>>22043407

TYB

New lunar map can help guide future sample return missions

November 18, 2024

Billions of years ago, a giant asteroid struck the Moon with so much energy that it melted rock until it was super-heated and white-hot, or what scientists call impact melt.

This eventually cooled and hardened, creating a multi-ringed impact crater that is known today as Orientale basin.

Having samples of impact melt is valuable because scientists can use laboratory techniques to determine the exact time of the melt’s solidification, and therefore the age of the impact.

The problem is, geologic processes after impact – such as lava flows and smaller impacts – have buried and mixed up much of the original impact melt.

But parsing out the impact crater from which a rock originated is worth the effort because that knowledge can help scientists understand how the impact rate changed throughout the Solar System’s history, as well as how impacts shaped the Moon, the Earth and early life on our planet.

Planetary Science Institute Research Scientist Kirby Runyon is a lead author on a paper published in the Planetary Science Journal containing a new high-resolution geologic map of Orientale basin that attempts to identify original basin impact melt.

The hope is that future researchers use this map to target sample return missions and pin down impact dates for this and other impact basins.

“We chose to map Oriental basin because it’s simultaneously old and young,” Runyon said.

“We think it’s about 3.8 billion years old, which is young enough to still have its impact melt freshly exposed at the surface, yet old enough to have accumulated large impact craters on top of it as well, complicating the picture.

We chose to map Orientale to test melt-identification strategies for older, more degraded impact basins whose ages we’d like to know.”

The map uses BFsc – shorthand for smooth, cracked basin floor material – to map original, unpolluted impact melt from Orientale basin’s formation;

Those rocks record the age of Orientale basin, and parts of this melt deposit would have been buried beneath other geologic units, such as the lava flows mapped in red.

Stars mark rims and debris from smaller impact craters that have unearthed previously buried Orientale melt.

So, if rocks from starred locations turn out to be the same age as rocks from the BFsc areas, geologists know they can rely on rocks from similar small craters on other, more degraded basins to record the ages of those basins’ formation.

‘Earth’s attic’

The Earth’s early impact record from its first billion years – about 4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago – has been erased by shifting continents, water, weather and the general disturbance by living things.

In fact, the Earth itself is 4.5 billion years old, while most of its surface rocks are less than about a half-billion years old. In contrast, most of the Moon’s surface rocks are older than about 2.5 billion years.

Luckily, the Moon is close enough in the Solar System that scientists can infer that the rate of impacts that happened there was likely the same for Earth, scaled for Earth’s larger size and higher gravity.

“The Moon is sort of like Earth’s attic in terms of preserving the impact records; it’s the only place where we can get Earth’s baby photos,” Runyon said.

“The Moon is so nearby to us that its impact record is a reliable proxy record for early Earth’s, and we can scale impact statistics to have some reasonable approximation for what Earth’s first billion years were like, impact-wise.

Earth has more gravity and we’re bigger, so we would have gotten hit a little more often and harder than the Moon.”

Understanding Earth’s early environment is key to understanding when and even how life first arose on Earth.

“Giant impacts – like the one that formed Orientale – can vaporize an ocean and kill any life that had already started,” Runyon said.

“Some recent modeling has shown that we probably never totally sterilized Earth during these big impacts, but we don’t know for sure.

At some point our oceans could have been vaporized from impacts, then recondensed and rained out repeatedly.

If that happened a number of times, it’s only after the last time that life could have gotten a foothold.”

Runyon and his co-authors hope that their mapping method can be used in other impact basins across the Moon so that future sample return missions could test this approach by sampling rocks from areas similar to those highlighted on their map.

“If samples collected from any of the starred areas on our map are the same age as samples collected from the BFsc areas that denote original impact melt, then we have confidence that we can apply the impact melt sampling technique to other basins,” Runyon said.

https://www.psi.edu/blog/new-lunar-maps-can-help-guide-future-sample-return-missions/

2-million-mile-per-hour galactic crash reawakens a dangerous 'cosmic crossroads'

November 22, 2024

Using one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth, astronomers have witnessed an intimidating 2-million-mile-per-hour (3.2-million-kilometer-per-hour) smash-up between galaxies at a dangerous "cosmic crossroads," the site of multiple previous collisions.

The collision occurred when the galaxy NGC 7318b ripped through the site of previous galactic smash-ups, a galactic grouping called "Stephan's Quintet."

