Bloomberg is reporting about the possibility that when he becomes President, Barack Obama may order the Pentagon and the civilian run NASA to collaborate on space programs. The primary reason for this would be so NASA could use the DOD's Delta IV and Atlas V rockets in order to launch the Space Shuttle replacement, the Orion capsule.

By NASA using the Pentagon's rockets instead of its own Ares I, which is still in development, the space agency could save a great deal of time and money.

On Friday (1/2) we had a post about the nine Muslims, all but one a U.S.-born citizen, who were pulled off an AirTran flight New Year's Day and questioned by the FBI after fellow passengers reported overhearing a suspicious conversation. Well the FBI cleared the group of any wrong doing or suspicion, and said they were free to fly. The problem was AirTran wouldn't allow the family and one friend to get back on their scheduled flight or for that matter, any other flight. Now AirTran has apologized. Here is the AirTran statement. We suspect the group and the Muslim community in general isn't going to let AirTran off the hook this easily.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating two similar incidents involving Qantas Airbus A330-300s and their autopilot systems. The latest incident occurred on December 27 when the autopilot disconnected while a Qantas jet was at about 36,000 feet and traveling from Perth to Singapore. The flight crew elected to return to Perth and safely landed the aircraft.

Nigeria's Vanguard is reporting that the country's Air Force has declared "total" war against pirates and other maritime criminals. While the article mentions attacks against fishing trawlers as motivation for the Air Force's new determined stance, there is no reference to the Air Force trying to stop Niger Delta militants like MEND from attacking oil supply ships and off-shore rigs.

A Muslim family was removed from an AirTran flight leaving Washington DC on Thursday after fellow passengers reported to flight attendants overhearing a suspicious conversation.

The extended family of 8 and a friend were taken off the plane and interviewed by the FBI, which concluded the family did nothing wrong. However, even after FBI cleared them, the passengers claim AirTran refused to rebook them on another flight.

The Russian Space Agency announced it plans 39 space launches in 2009. The Russian press describes this as a "world record". The missions will include four manned ones, and two launches to put six new satellites into orbit for the Glonass program, which is similar to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS).

A Ugandan woman gave birth on a Northwest Airlines Flight from Amsterdam to Boston on New Year's Eve. Two doctors on board delivered the apparently healthy baby girl.

Interestingly, U.S. Customs officials deemed the child a Canadian because the birth occurred in Canadian airspace about 45 minutes before landing in Boston.

The U.S. military is turning over control of 5,000 feet of additional airspace to Iraq at midnight tonight (12/31). AFP reports that as of January 1, 2009 Iraq will be in control of airspace from 24,000 feet and above, but the U.S. is not schedule to relinquish complete control of Iraq's airspace until 2011.