Free Republic

This is a replay of the live stream. The upper stage engine shut down early, causing a mission failure. Launch window: 12:00 - 2:00 pm EDT (16:00 - 18:00 UTC) Launch site: SLC-46, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida Destination: Low Earth Orbit A commercial small satellite launch vehicle developed by Astra will launch the first pair of small CubeSats for NASA’s TROPICS mission. The Time-Resolved Observations of Precipitation structure and storm Intensity with a Constellation of Smallsats, or TROPICS, mission will measure environmental and inner-core conditions for tropical cyclones. Delayed from April. Thanks to NASASpaceflight and Chris Bergin for...

When Katie Britt announced her run for Senate in Alabama last June, private polling pegged her name recognition at 8% and political support among Republican voters at just 4%. Nearly one year later, Britt finished first, with 44.75%, in Tuesday’s primary and is favored to defeat Rep. Mo Brooks in a June 21 runoff. Runoffs are not always hospitable to establishment-backed candidates who win round one but fall short of 50%. Brooks weathered losing former President Donald Trump’s endorsement in March, and he enters the runoff with some momentum. But Britt’s performance in the primary was so sweeping that Alabama...

@IAPolls2022 BREAKING: Mo Brooks will advance to a runoff scheduled for June 21st to face Katie Britt in an election to decide the Republican nomination for Senate in Alabama: @DecisionDeskHQ

AUBURN, Ala. -- Alabama’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby has become a bitter high-dollar contest with the three strongest contenders jockeying for the nomination. The leading candidates are U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks who won — and then lost — former President Donald Trump’s backing in the race; Katie Boyd Britt, the former leader of Business Council of Alabama and Shelby’s former chief of staff; and Mike Durant, an aerospace company owner best known as the helicopter pilot whose capture during a U.S. military mission in Somalia was chronicled in the...

The third attempt at a final prelaunch test for NASA's Artemis I mega moon rocket began Thursday morning, but the trial hit some snags and ended prematurely at 5:10 p.m. ET. The agency will host a news conference on Friday to share updates and next steps for the test. The mission team had been attempting to fuel the 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) Artemis I rocket stack, including NASA's Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but encountered a number of delays.

Republicans are growing increasingly bold in their support for a handful of candidates snubbed by former President Trump in hotly contested GOP primaries. While Trump remains the most coveted endorser among Republicans, his picks in some races have stirred concern and frustration within some corners of the GOP, with some Republicans questioning whether the former president is picking the strongest candidates in potentially competitive races. It’s a trend that’s not limited to Trump’s Republican critics. His former ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, recently headlined a fundraiser for Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who is facing a Trump-backed primary challenge...

Republicans Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama are distancing themselves from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell after McConnell suggested there were no problems with the 2020 election. Britt and Brooks are competing, along with “Black Hawn Down” veteran Mike Durant, for the U.S. Senate seat that retiring Sen. Richard Shelby will leave open later this year. After South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds on Sunday dismissed election complaints and claimed the 2020 election “was fair, as fair as we have seen,” McConnell backed Rounds’ comments on Tuesday, telling CNN, “I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what...

In a statement late Dec. 17, NASA announced that SLS engineers decided they needed to replace the controller for engine four in the core stage of the SLS. One of two redundant channels in the controller failed to power up consistently during tests of the integrated vehicle at the Kennedy Space Center. That controller operated as expected during the core stage’s Green Run test campaign at the Stennis Space Center that concluded with a full-duration static-fire test in March. An initial investigation failed to identify the root cause of the problem. NASA did not give a schedule for the work...

Katie Britt’s getting a boost from her former boss, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, in her bid to replace him in the Senate. Sen. Richard Shelby plans to use his own campaign funds and sway with colleagues to help Britt overcome Donald Trump-backed primary opposition. Amid a whirlwind of fundraisers and meetings for Britt this month in Washington, many of Shelby’s colleagues described her as extremely well-qualified to succeed him after he retires next year and possibly even win a slot on the powerful committee that oversees $1.3 trillion in annual spending. Shelby’s made no secret of his...

No senator other than her former boss, Sen. Richard Shelby, has publicly endorsed Katie Britt yet. But she is quietly getting support from at least a half-dozen of Shelby’s Republican colleagues in her bid against Donald Trump’s pick in Alabama’s open Senate race. Five Republican senators — Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) — have donated to Britt’s campaign from their leadership PACs. None of them have done so yet for GOP Rep. Mo Brooks, who Trump endorsed in April to replace the retiring Shelby (R-Ala.). Sen. Tommy Tuberville...