The impact created a powerful shockwave in this complex field of cosmic debris that "reawakened" the quintet.

A team of over 60 astronomers spotted the collision using the William Herschel Telescope Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) wide-field spectrograph attached to the William Herschel Telescope in La Palma, Spain.

The crew combined these observations with data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) to investigate the collision site.

Such an investigation could help reveal how galaxies like the Milky Way are built up by violent events and mergers over billions of years.

"Since its discovery in 1877, Stephan's Quintet has captivated astronomers because it represents a galactic crossroad where past collisions between galaxies have left behind a complex field of debris," Marina Arnaudova, team leader and a University of Hertfordshire researcher, in a statement.

"Dynamical activity in this galaxy group has now been reawakened by a galaxy smashing through it at an incredible speed of over 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h), leading to an immensely powerful shock, much like a sonic boom from a jet fighter."

The top speed of an SR-71 Blackbird jet fighter is Mach 3.4, or just over 2,500 mph (4,023 kph). That means that the galaxy NGC 7318b was actually outpacing a jet fighter by around 800 times.

The shock front seen by the team also has a curious dual nature.

Arnaudova explained that, as the shock moves through pockets of cold gas or the "intergalactic medium" of Stephan’s Quintet at hypersonic speeds, it is powerful enough to rip electrons away from atoms.

This leaves in its wake a glowing trail of charged gas, or "plasma," that is visible with WEAVE. The traveling shock weakens when it encounters hot gas surrounding the galactic collision site.

"Instead of causing significant disruption, the weak shock compresses the hot gas, resulting in radio waves that are picked up by radio telescopes like LOFAR," Soumyadeep Das, a University of Hertfordshire scientist, said in the statement.

WEAVE principal investigator and University of Oxford researcher Gavin Dalton praised the level of detail attained in the instrument's observations of Stephan's Quintet.

"As well as the details of the shock and the unfolding collision that we see in Stephan's Quintet, these observations provide a remarkable perspective on what may be happening in the formation and evolution of the barely resolved faint galaxies that we see at the limits of our current capabilities," he said.

The results are a tantalizing preview of how WEAVE could collaborate with space telescopes like the JWST to improve our views of faint galaxies.

"I'm excited to see that the data gathered at the WEAVE first light already provide a high-impact result, and I'm sure this is just an early example of the types of discoveries that will be made possible with WEAVE on the William Herschel Telescope in the coming years," Marc Balcells, director of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, said in the statement.

https://www.space.com/million-mph-galaxy-collision-stephans

https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/535/3/2269/7904663

Watch Rocket Lab launch 5 French 'Internet of Things' satellites tonight

November 23, 2024

Rocket Lab plans to launch five "Internet of Things" (IoT) satellites to orbit tonight (Nov. 23), and you can watch the action live.

An Electron launcher carrying five spacecraft for the French company Kinéis is scheduled to lift off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site tonight at 10:55 p.m. EST (0355 GMT and 4:55 p.m. local New Zealand time on Nov. 24).

The launch window is instantaneous, so if the weather or any other issues force a delay, Rocket Lab will have to try again another day.

Rocket Lab will webcast the launch live, starting 30 minutes before liftoff. Space.com will carry the stream if, as expected, the company makes it available.

Kinéis booked five Electron launches to build its 25-satellite constellation in low Earth orbit.

Tonight's mission, which Rocket Lab calls "Ice AIS Baby," will be the third such flight; the first two launched in June and September of this year.

If all goes according to plan tonight, the five IoT nanosatellites will be deployed into a 400-mile-high (643 kilometers) orbit about 66 minutes after liftoff.

Kinéis' IoT constellation will provide "precise connectivity and location tracking of any object anywhere on the planet," the company wrote on its website.

"Whether you're on the open sea, in remote areas or under extreme weather conditions, Kinéis ensures reliable, continuous data transmission so you can benefit from accurate information available at all times."

"Ice AIS Baby" will be the 13th launch of 2024 for the 59-foot-tall (18 meters) Electron and its 55th orbital mission overall.

Electron is the only launcher in Rocket Lab's stable, but that won't be the case for much longer.

The California-based company is working on a larger, partially reusable rocket called Neutron, which is expected to debut in 2025.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/watch-rocket-lab-launch-5-french-internet-of-things-satellites-tonight

https://www.youtube.com/@RocketLabNZ

Extreme Weather: Revolutionizing Weather Preparedness with Space Technology

November 22, 2024

Join us December 4 at 1:00 PM EST for a webinar featuring leading experts across government, academia, and the commercial sectors to explore how space technology is transforming the way we predict and address severe weather challenges.

