National Solar Observatory, USPS office in Sunspot, NM evacuated for 'safety reasons'

a reply to: pheonix358

I think in terms of this thread, this Is the after party

originally posted by: BlueAjah

originally posted by: BigDave-AR
Seems someone’s salty are other threads on this subject not being locked down? I’ve seen at least 2 catch the thread lock hammer. We came to an impass and are just having some banter until they open shop back up Monday.

Sorry, but the rest of us do not come to this massive long thread to read page after page about off-topic trucking stuff.

It's actually against the rules on this forum to post off-topic. Usually such posts are removed.

You're right, and I for one apologise. It's been a long week, fingers and eyes were shred to the bone, and it was nice to kick back in office and blow off a little steam.

And we totally need a trucker story thread.

a reply to: LevyCosto

Self protection isn't Electronic Warfare. The Blackhawk isn't used for EW missions. They're transports or ASW in the Seahawk configuration. If you're going to talk true EW as opposed to self protection you need to be talking a fairly large platform, such as the EA-18G.

The self protection that they're talking about is largely warning receivers to tell the crew where radar transmitters are located so they can avoid them, as well as limited countermeasures against them.

a reply to: Dumbdowned

That launch was September 7th. It landed immediately after launch without going into orbit.

KOB spoke exclusively with an employee at the observatory who said he believes the FBI investigation could revolve around the theft of some expensive equipment.

"It really didn't surprise me that FBI might be showing up someday, due to the things that have been going on at the site prior to the evacuation,” said the Sunspot employee, who KOB is not naming on the basis of anonymity. "I have noticed that Sunspot is basically, what I would call, a breeding ground for crime."

"We discovered what appears to be, it's still under investigation, the theft of $15,000 of electronic test equipment,” he said, adding most people wouldn’t even know what the equipment comprises. “The only type of person that would need it is someone working on a communications system."

www.kob.com...

a reply to: Deetermined

That's interesting. But I wonder why theft would be a reason to evacuate? They left everything unguarded. Unless that was a trap for the thieves.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Where does it say that FOXSI landed immediately? Any source?

If it came down immediately then they let it crash down to earth. That's crazy!
It was equipped with parachute which allowed it to descent to earth slowly.

Evacuation on 6th and next day it was launched from the close proximity.

It's a real security threat if anything ever goes wrong on its short mission.

originally posted by: BlueAjah
a reply to: Deetermined

That's interesting. But I wonder why theft would be a reason to evacuate? They left everything unguarded. Unless that was a trap for the thieves.

I can only assume that they evacuated everyone to get them off site to do a thorough search for the missing equipment. Maybe they thought confronting someone with everyone around might lead to some kind of violence too. As for leaving everything unguarded, maybe they were waiting to see if someone was going to try and come back in to remove or hide the stolen equipment.

a reply to: Deetermined

I like this explanation, however how does the removal of antennas etc and the mysterious footage/data fits in...?

a reply to: Dumbdowned

www.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: szino9
a reply to: Deetermined

I like this explanation, however how does the removal of antennas etc and the mysterious footage/data fits in...?

Since it's been an ongoing investigation, maybe they finally caught the person who stole the equipment using it for nefarious reasons and removed the antennas to stop the communications flow.

a reply to: Deetermined

make sense... what about the footage release? What were they referring to?

If this was all about just some theft or a dangerous/suspicious person, would it not have been the job of the local police/sheriff in the first place?

a reply to: caterpillage

It's not reporting that they've retrieved the payload.

They're either waiting or searching for it.

That update is to inform us about success gathering of the data.

On the bottom it says it's been updated on the 8th yet the headline date's still the 7th, a very lazy writer.

originally posted by: szino9
a reply to: Deetermined

make sense... what about the footage release? What were they referring to?

I'm not familiar with the footage release. Was this something you posted earlier?

a reply to: Dumbdowned

It was a suborbital sounding rocket. It wasn't designed to go into orbit or stay up very long.

a reply to: Dumbdowned

And if they hadn't recovered the payload they wouldn't be saying the mission flew successfully. They also wouldn't have evacuated the day before the launch. They've launched from the range before without evacuating everyone.

SheilaD posted something a while back about them getting ready to arrest a local. She dropped this info a little bit before AURA released their statement. Wonder if she is on to something. I believe what the employee said about criminal activity in the area. There's barely anyone there anymore, and it's such a sparsely populated area it would be perfect for criminals to snoop around.

SheilaD posted something a while back about them getting ready to arrest a local. She dropped this info a little bit before AURA released their statement. Wonder if she is on to something. I believe what the employee said about criminal activity in the area. There's barely anyone there anymore, and it's such a sparsely populated area it would be perfect for criminals to snoop around.

Double post my bad

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Dumbdowned

It was a suborbital sounding rocket. It wasn't designed to go into orbit or stay up very long.

a reply to: Dumbdowned

And if they hadn't recovered the payload they wouldn't be saying the mission flew successfully. They also wouldn't have evacuated the day before the launch. They've launched from the range before without evacuating everyone.

It's in the process of being recovered yet they already say they've successfully gathered the data.
That means the payloads are tech x-ray camera device assets and
obviously looks like they've already got the live stream data feeds from the observatory even before the retrieval of the payload.
Like I keep saying it before, it's coming down with a parachute, so it'll take longer than usual.
It's not like it's plummeting down to the ocean.
This one goes up high and comes back down slow.
They evacuate the place prior day because of all the hills and mountains on the observatory catch fire quick if something ever goes wrong.
Why they reopen the observatory now?
They're in a no hurry, it's out of funding anyway with no scientific study no longer done there.
it's just for tourist attraction now.