Well, I voted today (holding my nose the entire time ). We just didn't have any good candidates this year. Turnout was light, which means that McDonnell likely has this one in the bag. I just hope he uses his majorities in both house to actually get something done with transportation, i'm doubtful that this will happen though. More likely or not that social agenda of his that stayed suspiciously hidden during the length of the campaign will rear it's ugly head once in office, to the detriment of all else. I would love to be wrong on this though.

Dulles, Va.-based Orbital Sciences Corp. is throwing its hat into NASA’s commercial-crew transport ring with plans to develop a crew capsule based on the company’s Cygnus cargo module, according to industry sources.

“We’re definitely supportive of the idea of commercial crew,” Orbital spokesman Barry Beneski said Sept. 11. “We were initially focused on cargo, but now that the Augustine recommendations are out, there seems to be a more serious look at how the private sector can contribute, and that’s what Orbital has done for basically our whole history.”

An independent panel chartered by the White House in May to review NASA’s human spaceflight program released a summary report Sept. 8 endorsing commercial services to transport crews to and from low Earth orbit.

The panel, led by former Lockheed Martin chief Norm Augustine, found that while a space architecture crafted to provide opportunities to the private sector would not come without risks, it could save NASA money.

In public meetings held this summer, the Augustine panel indicated it would urge the White House to set aside at least $2.5 billion to stimulate private-sector competition to develop a commercial crew capability.

Beneski said a crew variant of Orbital’s Cygnus pressurized cargo module capable of carrying three or four astronauts, along with a human-rated version of Taurus 2, could be developed at a cost of $2 billion to $3 billion.

One industry source identified Boeing as a potential partner in the effort, which would involve adding a new liquid-hydrogen second stage to the Taurus 2, giving it the thrust needed to carry around 8 metric tons to the space station. This would accommodate an Apollo-sized capsule based on the Cygnus cargo vehicle design along with a service module.

Although Beneski declined to comment on the time that will be necessary to develop a crew transport capability, one industry source estimated four years from contract award.

Another one... According to Bob McDonnell in 2003, homosexual conduct is grounds for removing a judge from the bench or denying him/her the seat in the first place. This guy is the fringe.

WaPo

Now we have Thesisgate... So McDonnell wrote his Master's thesis on the decline of the American family unit and the Republican prescription. From what I read, it could have been written by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell themselves. According to a 34 year-old McDonnell, working women, gays, "fornicators", day-care, and of course Democrats have destroyed the family and are destroying America. Doesn't sound much different from today's Republican party-line, so how much has he really changed his views?

Read for yourself...LINK

Work will begin in the next two weeks or so on a new building on Wallops, the Horizontal Integration Facility, where the rocket will be assembled before being transported to the launch pad.Construction of the launch pad itself will begin in October. The pad has to withstand almost 1 million pounds of downward thrust at launch from the 125-foot-tall rocket.

"These are big rockets; they'll rattle your teeth if you're within 10 miles" when they launch, Bobczynski said.

A total of 1,500 piles driven 130 feet down will be used in construction of the two facilities on the barrier island.

Transporting the large rocket parts to Wallops is one of the main challenges Orbital faces, according to Bobczynski. The hump-backed bridge to the island is not rated to carry the weight of some components, while the barge option also is running into problems due to the shallow, narrow channel leading to the island.The current plan is to bring the first stage of the rocket, which is manufactured in the Ukraine, by barge from Newport News up the coast to an area off Wallops, then switch to a smaller tugboat to bring the barge into Chincoteague Bay.

Bobczynski also said he was to meet Thursday with the person who leases oyster beds just to the south of where the barge will enter.

"Ultimately, our long-term goal in five or six years is not to have to barge this thing," he said, adding the company would need Accomack County's support to create infrastructure to bring rocket components in another way. Rail is one alternative, he said.

County Administrator Steve Miner more than a year ago initiated a project to research the region's railroad system and scenarios for bringing the railroad to Wallops. A Salisbury University study on the railroad is now complete, Economic Development Director Larry Forbes said.