Discover the latest advancements in satellite systems, Predictive AI, and cross-sector collaboration that are helping to protect lives and businesses from the growing risks posed by climate-driven events.

NOAA’s next generation GeoXO satellite system will expand observations beyond the current GOES-R Series, adding powerful new measurements of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans.

BAE Systems was selected to develop three of five instruments for GeoXO: the Atmospheric Composition (ACX), Ocean Color (OCX) and GeoXO Sounder (GXS) instruments.

The designs for these instruments are well-understood and based on high-heritage components — allowing them to collect significantly more data than previous instruments.

They will provide measurements every one to two hours, improving forecast models and subsequently increasing the accuracy of warnings and alerts related to severe weather events, air quality and harmful algal blooms, equipping stakeholders with actionable data necessary to make informed decisions.

https://spacenews.com/extreme-weather-revolutionizing-weather-preparedness-with-space-technology/

>>22043606

https://washingtonspectator.org/possible-use-of-depleted-uranium-munitions-in-mid-east-war/

Possible Use of Depleted Uranium Munitions Adds New Dimension to the Human Toll in Mid-East War

Nov 21, 2024

Ignored in the blitzes of both Gaza and Lebanon is the fact that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has fired hundreds of thousands of munitions supplied by the US that are typically made with depleted uranium (DU).

Also disregarded is the fact that while the IDF targets Gaza, the uranium oxide dust which falls from the blasts is nomadic. This means it can float hundreds of miles to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and even farther.

Thus, those who survive the bombs and others in the Mid-East will inherit a toxic wasteland: the air they breathe, the food they eat and the water they drink will be laced with the ash for years.

These blasts create intense heat and plumes of smoke that soar 1,000 to 2,000 feet in the air and carry the ash for miles.

Dai Williams, a British weapons researcher, says that “when the U.S. bombed Baghdad in 2003, uranium dust was found 2,500 miles away in the U.K. Atomic Weapons Establishment’s air sampling filters about 10 days later.”

Journalists and concerned scientists who have tried to establish the wider public health hazards posed by the use of DU-equipped munitions have been consistently stonewalled by military and industry officials.

Moreover, both US and Israeli authorities have refused to acknowledge that the munitions deployed by Israel in its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon contain depleted uranium.

As recently as 2023, Pentagon spokesman Marine Corps Lt. Col. Garron Garn assured PBS that DU munitions are “conventional,” which means non-nuclear.

Back in 2012, John Kirby, President Biden’s national security advisor, who was a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy and its chief spokesperson, peddled a similar narrative: “Health studies have been done on depleted uranium munitions and it is not a radioactive threat.”

But conventional they are not. In 2012, the United Nations International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) labeled uranium a “Class 1 human carcinogen” and noted that DU shells produce both “radiation and heavy metal (chemical) hazards.”

The uranium munitions names are an alphabet soup of letters and numbers that are mostly meaningless to the non-military public.

And the labels are frequently fanciful—such as SPICE bombs, Apache gunships, Warthog jets that fire Avenger guns, and BLU 109 bombs (nick-named bunker-busters)—which disguise their deadliness.

But whether the bombs are smart (guided) or dumb (non-guided), 2,000 pounds or fewer, they are fitted with warheads made with DU penetrator rounds.

The U.S. has said little about the munitions it has sent to Israel since the October 7 Hamas attack.

But the November 16, 2023 Haaretz Daily Newspaper reported that since the war started, Israel has asked for and received tens of thousands of 30mm, 120mm mortars and 155mm shells for its helicopters and tanks. Haaretz’s source was the U.S. Air Force.

Although the U.S. doesn’t broadcast that the shells are made with depleted uranium, the Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, stated that “30mm and 120mm shells use DU penetrators.”

When this reporter asked the DOD if the U.S. sent these munitions to Israel, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Bryon McGarry answered, “we don’t comment on specific cases.”

Also, a former U.S. official said they can be produced without DU and noted that though the U.S. sent 155mm DU rounds to Ukraine, as the BBC reported on September 7, 2023, DU penetrators aren’t needed in Israel because “unlike Ukraine, this is not a tank war.”

Others disagree. Researchers who’ve studied the weapons since the 1990s say the only munitions that can collapse the tall buildings in Gaza which sit atop Hamas tunnels are those made with DU penetrator tips.

