KYIV — Russia launched 23 missiles at Ukraine’s sleeping cities and towns in the early hours of Friday, killing multiple civilians, including a toddler.
It was the first massive Russian barrage in weeks.
Ukraine’s Air Defense Forces reported shooting down 21 cruise missiles launched by Russian jets from the Caspian Sea.
But one Russian missile hit a nine-story residential building in Uman, a town in central Ukraine famous for its vibrant Jewish culture, destroying a large section of it. On Friday morning, 10 people were found dead and 17 others were taken to hospital, Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, said in a statement. Rescuers are still working at the scene.
In Dnipro, Russia’s forces destroyed a house, killing a 31-year-old woman and a 2-year-old toddler. Three others were wounded.
“Missile strikes killing innocent Ukrainians in their sleep, including a 2-year-old child, is Russia’s response to all peace initiatives,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement. “The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine. The way to peace is to arm Ukraine with F-16s and protect children from Russian terror.”
While the spectacle of SpaceX’s new Starship rocket blowing up over the Gulf of Mexico riveted the public’s attention, it was the explosive nature of the launch at ground level that was drawing heightened scrutiny from the government this week.
The shattering force of last Thursday’s launch in south Texas sent a cloud of pulverized concrete raining over a small town nearby, federal regulators said, raising fresh questions about the environmental impact of ramped-up launch operations at the site.
The blastoff from the SpaceX facility, adjacent to a national wildlife refuge near Boca Chica Beach, also hurled large chunks of concrete and metal thousands of feet away and ignited a 3.5-acre (1.4-hectare) fire on nearby grounds, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Damage to the launchpad, the floor of which was largely demolished during liftoff, was visible in photos of the aftermath. No one was hurt, and no dead birds or wildlife were found on lands owned or managed by the refuge, the agency said.
The rocket itself tumbled out of control and blew up in midair a few minutes into its flight.
SpaceX Starship rocket blows up minutes after launch – video
Environmentalists seized on the report as evidence that a more in-depth study of potential hazards to public safety and wildlife should be conducted before further Starship launches are conducted at Boca Chica.
“They contemplated debris from these launches, but not part of the launchpad itself being blown out miles away and scattered across the landscape,” said Jared Margolis, a senior attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity. “What happened is not what they anticipated.”
Nasa is counting on Starship as a major component of its Artemis program, aimed at returning astronauts to the moon in the next few years as a stepping stone to eventual human exploration of Mars.
SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Fish and Wildlife Service findings.
The 20 April launch was days after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted SpaceX a license to launch the Starship via its Super Heavy rocket booster. The uncrewed test flight was the first for the combined two-stage vehicle.
Despite the outcome, SpaceX hailed the aborted mission as a qualified success. The company said it was satisfied in getting Starship off the ground in its maiden test flight, the launch a valuable source of data for further development of the spacecraft.
The report by the Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the US interior department, was the first account from government regulators on the extent of collateral damage from the launch, apart from the aerial explosion of the Starship itself.
A piece of concrete blown off the launchpad litters the ground after the SpaceX Starship launch. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Elon Musk, the billionaire founder and CEO of SpaceX, said on Friday that the California-based company now plans to install a water-cooling system and steel foundation for the next launch of the rocket, the most powerful ever built.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) last week said it had opened a “mishap” investigation, as required by law, effectively grounding the rocket ship until SpaceX determines a root cause for any failures and takes corrective action.
Concrete dust cloud
On the ground, the force of roughly 30 rocket engines firing at full power pummeled the launchpad at liftoff, carving a crater several feet deep into the ground.
A resulting plume of concrete dust drifted as far as 6.5 miles (10.5km) to the north-west, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Pulverized material fell over tidal flats in the area and on Port Isabel, a town near the state’s far south-eastern tip, said agency spokesperson Aubry Buzek.
An environmental assessment that the agency approved last year for the recently expanded Starbase facility envisions blastoff debris remaining within a 700-acre (approximately 1 sq mile or 283 hectares) zone around the launchpad.
Concrete chunks and metal shrapnel flung thousands of feet from the launchpad would likely have landed in critical habitat for the piping plover, a shorebird on the endangered species list, Margolis said.
Before the FAA granted the license, environmentalists had pressed for a more extensive environmental impact study. Margolis said the launch mishap proved the original environmental analysis was inadequate.
Reopening the SpaceX facility to a full-scale environmental review would set back Starship development, complicating Nasa’s Artemis timeline, as well as the anticipated use of the spacecraft for Pentagon and commercial missions.
Musk suggested last week that SpaceX could have planned upgrades to the launch site ready for installation before the next launch attempt in one to two months.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
The Norwegian foreign ministry has expressed irritation with Sweden for not immediately informing it of a research rocket that crashed in Norway, in a rare spat between the two neighbours.
