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Activist Rachel Cargle Unpacks Racism in America
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A cute stuffed dinosaur hitched a ride on SpaceX’s historic launch
Astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley had some company on their historic flight to space today: a stuffed dinosaur tucked into one of the seats on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
Behnken and Hurley each have a son, and both boys are dinosaur enthusiasts. Before the flight, the boys gathered all their dinosaur toys together, and Tremor, a sparkly apatosaurus was selected to accompany Behnken and Hurley to space. “That was a super cool thing for us to get a chance to do for both of our sons who I hope are super excited to see their toys floating around with us on board,†Behnken said during an tour of the capsule in orbit. “I’m sure they would rather be here, given the opportunity, but hopefully they’re proud of this as well.â€
The toy was spotted during preparations for launch on Wednesday and Saturday, and geophysicist Mika McKinnon quickly identified it on Twitter as a TY Flippables Tremor Dinosaur. On Saturday shortly after the astronauts entered orbit, SpaceX’s store featured a new item called a ‘Demo 2 Dinosaur Plush Toy’ for $25.
Toys like this have flown with astronauts and cosmonauts for years. When the toy starts floating, it indicates to the buckled-in passengers that they’ve reached zero-g and are experiencing weightlessness. A plush Earth flew on the uncrewed test flight of Crew Dragon to the ISS back in March 2019. Just before launch, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted a picture, calling the plush a “super high tech zero-g indicator.â€
Little Earth, or “Earthy,†was a huge hit with the ISS crew and ended up staying aboard even after the Crew Dragon returned home. Last year, Behnken said that he expected Earthy to welcome him and Hurley aboard. “Hopefully he can walk us through the emergency brief and he’s a full-fledged station crew member by the time that we get there,†Behnken said in an interview last March.
Dinosaur toys have flown on the ISS before. In 2013, astronaut Karen Nyberg (who happens to be married to Hurley) sewed a toy dinosaur for her son Jack while on the ISS.
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The dinosaur, Behnken, and Hurley are expected to join Earthy on the ISS tomorrow, May 31st, after 19 hours in orbit. Docking is scheduled for 10:29AM ET and will be live-streamed on NASA TV.
Update 5:15PM ET: This post has been updated to include information about the dinosaur posted to SpaceX’s website.
Update 7:00PM ET: This post has been updated with information about Tremor the dinosaur, from a tour of the capsule given by the astronauts.
Liftoff! SpaceX launches 1st astronauts for NASA on historic test flight
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched astronauts for the first time ever today, making history and opening a new age of commercial spaceflight.
A shiny white Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center here today (May 30) at 3:22 p.m. EDT (1922 GMT), carrying SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule into orbit.
The launch kicked off SpaceX’s landmark Demo-2 mission, which is sending NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS). Demo-2 marks the return of orbital human spaceflight to U.S. soil after a nearly decade-long absence, and it signals the beginning of a new era in space exploration — one led by commercial companies. Â
“It was incredible,” Hurley radioed SpaceX’s launch control. ” I appreciate all the hard work and thanks for a great ride to space.”Â
President Donald Trump and Vice President Michael Pence were on hand to watch the launch live from the Kennedy Space Center. Trump told reporters ahead of today’s launch that he felt an obligation as president to watch the historic liftoff.Â
Full coverage:Â SpaceX’s historic Demo-2 astronaut launch explained
Shortly after launching the Hurley and Behnken into orbit, SpaceX also notched another rocket landing under its belt. The Falcon 9 booster’s first stage made a smooth landing on SpaceX’s drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. U.S.
