The date was June 2 2003 when the Mars Express was launched. The mission was successfully launched at 23:45 local time (18:45 UK Time) on board Soyuz-Fregat launcher (flight ST-11) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakstan.

Mars Express is the first ‘flexible’ mission of European Space Agency (ESA)’s long-term science exploration programme. The term “Express” originally referred to the speed and the effectiveness with which the spaceship was designed and built. However “express” also describes the spacecraft’s relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought more narrowly than they had been in about 60,000 years.

Mars Express comprises an amount of essential components – the spaceship and its instruments, the lander, a network of ground and data processing stations, and the launcher itself. These are supported by an experienced team engineers in ESA and industry and hundreds of international scientists. The principal objective of the mission is to seek for sub-surface water from orbit and drop a lander on the Martian surface. Seven scientific instruments onboard the orbiting spaceship will carry out a series of remote sensing experiments designed to shed new light on the Martian atmosphere, the planet’s structure and geology.

A 19-year old soldier who died after saving the lives of four comrades in Iraq by jumping on a grenade tossed into their military vehicle, was awarded the nation’s highest military award. 

President George Bush was the one who presented the award to honor the soldier, Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis.  The president solemnly said that he “gave all for his country.”  President Bush stated: 

“No one outside this man’s family can know the true weight of their loss.  But in words spoken long ago, we are told how to measure the kind of devotion that Ross McGinnis showed on his last day: ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’”

McGinnis was a gunner’s hatch of a Humvee on December 4, 2006, on a patrol in Iraq, when a grenade was thrown past him and into the vehicle where his four other comrades were sitting.  He warned his comrades by shouting and then jumped on the grenade while it was lodged near the vehicle’s radio.  In the process, he lost his life and saved the life of his friends. 

McGinnis grew up in the rural town of Knox, Pa.  He enlisted in the Army after some struggles in school.  Friends and family watched him as he transforms into a grown, mature man. 

President George Bush had spoken in the East Room at a ceremony attended by Vice President Dick Cheney, prior recipients of the Medal of Honor, military leaders, McGinnis’ parents, Tom and Romayne, and his two sisters, Becky and Katie.  The four soldiers who were saved, also attended.

The Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a contract to build the KC-45 to replace the KC-135 Stratotanker. The first KC-135 was delivered to Castle Air Force Base, California in June 1957 and the last one was delivered to the Air Force in 1965. This makes the average KC-135 nearly 50 years old. Though loyal to the aircraft, those within the community recognize the need to invest in a new tanker not because the aircraft is not capable, but because of its age.

Its age comes increased problems such as Fuel lines leak, gear struts break, corrosion is rampant and replacement parts are becoming hard to come by. Most suppliers have either gone out of business or have gone on to build parts for newer aircraft.

The aircrafts are on a set schedule that determines when they are sent to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB for a complete overhaul. The tankers receive new paint and any other identified repairs, which include replacing the boom, horizontal stabilizer terminal fittings and fuel bladders.

The KC-135 is anticipated to stay in the fleet until 2040, and the Kc-145 is expected to join the Air Force in 2013.