Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Soars, Stock Sinks

By Doug Messier

Parabolic Arc

June 29, 2023

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Col. Walter Villadei (center) holds up an Italian flag during the Galactic 01 research flight.

Image credit: Virgin Galactic.

Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) capped off nearly 19 years of effort by flying its first commercial mission with paying customers from Spaceport American in New Mexico on Thursday (June 29). However, while the VSS Unity rocket plane soared into the heavens on a research flight, the company’s stock declined by almost 11 percent.

VSS Unity carried Italian Air Force Col. Walter Villadei, Italian Air Force physician Lt. Col. Angelo Landolfi, and engineer Pantaleone Carlucci of the National Research Council of Italy to an altitude of 52.9 miles (85.1 km) where they enjoyed about three minutes of weightlessness and spectacular views of Earth.

The WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve mothership took off with VSS Unity beneath it at 8:30 AM mountain time with Kelly Latimer in command and former Canadian Air Force Maj. Jameel Janjua as pilot. They air-launched the spacecraft at an altitude of 44,500 feet (13,564 meters).

As the spacecraft neared its apogee, Villadei unbuckled himself from his seat and spent about 30 seconds activating and monitoring experiments installed on a rack at the rear of the cabin. He then held up an Italian flag for a global audience watching the flight on Virgin Galactic’s webcast.

The Galactic 01 flight, which the Italian government refers to as “Virtute 1,” carried equipment for 13 experiments that were conducted by the researchers or autonomously. Landolfi measured the effects of microgravity on two very different phenomena: human cognitive performance and how certain liquids and solids mixed. Carlucci wore multiple sensors that measured his heart rate, brain function, and other human performance metrics during the flight.

“I am beyond proud to be a part of this historic spaceflight. ‘Galactic 01’ is Italy’s first commercial suborbital research spaceflight, and an amazing achievement made possible thanks to the long-lasting collaboration between the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy,” Villadei said in a press release.

Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor Colin Bennett joined the three Italians in the passenger cabin. Bennett assisted the researchers and assessed the research flight experience. He previously flew on a suborbital flight test in July 2021.

VSS Unity fires its engines during the Galactic 01 flight. Image credit: Virgin Galactic.

Mike Masucci commanded VSS Unity with Nicola Pecile as pilot. Masucci was on his fourth suborbital flight aboard the spacecraft. It was the first suborbital flight for Pecile, who retired from the Italian Air Force as a lieutenant colonel.

“Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity, our unique, suborbital science lab,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in the press release. “This historic flight was our first commercial flight and our first dedicated commercial research mission – ushering in a new era of repeatable and reliable access to space for private passengers and researchers.”

Virgin Galactic will fly its second commercial flight with paying customers in August. The company then intends to fly VMS Eve on a monthly basis.

“‘Galactic 02,’ our first spaceflight with private astronauts, is planned for August and we expect VSS Unity to continue with monthly space missions while we simultaneously work to scale our future spaceship fleet for a global audience,” Colglazier continued.

Shares Decline

On Thursday, prior to the flight, Virgin Galactic’s stock rose to $4.86. However, it then declined by more than 10 percent after the flight to close at $4.23.

Although the flight was a success, Virgin Galactic’s financial prospects are limited in the near term. The company has only one SpaceShipTwo, capable of flying four passengers, and a single mothership.

Virgin Galactic’s path to profitability lies with a new generation of Delta-class SpaceShipTwo vehicles and WhiteKnightTwo motherships that are now under development. The spacecraft will not enter service until 2026. Virgin Galactic recently raised $300 million and filed to raise an additional $400 million to fund its expansion.

Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson first announced plans to fly people on suborbital flights in September 2004. The goal was to begin commercial service as early as 2007, but more than a decade of delays and two fatal accidents caused the schedule to slip.

AUSTRALIA
AFTERSHOCK TWO YEARS LATER
Magnitude-4.6 earthquake strikes Rawson in Victoria's east, tremors felt across Melbourne

By Melissa Brown
Posted 10h ago10 hours ago,

In short: Thousands of people have reported feeling the effects of an earthquake that struck at Rawson, in Victoria's east, about 1:30am
What's next? Geoscience Australia says the tremor may be a part of a sequence that began in 2021, when a magnitude-5.9 quake was felt across four states

Seismologists say a magnitude-4.6 earthquake has occurred in the High Country in Victoria's east.

Geoscience Australia said the tremor occurred at Rawson, at a depth of 3 kilometres about 1:30am.

About 9,000 people officially reported light-to-moderate shaking to the national earthquake alert centre.