Why DU Is Dangerous

Depleted uranium is a waste product of the process to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and nuclear reactor fuel. Dr. Keith Baverstock, a radiation and public health advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1991 to 2003, said that “when DU shells explode, they create colossal grayish-black clouds of uranium oxide dust that stick to everything.

“People breathe the dust, which lodges in their lungs. From there it seeps into their blood and lymph systems, flows throughout their bodies and binds to genes, causing them to mutate.

Within just a few years, the dust can trigger birth defects and in five or more years, lymphoma and leukemia, especially in children.

Organs, such as the kidneys, fail, due to the uranium particles that penetrate there. Other cancers develop later.”

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According to Dr. Asaf Durakovic, a U.S. Army colonel and chief of Nuclear Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital and the Veterans’ Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware in the 1990s, “people who are exposed can be very ill even after just a few weeks’ exposure.”

Dr. Durakovic, who studied DU’s health effects on Gulf War U.S. veterans, said, “three members of my research team went to southern Iraq to collect soil and water samples from the heavily bombed areas.

Two who were exposed to the uranium ash soon became seriously ill. One, a Canadian who was there for only six days, had fever, lung and urination problems and blood in his urine.”

A Noxious Mix

Scientists who tested the soil, water and rubble in countries where uranium munitions were used since the early 1990s—such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon and Gaza—reported that the samples revealed even more deadly elements than DU.

The analyst Dai Williams says that in Gaza, “55 samples of the concrete rubble from Israel’s 2006 bombing contained traces of undepleted and slightly enriched uranium. Even plutonium, the deadliest of all elements.”

To make matters worse, “the concrete rubble in Gaza was crushed after the earlier bombings and was used to construct new buildings, which means the uranium is locked in.”

In 2001, the UN Environmental Program’s Depleted Uranium Assessment Team and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that the Swiss Laboratory Spiez, the Swedish Radiation Protection Program Institute and three other European laboratories “analyzed 340 water and soil samples collected from Kosovo in November 2000 and found traces of plutonium in the DU projectiles.”

The Human Toll: Kosovo, Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan and U.S. veterans

Kosovo. Although the 1999 NATO bombing in Kosovo lasted just three months, the fallout was intense. Dr. Ilir Kurtishaj, an oncologist at the University Center Oncology Clinic in Pristina reported in 2022 that the hospital treated 1,850 cancer cases that year—among them, breast, lung and colon cancers were the most common. He added that “by 2023, the 1,850 cases could increase by another 10 to 15 percent, as they have year after year.”

Dzafer Buzoli, a Kosovan who worked with the UNHCR (the UN refugee agency) told me that his extended family lived within eight kilometers (five miles) from Shtime, the town NATO bombed from March to June.

“Fifty-nine members of my family have had cancers, 47 of whom have died. One was my 52-year-old mother, who had breast cancer.

Two were children—five and 12 years old—who had brain cancers. And my wife has had two surgeries to remove breast tumors.

“But as early as 2001, people were getting sick. Many had breathing problems that are now much worse, so bad that they need inhalators to breathe.

I’ve raised funds to buy 720 and this past summer I raised money to buy another 300 of them.”

Buzoli adds that he’s been “de-contaminating the bomb sites. I dig up the soil, replace it with clean dirt and plant grass seed on top. I did this four times and each time I was very sick right afterwards.

I had a hard time breathing, was exhausted, and sweating like crazy. Now, my left lung has just 60 percent capacity.” Two months ago, Buzoli moved his family to Serbia, which wasn’t bombed. “I have to protect my two daughters.”

Buzoli also pointed out that “the oncology doctor in Pristina who reported on the cancers didn’t link them to uranium weapons because people here see NATO as the force that helped Kosovo win independence from Serbia.”

Iraq. Dr. Amy Hagopian, a University of Washington School of Public Health professor, found that “birth defects in Basra surged from 37 cases in 1990 (one year before the Gulf War) to 254 cases in 2001.”

Also, within one or two years of either parent being exposed, babies were born missing eyes, hands and legs. Or stomachs and brains inside out.

And in a joint study by Washington and Basra Universities, Hagopian and other researchers wrote in a 2010 American Journal of Public Health article that “since the Gulf War, the number of children suffering from leukemia surged from 15 in 1993 to 97 in 2006.”

