Nasa gave the green light on Friday (May 22) to next week's launch of two astronauts aboard a SpaceX vessel - the first crewed space flight from US soil in nine years and a crucial step towards ending American dependence on Russian rockets.
Nasa gives go-ahead for first crewed SpaceX flight on May 27
The crew access arm is swung into position to a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft onboard.PHOTO: NASA/BILL INGALLS
May 25, 2020 - Top officials at the US space agency and Elon Musk's company had been meeting since Thursday at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida for final checks of the Crew Dragon space capsule ahead of its maiden May 27 crewed mission.
"At the end we got to a go," Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine told reporters by video of the meticulous Flight Readiness Review, which provided the go-ahead.
US astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley are scheduled to blast off from Kennedy's historic Launch Pad 39A at 4.33pm on Wednesday (4.33am on Thursday, Singapore time) for the International Space Station, arriving the next day.
Asked about going ahead with the mission in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Behnken told reporters: "Where there's a will, there's a way."
Behnken and Hurley have been in strict quarantine since May 13 because of the pandemic, but they said their actual isolation began as far back as mid-March.
"We have been in quarantine probably longer than any other space crew has ever been in the history of the space program," Hurley said. He said he and Behnken have been tested twice so far for Covid-19 and "rumor has it we might be tested again before we go."
American astronauts have been flying to the ISS, which currently houses two Russians and one American, on Russian rockets since the US space shuttle programme was shelved in 2011 after three decades of service.
Should the SpaceX mission succeed, the United States will have achieved its goal of no longer having to buy seats on Russian Soyuz rockets to send astronauts to the ISS, which has been occupied by US and Russian astronauts since 2000.
'EMBARRASSING'
Nasa has awarded contracts worth US$3.1 billion to SpaceX and US$4.9 billion to Boeing in a bid to give the US independent access to space once again.
The original target for crewed flights replacing the shuttle was 2015, a hiatus that the late Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon, once described as "embarrassing."
Behnken and Hurley have been training for five years on the Crew Dragon capsule, which features touchscreens as opposed to the switches and buttons of the Apollo capsules of the 1960s.
Unlike the space shuttle - which suffered two fatal accidents - the SpaceX capsule includes an emergency escape system in the event there is a problem after liftoff.
At the end of the mission, which is expected to last several months, Crew Dragon will splash down in the ocean like the Apollo capsules did, slowed down by four enormous parachutes.
SpaceX and Boeing are being called upon to carry out six crewed voyages each to the ISS over the next few years. If next week's Crew Dragon mission - baptized Demo-2 - is successful SpaceX will be the first private company ever to deliver astronauts to the ISS.
Demo-1 was a flight conducted successfully in March 2019 with a mannequin aboard. Boeing conducted an uncrewed test flight of its capsule, known as Starliner, in December but it suffered multiple glitches.
US-Russia cooperation is not expected to end once Crew Dragon goes into service. Nasa plans to use Soyuz rockets to send some astronauts into space.
SpaceX will also provide flights to non-American astronauts and Musk's company wants to eventually send tourists into space.
A private three-passenger mission is planned for the second half of 2021 with tickets expected to run in the tens of millions of dollars.
Trump to visit Florida for SpaceX launch with Nasa astronauts
May 23, 2020 - WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump plans to travel to Florida on Wednesday (May 27) to watch the launch of SpaceX’s manned test mission to the International Space Station, according to a US official, as he seeks to project an image of normalcy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The launch will mark the first time Nasa astronauts have blasted off from US soil since the end of the space shuttle programme in 2011.
US discussed holding first nuclear test since 1992: Report
May 23, 2020 - WASHINGTON (AFP) - President Donald Trump's administration has discussed holding the first US nuclear test since 1992 as a potential warning to Russia and China, the Washington Post reported on Friday (May 22).
Such a test would be a significant departure from US defence policy and dramatically up the ante for other nuclear-armed nations. One analyst told the newspaper that if it were to go ahead it would be seen as the "starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race".
The report, citing one senior administration official and two former officials, all who spoke anonymously, said the discussion had taken place at a meeting on May 15.
It came after some US officials reportedly claimed that Russia and China were conducting their own low-yield tests. Moscow and Beijing have denied the claims, and the US has not offered evidence for them.