The rocket, which was launched early Monday from the Esrange Space Centre in Kiruna, northern Sweden, plunged into a mountainside in the Målselv municipality in Norway’s far north, about 10km (six miles) from the closest inhabited area.
No one was injured and no material damage was reported.
“The crash of a rocket like this is a very serious incident that can cause serious damage,” the foreign ministry in Oslo said.
“When such a border violation occurs, it is crucial that those responsible immediately inform the relevant Norwegian authorities through the proper channels,” it said.
The rocket was carrying out experiments in zero gravity at an altitude of 250km .
“The rocket took a slightly longer and more westerly trajectory than calculated and landed after a completed flight 15km (9.3 miles) into Norway,” the Swedish Space Corporation said in a statement on Monday.
“Work on retrieving the payload is under way,” it added.
Norway’s foreign ministry also noted that retrieval work was not supposed to begin without Norwegian authorisation, which had not been granted.
Norway’s Civil Aviation Authority said it had learned of the crash from the Swedish Space Corporation’s press release issued on Monday.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Sriharikota: Ahead of the 2024 General Elections, the Indian space agency ISRO will launch the first uncrewed test rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) as a part of the Gaganyaan Mission – India’s human space mission.
The Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) S. Somanath said here on Saturday the space agency is planning to send up the first uncrewed GSLV rocket in February 2024 as part of the Gaganyaan Mission. The human module will land in the sea.
He was speaking to reporters here after the successful launch of two Singaporean satellites – TeLEOS-2 and Lumilite-4, with the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Somanath said prior that there will a test of Gagayaan Mission in June this year where the rocket will go up to 12-14 km and test its safety systems.
Queried about the next step in ISRO developing a reusable rocket – similar to the USA’s Space Shuttle, Somanath said the space agency will send up a Oribital Recovery Vehicle. The vehicle will be in the space for some days and come back.
On forthcoming space missions of ISRO, he said the space agency will send the Aditya L1, Navigation satellites, a commercial launch with the heavier rocket GSLV and a mission with Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
According to D. Radhakrishnan, Chairman and Managing Director of NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) – the commercial arm of Department of Space, there is emerging demand for SSLV rocket for orbiting small satellites.
Similarly after the successful launch of 72 OneWeb satellites – for a fee of over Rs 1,000 crore- with ISRO’s LVM3 rocket, there is a good business potential for that rocket as well, Radhakrishnan said.
He said the NSIL is planning to build communication satellites and launch the same.
Be that as it may, speaking about the Saturday’s successful PSLV rocket mission, Somanath said the space agency did some re-engineering to cut costs without compromising on its performance.
The ISRO officials are also upbeat about using the PSLV rocket’s upper stage as a stablised orbital platform on which small payloads are fitted to carry out experiments.
The upper stage of PSLV-C55 rocket that went up on Saturday had seven experimental payloads.
According to M. Sankaran, Director, U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), the thought of using the upper stage came four years ago as it will be in the space for a long time.
Sankaran said the space agency took steps to stabilise the upper stage in space and then upgraded the same.
Somanath said commercial electronics are used in the upper stage to make it as an orbital platform and hence its life span will be short.
The European Commission wants to cut deals with private American space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch cutting-edge European navigation satellites due to continued delays to Europe’s next generation Ariane rocket system.
In a draft request to EU countries seen by POLITICO, the Commission is planning to ask for a green light to negotiate “an ad-hoc security agreement” with the U.S. for its rocket companies to “exceptionally launch Galileo satellites.”
The Commission reckons only SpaceX’s Falcon 9 heavy launcher and United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan system are up to the job of sending the EU’s new geo-navigation Galileo satellites — which weigh around 700 kilograms each — into orbit.
Seeking U.S. help to keep its flagship space program running puts a dent in the EU’s idea of strategic autonomy. Galileo is a point of pride for the EU, as it seeks to become less dependent on other regions for critical infrastructure, services and technology — a quest strongly backed by Paris.
The EU is having to seek assistance to launch new versions of its navigation satellites because the Ariane 5 rocket, developed by France-based ArianeGroup and launched from France’s South American spaceport in French Guiana, is to be retired in the next months.
The deployment of its replacement, Ariane 6, has been delayed; the newsystem is currently expected to carry out a maiden launch at the end of this year, with full commercial deployment starting next year.
The alternative to the Ariane series would have been launching Galileo satellites with Russian-built Soyuz rockets, a version of which are also used at the French Guiana site. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two Galileo launches using Soyuz rockets have been cancelled, prompting the search for alternatives.
Galileo satellites beam highly accurate navigation and precise time data back to earth — and also provide a top secret encrypted service for use by government agencies. That means launches typically can only be carried out from EU territory under tight security rules.
