Eager to take a look at a super-secret U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite?

Now you can thumb through a sourcebook on a Russian satellite tracking facility in Siberia called the Altay Optical Laser Research Center.

Allan Thomson, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst prepared the Russian/English language sourcebook that spotlights the Russian ground equipment capable of cranking out images of high-flying spacecraft.

The sourcebook contains shot-from-the-ground adaptive optics imagery, albeit a bit blurry, of Russian spacecraft, several NASA Earth observing satellites…as well as the NRO’s Lacrosse 2 spysat lofted back in 1991.

Lacrosse (see image) uses powerful cloud-cutting radar for day/night surveillance tasks.

BTW: A second Russian site will be equipped next year with a more powerful satellite-imaging telescope, hardware generally seen similar to a facility the United States operates in Hawaii. That upcoming satellite-scanning, sky-watching Russian equipment is to be located within Savvushka, Zmeinogorskigy area, the Altai territory, according to the sourcebook.

The sourcebook was made available today by Secrecy News from the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy.

Go to:

http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/altay.pdf

It isn’t exactly raining iguanas, but the chill in Florida is causing the tree-dwelling creatures to fall to the ground.

Though they lie on the ground looking dead, most aren’t, according to this Miami Herald article.

”We have found dozens on the bike path after a major cold snap,” said Robert Yero, park manager at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. “When they warm up in the sun, they come back to life.”

Perfect time to bring up the question: Can it rain fish?

A dramatic shark photo making the rounds on the Web today is not new. But it’s very cool.

The image shows a great white shark stalking a kayaker off the coast of South Africa. In the kayak is marine biologist Trey Snow. The photo, which was first published in Africa Geographic in 2005, was taken by Thomas P. Peschak, who “tied myself to the tower of the research boat Lamnidae and leaned into the void, precariously hanging over the ocean while waiting patiently for a white shark to come along.” Today the Daily Mail’s web site ran the photo as though it were recent.

The drama in captured in the photo [see it here] is nothing compared to what Peschak and Snow must have felt. Here’s what Peschak said of the moments leading up to the snapshot:

“When the first shark of the day came across our sea kayak it dove to the seabed and inspected it from below. I quickly trained my camera on the dark shadow which slowly transformed from diffuse shape into the sleek outline of a large great white.”

See also our image gallery of great whites, and vote for your favorite shark.

Oh, and you have to see the video of tourists swimming with whale sharks.

If you have trouble finding your cat at night, perhaps a designer fluorescent cat would be the pet for you.

South Korean researchers say they’ve cloned cats by manipulating a certain gene that happens to deal with some otherwise inhibited fluorescence. The side effect: the cats “glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.”

Other than the novelty, why should we care?

“The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as human,” officials said in a statement.

See other glowing research results as you vote for the Freakiest Lab Animal.

A new species of spitting cobra, discovered in Kenya, is some 9 feet long.

The finding “reinforces the obvious—that there have to be many other unreported species but hundreds are being lost as their habitats disappear under the continued mismanagement of our planet,” said Kenyan environmentalist Richard Leakey in a story on MSNBC.

On a more personally urgent matter for anyone confronting one of these large snakes: They’re known to aim for the eyes.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland has announced a new initiative to look at utilizing the deep space-gawking Hubble Space Telescope for close-in Moon duty.

Lunar observations making use of Hubble would support the NASA Vision for Space Exploration - the space agency’s agenda that includes replanting astronauts on the Moon.

Hubble operations are already being planned to support the mission objectives of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), the NASA craft that will look for water ice on the Moon, if it’s there in the first place. LCROSS is slated for launch in 2008, traveling to the Moon as a co-manifested payload aboard the booster for the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

Hubble’s use for lunar looking would be bolstered by a space shuttle makeover mission, now on the books for August of next year. That servicing would not only install new instruments on the orbiting eye on the universe, but also return the telescope to a three-gyro observing mode that enables lunar observations.

White papers on using Hubble for Moon gazing are being solicited from the scientific community. The deadline for those papers is January 31, 2008.