An academic symposium will be held this fall to explore the potential of what officials are calling "Virginia's Spaceplex" in the Wallops Island area.

Accomack County and state officials met with representatives from several state universities Wednesday in Richmond to hear preliminary proposals for a concept study for the Wallops area, which would emphasize developing a vision for its potential and which eventually would lead to an economic impact analysis and concrete recommendations.

The county last week issued a request for proposals for the study, saying it will aid in marketing efforts for Wallops area enterprises. But by the end of yesterday's meeting at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the group decided to take a broader approach and to concentrate on three different aspects of planning for growth in the area: to plan for immediate needs related Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus II project; to hold a symposium; and to do comprehensive long-range planning.

The group also decided at that meeting that a concept study was needed.

Included in Wednesday's meeting were Forbes; Bull; Accomack County Administrator Steve Miner; Accomack County Planning Director Jim McGowan; Bruce Hoogstraten, Chairman of the Governor's Aerospace Council; Dr. Billie Reed and Laurie Naismith of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport; Virginia National Defense Industrial Authority Manager Stan Scott; several VEDP representatives, and representatives of academic institutions including Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.

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Wallops Island facility to be 'Cape Canaveral of North'
There isn't much to see yet at the grandly named Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, just the skeleton of an old launch gantry on a piece of oceanfront leased from the federal government.

But promoters expect something remarkable to blossom on this sun-baked spit of sand and scrub on the Eastern Shore.

David Smith, a state official from Virginia, which joined with Maryland six years ago to operate a commercial spaceflight center with the lofty acronym MARS, says the area is on track to become "the Cape Canaveral of the North."

For now, though, it's the Wal-Mart of spaceports.

"They can do more with a dollar than anyone else within NASA," said Robert Strain, director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center, which operates the Wallops Flight Facility where MARS is based.

The facility operates out of a one-room former gas station on NASA property, not far from a busy highway that takes beach-bound visitors to the southern end of Assateague Island. It employs six people.

Spaceport officials like to tout their cut-rate location, a barrier island just off the Delmarva Peninsula. From here, they say, it's a shorter shot to the orbiting International Space Station, which means lower bills for rocket fuel. Insurance is cheaper, too, since flights go almost entirely over water (trajectories from Florida cross Europe and the Middle East).

MARS' new $10 million rocket assembly building, soon to go up near a new launch pad, is so modestly sized that 50 of them could fit into the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building in Florida with room to spare. The Mid-Atlantic spaceport's sole rocket provider fashions launch vehicles, in part, from fuel tanks and engines developed for intercontinental ballistic missiles by the United States and its Soviet bloc adversaries and decommissioned after the Cold War.

DWT explains the works to Acting Administrator Scolese ("Chris, there will be a test afterward, so pay attention")

Second picture: the desolate view of the Island looking towards Pad 0B (Pad 0A gave its all in the name of progress a couple of months ago) - I will post a picture taken from the same point a year from now...

By the way, all photos courtesy Capt. Frank Culbertson, USN (Ret.)

Next: the dignitaries laugh, not knowing they will be soon sent to hard labor in the salt mines. Left to right: DWT, Virginia Deputy Secretary of Trade and Commerce David Smith, Goddard Space Flight Center Director Rob Strain, NASA Acting Administrator Chris Scolese (partially hidden), Chairwoman Mikulski, NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director John Campbell.

Yours truly is standing behind, not amused (it must be that darn suit...)

Second photo: Secretary Smith, DWT, Chairwoman Mikulski, Acting Administrator Scolese, Virginia Space Flight Authority Chairman Vincent Boles, Goddard Director Rob Strain, Wallops Director John Campbell. I asked them to stay and dig for a couple more hours - my construction budget is very limited. Did they do it? Nooo... too important... too busy to stop and help the little people..

WALLOPS ISLAND — Maryland and Virginia officials held a groundbreaking at a Monday ceremony marking the start of construction of a new launchpad and other facilities to support Orbital Science Corporation’s Taurus II rocket program.
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The rocket will be used to carry cargo to the International Space Station. A demonstration flight is scheduled for late next year, followed by eight resupply missions to the International Space Station between 2011 and 2015.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said the groundbreaking marked “another era of discovery” similar to when Capt. John Smith first set foot on the Eastern Shore four centuries ago.

