aircrew Flight Equipment,  and weapons system maintenance requirements 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Possible breakup of NOAA weather satellite

The U.S. military's Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) is investigating the possible breakup of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellite in Earth orbit.

“On 25 November 2015 at 0816z (3:16 a.m. EST) the JSpOC identified a possible breakup of NOAA 16,” officials reported. “All associated objects have been added to conjunction assessment screenings, and satellite operators will be notified of close approaches between the debris and active satellites. The JSpOC will catalog the debris objects as soon as sufficient data is available.”

After more than 13 years of helping predict weather and climate patterns and save lives in search and rescue operations, NOAA announced in June 2014 it had turned off the NOAA 16 Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite. It was one of NOAA's longest operating spacecraft, which have a planned lifespan of three to five years.

Historic vote supports US companies mining on the Moon

History was made Monday when the U.S. House of Representatives passed landmark legislation recognizing and promoting the rights of United States companies to engage in the exploration and extraction of space resources from the Moon and other celestial bodies. This historic legislation was passed as Title IV of the "U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (or H.R. 2262 as amended)", and provides the first ever codification of private sector mining rights for water and minerals obtained from the Moon.

Moon Express, Bigelow Aerospace, and many other companies are applauding the House for the legislation.

"Our goal is to unlock the resources of the Moon for the benefit of humanity, and Moon Express is grateful to have the backing of the United States in our endeavor," said Moon Express co-founder and CEO, Bob Richards. "We thank the House and its visionary champions of the bill led by Majority Leader McCarthy (R-Calf.) and Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for their leadership and vision in passing this much-needed legislation, and especially wish to thank Representatives Bill Posey (R-Fla.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.) and Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) for their support."

Moon Express, Inc., is a privately funded commercial space company blazing a trail to the Moon to unlock its mysteries and resources with robotic spacecraft products & services using exponential technologies.

New Gulfstream G500 joins business aviation convention

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp.'s all-new Gulfstream G500 made its first cross-country trip for the 2015 National Business Aviation Association's Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA2015). The flight test aircraft arrived at Henderson Executive Airport on Friday to join the G650ER, G550, G450, G280 and G150 in Gulfstream's static display.

The G500 flew from Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport into 75-knot headwinds and arrived at Henderson Executive 4 hours and 36 minutes later, accomplishing the 1,630-nautical-mile flight at an average speed of Mach 0.85 and altitude of 45,000 feet. Gulfstream test pilots Scott Martin and Scott Evans were at the controls, with Flight Test engineers Paul Ludlow and Nathaniel Rutland providing on-board support.

The G500 flew to Las Vegas with a significant amount of flight testing equipment on board:

• a noseboom, which provides air data, angle-of-attack and angle-of-sideslip information to the pilots and engineers.
• Attitude Recovery System (ARS) safety equipment for high-speed flutter testing and low-speed stall testing.
• data-monitoring system that provides real-time data for engineers on board and in the telemetry room.
• a video recording system that captures touchscreen commands and flight-deck footage as well as external footage of the landing gear, trailing cone and ARS.
• flutter vanes on the wing and horizontal tips.

The first G500 test aircraft, T1, is focused on flight performance and controls and has achieved a number of flight-test milestones since its first flight on May 18. The aircraft has flown more than 160 hours, completed 44 flights and reached an altitude exceeding 50,000 ft. Its longest flight was 5 hours and 22 minutes. T1 has reached a top speed of Mach 0.995. Flutter and envelope expansion testing are in progress, and initial testing of the aircraft's handling qualities and the high-speed and recovery stall system have also taken place.

In total, the G500 flight-test program consists of five aircraft, including a fully outfitted production aircraft that allows the company to test all the interior elements and complete integration of the aircraft systems with the passenger experience. T2 and T3 have been delivered to the Flight Test facility and are preparing for first flight.

Gulfstream anticipates certification of the G500 in 2017, with entry into service in 2018. Lab testing for the G600 is ongoing in Gulfstream's integration test facility, with certification slated for 2018 and entry into service in 2019.

NASA seeks new director at Marshall Space Flight Center

NASA has named Todd May acting director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., as the agency continues the process of looking for a permanent director.

Patrick Scheuermann, who served as the Marshall director since September 2012, is retiring from the agency, effective Friday. His retirement caps a 27-year career with NASA that began in 1988 as a propulsion test engineer at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss.

May was appointed Marshall deputy director in August, and previously served as manager of the Space Launch System (SLS) Program since August 2011. May led the SLS Program through a series of milestones, including engine tests and a successful, in-depth critical design review. SLS, now under development, will be the most powerful rocket ever built, able to carry astronauts in NASA's Orion spacecraft on deep space missions, including to an asteroid and ultimately on a journey to Mars.

May's NASA career began in 1991, working in the Materials and Processes Laboratory at Marshall. He was deputy program manager of the Russian Integration Office in the International Space Station Program at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in 1994, and worked on the team at Marshall that developed and launched the Gravity Probe B mission to test Einstein's Theory of Relativity in 2004. That same year he assumed management of the Discovery and New Frontiers Programs, created to explore the solar system with frequent unmanned spacecraft missions.

May moved to NASA Headquarters in Washington in 2007 as a deputy associate administrator in the Science Mission Directorate. Returning to Marshall in June 2008, May was named Marshall's associate director, Technical, a post he held until being named SLS program manager.

The SLS Program is managed at Marshall, one of NASA's largest field installations, with almost 6,000 civil service and contractor employees, an annual budget of approximately $2.5 billion and a broad spectrum of science and technological missions.