Month: September 2016

In an e-mail exchange with then-incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State Colin Powell warned that the State Department Diplomatic Security (DS) would "[drive] you crazy if you let them." The e-mail, released yesterday by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), ranking minority member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, warned Clinton about the risks of using a personal mobile device in her job—but also detailed how Powell had flouted security rules set by the State Department and National Security Agency in his own daily use of mobile devices.

Powell explained that he had used a dial-up connection (as previously reported, this was a personal AOL account) to send e-mails "so I could communicate with a wide range of friends directly without it going through the State Department servers. I even used it to do business with some foreign leaders and some of the senior folks in the Department on their personal e-mail accounts. I did the same thing on the road in hotels."

The private e-mail account used by Powell pre-dated the State Department's own external unclassified e-mail capability. However, Powell also ignored rules on the use of personal devices in secure spaces at the State Department—such as the Office of the Secretary of State suite in "Mahogany Row," a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF)—by using a personal digital assistant, he told Clinton. "DS would not allow them in a secure space, especially up your way," he wrote. "When I asked why not, they gave me all kinds of nonsense about how they gave out signals and could be read by spies, etc. Same reason they tried to keep mobile phones out of the suite."

The Atlas V rocket is the "workhorse" that will get NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft into space this evening, and on the way to the distant asteroid Bennu. But for aerospace aficionados, tonight's launch vehicle is of great interest in and of itself. That's because the 7:05pm ET (12:05pm BST) launch from Cape Canaveral’s Complex 41 launch pad offers the rare opportunity to see the 411 configuration of the Atlas V rocket in action.

The Atlas V 411 variant, with just a single strap-on solid booster, has flown only three times previously, and just once from Cape Canaveral back in 2006. The other two launches, in 2008 and 2011, were national security payloads that flew from Vandenberg Air Force Base near Los Angeles. Up to five strap-on boosters can be added to an Atlas V launch vehicle, but it makes sense to only pay for the power you need. For the Bennu-bound spacecraft, which will get a gravity assist from Earth in one year, just one booster is required.

As there is only poor quality video of the non-classified 2006 launch, tonight offers a viewing opportunity for people to see an Atlas V 411 fly with unprecedented clarity. And it should be quite a show. With just a single strap-on booster, the rocket will have to gimbal its main engine, the RD-180, during the initial ascent to account for the lack of symmetry. Fortunately the RD-180 engine, with its two nozzles, can gimbal (or pivot) up to 8 degrees during full thrust. You will be able see this skewed thrust during liftoff, which should look quite awkward but is nonetheless well grounded in rocket science.