Spy Satellite to Spy on Spy Satellites?

via Roy Spencer, PhD.
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The May 1 Space-X launch of a classified satellite mission was considered very unusual after amateur satellite watchers realized it was being put into the same orbit as the International Space Station (ISS).

(ISS resupply missions aren’t classified.)

We now know that not only was “USA 276” put into the same orbit, but it actually buzzed the ISS as it gradually “orbited” around the space station.

Here’s a simulation from the SatTrackCam blog, showing the new spy satellite just outside the box representing the safe distance for objects to pass near the ISS without an orbital avoidance maneuver:

SatTrackCam blog simulation of the close approach of USA 276 to the International Space Station on June 3, 2017.

Over time, the spy satellite then circled the ISS, just several kilometers away.

This does not happen by accident. To accomplish this you have to launch the satellite into a precise orbit with the same altitude and inclination angle with the equator. Then, you have to use on-board propulsion to fine tune the orbit and “catch up” to the ISS. To then “orbit” the ISS at a safe distance is even trickier.

So, what could this classified mission of USA 276 be?

The most logical explanation is that DoD is testing a capability to rendezvous with and spy on spy satellites, up close and personal. Such a capability would no doubt include high resolution imagers, electronic surveillance, and whatever else they can think of to investigate other countrys’ spy satellites and better figure out what they are doing up there.

via Roy Spencer, PhD. http://ift.tt/1o1jAbd

June 12, 2017 at 01:29AM

Science fights back against the global warming fraud

via Climate Change Dispatch
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It has taken far too long, but the self-correcting mechanisms of science finally are contradicting the global warming fraud. Despite billions of dollars of grants for those who support the so-called “consensus” (itself, a lie), and the fear of retaliation, scholars interested in the truth are publishing a wave of scientific papers contradicting the orthodoxy. […]

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June 12, 2017 at 01:29AM

G7 Split On Climate Policy

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

The U.S. will join other Group of Seven nations in a communique at the end of a two-day climate meeting in Italy that will acknowledge points of disagreement, a top German official said.

Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks told reporters Sunday in Bologna that talks with Scott Pruitt, chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, underlined agreement on such issues as pollution of the oceans. The G-7 states, “including the U.S.,” agreed on joint efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, though Pruitt “made clear” the nations are at odds on climate protection, she said.

“I don’t see how the U.S. will handle this when on the one hand it says yes, it will indeed reduce emissions, yet on the other hand it won’t apply the instruments that have been created for this purpose,” Hendricks said.

Lincoln Ferguson, a spokesman for the EPA, said in an emailed comment from the Bologna meeting that “discussions between the United States and our counterparts are still ongoing.”

Pruitt, who led the campaign for the U.S. to quit the landmark Paris climate agreement, will not be in Bologna when the communique is issued. He left the talks Sunday to attend President Donald Trump’s first complete cabinet meeting, which is scheduled for Monday, an agency spokesman said. That leaves acting EPA assistant administrator Jane Nishida in his place at the talks, according to an agency spokesman.

Trump’s cabinet meeting was scheduled a couple of weeks ago, Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Sunday. EPA officials didn’t say before the trip that Pruitt wouldn’t be at the G-7 meeting through its conclusion.

Low Expectations

Expectations for the Bologna talks were already low, given Trump’s decision on June 1 to withdraw from the climate agreement that almost 200 nations signed in 2015. His plan to renegotiate a more favorable deal for the U.S. has been rebuffed by the leaders of Germany, France and Italy.

Germany is “stretching its hand to the U.S.” on climate protection, Hendricks said. Europe’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide holds the G-20 rotating presidency, and has sought signs of consensus with Trump ahead of a leaders’ summit in Hamburg July 7-8.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on June 9 that G-20 leaders “won’t get everything we wished for” at the summit after Trump’s decision to quit the Paris accord.

In Argentina as part of a tour to rally support among G-20 nations, Merkel said getting consensus will be hard since all 20 partners must sign off on the communique. She didn’t specifically reference the U.S. in her comments.

Full post

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

June 12, 2017 at 12:52AM

Science Denialism: NASA Geologist “Scientist” Denies 600 Million Years of Geologic History

via Principia Scientific International
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Ellen Stofan holds master and doctorate degrees in geological sciences from Brown University in Providence, R.I., and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Americans ‘under siege’ from climate disinformation – former Nasa chief scientist Fake news spread by those with a profit motive is leaving many people oblivious […]

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June 12, 2017 at 12:38AM