The danger of space debris

In late June, six astronauts living on board the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits some 200 miles above the earth’s surface, received notice that a piece of space debris travelling 29,000 miles per hour would pass dangerously nearby. NASA officials calculated that the probability of the ISS being hit at around one in 360. (One in 10,000 is NASA’s nominal threshold for which it will authorize a “collision avoidance maneuver.”)

Normally, the ISS receives ample notice so that it can maneuver out of the pathway of potential space debris. However, with less than fifteen hours’ warning, the astronauts were forced to relocate to Soyuz space capsules for only the second time in the ISS’s thirteen-year history.
While the debris missed the space station by 1,100 feet, orbital space debris is a growing threat to civil, military, and commercial satellites in space.

Presently, there are some 22,000 items over ten centimeters across, or roughly the size of a softball, which can be regularly tracked with existing resources and technology. These include the upper stages of launch vehicles, disabled spacecraft, dead batteries, solid rocket motor waste, and refuse from human missions. In addition, there are approximately 300,000 other fragments of space junk measuring between one and ten centimeters, and over 135,000,000 less than one centimeter, which could potentially damage operational spacecraft.

Though it took forty years to produce the first 10,000 pieces of softball-sized space debris, it required less than a decade for the next 12,000. This recent increase was due in part to two worrying incidents, which, according to NASA, combined to increase the number of total space objects by over 60 percent. In January 2007, the Chinese military destroyed a defunct polar-orbiting weather satellite with a mobile ballistic missile, and in February 2009 an active Iridium communication satellite and a defunct Russian satellite, which had been predicted to pass each other 1,900 feet apart, unexpectedly collided.

The ability to detect, track, characterize, and predict objects in space and space-related events is known as space situational awareness (SSA). The U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) provides this function for the Pentagon by monitoring space debris (over ten centimeters) with a worldwide network of twenty-nine ground-based radars and optical sensors.

In addition to supporting U.S. military and intelligence agencies, JSpOC provides e-mail notifications to commercial space operators when their satellites are at risk from space debris. JSpOC provides twenty to thirty close-approach notifications per day, which last year resulted in satellite owners maneuvering 126 times to avoid collision with other satellites or debris. According to U.S. officials, the United States even notifies the Chinese government when their satellites are threatened by space debris created by the 2007 anti-satellite test. Despite JSpOC’s best efforts, however, these same officials acknowledge that no country has the resources, technical expertise, or geography to meet the growing demands for SSA.

The space debris problem is a classic global governance dilemma: though eleven states can launch satellites, and over sixty countries or government consortia own or operate the approximately 1,100 active satellites, no one country or group of countries has the sovereign authority or responsibility for regulating space. Under Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty.”

The solution to reducing the amount of new space debris, mitigating the threat it poses to satellites and spacecraft, and eventually removing on-orbit debris from space, will require enhanced international cooperation. Last summer, the Obama administration released its National Space Policy, which featured the objective of preserving the space environment via “the continued development and adoption of international and industry standards and policies to minimize debris,” and “fostering the development of space collision warning measures.” Unfortunately, progress toward constructing international agreed upon rules of the road for the responsible uses of space have been slow going.

The space debris problem is a classic global governance dilemma: though eleven states can launch satellites, and over sixty countries or government consortia own or operate the approximately 1,100 active satellites, no one country or group of countries has the sovereign authority or responsibility for regulating space. Under Article II of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty: “Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty.”

The solution to reducing the amount of new space debris, mitigating the threat it poses to satellites and spacecraft, and eventually removing on-orbit debris from space, will require enhanced international cooperation. Last summer, the Obama administration released its National Space Policy, which featured the objective of preserving the space environment via “the continued development and adoption of international and industry standards and policies to minimize debris,” and “fostering the development of space collision warning measures.” Unfortunately, progress toward constructing international agreed upon rules of the road for the responsible uses of space have been slow going.

Source: CNN

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Obama Says Palestinians Are Using Wrong Forum

President Obama declared his opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood through the Security Council on Wednesday, throwing the weight of the United States directly in the path of the Arab democracy movement even as he hailed what he called the democratic aspirations that have taken hold throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

“Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the U.N.,” Mr. Obama said, in an address before world leaders at the General Assembly. “If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now.”

Instead, Mr. Obama said, the international community should keep pushing Israelis and Palestinians toward talks on the four intractable issues that have vexed peace negotiations since 1979: borders of a Palestinian state, security for Israel, the status of Palestinian refugees and the fate of Jerusalem, which both sides claim for their capital.

For Mr. Obama, the challenge in crafting the much-anticipated General Assembly speech was how to address the incongruities of the administration’s position: the president who committed to making peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians a priority from Day One, now unable to get peace negotiations going after two and a half years; the president who opened the door to Palestinian state membership at the United Nations last year, now threatening to veto that membership; the president determined to get on the right side of Arab history but ending up, in the views of many Arabs, on the wrong side of it on the Palestinian issue.