When Hagopian compared Iraq’s leukemia rates to those in neighboring Kuwait and Oman, as well as in the U.S. and European Union, they “compared unfavorably.”

Dr. Chris Busby, a British physical chemist explained that “leukemia develops more quickly than other cancers because “blood cells are the most easily damaged by radiation. We’ve known this since Hiroshima.”

cont.

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The Crucible: VSFB’s Newest Innovation Hub

Nov. 22, 2024

The Crucible Innovation Lab was unveiled as a brand new creative center Nov. 22, 2024.

This new makerspace is designed to be a collaborative environment where Vandenberg members can come together to brainstorm, innovate, and bring ideas to life.

The Crucible offers individuals the tools, resources, and space needed to turn their concepts into a reality.

"Our goal is for Team Vandenberg to utilize the space to develop local solutions to their own mission needs instead of being forced to wait for a solution to come," said U.S. Space Force Maj. Bryan Davis, Space Launch Delta 30 spaceport innovation chief.

The Crucible’s mission is to promote innovation and execute projects that will introduce future-focused solutions.

The center offers 3D Printing, CNC, power tools, circuitry, high-powered PCs for 3D modeling, VR, coding, software development, and more.

Access to the broader AFWERX and SPACEWERX network as well as other local makerspaces from the Navy or universities are also available.

With this plethora of brand-new, stellar equipment and well-crafted working areas, it makes an ideal environment for collaboration and accelerates the development of next-generation technology, inventions, and ideas.

"We are very proud of the work that our unit pathfinders put in to make this a reality and are thankful for the support we received from the Digital Transformation Office, 30 CONS, and 30 CES, which was essential in reinvigorating this facility into a fully functional collaboration zone and prototyping laboratory," said Davis.

"This space will allow us to continue to invest in our base’s four strategic objectives, the space mission, supporting our mission partners, quality of life, and innovation and digital transformation, in a way that empowers units to develop their own internal solutions, saving time and resources across the board and improving our own efficiency and effectiveness."

With The Crucible now open, the potential for futuristic innovation at Vandenberg has never been greater.

It is more than just a physical space; it is a catalyst for change, collaboration, and the future of Air and Space Force innovation.

The Crucible is located at Building 10363. They are open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3976694/the-crucible-vsfbs-newest-innovation-hub/

USSF accepting proposals for fourth research opportunity under the USSF University Consortium

Nov. 21, 2024

In partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory, the United States Space Force is currently accepting proposals for USSF University Consortium/Space Strategic Technology Institute 4, focused on Advanced Remote Sensing.

The USSF posted a Request for Information Nov. 14, inviting universities and their partners to submit white papers for collaborative research projects by Jan. 10, 2025, 3 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

This SSTI effort, which is the fourth in a series of research opportunities under the USSF University Consortium, will facilitate advanced remote sensing research, enabling the USSF to gather information globally at the speed of relevance about our environment, verify the actions and intentions of our competitors and facilitate commerce and economic prosperity.

The research opportunity will involve a minimum of three universities, with one taking the lead in research efforts.

The lead university will be responsible for partnering with team member institutions and coordinating ARS research subtopics.

Universities are encouraged to collaborate with industry on space research, development and demonstration needs.

Proposal topics may be focused on capabilities encompassing the comprehensive sensing and sensemaking system of systems.

These may include, but are not limited to, technologies that enable new sensing or data processing architectures, technologies that substantially improve the utility of remotely sensed data, or technologies that enable new user communities to readily integrate sensing capabilities.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3975109/ussf-accepting-proposals-for-fourth-research-opportunity-under-the-ussf-univers/

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3976060/kendall-provides-cadets-a-portrait-of-leaders-their-qualities-the-nation-needs/

https://www.af.mil/Portals/1/documents/2024SAF/SecAF_USAFA_speech_12NOV24.pdf

Kendall provides cadets a portrait of leaders, their qualities the nation needs for today’s global threats

Nov. 22, 2024

In a bracing speech to Air Force Academy cadets who are the service’s future leaders, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, Nov. 12, did not mince words about the qualities necessary for strong leadership and why capable, insightful, moral leaders are more essential than ever in defense of the nation.

“I have been working for the last three and a half years to get the Department of the Air Force ready for the next war we may have to fight,” Kendall said.

“War is not inevitable. Deterrence will remain our goal, under any administration, but deterrence will not succeed unless we demonstrate that we are ready for war.