Today’s launch was originally scheduled to occur on Wednesday (May 27), but bad weather forced the NASA-SpaceX team to scrub that attempt about 20 minutes before liftoff. In addition to Trump and Pence, huge crowds were expected to watch the SpaceX’s first crewed launch.Â
While NASA cautioned space fans not to travel to the launch due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the launch took place as Florida is reopening its businesses. The Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex, for example, reopened its doors on May 28. A day earlier, the first launch attempt drew an estimated 150,000 spectators to Florida’s Space Coasts.Â
A 10-year journey to the launch padÂ
On July 21, 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis touched down for the final time, ending the storied 30-year career of NASA’s shuttle fleet. The winged orbiters were NASA’s workhorses for decades. First flying in 1981, and continuing service until 2011, the space shuttle helped build the ISS and launch key satellites such as the Hubble Space Telescope.Â
In 2010, NASA took a big step toward the post-shuttle future. The agency decided to rely on private companies to ferry crewmembers to and from Earth orbit and began awarding contracts to encourage the development of private astronaut taxis.Â
In 2014, SpaceX and Boeing emerged as the winners of this commercial crew competition, scoring contracts worth a combined $6.8 billion to finish work on their spacecraft and fly six operational crewed missions apiece to the ISS. Once operational, their vehicles — SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner — will be NASA’s primary means of transporting astronauts to Earth orbit.Â
Related: How SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission will work in 13 steps
Ever since the final shuttle flight touched down, every astronaut bound for the orbital outpost has hitched a ride on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Now, the nearly nine-year hiatus is coming to a close.Â
Demo-2 is the final test before NASA can fully validate Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 for human spaceflight. Once that happens, SpaceX can start flying astronauts to and from the space station on a regular basis.Â
The mission’s departure point is significant and appropriate. Pad 39A is the site from which the Apollo 11 astronauts launched to the moon in 1969, and it also hosted 82 of the 135 space shuttle launches, including the first and final ones.Â
Related: Here’s every spaceship that’s ever carried an astronaut into orbit
Demo-2 in detailÂ
Behnken and Hurley traveled to the pad approximately 3 hours before launch today. They made the trip in style, riding in a white Tesla Model X that was decked out in the old NASA “worm” logo that was revived for the launch. (SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk also runs Tesla.)Â
Upon arrival at the launch pad, the astronauts took an elevator to the crew access arm, which stands approximately 265 feet (81 meters) above the ground. They then climbed into the capsule.Â
After a series of system checkouts, Behnken and Hurley armed Crew Dragon’s abort system, a crucial safety component.Â
One of the difficult lessons learned from the loss of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 was that all future crewed vehicles should be equipped with emergency escape systems, which the shuttle did not have.Â
While in-flight anomalies are rare, NASA needed to ensure that, if one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets were to suffer a problem, its astronauts would still be brought home safely. As such, SpaceX demonstrated the system during a crucial flight test in January of this year, which intentionally destroyed a Falcon 9 rocket.
Related: SpaceX’s Crew Dragon space capsule explained (infographic)
SpaceX began fueling Demo-2’s Falcon 9 with supercooled liquid oxygen and kerosene 45 minutes before liftoff today. Then the countdown clock hit zero, and Crew Dragon was on its way to the ISS for the second time ever. (The first visit came in March 2019, during an uncrewed test flight called Demo-1.)
It will take Behnken and Hurley about 19 hours to catch up with the space station. During that time, the astronauts will test out Crew Dragon’s onboard systems, collecting data so NASA can certify the spacecraft to carry humans. The vehicle is fully autonomous, so it’s designed to fly without any human intervention. However, it has a complete control panel that the astronauts will use to test out the manual control mode.Â
Hurley piloted the final space shuttle mission, known as STS-135, and he will pilot Crew Dragon on orbit during Demo-2. When asked about the capsule’s control panel in a prelaunch briefing, Hurley compared the system to those on modern-day aircraft. Pilots do more monitoring than flying on today’s planes, and the same is true with Crew Dragon, Hurley explained.
Hurley will be able to retrieve a small American flag that he and his STS-135 crewmates left aboard the station. It was left with the intention that the next crew to launch from the U.S. would retrieve it and bring it home.Â
Leading up to today’s launch, SpaceX was working no major issues and passed two critical launch readiness reviews with flying colors. The only main concern was weather, as NASA had a long list of weather criteria that must be met, including calm seas downrange from the launch pad. That’s so teams could recover the capsule in the unlikely event of an abort.Â
But, unlike Wednesday, Mother Nature ended up cooperating today.
Behnken and Hurley are expected to arrive at the space station tomorrow (May 31) at 10:29 a.m. EDT (1429 GMT). They will dock at the station’s Harmony module and will remain parked there for one to four months.Â
The length of stay is dependent upon several factors, including the craft’s solar panels as well as the timing of the next crewed mission. Crew Dragon’s first operational mission, Crew-1, should be ready to launch at the end of August, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine estimated during a prelaunch news conference.
Crew-1 will carry three NASA astronauts — Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins and Shannon Walker — as well as Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.Â
Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.Â
Divert weapons funding to research to prevent next pandemic, pope says – Firstpost
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Saturday urged politicians to divert funds spent on weapons to research to prevent another pandemic, as he led the largest gathering in the Vatican in nearly three months.
Francis presided at an outdoor prayer service with about 130 people, including many directly affected by the pandemic.
They prayed the rosary in the Vatican gardens as tens of thousands of people in about 50 Catholic shrines around the world joined in. A large screen in the gardens showed video links with about 25 locations.
Among those who prayed were Italian doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers, as well as people who had recovered from coronavirus or lost family members. More than 33,000 have died in Italy.
Most wore masks except for when they led prayers at the microphone. Francis, 83, sat several metres away from most people during most of the service and did not wear a mask.
In his closing prayer, Francis said national leaders should take a far-sighted attitude, helping the most needy now and putting in place long-term economic and social solutions.
