Grandma arrest

Free speech is a human right in America and guaranteed by our constitution. Freedom to speak used to be respected in Europe more than it is today. 

This is one example. A 74-year-old grandmother stood quietly outside a hospital in Scotland holding the sign you see in this picture. She challenged no one.

 

Police handcuffed and arrested her, took her to the police station where she was searched, swabbed for DNA, had a mugshot and fingerprints taken, and then she was released. The process itself is intimidating. She says, "I'm worried about a society that's willing to lock up a 74-year-old grandmother for offering consensual conversation." 

Last month our vice president told European political leaders that it looks like free speech is "in retreat" in Europe. They were "outraged" that he would say such a thing!

from The Free Press

Almost home

Follow-up to this post

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are test pilots who flew up to the International Space Station last June on ULA's  spacecraft Starliner, its first astronaut-crewed flight. But NASA would not permit Starliner to carry them back home at the end of their one-week mission because they judged the craft unsafe due to technical problems.

Instead of spending a week there, it's been about nine months. They say they want to go home, and that's coming soon. 

SpaceX will launch Crew-10 to the ISS on March 12, and then Butch and Suni will get their ride back to Earth on SpaceX's Dragon craft, returning home next week (weather permitting) . . at last. Suni said in yesterday's news conference that her message to family is that she'll be home soon, so "Don't plan anything without me!"

COO

Space operations used to be the domain of governments only. But now there's a big private sector. In the private, non-government space business, there's no more important name than Gwynne Shotwell, President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX.

photo

Super celebrity Elon Musk hired her as an engineer way back in 2002. As Director of Business Development, she successfully negotiated the contract (2008) with NASA to deliver commercial resupply services to the International Space Station. Promotion to the position of president followed. 

Gwynne is a superstar herself. She led the effort to build the Falcon rocket. Under her leadership, SpaceX was the first private company to successfully launch to orbit and recover a spacecraft and send one to the ISS . . plus all the recent SpaceX achievements. 

Test flight #8 of Starship may take place today, depending on conditions.

US in space

No day goes by without space operations of some kind, even though we don't commonly see them. Consider that roughly 10,000 satellites are in orbit around the world in use for GPS, communication, surveillance, military.

Cyber attacks and the jamming of our satellites are just a couple of threats that our enemies could employ. That's why the U.S. has a military branch dedicated to space operations, in an environment where there's no up or down, no left or right: the United States Space Force.

"We won't just think outside the box. We'll think outside the atmosphere."