Four astronauts were yesterday poised to launch on Space Exploration Technologies Corp’s (SpaceX) Crew Dragon Resilience to the International Space Station, the first of what the US hopes will be many routine missions following a successful test flight in late spring.
Three Americans, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi were to blast off at 0:27am GMT today from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In May, SpaceX completed a demonstration mission showing it could take astronauts to the space station and bring them back safely, thus ending almost a decade of reliance on Russia for rides on its Soyuz rockets.
Photo: AFP / NASA / Joel Kowsky
“The history being made this time is we’re launching what we call an operational flight to the International Space Station,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters on Friday.
The launch was to be attended by US Vice President Mike Pence and second lady Karen Pence.
The crew are to dock at their destination at 4am GMT tomorrow.
MUSK STILL DOUBTFUL
Meanwhile, SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Saturday said that he “most likely” has a case of COVID-19, as he continued to question the accuracy of the tests.
“Am getting wildly different results from different labs, but most likely I have a moderate case of covid. My symptoms are that of a minor cold, which is no surprise, since a coronavirus is a type of cold,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
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China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
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