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Training day in Orion spacecraft for Artemis II crew

Training day in Orion spacecraft for Artemis II crew

BBC News11 hours ago
The Artemis II astronauts are preparing for their trip around the Moon which is due in around six months time. The crew donned their space suits and got on board the Orion spacecraft for specialist training. The astronauts were connected up to the spacecraft and its control systems, allowing them to prepare for launch day and do sims of situations they might find themselves in during the mission. These tests help the crew get used to the kit they'll be using, but also to check all the equipment and plans so final adjustments can be made ahead of launch if needed.Nasa's Sean Duffy said: "Every milestone in the Artemis campaign brings us closer to landing Americans back on the Moon and pushing onward to Mars."
What do the Artemis II suits look like?
Teams tested out different situations so the crew could get practice dealing with any challenges that could arise during the mission. The astronauts also had the chance to check out the sleeping arrangements and the hygiene bay as well as learn how to review air quality levels. It means they'll be prepared to deal with any challenges they may face. The training days were also a chance to try on their bright orange space suits called the Orion Crew Survival System (OCSS). It's worn inside the Orion spacecraft on launch day, in emergency situations, in high-risk parts of the missions near the Moon and on their return to Earth. It's fitted specifically to each astronaut and has lots of tech to help protect the wearers.It's not the only spacesuit they'll have. Like many missions they'll also have another to wear outside the spacecraft during space walks and they work like a personal spaceship.
Everything you need to know about the Artemis II mission
Artemis is Nasa's first Moon mission in more than 50 years and is a three-part series of increasingly complex missions aimed at putting a man and a woman on the Moon. The Artemis I mission didn't have any astronauts on board (although Shaun the sheep went) but was designed to fully test the Moon mission kit. It was successfully sent in orbit around the Moon in November 2022.Artemis II takes it a step further with a crew on board, and will circle around the Moon before returning home while Artemis III plans to land Nasa astronauts on the Moon's surface. The original plan was to have people walking on the Moon by the end of 2025, but the mission has been delayed multiple times. Nasa ended up moving the mission back a year to be able to fix a safety issue with its heat shield.
American astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen have been selected for the Artemis II mission.Reid Wiseman will be the mission's commander. He's a US Navy pilot who has also previously served as the head of Nasa's astronaut office. He's flown one previous mission to the International Space Station (ISS) back in 2015.American astronaut Christina Koch is the only woman on the mission. She's an electrical engineer with a pretty impressive track record, having spent more time in space than any other woman.In 2019 she made the first all-female spacewalk along with fellow astronaut Jessica Meir.US Navy test pilot Victor Glover is the third member of the Artemis II team. He joined Nasa in 2013 and made his first spaceflight in 2020. He was the first African American to stay on the space station for an extended period of six months.Jeremy Hanson is the chosen Canadian astronaut on the team. He was a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force before joining the Canadian Space Agency and he's yet to travel to space.
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Fragmented and febrile - is threat of nuclear war worse than ever?
Fragmented and febrile - is threat of nuclear war worse than ever?

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  • Sky News

Fragmented and febrile - is threat of nuclear war worse than ever?

Why you can trust Sky News Eighty years ago today, an American B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. It was the dawn of the atomic age, but the birth of the bomb can be traced beyond the deserts of New Mexico to Britain, five years earlier. A copy of a hand-typed document, now in the Bodleian library in Oxford, is the first description of an atom bomb small enough to use as a weapon. The Frisch-Peierls Memorandum was written by two nuclear physicists at the University of Birmingham in 1940. Otto Frisch and Rudolf Peierls don't feature in the film Oppenheimer, but their paper is credited with jump-starting the Manhattan Project that ultimately built the bomb. Both Jewish scientists who had both fled Nazi Germany, they built on the latest understanding of uranium fission and nuclear chain reactions, to propose a bomb made from enriched uranium that was compact enough to be carried by an aircraft. 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RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development
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RFK Jr. pulls $500 million in funding for vaccine development

The Department of Health and Human Services will cancel contracts and pull funding for some vaccines that are being developed to fight respiratory viruses like COVID-19 and the flu. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary and a longtime vaccine critic, announced in a statement Tuesday that $500 million worth of vaccine development projects, all using mRNA technology, will be halted. The projects — 22 of them — are being led by some of the nation's leading pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Moderna to prevent flu, COVID-19 and H5N1 infections. The mRNA vaccines are credited with slowing the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Kennedy said in the Tuesday statement that he wants the health department to move away from mRNA vaccines, calling on the department to start 'investing in better solutions.' He provided no details on what those technologies might be.

US health agency to wind down mRNA vaccine development
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US health agency to wind down mRNA vaccine development

Aug 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday it would wind down mRNA vaccine development activities under its biomedical research unit. The unit, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, helps companies develop medical supplies to address public health threats, and had also provided billions of dollars for development of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. HHS said the wind down includes cancellation of a contract awarded to Moderna (MRNA.O), opens new tab for the late-stage development of its bird flu vaccine for humans and the right to purchase the shots, a move first reported in May. The U.S. health agency said it is also rejecting or canceling multiple pre-award solicitations, including proposals from Pfizer (PFE.N), opens new tab, Sanofi Pasteur ( opens new tab, CSL Seqirus ( opens new tab, Gritstone and others. In total, this affects 22 projects worth nearly $500 million, the agency said. HHS said the decision follows a comprehensive review of mRNA-related investments initiated during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

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