Your job will be to help ensure deterrence is successful, and if it fails, to achieve victory.”

“You may well have to lead in combat in a type of conflict with which we have no modern experience in the Air Force or Space Force or in the American military in general,” he said during an address to the Cadet Wing in which he described in blunt terms the type of leaders the nation needs it a world overflowing with threats.

“You will have to lead Airmen and Guardians under the most stressful of operational conditions,” he said. “While you are here at the Academy, you should do everything you can to prepare yourself to lead. Leading is always hard.

Leading in combat requires the character to both know and do the right thing, the commitment to the country and the mission to put both above all else, the connection to your team to lead effectively, and most of all, the courage to move forward under any circumstance.”

Kendall used the broad sweep of history and his own experience across 50 years of public and military service to illustrate the qualities presented by strong and fair leaders.

The 75-year-old Kendall said his parents’ lives “were shaped by World War II” while Kendall’s life and view of leadership were formed in the 1960s and 1970s when he attended West Point and served in the Army in Germany.

“Vietnam and the Cold War shaped my generation. I graduated from West Point as the war in Vietnam was ending.

Upperclassmen that I had known were killed in Vietnam, especially from the classes of ‘68 and ‘69, including my regimental commander when I was a sophomore, what West Point calls a yearling, or a third degree here at USAFA,” he said.

His sense of leadership and global threats were refined more when, as an Army officer, he was stationed on the “inner German border, waiting for a Soviet invasion that could have come at any time” and by the visceral, first-hand experience of the Cuban Missile Crisis as a child.

The nuclear age, he said, continues, as dangerous and volatile as ever. The connection to leadership then and now is direct and ever present.

“You will have to serve and live under a nuclear threat. You will have the task of preventing the greatest imaginable catastrophe in human history,” he said.

“Learning to lead is the central goal of everything you do here: military training, athletics, and academics,” he said, stating an obvious truth.

“The likelihood that you will have to lead in combat is high. The likelihood that you will have to do this early in your career is also high.

The nation's military academies would not be worth the investment if they did not produce exceptional leaders ready to lead on day one.”

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While Kendall’s prescription for strong, effective leaders was general, he also tailored remarks specifically to cadets of today and a circumstance that the institution is facing, and which Kendall says must be resolved – sexual assaults at the Academy.

Kendall noted that progress reducing the incidence of sexual assaults, including positive results from the “Let’s Be Clear” program. Even so, “it is still unacceptably high.”

“What does this have to do with war and leadership? Everything,” Kendall told the cadets. “As officers, you will have the responsibility to lead and earn the respect of everyone on your team, regardless of gender.

You will be responsible, not just for your own conduct, but for that of everyone else under your authority. You cannot do that effectively if you tolerate a climate in which sexual assault or sexual harassment occurs.”

And if the reason remained hidden at a time when the nation is facing challenges from a rising and determined China, a growing nuclear threat from North Korea as well as the historical and ongoing struggle with Russia, among others, Kendall made it clear.

“Our teams throughout the military depend on unit cohesion and trust to be effective. A climate in which sexual harassment or assault can occur will not have unit cohesion and trust.

“It's well known that when Soldiers go into battle, their greatest motivation to perform well is the fear that they will let their teammates down.

You can't build that type of trust and devotion in an organization that permits disrespectful treatment based on gender or any other attribute,” he said.

The stakes are high, Kendall said. And the danger is ever present. “It is a safe bet that wars will continue to happen during your careers and that American interests, potentially vital American interests, even existential interests, could be at risk,” Kendall said.

“One thing about war that does not change over time is the importance of leadership to success. One other thing that does not change is the difference between effective leadership and ineffective leadership,” he said.

Kendall closed his remarks with the mantra that he has used throughout his tenure as Secretary of the Air Force; “One team, one fight.”

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US Space Forces Indo-Pacific marks two years of accomplishments, growth

Nov. 22, 2024

The U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific is celebrating its second birthday by reflecting on the significant strides made in strengthening the U.S. military’s space operations and enhancing partnerships in the region.

Over the past two years, the first U.S. space service component has tripled in size, established a 24/7 space watch cell, executed three Tier 1 Combatant Command exercises, signed the service’s first component support plan, and has been pivotal in expediting the fielding of space capabilities in the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Area of Responsibility.

Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific commander, emphasized the importance of continued development to meet increasing demands.

