Milestones of Flight: 11/6

2007 - President Putin signed a decree on the creation of the Vostochny ("Eastern") launch site in the Amur Region.

The new launch site would mark a historic shift of the manned space program from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the Russian territory. In December 1991, Russian officials promised to abandon Baikonur for the existing launch site in Plesetsk and a newly built facility in Svobodny. However, the severe financial crisis of the 1990s stalled all these plans. The creation of the new launch site aims to end Russian dependency on Kazakhstan, whose government charges multi-million-dollar annual rent for Baikonur. New investments in the Russian Far East would tighten the Kremlin's grip on this remote region of the country, which in the last decade has seen considerable economic influence from China and Japan. Along with construction of the new launch site, the Russian government promised to relocate high-tech enterprises, supporting manned space program into the region.

2007 - U.S. appropriators meeting from the House and Senate made a number of changes to the missile defense budget, for a total reduction of some $185 million dollars.

The Air-Borne Laser was cut by $35 million, and the entire plan for studies for a space test bed was completely zeroed-out. The changes also included cutting $85 million requested by President Bush to build a facility to house ten Ground Based Interceptors in Poland, however the money designated for the X-band radar facility in the Czech Republic and the ten interceptors themselves was left intact. The bill still must be approved by both bodies of Congress, and Democrats have indicated they might restore the money should Poland's government agree to house the missiles and if the entire system undergoes extensive testing.

Summary of funding reductions and changes:

Reduces funding for the European Site program by $85 million.
Reduces funding for Airborne Laser (ABL) by $35 million.
Zeroes out the Conceptual Studies of a Space Test Bed (STB).
Reduces overall Missile Defense budget by $185 million.
Fully funds Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD).

Provides an additional $80 million for test and training range upgrades and supportand ground-based missile defense enhancements.
Provides an additional $75 million for the Aegis program for the Ballistic Signal Processor, Standard Missiles, Ship installations and upgrades, and an asymmetric defense initiative.
Adds $75 million for Arrow co-production, the Upper-tier program, and Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense. (Israeli programs)
Provides an additional $120 million for the Kinetic Energy Interceptor (KEI) program.

2007 - Perks of Power. Washington's WTOP-FM is doing a series on congressional perks. Here's one you might not have known about:

Many airlines allow members of congress to book multiple flights for the same trip and pay only for the one they use, without any fees or penalties.

Congress was close to losing this perk last month when the Air Transport Association opined that it violated a ban on gifts. Duh!

The Senate ethics committee quickly ruled that Senators could keep booking multiple flights without paying any fees and without fear of violating new tough ethics standards.

2007 - First flight of the latest Typhoon test aircraft IPA6 from BAE Systems flight test facility at Warton Aerodrome in Lancashire. The aircraft flown by Typhoon Project Test Pilot, Mark Bowman was airborne for 54 minutes.

The single seat aircraft, called IPA6, is the sixth Instrumented Production Aircraft (IPA) in the Eurofighter Development fleet. The purpose of the aircraft will be to prove the Tranche 2 system design, which features enhanced main mission computers and upgraded equipment to equip Typhoon with the capacity to deliver future air-to-ground and advanced air-to-air capability demands.

2007 - An air strike by NATO-led forces has killed dozens of Taliban insurgents in Badghis province, northwestern Afghanistan.

2006 - Mars Orbiter Camera Celebrates 10 Years in Space.

2006 - Two aircraft tried to land on the same runway, resulting in a minor accident. ABC News Video of two planes piggyback in New Mexico.

2006 - Boeing scored a victory in the airliner wars today when FedEx became the first customer to cancel an order for Airbus's much delayed A380 superjumbo jets and said it instead will buy Boeing 777s.

FedEx Corp., the world's largest express transportation company, cited production delays for its decision to retract an order for 10 of the new double-decker A380s. Its FedEx Express unit has ordered 15 Boeing Co. 777 freighters with a list price of $3.5 billion and taken options on an additional 15.

2006 -United Parcel Services Inc. (UPS) has made no decision yet on whether to maintain its order for 10 Airbus A380 freighter aircraft, a spokesman said today.

2006 - Aurora's GoldenEye 80 makes successful first flight.

The flight marked another first as GoldenEye 80 became the first ducted fan UAV to fly under the power of a heavy fuel engine. The GoldenEye 80 UAV is being developed under contract to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) through its Organic Air Vehicle (OAV-II) program.

2002 - In Indonesia a light plane crashed on an islet off Borneo 3 minutes after it took off, killing seven of the 10 people aboard.

2002 - White Knight Flight 15.

1997 - EVA Mir EO-24-5.

1996 - The U.S. spacecraft Mars Global Surveyor lifted off from Cape Canaveral on a 435-million-mile journey to Mars.

1985 - Landing of STS-61-A.

STS-61-A was the 22nd Space Shuttle mission. It was a scientific Spacelab mission booked by Germany - hence the payload name D-1 (for Deutschland 1). It was also the last successful mission of the Space Shuttle Challenger. STS-61-A holds the record for the largest crew, eight people, aboard any single spacecraft for the entire period from launch to landing.

1967 - Helicopter from USS Coral Sea (CVA 43) rescues 37-man crew of Liberian freighter Royal Fortunes aground on reef in Tonkin Gulf.

1967 - The North Vietnamese 62nd Missile Battalion, using a new missile guidance system and barrage-fire track-on-jam SAM tactics, shot down an F-105.

This was the first victory for the test unit that had pioneered the track-on-jam concept. The North Vietnamese were so proud of this success that the wreckage of the F-105 was shipped to the Soviet city of Leningrad as a war trophy.

1962 - Nadezda Vasilyevna Kyzhelnaya, Russian cosmonaut, Energia Engineer Group 12--1994, is born in the village Alexevskoy, near the river Volga in the Alexvoskova region, Russia.

1955 - A United Airlines plane bound for San Francisco, California crashed in Wyoming killing 66 people. It was the worst commercial airline crash to date in U.S. history.

1951 - Soviet aircraft shoot at Neptune Patrol bomber (VP-6) on weather reconnaissance mission near Siberia. U.S. aircraft fails to return.

1943 - German ace Erich Rudorffer in the course of 17 minutes shot thirteen Russian aircraft.

1936 - Mikhail Vladimirovich Sologub, Russian cosmonaut, Air Force Group 4--1967, is born in Bogoruslan, Orenburg, Russia.

1930 - Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, the American "Ace of Aces," is awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in WW I.