The Arab Spring quandary, in particular, has been troublesome for Mr. Obama. White House officials say that he has long been keenly aware that he, like no other American president, stood as a potential beacon to the Arab street as the ultimate symbol of the hopes and rewards of democracy. But since he is the president of the United States, he has had to put American interests first.

So Mr. Obama’s 35-minute address appeared, at times, an effort to balance support for democratic movements against support for Israel, America’s foremost ally. From the start, everything he said seemed directed to the theme of what he called “peace in an imperfect world.”

Mr. Obama called this year “a time of transformation.” This year, he said, “more individuals are claiming their universal right to live in freedom and dignity.”

He congratulated the democratic movements in Ivory Coast, Tunisia and South Sudan. He congratulated the Egyptians and Libyans who toppled their autocrats. He sided with the protesters in Syria.

But, he said, Palestinians must make peace with Israel before gaining statehood themselves. Israelis and Palestinians, he said, have grievances and the United Nations must be an arbiter.

“This body, founded, as it was, out of the ashes of war and genocide; dedicated, as it is, to the dignity of every person, must recognize the reality that is lived by both the Palestinians and the Israelis,” he said. “We will only succeed in that effort if we can encourage the parties to sit down together, to listen to each other and to understand each other’s hopes and fears. That is the project to which America is committed, and that is what the United Nations should be focused on in the weeks and months to come.”

Several times as Mr. Obama spoke, the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the audience, put his forehead in his hand. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the speech a “badge of honor.”

Three times under Mr. Obama’s tenure, the General Assembly meeting has put the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into stark relief.

In 2009, on Mr. Obama’s first visit as president, he abandoned his call for a freeze of settlements in the West Bank, meeting immovable resistance from Israel. The pivot was viewed as major setback in American efforts toward resumed peace talks.

Then last year, Mr. Obama delivered an impassioned call for Palestinian statehood within the next year, to be recognized, he said, in the United Nations.

Mr. Obama tried to acknowledge the shift, recalling his pledge and his belief that then, as now, “the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own.”

“But what I also said,” he added, “is that genuine peace can only be realized between Israelis and Palestinians themselves.”

Neil MacFarquhar contributed reporting.

(Source: NyTimes)

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Saadi Gaddafi tracked down to playboy hideaway in Niger

American diplomats trumpeted the news that Saadi Gaddafi, the third son of Libya's deposed leader, had finally been brought to heel on Wednesday, claiming he had been placed under virtual 'house arrest' after fleeing to Niger.

But tracked down by The Daily Telegraph to the Nigerien capital of Niamey, it was clear that Saadi's luxurious surroundings bore closer resemblance to a playboy hideaway than a prison.

After being flown to the capital on a military Hercules C-130 transport jet late on Monday, the former footballer was given luxurious lodgings in Villa Verde, a state guesthouse next to the presidential palace. The complex is now his well guarded refuge of calm from the war still waging in his homeland.

He joined a clique of Libyan generals in the city. Among them are Gen Ali Sharif al-Rifi, Libya's ex-air force chief and Mansour Dao, its security supremo, who are ensconced in the nearby Villa du Conseil de líEntente, a high-walled hillside complex of bungalows boasting cool verandas and handsome colonnaded administration buildings.

The Telegraph found well-built soldiers in combat fatigues drenched in sweat, but solidly clutching assault rifles across the chest, guarding the gates.

To Libyan rebels and their Western backers Saadi and the Gaddafi loyalists are on the run from justice.

"Our understanding is, like the others, he's being detained in a state guest house," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said of Gaddafi's son on Wednesday. "It's essentially a house arrest in this government facility, is our understanding."

However, that claim does not quite seem to accord with the reality of Saadi's accommodation on the fringes of the plushest and most affluent district of Niger's impoverished capital, where the Gaddafi refugees have been given a warm welcome.

Mounkaila Saidou, a relatively wealthy man who sits with mango plants, lettuce seedlings and papaya shrubs at his feet, owes the success of his market gardening business to Col Muammar Gaddafi's investment in the country and he was among those on Wednesday to welcome the deposed dictator's henchmen.

"We have all this because of Gaddafi. He built the wells and the irrigation pumps all along the river," the elderly manager said. "Our cooperative would not exist without him. In the last three years he

has met all our costs. He's done more for us than our own government or foreigners.

"Why shouldn't his officials come here when their country is in danger."

The soporific setting had little to offer but infrastructure built by Col Gaddafi's largesse.

Women stride along the dirt tracks balancing plastic water cans on their heads.

Naked children seek relief from the stolid humid air by jumping in the river and playing with the water pumped from the Libyan-funded wells on the Niger's banks.

The list of Col Gaddafi's gifts is large and well known in Niamey. The main mosque and a tarred road along what is fancifully called the city's Corniche top the list.

