Saw this beauty on my way out the door to start the weekend..   It is a bit old – Oct 2011- but still awesome to watch the beast fly in and out of the deck of a floating pad.. Description (as shown in the video below): the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) off the coast of Virginia in October 2011. Combined, F-35B test aircraft BF-2 and BF-4 accomplished 72 short takeoffs and 72 vertical landings during the three-week testing period.

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On a related note, if you are an aviation/space enthusiast, there is a good reason why you should be up early on Sunday .. This weekend is you get to see the launch of the SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services-1 (CRS-1) mission. Liftoff of the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon Capsule is scheduled for 8:35 p.m. EDT on Sunday. Launch coverage will begin at 7 p.m. on NASA Television and http://www.nasa.gov/ntv. On Saturday, NASA TV will air an International Space Station Science Briefing at 3 p.m. and the SpaceX CRS-1 Prelaunch News Conference at 6 p.m. Have fun!

Related articles

• Space Station-Bound SpaceX Dragon Capsule Gets Mission Patch
• NASA, SpaceX try to get a groove going with Sunday launch to International Space Station
• Dragon Readies for Operational Delivery Flight

We all know the American military is now engaged in two wars (one in over-drive – Afghanistan; and the other in a subdued mode in Iraq) for nearly a decade. The costs of these wars are taking a toll on the country’s morale and also on the budget.  Did I say it is freaking expensive to fight a war in the punishing terrains of Afghanistan?  If you haven’t already known this by now, here is something to perk you up.   According to an article published in Slate, the Army and Marines pay only $1 a gallon for the fuel itself but up to $400 a gallon for the truck convoys that move it through Pakistan and up the Khyber Pass.  Whoa! That’s some ungodly amount of greens for fueling our fight against the enemy!

Sometimes it is not even the money you pay but it is the amount of pain you have to endure to get this fuel safely across that makes this totally ridiculous!  The insurgent on the border areas often burn the NATO -commissioned tankers to the ground as they travel from Pakistan to Afghanistan.   here are some stunning stats, courtesy of NY Times (via HuffingtonPost)

• Fossil fuel is the number one thing the military imports into Afghanistan (30 to 80 percent of convoy loads)
• The military spends $1 per gallon of gas, but can then spend up to $400 more per gallon to get it to forward operating bases
• For every 24 fuel convoys, one soldier or civilian working on transport was killed

Apparently, there is another dimension to the toll it is taking – this one is on the environment. In light of all these impacts,  the Pentagon is now making a serious push to rid itself of oil, at least in meaningful levels.  If done right, this is could not only result in a significant agency wide monetary saving but also will create an environmentally-friendly fighting force that can reach.

Here is the link to the article on Slate and the one on HuffPost.