[QUOTE=only_human;435663]Four boosters sitting in a hanger.[/QUOTE]One is heading to hang from the rafters in Space-X's headquarters. I bet the Smithsonian has sent Space-X a letter stating that they would accept a returned Falcon 9. That is their way of asking for one (according to the story that I heard Dick Rutan tell.)

[QUOTE=Uncwilly;435666]One is heading to hang from the rafters in Space-X's headquarters. I bet the Smithsonian has sent Space-X a letter stating that they would accept a returned Falcon 9. That is their way of asking for one (according to the story that I heard Dick Rutan tell.)[/QUOTE]
In this case, I think the Smithsonian may find Elon Musk to be particularly receptive to a gentle request.

[URL="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/2015-smithsonian-american-ingenuity-awards-180956989/"]Smithsonian's 2012 American Ingenuity Award Winners[/URL]
[QUOTE]The Smithsonian has been celebrating innovation in American culture for more than 150 years and the highest honor we now give in that regard is the American Ingenuity Award, which showcases revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts and sciences, education and social progress. Winners and presenters have included Nobel laureates, rock stars and civil rights icons—from physicist Stephen Hawking, to Tesla and [B]SpaceX founder Elon Musk[/B], to musicians David Byrne and St. Vincent, writer and educator Dave Eggers, virtual reality inventor Palmer Luckey, and Grammy-award winner Rosanne Cash. The American Ingenuity Award itself was created by the artist Jeff Koons.[/QUOTE]

Tales from the void of space
 

[URL="https://www.wired.com/2016/06/time-astronaut-lost-wedding-ring-space/"]THAT TIME AN ASTRONAUT LOST HIS WEDDING RING IN SPACE[/URL]
[QUOTE]On the second day of the 1972 11-day trip to the moon and back, command module pilot Ken Mattingly lost his wedding ring. “It just floated off somewhere, and none of us could find it,” Duke says. Mattingly, perhaps worried his wife would accuse him of some extraterrestrial impropriety, spent his free moments desperately searching for the ring.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]On the ninth day, the team went out for a space walk. The hatch was open, and Mattingly was floating alongside the ship, tending to a biological experiment anchored on a 10-foot pole. Duke suited up and floated out to check on him.

“It was spectacular out there,” he says. “The moon was over my left shoulder about 50,000 miles away and it was huge. To the lower right was the earth, just a thin sliver of blue and white, and I was mesmerized.”

As he turned to head back in, something caught his eye, small, glistening in the sun, floating slowly out of the door. He reached his big gloved hand out to catch the ring and missed. “Well,” he thought, “lost in space.”

Duke, Mattingly, the ship, and the ring were flying through space together at 3,000 feet per second, but in the absence of wind resistance, as Duke puts it, things just “move along together.” So there they were, floating while really zooming along—Charlie watching the unrushed ring head to its fate in the vast darkness.

But as he watched, Duke realized the ring was headed right for the back of Mattingly’s head. The astronaut, unaware, was absorbed in his experiment when the ring hit him right on the back of the helmet, turned 180 degrees, and headed back for the hatch. About three minutes later, Charlie caught it in his big gloved hand.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE]Published on Jun 11, 2016 United Launch Alliance launched NROL-37 atop a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral AFB, FL. launch complex LC-37 [STRIKE]June 16[/STRIKE] at 1:51 pm EDT. The Delta IV was in the heavy configuration with 3 booster cores. The secretive payload is being launched for the National Reconnaissance Office in support of national defense. The last time a Delta IV heavy launched was for NASA's test of the Orion Capsule. Congratulations to ULA and the crew from Cape Canaveral AFB for a flawless launch.

Thanks to United Launch Alliance for a live stream of the launch and thank you for watching. This video was edited for time.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://youtu.be/wQq-erIzAX0[/url]
[YOUTUBE]wQq-erIzAX0[/YOUTUBE]
Launch occurs just before seven minutes into this video. Coverage continues up to fairing separation wherupon "at our customer's request we will now conclude our live coverage."

