| Issue 4| Volume 144 | Tuesday, September 22, 2015 | theavion.com |
Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons An aerial image overlooking the edge of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS). Complex 36, pictured in the foreground, has stood dormant for over a decade. The towers pictured at Complex 36 were destroyed in a controlled explosion after the last launch in 2005. Blue Origin intends to bring the site back to life by 2020.
Blue Origin to Build and Launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Andy Lichtenstein Editor-in-Chief On Sept. 15, Blue Origin announced plans to manufacture and launch their own reusable vehicles from Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. In the announcement on their website, Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos stated he was “inspired by the giant
Saturn V missions that roared to life from these shores.” Complex 36 was built in 1961 at a cost of $6.5 million dollars. Initially, the Air Force needed this infrastructure to launch their Atlas Centaur payloads into orbit. In 1963, the Complex was transferred to NASA to build a second pad. These two pads were subsequently named 36A and 36B.
The second launch site was completed in 1964. Complex 36 is home to many “firsts.” Combined, the launch pads supported the Atlas Centaur and Surveyor missions, which included the first US spacecraft to land softly on the Moon. The pads also provided launch capabilities for the Mariner series, including the first US spacecraft to travel to other plan-
ets, specifically Venus and Mars. Pioneer 10, the first to travel through the asteroid belt, was also launched from Complex 36. The last launch from the Complex was in 2005. Subsequently, the site has stood silent for over a decade. “We can’t wait to fix that,” Bezos said. Bezos added “You will hear us before you see us.”
Blue Origin’s Americanmade BE-4 engine, the powerplant for their new vehicle, will be acceptance tested at Cape Canaveral in the next few years. Blue Origin says the BE-4 will also power the first flight of United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Vulcan rocket. ULA is a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Continued on B3 >>
George Will Talks Politics at President’s Speaker Series Mike Shekari Staff Reporter On Tuesday, Sept. 15, George Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning commentator, columnist, and author visited the Embry-Riddle campus for the President’s Speaker Series. During the series, Will discussed the state of affairs of the 2016 presidential elections and current foreign and domestic issues. As a Republican, Will had much to say about the field of candidates trying to win the Republican Party’s nomination for the 2016 general election. He particularly focused on the two current frontrunners, Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson. Will described Trump as a distractor who does not
have any solid plans. He also stated that Trump’s stance on the immigration policy should be viewed as a form of “ethnic cleansing,” referring to Trump’s derogatory rhetoric toward the Mexican population. Will also gave a statistic that of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, 60% of them have been in the country for at least 10 years. Most of them work jobs other Americans would not even desire, and pay taxes to the federal government. As for Dr. Carson, Will described him as a more wholesome candidate, referring to his plans and distinguished career as a pediatric neurosurgeon. However, even though Dr. Carson would be
the favorable of the two frontrunners, Will predicts that neither candidate will win the Republican nomination because of their lack of political experience. Will believes that politics is more a learned profession and hypothesizes that the office of the president will most likely not be filled with entry-level applicants once voters hit the polls. George Will also had much to say on the topic of foreign policy, namely the current Iran nuclear deal. He stated that President Obama committed “constitutional vandalism” by going around Congress with an executive agreement when the deal should have been approached as a treaty brought before Congress.
Will was questioned by an Embry-Riddle student about what kind of threat the Islamic State posed to the United States. Will’s response was that he did not believe ISIS was the number one threat to the country, but rather the fourth. He ranked it behind Russian aggression in Western Europe lead by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese attempts at expanding their territorial waters in the South China Sea, and the potential nuclear threat imposed by North Korea on U.S. allies including South Korea and Japan. When it came to matters of domestic policy, one of the key issues that Will discussed was education. He stated that the current educational sys-
tem has failed in teaching today’s youth how to process information. When asked how the system can be restored, Will stated that “education starts with the family.” He also gave the staggering statistic that approximately 40% of all children born today are born to unwed women without a father in the picture. He remarked that in single parent households it is harder to maintain discipline in the home, which makes the job of educators harder because they have to spend more time teaching discipline in the classroom rather than actual educational material. Will also said that the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 forced school systems to dumb down education so that
more students would pass standardized testing. Will also believes that common core education should be abolished and that educational matters should be decided by local school districts. If you missed the opportunity to attend this speaker series and would like to learn more about the issues discussed in this article, you can watch the entire session by going online to YouTube and searching for the ERAU President’s Speaker Series. The President’s Speaker Series is hosted by award-winning journalist and talk show host, Marc Bernier. Upcoming guests include Amelia Rose Earhart, Ann Romney and former CIA operative Valerie Plame.