He prayed that the Madonna would “touch (leaders’) consciences so that enormous sums spent to possess more armaments and to perfect them be instead destined to the promotion of sufficient research to prevent such catastrophes in the future”.
Earlier this month, Francis called for international scientific cooperation to develop a vaccine and said any successful one should be shared globally.
For nearly three months, Francis has led televised Masses, general audiences and Sunday addresses from inside the Vatican with no public.
St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Peter’s Square were fully reopened on May 18 as Italy entered the second phase of easing restrictions.
On Sunday, Francis will say a Mass with only about 50 people inside the basilica but will later deliver his Sunday message from his window overlooking the square for the first time since early March.
(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Nick Macfie)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Why is coronavirus killing BAME Britons?
On Monday, 1 June at 19:30GMT:
Ethnic minorities make up less than 20 percent of the UK population but the outsized impact of coronavirus on their communities is startling.
According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics black people are four times more likely to die from COVID-19 than white people. Ethnic Bangladeshi and Pakistani men are 1.8 times more likely to have a COVID-19-related death than white males. And ethnic minority women are 1.6 times more likely to die from the virus.Â
The impact on frontline workers is similarly stark. Almost 100 black, Asian and ethnic minority (BAME) medical staff are now known to have died from COVID-19.Â
Under growing political pressure, the British government and National Health Service have launched a public health inquiry with initial findings due at the end of May. The opposition Labour party has begun an independent investigation of its own.Â
Research available so far suggests several factors are driving the high infection rates and death toll in socioeconomically disadvantaged groups – bigger households, higher rates of comorbidities such as diabetes and heart disease, large numbers of BAME workers in frontline services, and a lack of information in community languages.
Some scientists are examining whether a genetic component, alongside the other risk factors, may also predispose BAME populations to complications from COVID-19.
In this episode of The Stream, we look into the numbers and meet BAME community members to ask why the pandemic is having such a devastating impact on them.
Read more:
UK: Black Africans dying at much higher rate than white Britons – Al Jazeera
Third of critically ill COVID-19 UK patients from BME backgrounds – Al Jazeera
Source:Â Al Jazeera
Tory poll lead collapses as voters say Cummings should go
Boris Johnson is under fresh pressure to sack Dominic Cummings as a new poll shows that more than two-thirds of voters – including more than half of Tories – want him thrown out of Downing Street for breaching lockdown rules.
The survey by Opinium for the Observer shows a massive 81% think Cummings broke the rules. It also finds that support for the Conservatives is collapsing, with the party now just four points ahead of Labour, having had a commanding lead of 26 points just two months ago.
In the past week alone, the Tory lead has fallen by eight points, the largest weekly drop Opinium has recorded since 2017.
After several days in which the news has been dominated by the row over Cummings’ trip from London to Durham with his wife and child, and his refusal to apologise, public anger is laid bare by the poll. Some 68% think Cummings should resign. If he does not, 66% believe he should be sacked by Johnson.
As he stood by his adviser, Johnson said he would ultimately leave the public to make up their minds. The poll, and a petition calling for Cummings to be dismissed that has attracted over a million signatures, show where the balance of opinion lies.
Johnson also tried to blame the media for the story. But the poll finds that only 29% of people believe journalists have been unfair to Cummings.
By contrast, 67% do not believe Cummings’ explanation of what happened, spelt out in his unapologetic appearance in the Downing Street rose garden last week. People are particularly sceptical about the reasons he gave for a trip to Barnard Castle on 12 April after recovering from illness, with 72% saying they do not believe that he wanted a trial drive to see if his eyesight was good enough for the 250-mile trip back to London.
Just over half (52%) think Cummings’ actions will have damaged the fight against coronavirus, as the government tries to launch the track and trace system.
Opinium conducted its survey on Thursday and Friday after Johnson said he believed it was time for the country to “move on†from the the controversy: 41% agreed that the country should now “move onâ€, but a large minority (37%) said it should not – including almost a fifth (18%) of 2019 Conservative voters. Two-thirds (65%) said they believed Johnson was wrong to be still supporting Cummings – including almost half (48%) of 2019 Conservative voters. Just over two in five (43%) UK adults said they had lost respect for the government over its backing of Cummings – of which 45% voted Conservative in 2019.
The Tory lead of 4 points is the lowest since Johnson became prime minister. The Tories are down four points on last week, to 43% (two points below their figure at the general election). Labour is up 4 points, to 39%.
Five-month-old Brazilian baby survives coronavirus after 32 days in coma
A few months after he was born, Dom was diagnosed with Covid-19 at the Pro-Cardiaco hospital in Rio de Janeiro.
He spent 54 days in the hospital — 32 of them in an induced coma and connected to a ventilator, Dom’s father, Wagner Andrade, told CNN.
