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Named Roc, the twin-fuselage aircraft has a wingspan of 385 feet (117 meters). It was developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen, who died just months before it flew for the first time in April 2019. Allen intended to use it as a carrier aircraft for space launches, carrying satellite-laden rockets beneath the center of the wing and releasing them at high altitude. The new owners initially plan to use it as a carrier aircraft for launches of reusable hypersonic flight research vehicles.

The San Andreas Fault is part of a giant "Z" of faults; the top of the "Z" consists of the Ridgecrest Fault, the middle is the Garlock Fault and the bottom is the southern part of the famous San Andreas. If the "top-of-the-Z" Ridgecrest Fault were to have a really big earthquake (at least a magnitude 7.5), that could trigger an earthquake on the "middle-of-the-Z" Garlock Fault, which, in turn, could cause a massive earthquake along the "bottom-of-the-Z" San Andreas, a new study finds. These successive earthquakes wouldn't necessarily happen all at once, but over a period of time (perhaps...

The double-bodied jet —which has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in the world —has been undergoing tests at Stratolaunch's facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The latest phase in this process was testing the aircraft's steering and stopping capabilities. ... The monster jet was only rolled out from its scaffolding in May. This weekend's latest milestone comes three months after the company successfully tested the six engines on the colossal airplane for the first time. Stratolaunch officials have said they hope to have the aircraft in flight by the end of the decade, and the...

<p>California City (United States) (AFP) - In combat boots, satin thongs and matching nipple tassels, the burlesque girls of the apocalypse celebrate the end of the world deep in the merciless dust of the Mojave Desert.</p>

It wasn't through a phone call or a knock at a door that Faith Camir found out her boyfriend had been shot to death next to Mojave High School on Friday. It was through a video on Facebook, the 16-year-old said Saturday night at a roadside memorial in front of the school where he was shot. Taylor Brantley, 16, was seen "lying there, fighting for his life," she said with tears in her eyes. Brantley, who was identified by his family as a Mojave student, died at University Medical Center shortly after the shooting, which stemmed from an after-school fight...

One of the most important issues in this year's election is energy. Our ongoing addiction to Mideast oil leaves us dependent on countries that are often unstable and hostile. Developing our own domestic energy resources and investing in renewable energy lessens this dependence. It also has the potential to create jobs and improve our trade deficit. The two presidential candidates have laid out energy plans that sound similar: both President Obama and Governor Romney want to continue to develop domestic energy resources, including renewable energy, with the aim of making the U.S. less dependent on foreign oil. But according to...

Following 10-plus years of legal conflict thanks to a nuisance lawsuit filed in 2001 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a federal judge has finally ruled that a cross placed in the Mojave Desert in 1934 to honor World War I veterans may remain there permanently. In the settlement approved April 23, the National Park Service will turn over the hilltop area known as Sunrise Rock, upon which the simple cross sat before being removed by the park service, in return for the private donation of five acres elsewhere in the 1.6 million acre preserve in Southern California. The...

A cross that was first erected nearly 80 years ago by the Veterans of Foreign Wars in honor of the heroes of World War I will finally be allowed to stand. More than a decade after the ACLU originally sued to have the cross memorial removed from public land, a case which ended up at the Supreme Court, a federal judge has approved a settlement of the case allowing the cross to remain. The ACLJ has been fighting to allow this cross to stand for years - an important war memorial in honor of those who have heroically served in...

Environmentalists are torn over the high cost of breaking reliance on fossil fuels. Industrial-scale solar development is well underway in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. The federal government has furnished more public property to this cause than it has for oil and gas exploration over the last decade — 21 million acres. In the fight against climate change, the Mojave Desert is about to take one for the team. "I have spent my entire career thinking of myself as an advocate on behalf of public lands and acting for their protection," said Johanna Wald, a veteran environmental...

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday touted his administration's energy policy agenda, predicting that his clean energy programs will create "hundreds of thousands" of new American jobs by 2012. Meanwhile, he painted an ugly, contrasting picture of the GOP energy agenda, arguing that Republicans would only boost the nation's dependence on foreign oil and keep special interest groups in control. "We can go back to the failed energy policies that profited the oil companies but weakened our country," the president said in his weekly radio address, proving that he's not done attacking the GOP this midterm election season. "Or we...