Even Niger's democratically elected national assembly meets in a building with a large sign detailing gifts from the "Libyan guide and the people" to Niger.

Marou Amadou, Niger's youthful justice minister and government spokesman, said Niger is caught between a diplomatic rock and a political hard place by the arrival of Gaddafi's associates.

"We don't know if they will stay in the long term because we did not invite them," he said. "But remember Libya is a country at war so we cannot throw them back. At the same time we will uphold international obligations not to allow anyone subject to a travel ban to leave to another country. So they are stuck."

Saadi, a 38-year old who once tried to play professional football for Perugia in Italy's premier league, is proscribed from international travel by the UN sanctions committee. While his reputation as a dilettante is well deserved, he also commanded a militia used by the regime against the popular uprising.

Mr Amadou said strict conditions on the men were more subtle than outright detention. "Any of those with guns have had their weapons removed. We have taken all mobile phones and laptops," he said. They will not be allow to destablise our neighbour through political activities.

"We will not accept this. Instability in Libya is the greatest danger to Niger. We hope that peace, democracy and stability come back to our neighbour very soon."

Niger only just restored democratic rule in April when President Mahamadou Issoufou took over from a military junta. The new government resents the burden that the Libya conflict has placed on its reputation.

"The bulk of the Gaddafis have gone to Algeria but Niger is feeling all the pressure and attention, perhaps because it is a democratic government," said Mr Amadou. "We will fulfil our international obligations. On the other hand no one mentions the burdens we face after 200,000 Nigeriens have returned home from Libya."

The fledging government, which relies on Western support for its reform programme, is under open pressure not to allow Saadi Gaddafi to spearhead a rearguard fightback from Niger. (telegraph.co.uk)

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New York cracks down after "credible" 9/11 threat

New York police amassed a display of force on Friday including checkpoints that snarled traffic in response to intelligence about a car or truck bomb plot linked to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Officers armed with automatic weapons were stationed at city landmarks including Wall Street, Times Square and the September 11 memorial site where the Twin Towers once stood.

U.S. officials called the threat "credible but unconfirmed" and timed to the anniversary of the hijacked plane attacks that killed 2,995 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

There was reason to believe threat may be linked to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

New Yorkers who have grown accustomed to bag searches at subway stations and random displays of police presence encountered increased vigilance after the threat, which prompted President Barack Obama to order a redoubling of U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

A manhunt was under way for two or three suspects, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity. One said there could be a link to Zawahri, who took the reins of al Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed in May in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.

Near the site known as Ground Zero, where a new World Trade Center is under reconstruction and Obama will attend Sunday's commemoration, police established a checkpoint behind the historic Trinity Church, stopping vehicles, opening the cargo bays of trucks and checking drivers' licenses.

Similar checkpoints went up at Times Square, Columbus Circle on the southern edge of Central Park and outside the Macy's department store in midtown, creating traffic jams all over Manhattan.

"I think for our safety it is good," Eva Kurzawska, 57, said as she watched irritated drivers a checkpoint in midtown.

"The commute on the train this morning was horrible but it was worth it because we are being protected," said Mario Vigorigo, 42, a wireless manager from Brooklyn.

Sam Ginzburg, a senior trader at First New York Securities, said warnings of a potential attack was one factor unnerving traders before the weekend. "There is an extreme amount of negativity," he said as U.S. stocks fell on Friday.

A senior law enforcement official told Reuters police patrols and security will be stepped up beginning at 3 p.m. EDT to coincide with the evening rush hour. The operation will involve a "big show of force" which will include teams of officers armed with heavy weapons.

While the rush-hour operation had been planned some time ago, the forces and tactics deployed were increased after authorities received the intelligence threat this week.


'TERRORISM IS THEATER'

The intelligence included possible threats of attacks targeting subways or commuter trains or possible car bomb attacks in New York or Washington, U.S. officials said.

"We have to be concerned. Terrorism is theater and this is a stage, right now probably the world's biggest stage," New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told CNN.

"We have the opening of the 9/11 memorial, the president and two former presidents here, obviously a lot of high profile public officials will be here, so we have to be concerned," Kelly said.

In addition to the vehicle checkpoints, police would assign additional officers to cover bridges and tunnels, increase bag searches in the subway system, deploy radiation detectors and employ bomb-sniffing dogs, Kelly told NY1 television.

Vice President Joseph Biden said on ABC's "Good Morning America" program on Friday morning, "We don't have the smoking gun but we do have talk about using a car bomb."

A counterterrorism official said the threat information came from Pakistan's tribal areas.

Documents discovered in Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after he was killed in a raid in May by Navy SEALs, highlighted his persistent interest in attacking the United States around the anniversary of the 2001 attacks. But it is unclear if the plans ever evolved beyond aspiration.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball in Washington; Michelle Nichols, Edward Krudy, Brian Snynder and Jennifer Marostica in New York; Editing by Doina Chiacu). (Yahoo News)

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