“In view of the security sensitive information … included in Galileo satellites, an ad-hoc legally binding security agreement with [the] U.S. is necessary, in order to protect the integrity of the satellites and the Galileo constellation,” said part of a draft proposal from the Commission seen by POLITICO.
It will be up to EU countries to approve negotiations for an agreement, which would come under the umbrella of standing deals on the exchange of classified information, the proposal states.
Capacity to launch satellites and humans into space independently of other powers has been a key part of French efforts to develop the concept of strategic autonomy for Europe.
But the need to contract out launches of critical space infrastructure to private companies operating in the U.S. undermines the argument that Europe is able to manage its own alternative to the U.S. GPS, Russia’s Glonass and China’s BeiDou constellations.
“Analyses are … ongoing to ascertain whether or not launching with an alternative launch service provider would be feasible,” said Commission spokesperson Sonya Gospodinova, adding that no decision has yet been taken. Assessments are being made on technical compatibility, launch site security and cost, she said.
While SpaceX’s Falcon rocket is already operational, ULA only plans its first Vulcan mission in May.
The Paris-based European Space Agency, which isn’t an EU institution but helps manage Galileo and runs the French Guiana spaceport, had already been looking at alternative launch options for satellites.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer has blasted off on an eight-year voyage from a spaceport in French Guiana. The European Space Agency’s mission to Jupiter will survey three moons that may have once hosted life. Europa, Callisto and Ganymede are frigid, ice-covered Jovian satellites three-quarters of a billion km from the sun, but they have vast liquid water oceans beneath their surfaces. If hydrothermal vents – found on ocean floors all over Earth – exist, they may provide enough warmth for life to thrive in the darkness
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#Juice #rocket #blasts #explore #Jupiters #icy #moons #video
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Tel Aviv: Israel carried out artillery strikes in southern Syria, in response to six rockets that were launched from its Islamic neighbour, The Times of Israel reported citing Israel Defence Force.
The IDF did not immediately provide further details on the strikes.
Earlier, 3 more rockets were launched from southern Syria at Israeli towns in the Golan Heights, the Israel Defense Forces said. This came hours after another three rockets were launched from Syria at the Golan, reported The Times of Israel.
On Saturday night, the focus shifted to Jerusalem’s Old City as security forces fear that further unrest could break out on Sunday when Jewish worshipers are expected to flock to the Western Wall for the priestly blessings that take place on Passover, reported Jerusalem Post.
Jewish visitors are also expected to ascend the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. An additional 2,300 police troops have been deployed throughout the city. “Israel is taking every measure to ensure that Muslims, Jews and Christians can celebrate Ramadan, Passover and Easter peacefully,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Despite appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday after they said Palestinians barricaded themselves inside.
Israel bombarded both Gaza and Lebanon in response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants. The unrest comes as the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramzan, Jewish Passover, and Christian Easter coincide.
By Saturday night, it appeared as if an uneasy calm had been restored, with security forces still braced not just for violence along those borders as well as increased Israeli-Palestinian violence, reported Jerusalem Post.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant briefed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the security situation on Saturday night, detailing efforts to “thwart terrorism and respond effectively to any threat toward Israeli citizens and troops,” his office said.
“Gallant also raised the defence establishment’s efforts to enable freedom of prayer at the Temple Mount, which is hijacked by groups of extreme rioters,” his office added President Isaac Herzog said Israel was “firmly committed to preserving the status quo at the holy sites in general and on the Temple Mount in particular” in a telephonic conversation he had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Netanyahu said last week claimed Iran is behind the latest spiral in violence in Israel, a point Herzog underscored in his conversation with Erdogan.
“Iran, by means of its proxies, including Hamas, is leading a campaign on several fronts with the aim of undermining regional stability and is using terrorism based on religious incitement, focusing on the situation in Jerusalem,” Herzog said.
Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement condemning any military operations from its territory that threatened stability but there was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, reported Jerusalem Post.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Israel has launched a retaliatory strike against Lebanon and Gaza, following a second night of violent clashes in Jerusalem. The clashes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem have raised tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, leading to rocket fire from both sides.
Israel is bombing Gaza (Hamas tunnels and weapons production centers), Gaza is shelling Israeli settlements near the border with the sector pic.twitter.com/lxsUzGNe4T
The violence began on Monday when Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is considered one of the holiest sites in Islam, during Ramadan prayers. The move sparked outrage among Palestinians, who responded by throwing rocks and other objects at Israeli police. The police responded with stun grenades and tear gas, leading to violent clashes that left over 300 Palestinians and over 20 police officers injured.
The violence continued on Tuesday night, with Palestinians throwing rocks and fireworks at Israeli police, who responded with rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas. The clashes continued into Wednesday, with Israeli police using stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
In response to the escalating violence, the militant group Hamas fired rockets into Israel from Gaza on Tuesday evening, prompting Israel to respond with air strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military said it had hit a number of targets in Gaza, including a weapons manufacturing site and a military post.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military said it had launched further air strikes against targets in Gaza, including a Hamas tunnel network. The military said the strikes were in response to continued rocket fire from Gaza into Israel.