Michael Leaney lives 12km north-east of Rawson in the town of Walhalla.

Having experienced past tremors at his home, Mr Leaney said it was typical for the noise to arrive before the quake itself.

"The first thing that actually wakes you up is the roar that starts before the earthquake actually comes through and you get a few seconds in advance to the shaking that occurs," he said.

"You get this roar … like a train going past, and it's really, really loud, and that's what you notice when you're so close to the epicentre of an earthquake."

This was the third time Bec Closter had felt a quake since she moved to the town of Erica on the fringe of the Baw Baw National Park six years ago.

She said she and her husband woke to the tremor shaking their entire home, including their bed.

Ms Closter said her husband thought the house might fall.

"It was the weirdest feeling," she said.

"It was like that dream state of, 'Is the house shaking, is a truck coming through, or is it actually an earthquake?'

"I hope everyone's OK. It's not a massive one, [but] I know for some people it can trigger things."
'My house was shaking'

Residents of Melbourne's eastern and southern suburbs called ABC Radio.

Sue in Healesville, east of Melbourne, said it was a strong shake.

"It sort of eased a bit for a minute then it came back again as if the house had been picked up and shaken."

Another listener said they were in the kitchen when the quake struck.

"I've got big cedar windows and they're the first things that start and it's really frightening," another listener said.

One man in south-east Melbourne said it was strong enough to wake him.


"I've never experienced anything like it," he said.

"It absolutely shook my home out at Noble Park. It rattled and rolled the place and I just jumped out of bed."

So far there are no reports of damage.
Tremor could be aftershock from 2021 quake

Geoscience Australia senior seismologist Jonathan Bathgate said the tremor was likely to be part of a sequence of quakes dating back to the September 2021 earthquake that was felt across Melbourne and Victoria's east and as far away as New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia.

Victorian earthquake caused by 'blind fault'

A magnitude-5.9 earthquake, which was felt across five Australian states and territories, was caused by a previously unknown fault line deep within the Earth's crust, according to new research.

Read more

"This event that occurred early this morning is part of that sequence that started in September in 2021 with that magnitude-5.9 and we've recorded at least 47 earthquakes now between magnitude-2 and this 4.6," Mr Bathgate said.

"This is the largest aftershock that we've had since the main shock back in September 2021."

Mr Bathgate said the number of earthquakes being recorded in Victoria was not increasing or unusual.

"Australia does get quite a bit of seismicity that people don't often appreciate, more than people appreciate in general.

"This one's slightly larger at magnitude-4.6 and, as I say, it's part of that larger sequence of earthquakes, but Australia, in general, we get earthquakes because we're on a continent that's moving north at about 7 centimetres every year," he said.

"That in parts stresses on our local fault lines and that stress is released through through small earthquakes.”

ABC weather presenter and meteorologist Nate Byrne said earthquakes normally occur where tectonic plates meet, but that Australia is in the middle of a plate.

"It's like getting a pavlova and squeezing the sides," he said.

"Instead of being on the sides where big crumbling would happen, we're in the middle and you would expect to see cracks forming in the middle. That's what’s happening here."
Quake part of normal seismic activity

Hazard seismologist Elodie Borleis from the Seismology Research Centre in Melbourne said while the quake was an aftershock to the 2021 event, it would produce its own sequence.

"It is a larger event so we would expect aftershocks," she said.

She agreed it was part of the normal seismic activity for Victoria.

"This is very normal. Yes, we've had an increase in the last, you know, couple of years of people actually feeling them but the actual background seismicity hasn't changed at all.

"If you look at it, over the last 100 years, it is quite normal seismic activity."

Her colleague, Juan-Santiago Velasquez says strong quakes, like in 2021, can generate long-lasting sequences.

"In places that tend to be more stable like here in Australia, we see that sometimes the aftershock sequences can last longer.

"After the main shock, it can [take] years until the stresses or the pressures of the earth in t

The Greenland Ice Sheet cannot wait

Twila MoonJune 30, 2023 

The days in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, are growing longer. Even after setting, the sun lingers below the horizon, casting a glow over the rocky coastal landscape. On sun-drenched days, when the skies are as blue as the ocean, one can admire Greenland’s striking mountains. Their jagged summits contrast with the smoothness of their lower slopes, fjords shaped by the relentless force of ancient ice sheets. Here and there, splashes of fragrant brownish-green tundra punctuate the scene. Everywhere, the snow is melting, making for slushy treks through a wet and heavy snowpack.