The senior administration official said that demonstrating Washington's ability to "rapid test" would be a useful negotiating tactic as the US seeks a trilateral agreement with Russia and China over nuclear weapons.
The meeting did not conclude with any agreement, and the sources were divided over whether discussions were still ongoing.
Nuclear non-proliferation activists were quick to condemn the idea.
"It would be the starting gun to an unprecedented nuclear arms race," Mr Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, told the Post.
He added that it would also likely "disrupt" negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, "who may no longer feel compelled to honour his moratorium on nuclear testing".
The Trump administration has repeatedly shaken up US defence policy.
The Washington Post report came one day after Mr Trump announced that he
plans to withdraw from the Open Skies treaty with Russia, which was designed to improve military transparency and confidence between the superpowers.
Russia seeks 18-year jail term for ex-U.S. Marine in spying trial
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, accused of espionage, is escorted inside a court building in Moscow, Russia, October 24, 2019. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva/File Photo
Russian prosecutors asked a court on Monday to sentence former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is on trial accused of spying for the United States, to 18 years in a maximum security prison, his lawyer said.
Whelan, a U.S. national who also holds British, Canadian and Irish passports, has been in custody since he was detained in a Moscow hotel room in December 2018. He says he was set up in a sting and has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
“The prosecution has made a very harsh demand, it’s absolutely unjustified and groundless. To be honest, we’re in shock,” Whelan’s lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told reporters after Monday’s hearing.
The court will announce its verdict on June 15, he said. The trial, which began on March 23, has been closed to the public as its content broaches classified information. Many of the case’s details have emerged through his lawyer.
U.S. Ambassador in Moscow John Sullivan said the proceedings amounted to a “secret trial” and a “mockery of justice”. “There is no legitimacy to a procedure that is hidden behind closed doors. It is not transparent, it is not fair, and it is not impartial,” he said.
The prosecution accuses Whelan of being at least a ranking U.S. military intelligence colonel and that he was caught red-handed trying to obtain secrets, his lawyer said.
The defence said Whelan had only believed he was receiving photographs of a trip that he and an acquaintance had been on, not classified material, and that he had been tricked, Zherebenkov said. “This was a game by Russia’s Federal Security Service...,” he said.
U.S. authorities have called the charges against Whelan spurious and have called on Russia to release him, describing the case as a “significant obstacle” to improving bilateral ties.
Whelan, 50, has used his appearances at hearings to allege he has been ill-treated by prison guards and been denied medical attention. Russian authorities have accused him of faking health problems to draw attention to his case.
Fire at San Francisco pier destroys a quarter of its warehouses
A cargo ship passes by as firefighters tackle the blaze on Pier 45 at Fisherman's Wharf.PHOTO: EPA-EFE
May 24, 2020 -SAN FRANCISCO (NYTIMES) - About 150 firefighters battled a four-alarm blaze that destroyed a quarter of the structures on Pier 45 in San Francisco early on Saturday morning (May 23), the authorities said.
One firefighter had a severe cut to an arm, said Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the Fire Department. He said the firefighter was taken to a hospital and was expected to recover. No other injuries were reported.
Officials were investigating the cause of the fire, which was reported around 4.15am at a warehouse.
The fire broke out at Fisherman's Wharf, a commercial tourist district with attractions, including restaurants and museums, that is home to Pier 45.
"We traditionally don't have fires of this magnitude with warehouses," Baxter said on Saturday, adding that the pier was being evaluated for structural integrity. "It was an impressive, massive fire."
Video footage showed huge plumes of smoke rising over the bay, creating a thick haze.
Major fire at Pier 45 in San Francisco
pic.twitter.com/DdLH3jdEIA
— James Evanow (@jamesevanow)
May 23, 2020
There is a massive fire at Fisherman’s Wharf right now —one of the piers
#sf #SanFrancisco #sffire #SanFranciscoFire pic.twitter.com/rffAFUWuWA
— Jack Hutton (@jackhutton)
May 23, 2020
San Francisco’s iconic Pier 45 goes up in flames
pic.twitter.com/QByzG1ymYi
— RT (@RT_com)
May 23, 2020
Baxter said that the fire was contained to the building and that "multiple walls on all four corners" had collapsed.
He said the building was a total loss and had housed several businesses, ferry fleet offices and multiple independent crabbers and fishers.
Pier 45 had warehouses A, B, C and D, he said, and C was the one destroyed.