“Here on the Eastern Shore, people used to earn their living off the land or off the water...Now they are also going to earn their living off of space,” Mikulski said, calling the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops “a global center...an international center for research and discovery.”

Wick Moorman said he was speaking only for himself when he told Norfolk business leaders that higher-speed passenger rail must come to Hampton Roads by a southern route.

But his opinion could be another catalyst for a project that promises an economic boost and much-needed relief from traffic congestion. Moorman, after all, is CEO of Norfolk Southern Corp., which owns the south side rail lines and would be a crucial partner if the project becomes reality.

Last week, he told members of the Greater Norfolk Corp. that an alternate path down the Peninsula "just doesn't work" because few if any of the million residents of South Hampton Roads will drive to Newport News to catch a train. "It's got to be out of Southside Virginia," he said.

Moorman didn't just offer his opinion on the matter. He signaled in an interview that his company is open to becoming an active partner. "If we think that it makes sense for us financially to take some role in the ongoing operation, we'd be willing to at least consider that," he said. "We certainly are more than willing to be engaged in the dialogue."

Moorman's comments represent a sea change in Norfolk Southern's attitudes. The company historically has had understandable heartburn about trying to coordinate fast-moving passenger trains and slower freight cars. But Moorman and other executives are proud residents of Hampton Roads, and they understand the economic consequences if a network of high- and higher-speed passenger rail along the East Coast bypasses the region.

They also understand their own business model is changing. Moorman told business leaders that cargo traffic has dropped by about 45 percent for automobiles, 40 percent for steel and 25 percent for coal compared to last year's figures. Although Moorman sees signs of improvement, he believes recovery will be slow. While the recession has been painful, it's also encouraged Moorman and his colleagues to consider new opportunities, including passenger rail.

Moorman said 16 states have contacted his company eager to engage Norfolk Southern in passenger rail projects. He's met with officials in Virginia, and his expertise is already helping to level barriers impeding the project.

For example, he said in an interview that the state's $475 million price tag for a southern route exceeds his company's own estimates for necessary upgrades. Norfolk Southern boasts a rail network perfectly capable of handling passenger trains with additional side tracks for passing and improved road crossings.

The primary reason the South Hampton Roads spur appears to be more expensive than the Peninsula route, estimated at $330 million, is that state officials have included the cost for a section of rail that has to be built anyway.

Plans are under way to extend high-speed rail from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, continuing on to Petersburg, Raleigh, N.C., and Charlotte, N.C. That project will go forward no matter where or whether an eastbound spur is added to Hampton Roads. Indeed, the upgrades for Richmond-to-Petersburg are included in a separate assessment for improvements between Richmond and Raleigh.

Those costs - the ones that make a south side route more expensive - are being double-counted by Richmond, to the detriment of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk.

While Moorman is willing to work with Virginia on passenger rail, issues of capacity, liability and financing must be resolved. "The trick is the money," he said.

President Barack Obama has earmarked billions of dollars to construct rail projects in the stimulus package and in his budget, but the state must be willing to invest in the long-term operation of passenger service.

Norfolk Southern is the partner Virginia needs to bring passenger rail to the state's second-largest population center. The question now is whether Virginia can convince Moorman that the state will be a trustworthy partner in the endeavor.

NORFOLK, VA - The city council and board of supervisors from all nine Virginia southside localities have voted in voted in favor of a resolution urging Va. to pursue bringing the Route 460/Norfolk Southern high speed rail route to Hampton Roads.

According to a news release, "the resolution urges the Hampton Roads Congressional Delegation to assist in the selection and funding of the Richmond to South Hampton Roads high-speed passenger rail link from all possible sources." Those sources include, the pending Federal Surface Transportation Act Re-Authorization and President Obama's newly proposed high-speed passenger rail program.

The president's proposed program proposes $8 billion in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funding and an additional $1 billion per year over the next five years in the FY2010 budget.