Before landing in Greenland at the start of the melt season, I expected to see more snow. But only patches of winter snow remained. One does not need to be a scientist to observe the trends that we researchers can detect via satellites and other long-term measurements. The snowfall has been arriving later in the year, sometimes after Christmas, and has not been as persistent as it once was. After a quarter-century of losing mass, the Greenland Ice Sheet has been undergoing a rapid and radical transformation.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Arctic Report Card for Greenland, which I co-authored, paints a grim picture. In 2022, Greenland marked its 25th consecutive year of ice loss, accompanied by “unprecedented late-season melt events.” On September 3, more than a third of the ice sheet’s surface – including Summit Station, a research camp near the ice sheet’s apex – experienced melting conditions. A year before, in August 2021, Summit Station documented its first-ever recorded rainfall, although it was impossible to say exactly how much it received, owing to the absence of rain gauges at such high altitudes.

Greenland’s accelerating rate of ice loss is projected to exceed that of any period during the Holocene, the geological epoch that began roughly 12,000 years ago. There is compelling evidence that the western portion of the Greenland Ice Sheet is growing increasingly unstable, edging toward a tipping point beyond which its dynamics and structure fundamentally and irreversibly shift.

In fact, scientists may have underestimated how sensitive glaciers are to global warming, which means that the tipping point may be reached sooner than we think. My own research shows that ice loss has been reshaping the ice sheet’s margins and the Greenland coast, altering glacier speeds and rerouting the flows of ice, water, and sediment. These changes, in turn, influence the ice sheet’s response to future temperature increases.

On my recent visit to Nuuk, I continued work on the QGreenland project, building a geospatial data tool for researchers and educators interested in exploring Greenland and learning about the scientific research taking place there. Although one cannot smell the tundra or hear the Arctic birds through interactive maps, such tools promise to familiarize people with the world’s largest island and help them understand how changes in the Arctic could affect their own communities, even if they are thousands of miles away.

To avoid catastrophe, we must act immediately. Much like the light from distant stars enables us to peer into the past, the changes we now see in Greenland – the result of our previous inaction on greenhouse-gas emissions – offer a frightening glimpse into the future. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent Synthesis Report notes, “sea-level rise is unavoidable for centuries to millennia,” largely owing to ice-sheet melt.

Rising sea levels may not seem like a pressing issue if one’s own backyard is not flooding. But roughly 40% of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of coasts. Beyond coastal erosion and saltwater inundating freshwater resources and ecosystems, sea-level rise will also affect groundwater levels, causing potential flooding and water contamination further inland. And those of us living thousands of miles from the coastline depend on coastal infrastructure for goods and shipping. We must all plan for a future with continued sea-level rise and work together to respond to it.

The extent and pace of sea-level rise, however, still depends on the choices we make now. The latest IPCC report, which shows global temperatures heading toward a 3.5° Celsius increase by 2100, underscores the urgent need to close the gap between current measures to combat climate change and what must be done to meet our agreed global goal of less than 2°C. If temperatures rise by 2-3°C, the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets could be lost “almost completely and irreversibly over multiple millennia,” causing several meters of sea-level rise. Estimates suggest that the Greenland Ice Sheet alone holds the equivalent of 7.4 meters (24 feet) of potential sea-level increase.

Fortunately, humanity’s future is not fully predetermined. By taking strong climate-focused action now, we could save much of the Greenland Ice Sheet, curb the spread of wildfires, minimize the rise in drought frequency and severity, enhance food security, and ensure a habitable world.

But achieving this requires a concerted and sustained effort to limit global temperature rise; every degree matters. To prevail against climate change, we must adhere to established deadlines and honor existing commitments to shift away from fossil fuels as our primary energy source. The message from Greenland is clear: ice will not negotiate.

Copyright: Project Syndicate

-- Contact us at english@hkej.com

TWILA MOON

Deputy Lead Scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center

at the University of Colorado Boulder.

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS...

Electrical accident at Chile’s El Teniente copper mine leaves one dead

...ONLY PREVENTABLE INCIDENTS

Reuters | June 29, 2023 | 

El Teniente is the world’s biggest underground copper mine and the sixth largest by reserve size. (Image courtesy of Codelco)

An electrical accident at Codelco’s El Teniente mine in central Chile, the company’s largest copper mine, left one dead, the state-owned mining giant said in a statement on Thursday.


Codelco said the accident happened at the mine’s Andes Norte expansion project at about 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) when Osvaldo Bustamante Frias, a 29-year-old electrical technician, suffered an electric discharge during the installation of a generator.

