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The next-generation Falcon 9 rocket is slated to blast off from SpaceX's launch pad at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on a test flight that will also carry the new CASSIOPE space weather satellite into orbit for the Canadian Space Agency. Liftoff is targeted for 12 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT/9 a.m. PDT).

Ezekiel, the top-hatted balloonist, has recited his “little poem” on the glories of flight and barely missed the white church steeple more than 20,000 times now. He has called out his warning of white water ahead to the unsuspecting canoeist far below for 36 years. Before giving way to hang gliders, barnstorming pilots and the Navy’s Blue Angels flight team, his silver balloon with the four American flags attached to the gondola has soared above the rolling green Vermont hills and churning, roaring Niagara Falls every single day the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum has been open.

I visited the Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles in Virginia on Monday. I took a lot of pictures there, and I was able to identify all the planes in the pictures but one. This is it. It's definitely a World War II-era plane. I remember where it was in the museum, but I can't seem to find it on their website.

NASA will showcase the next generation of spacecraft that will return humans to the moon in a day-long public event March 30 on the National Mall in Washington. The full-size mockup of the Orion crew exploration vehicle will be parked on the Mall between 4th and 7th Streets, SW, in front of the National Air and Space Museum. Reporters are invited to attend a briefing by the vehicle at 10 a.m. EDT. The spacecraft mockup is on its way from water testing at the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Bethesda to open water testing in the Atlantic off...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 - Planners for President Bush's inauguration next month have scheduled a full lineup of exclusive parties and receptions for top Republican fund-raisers. But some of those V.I.P.'s say the perks come with a price tag they cannot afford. Attending the entire slate of events during the three days of inauguration festivities could easily top $10,000 in tickets and other expenses for a fund-raiser bringing a spouse or guest. Some who helped bankroll the president's campaign, particularly young fund-raisers or those participating for the first time, are looking for ways to economize or are just planning to skip...

CHANTILLY, United States (AFP) - The airplanes hung from the rafters have the allure of models in a child's bedroom, but each of the giant trusses holding them up could hold nine tonnes: the new National Air and Space Museum is a modeler's dream -- made life-size. AFP/File Photo   The giant hangar is "perhaps the largest room in the world," Smithsonian Institution (news - web sites) secretary Lawrence Small said. It contains the first copy of the space shuttle, the B-29 that first dropped an atomic bomb as a weapon and the supersonic Concorde airliner. The 311-million-dollar museum includes...