KINGMAN - The Mojave County Attorney's office confirmed late Wednesday that a judge has dismissed charges against Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was facing several charges of Sexual Conduct with a Minor. In the motion filed late Wednesday afternoon, the Mojave County Attorney outlined several reasons to dismiss the charges against the polygamist leader. Those include: Jeffs has already served more jail time than he would have served if convicted. Also, the paperwork says the State of Texas has much more serious charges lodged against Jeffs. And, some of the State's witnesses no longer wish to testify in the case.

A small convoy of vehicles, in everything from old pick-up trucks to a stretch limo, with about thiry passengers total, left Victorville for the 130 mile trip to the site of the Mojave Cross, which vandals had torn down and stole a couple weeks ago, after the SCOTUS had ruled that it was not a religious symbol, but a war memorial, and that the box(!) civering it since the suit was filed several years ago. When a replacement was erected, it was immediately taken down by rangers of the Mojave Preserve, contending that since it was not the original cross,...

Mojave Cross replica is removed after mysteriously appearing overnight 11:18 PM PDT on Thursday, May 20, 2010 By BEN GOAD and DUG BEGLEY The Press-Enterprise The Mojave Cross saga took yet another unexpected turn Thursday, when the contested symbol that vanished last week reappeared briefly before being taken down by federal officials. National Park Service officials learned Thursday morning that a cross again was on top of Sunrise Rock, about 10 miles south of Interstate 15 near Cima Road, a sparsely traveled route into the Mojave National Preserve. It's about 30 miles east of Baker.

Here is a video report showing the empty spot left after vandals tore down and took away the Mojave War Memorial Cross in California . . . How sick can people be.

The 7-foot-tall metal cross in a 75-year-old war memorial that withstood the heat of the Mojave Desert and a blazing battle in the Supreme Court over its legality was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to federal officials. The 7-foot-tall metal cross in a 75-year-old war memorial that withstood the heat of the Mojave Desert and a blazing battle in the Supreme Court over its legality was ripped down and stolen Sunday night, according to federal officials. "This is an outrage, akin to desecrating people's graves," said Kelly Shackelford, president of the Liberty Institute, which represents the caretakers of...

Washington (CNN) -- A war memorial shaped like a cross that has been at the center of a Supreme Court fight has been torn down by vandals from its remote perch in a California desert.

[half way down the page under, Oral Argument Recap] Despite strenuous efforts by Justice Antonin Scalia to keep alive the core question of whether the cross display was a violation of the Constitution’s Establishment Clause, the dominant sentiment on the bench seemed to be that that was no longer open to review. And despite efforts by U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to get the Court to focus on whether a former park service officer had any right to sue to test the display, that, too, seemed to be beyond the Court’s reach. Kagan, in fact, had to endure lectures by...

Virginia’s Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell is catching flak from the ACLU because it does not like the fact that he has lifted the ban on police chaplains praying in Jesus’ name. Virginia’s former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine had issued the ruling in 2008, and the ACLU gang charges that McDonnell is giving in to conservatives and Christians in revoking the Jesus ban. Well, maybe another former Virginia governor influenced McDonnell—Thomas Jefferson. The author of Virginia’s famed Statute for Religious Freedom, Jefferson never tried to suppress Virginians’ or Americans’ free exercise of religion. In fact, as president in 1802, Jefferson invited...

The Mojave Desert Cross Memorial. Washington D.C., Apr 28, 2010 / 01:31 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a federal court overstepped its boundaries in ordering the removal of a long-standing memorial cross in California's Mojave Desert.A white, seven-foot cross, which was erected as a memorial by the Veterans of Foreign Wars over 75 years ago in the Mojave National Preserve, will be allowed to stay.Before today's ruling, the cross was covered with a plywood box in accordance with a lower court’s order. A district court initially ruled that the cross had to be removed...

The Supreme Court gave its approval Wednesday to displaying a cross on public land to honor fallen soldiers, saying the Constitution "does not require the eradication of all religious symbols in the public realm." Speaking for a divided court, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said the 1st Amendment called for a middle-ground "policy of accommodation" toward religious displays on public land, not a strict separation of church and state. Kennedy disagreed with judges in California who said U.S. National Park Service officials must remove a small Latin cross from the Mojave National Preserve that had stood since 1934 to honor soldiers...