The Washington Times has an article up on the authorization of a new Space Command.
Trump signed a one-page memorandum Tuesday authorizing the Defense Department to create the new command. Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Vice President Mike Pence said, "a new era of American national security in space begins today.
The goal is to set up a command to oversee and organize space operations, accelerate technical advances and find more effective ways to defend U.S. assets in space, including the vast constellations of satellites that American forces rely on for navigation, communications and surveillance. The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working on ways to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites."
This is distinct from the President's goal (enjoyed by both his supporters and detractors) of creating a separate "Space Force" military branch.
The article also notes that the Space Command is not new and that
A U.S. Space Command existed from 1985 to 2002, but was disbanded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks so that U.S. Northern Command could be established, focusing on defense of the homeland.
Sadly, if it hadn't been for that, we might already have Space Marines.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:09PM (7 children)
I would love to know how they purport to show longitude with a cross. Likely Vespucci's or Galileo's methods, which both required significant foreknowledge and very sensitive measurement. But if they have some new novel method I would love to hear it, even if only to forward it to the flat earth clowns.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:29PM
http://rexresearch.com/millercelt/millercelt.htm [rexresearch.com]
The basic idea is to know the relative positions of the moon/etc vs the stars at the prime meridian and then measure how different it is at your position.
(Score: 3, Funny) by fyngyrz on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:32PM (3 children)
It's not nice to abuse the handicapped.
--
If the earth was flat...
...cats would have pushed everything off it by now.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:47PM
Hey watch out, you'll trigger khallow if you make fun of the brain damaged.
(Score: 2) by insanumingenium on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:21PM (1 child)
If they are trolls, it only leads to us both having a good time (they get fed, and I get to call them idiots).
If they aren't trolls then they I will doubly enjoy watching the ancient aliens and flat earthers argue about their terrible methods to measure or disprove longitude. And believe me, I can enjoy watching idiots argue enough for two people.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 22 2018, @10:47AM
So you do not believe this "cross" method can be sufficiently accurate? Why?
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday December 20 2018, @08:59PM (1 child)
I wondered about that too. I also wondered how the Celts got to Oklahoma without going through any of the eastern parts of North America.
Maybe they parachuted in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 21 2018, @01:23AM
The northwest passage?