Discovery
Starship explodes in latest test: SpaceX’s futuristic Starship looked like it aced a touchdown Wednesday, but then exploded on the landing pad with so much force that it was hurled into the air.
The failure occurred just minutes after SpaceX declared success. Two previous test flights crash-landed in fireballs.
The full-scale prototype of Elon Musk’s envisioned Mars ship soared more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) after lifting off from the southern tip of Texas on Wednesday. It descended horizontally over the Gulf of Mexico and then flipped upright just in time to land.
The shiny bullet-shaped rocketship remained intact this time at touchdown, prompting SpaceX commentator John Insprucker to declare, “third time’s a charm as the saying goes” before SpaceX ended its webcast of the test.
But then the Starship exploded and was tossed in the air, before slamming down into the ground in flames.
There was no immediate comment from SpaceX on what went wrong. But Musk looked on the bright side in a tweet: “Starship 10 landed in one piece! RIP SN10, honorable discharge.”
He added: “SpaceX team is doing great work! One day, the true measure of success will be that Starship flights are commonplace.”
Musk plans to use Starships to send people to the moon and Mars.
The last two prototypes reached a similarly high altitude in December and February, but slammed into the ground at Boca Chica, Texas, and exploded. (AP)
Chinese astronauts ‘training’: China said Thursday a cohort of astronauts is training for four crewed missions this year as the country works to complete its first permanent orbiting space station.
The station’s core module, christened Tianhe, could be launched as soon as next month, according to the China National Space Administration and foreign observers. The massive Long March-5B Y2 rocket and its payload were moved into place last month at the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in tropical Hainan province for assembly and testing.
That launch would be the first of 11 missions over the next two years to finish constructing the station by the end of 2022. Two other modules will be launched later, along with four Tianzhou cargo supply mission and the four Shenzhou crewed missions.
CNSA listed 12 astronauts training for the crewed missions, including veterans of previous Shenzhou flights, newcomers and women, though it wasn’t clear if there were others selected.
Up to three crew members will reportedly live at a time in the the core module, which has docking ports to allow the attachment
of scientific modules launched later.
ISS is backed by the US, Russia, Japan, Europe, Canada and others, but China did not participate, partly at the insistence of the United States, which was wary of sharing technology with the secretive, military linked Chinese program. China’s
president is Xi Jinping. (AP)
Activists sue big retailer: Environmental groups and indigenous activists from the Amazon region filed a lawsuit Wednesday in a French court alleging that France-based supermarket chain Groupe Casino is violating human rights and environment rules by selling beef linked to deforestation and land grabs.
Casino, a big retailer in South America, would not immediately comment on the lawsuit. In a statement to The Associated Press, it said the company “fights actively against deforestation linked to cattle raising in Brazil and Colombia” and uses a “systematic and rigorous policy to control the origin of beef delivered by its suppliers.”
The activist groups are seeking compensation for damages to indigenous lands and livelihoods in Brazil and Colombia attributed to Amazon deforestation for cattle raising.
They filed the lawsuit in the French city of Saint-Etienne, where Groupe Casino is based, using a 2017 French law requiring large companies to prevent any serious human rights and environmental violations in their businesses and supply chains. Violators must pay reparations for any damage caused by their inaction.
It is now up to the prosecutor’s office to decide whether to take up the case. (AP)