S. 614: which provides for the award of a single congressional gold medal in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.
July 2, 2009 at 11:07 am | In Aviation Law | Leave a Commentby P.J. Blount with the blog faculty
S. 614: which provides for the award of a single congressional gold medal in honor of the Women Airforce Service Pilots has been signed into law by President Obama:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE JULY 1, 2009President Obama Signs Bill Awarding Congressional Gold Medal to Women Airforce Service Pilots
First women to fly American military aircraft served courageously, blazed trails during WWII
WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed into law S. 614, a bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). WASP was established during World War II with the primary mission of flying non-combat military missions in the United States thus freeing their male counterparts for combat missions. Its pilots were the first women ever to fly American military aircraft and flew almost every type of aircraft operated by the United States Army Air Force during World War II on a wide range of missions.
“The Women Airforce Service Pilots courageously answered their country’s call in a time of need while blazing a trail for the brave women who have given and continue to give so much in service to this nation since,” said President Obama. “Every American should be grateful for their service, and I am honored to sign this bill to finally give them some of the hard-earned recognition they deserve.”
From 1942 to 1943, more than 1,000 women joined the WASP. 38 of them made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation in performing its mission. But their contribution went largely unrecognized for years, not even being acknowledged with veteran status until 1977.
The groundbreaking steps taken by the WASP paved the way for hundreds of United States servicewomen combat pilots who have flown fighter aircraft in recent conflicts.
The bipartisan effort in Congress to recognize the contributions of the WASP was led by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Susan Davis (D-CA). At today’s signing, President Obama and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen were joined by three members of WASP as well as five active duty United States Air Force pilots who have followed in their footsteps.
To view a picture of the President signing the bill to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the Women Airforce Pilots in the Oval Office today click HERE.
The names of the pilots in attendance are below:
Women’s Airforce Service Pilots
Elaine Danforth Harmon
Lorraine H. Rodgers
Bernice Falk HayduActive Duty United States Air Force Pilots
Colonel Dawn Dunlop
Colonel Bobbi Doorenbos
Lieutenant Colonel Wendy Wasik
Major Kara Sandifur
Major Nicole Malachowski
EUMETSAT 67th Council moves GMES and Jason-3 forward
July 2, 2009 at 10:52 am | In Space Law | Leave a Commentby P.J. Blount with the blog faculty
From EUMETSAT:
July 1, 2009
EUMETSAT 67th Council moves GMES and Jason-3 forwardEUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 67th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, on 30 June and 1 July.
The meeting was chaired by General Dr. Massimo Capaldo, Head of the Meteorological Department (Chief of the Staff Office – Ufficio Generale Spazio Aereo e Meteorologia) in the Italian General Meteorological Office.
It was the first EUMETSAT Council attended by Latvia and Poland as full Member States. The accession process continues, with the Council adopting a resolution on the accession of Romania as a full EUMETSAT Member State by January 2010.
The Jason-3 altimetry programme and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) received impetus from the Council. A draft programme proposal, declaration and enabling resolution on the optional Jason-3 altimetry programme were approved, opening the Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite follow-on programme to subscriptions by interested EUMETSAT Member States. The aim is for the Jason-3 programme to be fully funded by the end of 2009. EUMETSAT is prepared to contribute €63 million to the €252-million programme costs of Jason-3.
The Council approved a Framework Agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), which will pave the way for further detailed arrangements between both organisations for cooperation on GMES Sentinels (Sentinels-4 and -5). The Council also adopted a draft programme proposal and EUMETSAT/ESA implementing arrangement on the GMES Sentinel-3 Programme under the responsibility of ESA. EUMETSAT will be the operator of Sentinel-3, serving the marine user community with near-real-time and off-line products.
Other future programmes discussed by the Council were the Post-EUMETSAT Polar System (Post-EPS) and Meteosat Third Generation (MTG). The full MTG programme is expected to be approved in 2010.
The first generation of EUMETSAT’s successful Meteosat series will continue operations, with Council extending the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) to provide the Indian Ocean Data Coverage service for three years starting in 2011 and closing out in 2014. It also approved the provision of Météo France’s RETIM data distribution service via EUMETCast.
The Council approved the concept for EUMETSAT’s involvement in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales’ (CNES’), the French space agency’s SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtimeter in Ka-band) programme, as a baseline for starting negotiations with CNES. The EUMETSAT Secretariat was tasked to negotiate with CNES an exchange of letters establishing EUMETSAT’s tasks in the SARAL mission. EUMETSAT’s proposed contribution would focus mainly on near-real-time processing of SARAL data and the dissemination of these processed data to end users.
Finally, the Council endorsed a resolution on climate monitoring activities in EUMETSAT. As a first priority, EUMETSAT will generate Fundamental Climate Data Records and as a second priority Thematic Climate Data Records, making use of the expertise of its Satellite Application Facilities.
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