Nothing if Not Ambitious: UAE to Build City on Mars by 2117?

This Gulf News article raises many questions, but I suppose in 100 years they'll have built the UAE border to border with skyscrapers: UAE to build first city on Mars by 2117.
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Iraqi Transport Minister: Sumerians Built First Airport 7,000 Years Ago; Went to Pluto

The headline is not an exaggeration. At a press conference in Dhi Qar, Iraqi Transport Minister Kazem Finjan announced that Dhi Qar was the site of the world's first airport, which he dated to 7000 years ago, and that they had discovered Pluto, and, he seems to imply, had visited it. See the story here. If you know Arabic, watch the video at the link, which I can't embed. (Even if you don't, you mat want to watch the expression of the man in the light jacket at right as the reacts as the Minister goes off the rails.

Iraq's Transport Minister Kazem Finjan has claimed that ancient Sumerians in Iraq invented space travel.

Finjan made the outlandish claim during a press conference in the southern Iraqi province of Dhi Qar.

In a speech, he said that the ancient civilisation had built the world's first airport in the area around 5,000 BC.

Finjan went on to claim that the airport had served as a hub for space exploration, and that the Sumerians discovered Pluto falsely claiming it to be the solar system's "twelfth planet" and discovered by NASA.

In front of a beleaguered audience Finjan sought to back up his claims asking sceptics to study the works of Sumerian experts such as Russian professor Samuel Kramer.

He specifically cited Kramer's History Begins at Sumer, a familiar popular introduction. Apparently the copy on my shelf is a different edition from the Minister's, since it doesn't mention airports or space travel, and uses the standard dating in which Sumer rose around 3000 years BC, or 5,000 years ago, not 7000. (Did he confuse 5000 Before the Present with 5000 BC?) True, he mentions the Sumerians as pioneers in astronomy, but with no mention of Pluto  (which used to be the ninth planet, not the twelfth, until it was demoted). And it was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, long before NASA existed. I think the Minister may have confused Kramer with something he saw on Ancient Aliens.

Or perhaps he's made the biggest discovery by an Arab official since the Egyptian Army discovered a cure for both AIDS and hepatitis C without blood tests.  I wonder how that worked out.

Egypt and Arabia, Last Night, from the ISS

Egypt and the Red Sea area from the International Space Station last night, posted by Astronaut Scott Kelly on Facebook.  No doubt that Egypt is still the Gift of the Nile as it has been since Herodotus, but look at how bright Mecca and Jidda are on the first full night if hajj.

And how dark Syria is, compared with Israel and Lebanon.

Lebanon's Forgotten Rocket Program from the 1960s: Cedar 3

I thought I was pretty conversant with rocketry and missile programs in the Middle East, which at one time I covered, but this one is completely new to me: a BBC report on Lebanon's Forgotten Space Programme, back in the 1960s, long before Hizbullah's rockets. Now I find that there was a lot of coverage of the 50th anniversary of the first launch of the Cedar 3.  And Haigazian University notes its role in the program. These were nominally sounding rockets, but the Lebanese military did help support the program, and the US and Soviet "cultural attaches" attended the launches. A Google search turns up a lot more. (Note: the BBC report refers to "President Chebab." That should, of course, be President Chehab.)

UPDATE: Video trailer for a recent film documentary:

Hat tips to Laurie King for the BBC link and Ted Swedenburg for the trailer link.

Make Up Your Own Comments

Real BBC headline: "Iran's President Ahmadinejad Offers to Go Into Space."

Real photo caption: "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) met the monkey that Iran says it sent into space last week."

No ... wisecracks here would be just too easy. I'm not going there. You're on your own.

The Monkey Gap: Iran Can Now Threaten to Rain Monkeys on its Neighbors

Events in Egypt kept me from reporting yesterday on the latest aspect of the Iranian threat: the Islamic republic is closing the monkey gap.  Even if Iran abandons its nuclear program, it may soon threaten its neighbors with a rain of primates from the sky. PressTV:

As this space.com report on the history of monkeys in space notes, Iran has caught up with the United States, or at least to where the United States was in June 1948! That's less than 65 years ago! (This was a simple up and down test, not an attempt at orbiting the monkey.)

Of course, the spoilsport US is saying they can't confirm the monkey's flight and if it's true it may have violated a UN Resolution, but that's predictable sour grapes. It's a great step upward from Iran's previous launch of a rat, two turtles, and some worms in 2010. (A 2011 monkey launch failed, apparently to the detriment of the monkey in question.) A rat, two turtles and some worms are hardly a threat to Iran's neighbors, but think about this: monkeys throw poop.

All joking aside, the West of course interprets non-US/European/Russian/Chinese space launches (except by Israel, India, Brazil and sometimes Pakistan) (which pretty much means Iran, North Korea, and sometimes Pakistan) as ballistic missile technology tests, while Iran is insistent it hopes to put a man into space by 2019 or 2020. (Ahmadinejad will be unemployed later this year, but I won't make a joke since I'm sure many Iranians already have, perhaps involving the monkey.)