"We're growing the component to keep pace with the rapidly increasing security threat,” Mastalir said. “Joint Force planners know that if you want to put together a synchronized, all-domain operational plan, you'd be well-advised to have a Guardian on the team."

The command has also showcased its capability to support humanitarian assistance and disaster relief by leveraging commercial space assets to provide timely, critical imagery to both local and international response teams.

These efforts were instrumental in helping rescue efforts after an earthquake in Japan, landslides in Papua New Guinea, tropical storms in the Philippines and wildfires in Hawaii.

Expanding collaboration with international allies and partners has been one of SPACEFOR-INDOPAC’s most significant accomplishments.

The command has deepened space cooperation between the U.S. and 17 countries, spearheading over 45 key leader engagements, including discussions with 21 foreign military chiefs.

“Guardians have answered the nation’s call,” Mastalir remarked, “just as generations of Americans before us answered the call to protect and serve.”

As the space domain becomes increasingly congested and contested, the capabilities provided by the U.S. Space Force are foundational to the Joint Force.

U.S. Space Force components provide combatant commanders organic space planning and employment expertise, with capabilities specifically designed to break adversary kill chains and protect the Joint Force from space-enabled attack.

Moreover, they provide a subordinate space commander singularly focused on the AOR’s warfighting priorities and requirements.

SPACEFOR-INDOPAC activated U.S. Space Forces – Korea as a subordinate component in December 2022 and is planning the activation of U.S. Space Forces – Japan this December, further solidifying the U.S. Space Force’s commitment to the Indo-Pacific region.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/3976333/us-space-forces-indo-pacific-marks-two-years-of-accomplishments-growth/

That time a jet disappeared chasing a UFO over Lake Superior

November 23, 2024 at 7:00 AM

As with most things, Michigan has had its hand in the UFO cookie jar a few times.

An Unidentified Flying Object is defined as any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer.

Feds now refer to them as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs.

On Nov. 23, 1953, radar operators stationed at Sault Ste. Marie were reportedly alerted to an unknown object flying in restricted airspace over Lake Superior, near the Soo Locks.

An interceptor aircraft took off from the nearby Kincheloe Air Force Base to investigate. It was piloted by Felix Moncla and had Robert L. Wilson as a radar operator.

For whatever reason, the radar on the F-89C was having problems tracking the object, which allegedly kept changing course, so Ground Control gave Moncla directions.

Moncla pursued the object for a half hour at speeds of up to 500 miles per hour.

Ground Control watched the two blips on the radar screen representing the F89-C jet and the unknown object get closer until they became one blip, roughly 70 miles off the Keweenaw Peninsula.

The single blip continued on the course it was flying before vanishing from the radar screen.

Attempts made to contact the jet were unsuccessful. A search and rescue operation by the United States and Canadian Air Forces failed to find any trace of the aircraft or its occupants.

The U.S. Air Force reported that the jet crashed while pursuing a Canadian aircraft that was off course as it was flying to Sudbury, Ontario.

The Royal Canadian Air Force has denied this. Subury’s airport was under construction at the time and didn’t open until the next year.

The Open Skies Project, a nonprofit that is working to restore the Calumet Air Force Station, has a breakdown of theories, as well as an in-depth and well-researched version of what likely happened – it crashed during a snowstorm pursuing an aircraft that went off course.

That being said, Moncla’s gravestone states he disappeared “intercepting a UFO over Canadian Border.” I want that on my gravestone regardless of how I go.

https://www.clickondetroit.com/features/2024/11/23/that-time-a-jet-disappeared-chasing-a-ufo-over-lake-superior-2/

Moskowitz: "I want the Speaker to do a Select [UAP] Committee in the next Congress"

Nov 23, 2024

Ask a Pol asks:

During the Nov. 13th public UAP hearing, you used fight club as an example…

Key Moskowitz:

“Well, this is the first guy [Luis Elizondo] who's come forward — he's got a legitimate background — Comes forward and says, ‘I was forced to sign a document.’

Ooh, that's interesting,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “What’d the document say? ‘Well, it had a crash retrieval.’

Well, why have that in there? And that's when, you know, just popped in my head, ‘well, hold on a second, we can't talk about fight club, because there is a fight club.’”

Caught our ear:

“I want the Speaker to do a Select Committee in the next Congress,” Moskowitz tells us.

“Congress has an oversight function. We can't just give all the power to the executive. This is our function of oversight.”

https://www.askapol.com/p/moskowitz-pushing-for-select-uap-committee