Take your own observation run at the request for ideas by going to:

http://www.stsci.edu/institute/org/spd/HST-Lunar-Science

 

Look for a National Security Space Office-led study group to detail their findings on a space-based solar power concept as a way to help de-fuse energy wars here on Earth, as well as an idea to fend off some nasty effects from global warming.

That Pentagon office will announce its study results on October 10 at a press event held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The-hour-and-a-half long briefing starts at 9:00 a.m. For you locals it’s at the First Amendment Lounge within that journalistic castle, the National Press Club.

On call for the top-level briefing is Lt. Col. Paul Damphousse of the U.S. Marine Corps from the National Security Space Office, joined by Apollo moonwalker, Buzz Aldrin. John Mankins, President of the SUNSAT Energy Council, as well as Charles Miller, Director of the Space Frontier Foundation will be there as well.

And along with the event you get a new alliance too - dedicated to advancing the benefits of harvesting energy for Earth via space solar power satellites.

Japan’s Moon-bound Kaguya spacecraft is now in lunar orbit, confirmed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) ground controllers. “We are now pleased to be able to report to you that we have safely delivered messages and signs that were collected from 412,627 people through the Wish Upon the Moon Campaign to the Moon,” stated a new update on the mission.

The Kaguya - also dubbed the SELenological and ENgineering Explorer (SELENE) was rocketed from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on September 14. So far, engineers have confirmed that the spacecraft continues to enjoy good health.

If all continues to go well, next up is deployment of a relay subsatellite from Kaguya in a few days. Another subsatellite deployment is slated for October 12. A week later, the large Moon probe is to settle into its observation orbit around the Moon.

By early November, initial checkout of the spacecraft’s scientific instruments is scheduled, followed by regular observations of the Moon in mid-December.

 

 

The creature comfort of a small, furry four-legged friend is one that astronauts aboard the International Space Station will likely not see during their spaceflights, the outpost’s crew explained Tuesday.

Students in Russia asked the station’s three-man Expedition 15 crew today whether it would be possible for a small kitten to liven up their orbital home. After all, cats can make any home cozier, explained the student, and as a fellow cat owner myself I am wont to agree.

But even if they wanted an orbital pet, the little beast would likely not enjoy a long spaceflight, the Expedition 15 crew said.

“It would be cozy to have a pet onboard the station,” cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, a Russian cosmonaut and Soyuz commander, replied. “But that would be impossible because it would be very difficult for them to adapt to the weightless environment.”

But, Kotov added, that the space station is not without its feline representative.

“We have such a kitten, which is actually a symbol of coziness of our home,” he said, speaking in Russian to students on Earth.

A little black and white stuffed kitten doll, dubbed Dimlar, launched into space aboard the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft that ferried Kotov, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and space tourist Charles Simonyi to the ISS last April. The doll’s moniker stemmed from a combination of the names of Kotov’s children, Dima and Lara.

You can see the doll hanging in the central left region of this camera view aboard the Soyuz. Watch it reach weightlessness in this launch video.

“My children, my family, presented it to me and it is a pleasure to have it onboard at this time,” said Kotov, who adopted the doll as his Soyuz mascot, hanging it on a string during liftoff to know exactly when his crew reached weightlessness.

Kotov is not the only astronaut with an affinity for pets and animals.

NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who spent seven months aboard the ISS between December 2006 and June 2007 as an Expedition 14 flight engineer, frequently mentioned her beloved dog Gorby and decorated the ISS with images of the pup.

Click here for a video about other animals that have actually made the flight into space.

Male dogs get neutered to prevent unwanted pups and simply to make them calmer and better house pets. But the thought of having a dogs testicles lopped off makes some dog owners squirm. It also brings an end to any hope of breeding Fido later in life.

A new approach is in the offing.

Implantable dog contraceptives would halt sperm production, and they’d be removable in case an owner later wanted to breed the pooch. The microchip-like device is already in use Down Under.

No word on whether the product curbs that thing dogs do to the legs of human visitors.