At least for now, I'm not panicking about the monkey gap.

"Mideast UFO" Captivates Social Media; Turns Out to Be Russian Missile Test

I think it was Ronald Reagan who once reflected that one thing that would end our geopolitical rivalries would be an alien invasion. Any hopes that Middle East tensions would be relieved by the arrival of aliens has faded, however, now that it appears the great "Mideast UFO" last night was nothing but a Russian ICBM test.

I have several things I'm working on that will turn up on the blog in the coming days, but I can't think of a better way to segué into the weekend than a good UFO story. Or even a so-so UFO story.

Actually, I shouldn't be so flippant. Many people in Syria thought the regime was launching a chemical weapons attack, a reminder that even something relatively harmless (and distant) can nevertheless cause panic in a tense situation. This Storify collection on the phenomenon, put together by Andy Carvin and giving a good view of the Twitter evolution on the story, includes tweets like these:

Now to the actual sighting. Let's start with this:


Some may recall a similar "spiral UFO" from Norway in 2009 that turned out to be a failed Russian missile test. So, apparently, is this one, though Russia claims the test hit its target in Kazakhstan, and space expert James Oberg explains here that the spiral is created by a roll aimed at dumping fuel before impact, so the test may have been successful. Although supposedly the missile impacted in Kazakhstan, it was apparently high enough above the horizon to appear nearly overhead in Turkey, Armenia, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel, among others.

You can find reportage and more videos at The Huffington Post, Zeinobia's Egyptian Chronicles blog, Zeinobia also tweeted a particularly Egyptian angle to the UFO:

So it appears this dramatic phenomenon was another Russian missile test, but it clearly caused a ruckus in the Middle East, especially in Syria, where rumors of a chemical weapons attack alarmed a great many people. But the aliens were just Russians this time.

Iran's Ballistic Missile Program

I'll be blogging later about the Tunisian results as they solidify. Meanwhile, for your reading pleasure, The Arms Control Association's blog discusses the problems of the Iranian space-launcher/ballistic missile prograsm, in the wonderfully-titled "Iranian Ballistic Missile Program: Non-Barking Dog and Dead Monkey."

Iran Plans to Launch Monkey into Space

No joke here: Iran's space program has announced plans to orbit a monkey in the next month or so. Iran's space program is increasingly ambitious, though after only two successful satellite launches it may not augur well for the future of the monkey. Back in 1957 the Soviet Union sent the dog Laika up on only the second Sputnik, but with no intention of bringing her back. It isn't clear if Iran expects to recover the monkey.

Israel Launches Ofeq 9

Israel has launched its latest reconaissance satellite, Ofeq 9, from the Palmachim space launch/missile test base. It will be Israel's third currently active spy satellite. Shimon Peres is reported to have told Israel Aerospace Industries that "The launch of the satellite represents a most impressive entrance for Israel into a new realm, that provides a significant and qualitative advantage to Israel in obtaining information from far away areas in the world." Official statements, however, have not suggested it contains any major technological breakthroughs over earlier satellites in the series. Video:

One Small Step for a Rat, Two Turtles and Some Worms . . .

Iran has launched a white rat, two turtles, and some worms into space. Although some wire services are reporting this as a satellite launch, and it came on the anniversary of Iran's first satellite launch, other accounts suggest that while Iran was testing a potential satellite carrier rocket, it was not an orbital mission, though there seems to be a suggestion the animal package was recovered. Here's a YouTube video:



The West is already expressing concern about Iran's space capabilities because obviously satellite launchers are also long-range missiles. But Iran's peaceful exploration of space ought not to be in itself a cause for alarm. They aren't going to shoot turtles at us.

India Takes Possession of its First Israeli Phalcon

Some may recall a major spat between Israel and the United States back in 1997-2000 over the Israeli agreement to sell its Phalcon airborne warning and control system — essentially the functional equivalent of the US AWACS — to China. It became a major issue and ultimately Israel cancelled the deal. The US strongly objected to Israel transferring this capability to China.

Well, virtually the same defense package — Israel's Phalcon system mounted in a Russian Il-76 — has just been delivered to India.

Indian purchases of Israeli defense exports are increasing, and the Indian and Israeli space programs are increasingly cooperating: in 2008 Israel launched a satellite using an Indian launch vehicle capable of polar orbit from India's launch site, and last month India launched its own spy satellite using Israeli technology, reportedly as a means of improving its space-based surveillance following the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

One doesn't need an advanced degree in geopolitics to see the growing Israeli-Indian cooperation as a response to Pakistan's missile programs, nuclear programs, and the growing concerns about Pakistan's stability. The fact that the Phalcon sale to India, while delivered a bit later than anticipated, did not encounter the strong American opposition that the proposed sale to China had, is also of interest.