The Delta IV heavy is the world's most powerful launch configuration at this time. If I remember the factoids from this video correctly, it is the sixth such launch for the NRO and the 32nd Delta IV launch since operations began in 2002.

You can tell ULA is old-school, using non-metric units. Still cool seeing a triple-core launch though!

[QUOTE=Mark Rose;436052]You can tell ULA is old-school, using non-metric units. Still cool seeing a triple-core launch though![/QUOTE]
Speaking of old school, there is nimbleness afoot in unexpected places:
[URL="http://www.wired.com/2016/06/unknown-lab-millennials-fast-tracking-nasas-missions/"]The Unknown Lab of Millennials Fast-Tracking NASA’s Missions[/URL]
A Rapid Response Radiation Survey to help predict high flying airline workers radiation exposure:
[QUOTE]Just three days after the picnic-table meeting, 32-year-old Miller presented the mission concept to NASA’s bigwigs with the money, who funded R3S just a week after that. Within 28 days—the length of a lunar cycle, or a global zombie virus outbreak—they had closed a deal with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to launch it aboard a small satellite. R3S will launch later this year, after its engineers spent just four months working on its design.[/QUOTE]

Oh, and June 15 is SpaceX's next launch date:
[QUOTE]SpaceX ‏@SpaceX
Next launch targeting June 15 for launch of the @Eutelsat_SA 117 West B and ABS-2A satellites. Launch window opens 10:29 am ET, 2:29 pm UTC
[url]https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/741741731608072192[/url]


[url]http://www.eutelsat.com/en/satellites/future-satellites/EUTELSAT-117WB.html[/url]

[url]http://www.absatellite.com/satellite-fleet/?sat=abs2a[/url][/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;436056]Speaking of old school, there is nimbleness afoot in unexpected places:
[URL="http://www.wired.com/2016/06/unknown-lab-millennials-fast-tracking-nasas-missions/"]The Unknown Lab of Millennials Fast-Tracking NASA’s Missions[/URL]
A Rapid Response Radiation Survey to help predict high flying airline workers radiation exposure:[/QUOTE]

That's awesome! It's about time they did a program like that.

I still need to get myself a gamma ray spectrometer. I've flown with a Geiger counter several times and it's fun seeing readings 30 times background.

[url]http://i.imgur.com/CvEstao.jpg[/url]

Just a reminder:
[URL="https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/06/spacex-falcon-9-dual-satellite-launch/"]SpaceX set for Falcon 9 dual satellite launch[/URL]
[QUOTE]SpaceX will launch its sixth mission of the year Wednesday, with a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a pair of communications satellites – Eutelsat 117 West B and ABS-2A – into orbit. Liftoff from SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral is expected during a 44-minute window that opens at 10:29 local time (14:29 UTC).

SpaceX Launch:

Wednesday’s launch is the twenty-sixth launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 vehicle; coming less than three weeks after the previous mission, which deployed the Thaicom 8 satellite in late May.

As with the Thaicom launch, Falcon will again be targeting a geosynchronous transfer orbit; this time carrying a pair of smaller satellites instead of one larger one.[/QUOTE]

Oh, and in funny headline mistakes I've been looking at this so-far-uncorrected headline all day:
[QUOTE]
[URL="http://nhv.us/content/57057-united-launch-alliances-delta-iv-heavy-lifts-california-s-cape"]United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy lifts off from [B]California[/B]'s Cape Canaveral[/URL]
NH Voice - ‎16 hours ago‎
United Launch Alliance's Delta IV Heavy, the most powerful rocket in the world, has lifted off from Cape Canaveral in [B]California[/B] on June 11, with a mission to launch a US spy satellite into orbit.[/QUOTE]
Later in the article they quote someone else who had it right:
[QUOTE]According to a report in Tech Times by Rhodi Lee, "The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, touted as the world's most powerful rocket, blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Saturday, June 11, afternoon carrying a United States spy satellite. The launch was supposed to take place on Thursday, June 9, but it was delayed for several days because of rainy weather conditions."[/QUOTE]
update:
I just noticed a project that is planned to be launched on a Falcon Heavy in 2017
[URL="http://earthsky.org/space/measuring-time-in-deep-space"]Measuring time in deep space[/URL]
[QUOTE]Sending an atomic clock to deep space