Don't be fooled by the party line vote. The filibuster required 60 and 10+ GOPers voted. They're listed below. Assistant Democrats! @ChadPergram 2) The GOP yeas were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD), Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Rob Portman (R-OH), Susan Collins (R-ME).. 3) ...John Barrasso (R-WY), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).

A handful of open Senate seats have drawn a crowd of Republicans vying to replace outgoing GOP senators. Those senators are mostly staying neutral in the primaries — at least for now. Alabama’s Richard C. Shelby is so far the only retiring senator to take sides in a primary, backing his former chief of staff, Katie Britt. While others weigh picking a favorite, the primary fields have continued to grow. In some races, vocal backers of Donald Trump are battling each other to succeed senators who have openly criticized the former president or have built reputations as legislative deal-makers. Two...

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 (Reuters) - A sharply divided U.S. Senate failed on Monday to advance a measure to suspend the federal debt ceiling and avoid a partial government shutdown, as Republican lawmakers denied the bill the votes necessary to move forward. The legislation by President Joe Biden's Democrats was aimed at beating two fast-approaching deadlines that, if left unaddressed, threaten to destabilize the U.S. economy as it struggles to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. The near party-line vote of 48 votes to advance against 50 opposed fell short of the 60 votes needed to push the bill ahead in the...

WASHINGTON — The House Science Committee will mark up its portion of a multitrillion-dollar spending bill this week that includes several billion dollars for NASA infrastructure but nothing for lunar lander development. The committee will allocate $45.51 billion in spending for agencies under its jurisdiction, such as NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation. That will be combined with portions of the bill assigned to other committees into the final version to be considered by the full House. An updated draft of the bill, dated Sept. 4, offers good and bad news for NASA. It...

@ChadPergram A) From colleague Kelly Phares. GOP PA Sen Toomey tried to get clearance for his cryptocurrency amdt on the floor. But was blocked on the flr. GOP AL Sen Shelby wanted to include his amdt to hike defense spending. But Sanders objected to both amdts. B) Dem DE Sen Carper tried to get cryptocurrency added again. But couldn't get an agreement to do so. In short, the modifying cryptocurrency amdt was not adopted. Doubtful new language will be added before final passage.

MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - The Russian government has approved talks between NPO Energomash and America's Orbital Sciences LLC on a contract for the use of the RD181M engine in the Antares launch vehicle, under a directive published on the official website for legal information. "To accept a proposal by the Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities, which was agreed with concerned federal executive authorities, on conducting negotiation between the joint-stock company NPO Energomash named after Academic V.P. Glushko and Orbital Sciences LLC (United States of America) on the conclusion of a contract for the use of the RD181M liquid-propellant...

"I see that the RINO Senator from Alabama, close friend of Old Crow Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, is pushing hard to have his 'assistant' fight the great Mo Brooks for his Senate seat. She is not in any way qualified and is certainly not what our country needs or what Alabama wants.." "Very interesting, funny, yet sad, that every time I read or hear a story in the Lamestream Media about the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, it is always preceded by the fact that, 'while no evidence of voter fraud is available,' or statements to that effect, this could not...

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump should sit out the GOP primaries in Alabama and Missouri. Republicans will hold primaries in those states in 2022 after Sens. Roy Blunt of Missouri and Richard Shelby of Alabama announced they will not seek reelection. "I think he should just let it play out, if I were him," Graham told reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday, referring to Trump. "I just think you want to just make sure some of your best candidates emerge."

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, a conservative firebrand and staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump who has come under fire for remarks he made preceding the attack on the U.S. Capitol, joined the Alabama GOP primary field on Monday to replace Sen. Richard Shelby. The north Alabama Republican announced his entry into the race at an event with former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. He joins former Trump ambassador Lynda Blanchard in a Republican primary field that is expected to attract a number of other hopefuls. "America’s status as the greatest nation in world history is at risk. And it’s at...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the Senate’s fourth most senior member, has told confidantes that he does not intend to run for reelection next year — prompting some Republicans to urge the powerful, establishment politician to reconsider, even as potential replacements prepare to run for his seat. The senator in recent weeks told one close Alabama ally that he was not planning on running in 2022 for what would be his seventh term, according to the ally, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of...