In addition to the rocket fire from Gaza, Israel also launched retaliatory strikes against Lebanon on Tuesday, after thirty rockets were fired into northern Israel from Lebanese territory. The Israeli military said it had hit the launch sites in Lebanon.
The situation in Jerusalem remains tense, with Israeli police patrolling the Old City and Palestinian protesters vowing to continue their demonstrations. The clashes have raised concerns about a potential escalation of violence in the region, as well as the wider implications for Israeli-Palestinian relations.
The United States and other world powers have called for calm and urged both sides to avoid any further escalation of violence. The UN Security Council is due to meet later on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
Chennai: India on Sunday moved a step ahead in getting its own reusable launch vehicle or reusable rocket (simply put similar to space shuttle) with the country’s space agency successfully completing the Reusable Launch Vehicle Autonomous Landing Mission (RLV LEX).
The test was conducted at the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR), Chitradurga, Karnataka in the early hours on April 2, 2023.
The Indian space agency said the adaptation of contemporary technologies developed for RLV LEX makes other operational rockets more cost-effective.
In a first in the world, a winged body has been carried to an altitude of 4.5 km by a helicopter and released for carrying out an autonomous landing on a runway.
According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the RLV took off at 7:10 a.m. IST by a Chinook Helicopter of the Indian Air Force as an underslung load and flew to a height of 4.5 km (above the mean seal level-MSL).
Once the predetermined pillbox parameters were attained, based on the RLV’s Mission Management Computer command, the RLV was released in mid-air, at a down range of 4.6 km.
The Indian space agency said the release conditions included 10 parameters covering position, velocity, altitude and body rates and others.
The release of RLV was autonomous. RLV then performed approach and landing maneuvers using the integrated navigation, guidance & control system and completed an autonomous landing on the ATR air strip at 7:40 a.m. IST. With that, ISRO successfully achieved the autonomous landing of a space vehicle.
The autonomous landing was carried out under the exact conditions of a Space Re-entry vehicle’s landing – high speed, unmanned, precise landing from the same return path – as if the vehicle arrives from space. Landing parameters such as ground relative velocity, the sink rate of landing gears, and precise body rates, as might be experienced by an orbital re-entry space vehicle in its return path, were achieved, ISRO said.
The RLV LEX demanded several state-of-the-art technologies including accurate navigation hardware and software, pseudolite system, Ka-band Radar Altimeter, NavIC receiver, indigenous landing gear, aerofoil honey-comb fins and brake parachute system.
RLV is essentially a space plane with a low lift to drag ratio requiring an approach at high glide angles that necessitated a landing at high velocities of 350 kmph.
According to ISRO, the LEX had used several indigenous systems like the navigation systems based on pseudolite systems, instrumentation, and sensor systems and others developed by it.
Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the landing site with a Ka-band Radar Altimeter provided accurate altitude information.
Extensive wind tunnel tests and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations enabled aerodynamic characterisation of RLV prior to the flight.
ISRO had demonstrated the re-entry of its winged vehicle RLV-TD in the HEX mission in May 2016. The re-entry of a hypersonic sub-orbital vehicle marked a major accomplishment in developing reusable rockets.
In HEX, the vehicle landed on a hypothetical runway over the Bay of Bengal. Precise landing on a runway was an aspect not included in the HEX mission.
On Sunday, the LEX mission achieved the final approach phase that coincided with the re-entry return flight path exhibiting an autonomous, high speed (350 kmph) landing. The LEX began with an Integrated Navigation test in 2019 and followed multiple Engineering Model Trials and Captive Phase tests in subsequent years.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. Photo: Twitter.
Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has congratulated Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) team for the successful launch of the largest rocket LVM3 carrying 36 satellites for Oneweb’s second venture propelling India’s capability on global space technology.
The success of LVM3-M3/Oneweb India 2 Mission stands as a milestone in Indian Space history, the Chief Minister said and wished ISRO all success in future endeavours.
Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also congratulated ISRO chairman and team for the successfull launch. She tweeted that this has once again demonstrated capabilities of ISRO scientists to make “our nation proud on the visionary path of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
ISRO on Sunday successfully launched India’s largest Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3) rocket/OneWeb India-2 Mission with 36 satellites onboard from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The 36 first-generation satellites weighing 5,805 kgs will be placed into a 450 kms circular orbit with an inclination of about 87.4 degree.
The LVM-III will deploy 36 satellites of the UK-based Network Access Associated Ltd (OneWeb) to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The OneWeb Group Company has inked a contract with ISRO’s commercial arm NewSpace India Ltd to launch 72 satellites into LEO.