By end of summer 2009, the Department of Rail and Public Transportation is expected to complete the Environmental Impact Statement, which will then be subjected to public review and finally submitted to Federal Rail Road Administration.

If you are worried about the water, then oil drilling off the coast is the least of your worries.
Port ships along with naval ships dump trash and sewage off shore.

Ever wonder why there are high bacteria levels at local beaches??

Yeah, all of the candidates were vocal for mass transit and rail infrastructure, but my eventually went to Moran because of his opposition to off-shore drilling and his vow to make Virginia 25% renewable energy by 2025. I'm not mad Deeds won, I just really hope he doesn't allow oil drilling off the coast. I'm in the water almost everyday!

Creigh Deeds won the Democratic Primary for Governor.. I really hope this guy gets elected over Republican Mcdonnell..

Why people should vote for me

“I’m the best prepared Democrat to lead Virginia forward and I will put us in the strongest position to beat Bob McDonnell in November. The most important job of our next governor will be to restore public confidence in the economy and to create good-paying jobs for middle-class families. And I’m ready to hit the ground running with a common-sense plan to rebuild Virginia’s economy with smart investments in education, a statewide solution for transportation, and alternative and renewable energy. I’m the only one in this race with a proven record of winning Democratic, independent, and even some Republican votes – votes that we need to beat Bob McDonnell in November. The editorial page editor of this newspaper recently said that I am the candidate who 'fits most naturally into the moderate mold shaped by Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.’ I would appreciate your vote on June 9.”

Where he stands on the issues

Education Wants to offer more grants to low-income college students and more guaranteed loans to students. Says graduates who become teachers in “high-need areas” or science and math disciplines could have their loans forgiven over time. Wants stronger high school course work so that every senior can graduate with a semester’s worth of college credit or substantial job training. Supports raising teacher pay at public schools to the national average. Wants to expand the state’s pre-kindergarten education programs. Does not say how he would pay for all his proposals.

Jobs and the economy Wants to make transportation improvements a key focus of his job creation plans, through both the labor involved in building more roads and mass transit and the economic growth that such projects can encourage. Also contends that public education can be improved, leading to a better trained work force that makes Virginia more attractive to higher-paying employers. Wants to spend $10 million for job training grants to help workers learn more marketable job skills. Wants to encourage green industries, such as biofuel production, by developing public-private partnerships and offering tax breaks or grants to companies that develop environmentally friendly jobs. Does not say how he would pay for transportation improvements, job programs or educational improvements.

Transportation Says the fastest way to revive Virginia’s economy is a statewide solution to transportation problems. Has supported major road projects in Hampton Roads but says mass transit also has to be a priority. Wants to develop – with federal assistance – high-speed rail from Washington to Richmond to Hampton Roads. Want to expand light rail beyond Norfolk’s current project. Supports tax credits for companies with telecommuting workers and workers who use mass transit or carpool. Does not say how he would raise money to pay for transportation improvements but has said the cost should be borne by all Virginians, not just those in urban areas. Has supported a gasoline tax in the past but now says that form of taxation may be obsolete. Would consider tolls but is not wed to any specific revenue source. Has said he is keeping options open.

Energy and the environment Favors drilling offshore for natural gas and oil as long as specific safeguards are put in place. Supports proposed coal-fired power plant in Surry County, arguing that the state needs to have a balanced energy portfolio. Wants to require Virginia’s utilities to produce at least 15 percent of their power from renewable energy sources by 2025. Wants to build three facilities by 2020 to develop fuel from biomass, such as switchgrass, algae, poultry waste and agriculture waste. Supports public-private partnerships to build wind farms in Southwest Virginia and off the coast of Virginia Beach by 2012. Wants to reduce state government energy consumption by 20 percent in four years.

Under the Virginia agreement, Amtrak will receive $17.2 million from Virginia over a three-year demonstration period to provide new daily service to Washington, D.C. from Lynchburg beginning in October 2009 and from Richmond beginning in December 2009. Detailed schedules and fares will be finalized by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation and Amtrak in the coming months.

I selfishly choose the Southside option. Firstly, because even if I didn't ride it, I would at least get to look at it once in a while.