The ground clocks used for these measurements are the size of a refrigerator and operate in carefully controlled environments – definitely not suitable for spaceflight. In comparison, DSAC, even in its current prototype form as seen above, is about the size of a four-slice toaster. By design, it’s able to operate well in the dynamic environment aboard a deep-space exploring craft.

One key to reducing DSAC’s overall size was miniaturizing the mercury ion trap. Shown in the figure above, it’s about 15 cm (6 inches) in length. The trap confines the plasma of mercury ions using electric fields. Then, by applying magnetic fields and external shielding, we provide a stable environment where the ions are minimally affected by temperature or magnetic variations. This stable environment enables measuring the ions’ transition between energy states very accurately.[/QUOTE]
I don't know why it's going on Falcon Heavy to low earth orbit but that is the plan:
[QUOTE]Countdown to DSAC launch

The DSAC mission is a hosted payload on the Surrey Satellite Technology Orbital Test Bed spacecraft. Together with the DSAC Demonstration Unit, an ultra stable quartz oscillator and a GPS receiver with antenna will enter low altitude Earth orbit once launched via a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in early 2017.

While it’s on orbit, DSAC’s space-based performance will be measured in a yearlong demonstration, during which Global Positioning System tracking data will be used to determine precise estimates of OTB’s orbit and DSAC’s stability. We’ll also be running a carefully designed experiment to confirm DSAC-based orbit estimates are as accurate or better than those determined from traditional two-way data. This is how we’ll validate DSAC’s utility for deep space one-way radio navigation.[/QUOTE]
Here are the five projects on that Orbital Test Bed
[url]https://www.sstl.co.uk/Missions/Orbital-Test-Bed--OTB-/News/OTB--The-Mission[/url]

[QUOTE]I don't know why it's going on Falcon Heavy to low earth orbit but that is the plan:[/QUOTE]
Perhaps SpaceX wants to test the rocket in a non-demanding launch? Just guessing.

[QUOTE=kladner;436258]Perhaps SpaceX wants to test the rocket in a non-demanding launch? Just guessing.[/QUOTE]
I just skimmed a white paper on Surrey Satellite Technology's hosted mission concept. It's a way getting a cheaper ride to orbit as a secondary payload.

Actually the larger mission is full of stuff:
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Test_Program#Upcoming_activities[/url]
[QUOTE]The STP-2 (DoD Space Test Program) payload is scheduled to be launched aboard a Falcon Heavy in March 2017.[8] The payload should include an ISAT (Innovative Spacebased radar Antenna Technology) flight demonstrator satellite massing over 5000 kg, and COSMIC-2, a cluster of six satellites, massing at 277.8 kg each.[9] The ISAT program aims to deploy extremely large (up to 300 yards) electronically scanning radar antennas in orbit.[10] The primary role of the COSMIC-2 satellite constellation is to provide radio occultation data with an average latency of 45 minutes. The six satellites will be placed on an orbit with an inclination of 24 to 28.5 degrees with six separate orbital planes with 60 degree separation between them.[11] The integrated payload stack will be integrated using EELV Secondary Payload Adapter. Two ESPA Grande rings will be used to mount the six COSMIC-2 satellites beneath the ESPA ring hosting the DSX payload and avionics modules.[12] STP-2 will also host up to 8 CubeSat nanosatellites deployed with P-PODs (Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployers).[9]

Other secondary payloads include LightSail,[13] Prox-1 nanosatellite,[13] Oculus-ASR nanosatellite,[14] GPIM,[15][16][17] and the Deep Space Atomic Clock.[18][/QUOTE]
One project, GPIM, is NASA's greener satellite propellant that we briefly talked about here sometime back.