“He had some difficulty breathing so the doctors thought it was a bacterial infection,” he said. “But the medication didn’t work and he got worse. Then me and my wife decided to take him to a second hospital and they tested him. It was coronavirus.”
It remains uncertain how Dom contracted coronavirus. He may have been exposed during a visit to a relative’s home, according to Andrade.
“My wife noticed this noise at the end of his breathing,” he said. “We called a few doctors and one of them told us to record a video. After she saw it, she ordered us to take him immediately to the hospital.”
Andrade and his wife, Viviane Monteiro, say it was a “miracle” that Dom recovered.
“First, I felt relieved, and then indescribable happiness,” Andrade said. “We were longing to get him back home for more than 50 days.”
Dom will celebrate his 6-month birthday on June 14 at home with his parents, surrounded virtually by relatives.
Brazil has reported at least 25 Covid-19-related deaths among babies up to 12 months of age, according to data from the country’s ministry of health.
In the last week, Latin America has become the epicenter of the global pandemic. With 465,166 confirmed cases of the virus and 27,878 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data, Brazil is the hardest hit country in the region.
CNN’s Tatiana Arias wrote in Atlanta and Journalist Rodrigo Pedroso reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.
SpaceX Launches 2 NASA Astronauts Into Orbit In Historic Mission
A SpaceX rocket made history by carrying two NASA astronauts into orbit.
The Crew Dragon spacecraft blasted off Saturday afternoon atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a flight to the International Space Station. The mission marks the first time that Americans have launched into space from U.S. soil in almost a decade; the last U.S. space shuttle took off from the Kennedy Space Center in 2011.
The launch was also the first time a private company ― in this case, Elon Musk’s SpaceX ― put people in space.
This is a developing story, check back for updates.
70% go for historic SpaceX rocket launch set for exactly 3:22 p.m. EDT
NASA says Saturday’s attempt at a historic rocket launch is proceeding as planned, although weather could again postpone the return to space for veteran NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Doug Hurley.
Minutes before launch, the mission was 70% go for weather conditions and President Donald Trump was on the ground to witness the event.
NASA and SpaceX teams are targeting exactly 45 seconds after the clock strikes 3:22 p.m. EDT to launch from pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station. It will mark the second attempt for the mission known as Crew Dragon Demo-2, the first of which was scrubbed Wednesday due to poor weather.
The mission is set to be the first time a private company sends humans into orbit – and the first time since 2011 that the United States has launched astronauts into space from U.S. soil. Wednesday’s scrubbed launch drew crowds that braved drizzles and downpours – even a tornado warning.
The weather forecast: SpaceX rocket launch is at a ‘50% go’ for Saturday due to more bad weather
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Wednesday’s launch was delayed because liftoff could have triggered a lightning storm in an electrically charged atmosphere. “In fact, the rocket itself could become a lightning bolt,” he said.
Teams have developed strict launch criteria to protect the safety of the astronauts: “If the weather is good, you go. If the weather is not good, you don’t go,” Bridenstine said. It’s a difficult challenge to meet, given all conditions must be met in a single instant, he said.
Under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the Demo-2 mission is a milestone aimed at proving SpaceX can send humans safely to space.
USA TODAY
Unfortunately, teams can’t extend a window and wait for weather to improve. The requirement for Falcon 9 to launch exactly on time is due to orbital mechanics, as the Crew Dragon capsule has to “catch up” with the ISS, which is traveling at 17,000 mph about 250 miles above Earth.
But it’s not just weather around the pad that matters – teams have to monitor a massive flightpath and the conditions below it in the event that Behnken and Hurley have to abort, hurtling the spacecraft away from its Falcon 9 rocket and into the Atlantic Ocean. If conditions at sea are too rough, the launch is a “no-go.”
Hurley said he was no stranger to scrubbed launches in a Friday tweet:Â “On my first flight STS-127 on Shuttle Endeavour, we scrubbed 5 times over the course of a month for technical and weather challenges.”
Meanwhile, the astronauts – both longtime friends and shuttle veterans – have been spending time with their families and continuing preps for the one-to-four-month stay at the ISS, Bridenstine said.
“They’ve started a tradition of launching little rockets from the beach,” Bridenstine said of KSC’s famous “Astronaut Beach House,” a place where crews have historically spent time relaxing with families and friends. “I would imagine they’re probably getting some downtime and thinking about what’s coming.”
Also Saturday, President Donald Trump is expected to return to the Space Coast to watch the liftoff of Demo-2. He’s scheduled to be joined by Vice President Mike Pence on the deck of Operations and Support Building II, which offers an unobstructed view of pad 39A from just over three miles away.
Contributing:Â Britt Kennerly, Florida Today; The Associated Press.
Follow Emre Kelly on Twitter at: @EmreKelly
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