The company said work in the area was immediately halted and started an investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

State-owned Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said the technician was employed by German construction firm Zublin, which had been contracted to work on the Andes Norte project.

Chile’s mining regulator announced the death earlier on Thursday and said its national director had been dispatched to the site to begin an investigation.

Last July, Codelco reported two separate, fatal accidents that prompted it to temporarily halt some mining projects.

“The company reiterates its call to improve safety as an essential aspect of any work we carry out,” Codelco said in a statement, urging those who work on its facilities to respect safety standards and protocols.

Parts of El Teniente’s mining operations had been halted recently due to recent torrential rainfall, but underground operations and work on the Andes Norte project continued.

The mine produced 405,429 metric tons of copper in 2022.

(By Fabian Cambero, Carolina Pulice and Sarah Morland; Editing by Isabel Woodford and Sonali Paul)

Far-right parties on the rise across Europe

PublishedShare

IMAGE SOURCE,

By Katya Adler

Europe editor

BBC

@BBCkatyaadler

France is on a knife edge.

Holding its breath as unrest spreads across the country, bursting out of the banlieues - the often socially-neglected suburbs - after the fatal shooting this week of a 17-year-old from a French-Algerian family by police near Paris.

These types of riots are not unheard of in France. But the intensity of feeling taking hold of the country, whether amongst those sympathising with the police or with the banlieues and the victim's family - hasn't been witnessed in France since summer 2005.

And while President Macron visibly struggles to get the situation under control, his political nemesis on the far-right - Marine Le Pen - with her tough-on-security, anti-immigration message - may well end up benefitting in the polls.

Look around Europe right now - north, south, east and west - and you see far-right parties of different flavours - nostalgic nationalist, populist nationalist, ultra conservative with neo-fascist roots and more - enjoying a notable resurgence.

IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS

Image caption,

France's Marine Le Pen could benefit from Emmanuel Macron's challenges in getting the riots under control. She is pictured here in 2016

Old taboos dating back to Europe's devastating 20th Century war against the Nazis and fascist Italy - meaning most voters felt you shouldn't vote ever again for the extreme right and mainstream political parties refused to collaborate with far-right groupings - are gradually being eroded.

I was living in Vienna back in 2000 when the centre-right first jumped into a coalition government bed with the far-right Freedom Party. It made headlines the world over. The EU even slapped Vienna with diplomatic sanctions.

Now, the EU's third largest economy, Italy, is run by Giorgia Meloni, head of a party with neo-fascist roots. In Finland, after 3 months of debate, the far-right nationalists The Finns recently joined the coalition government.

In Sweden the firmly anti-immigration, anti-multiculturalism Sweden Democrats are the second largest party in parliament, propping up the right-wing coalition government there.

In Greece last Sunday three hard-right parties won enough seats to enter parliament, while in Spain, the controversial nationalist Vox Party - the first successful far-right party in Spain since the death of fascist dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 - outperformed all expectations in recent regional elections.

IMAGE SOURCE,JESUS MONROY/EPA-EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Image caption,

Spain's Vox led by Santiago Abascal sees itself as the kingmaker and is up to 14% in the polls

There's talk about them possibly forming a coalition government with the conservatives after national elections in three weeks' time.

Then there are the ultra-conservative, authoritarian-leaning governments in Poland and in Hungary.

The list really does go on and on.

Including even Germany, still so sensitive about its fascist past.

Polls there now put the far right AfD just ahead of, or neck and neck with, Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD). Last weekend an AfD candidate won a local leadership post for the first time. The SPD called it "a political dam-breaker".

So what's happening? Are millions upon millions of European voters really swerving far-right? Or is this more of a protest vote? Or a sign of the polarisation between urban liberal voters and the conservative rest? And what do we mean anyway when we describe parties as 'far-right'?

IMAGE SOURCE,FERDINAND MERZBACH/NEWS5/AFP

Image caption,

Germany's far-right AfD is riding high in the polls and scored its first district election victory last weekend in eastern Germany

Look at how hard-line some mainstream politicians can sound, especially before elections, when it comes to immigration - take centre-right Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, or security - I'm looking at you, self-described centrist Emmanuel Macron.

Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations says we're looking at a huge paradox.

On the one hand, many a mainstream politician has in recent years grabbed slogans or stances from the far-right, hoping to rob them of their supporters. But by doing so they help make the far right seem more mainstream.

While at the same time, a number of far-right parties in Europe have intentionally moved more towards the political centre, hoping to entice more centrist voters.

Take attitudes towards Russia for example. A large number of parties on the far-right - like The League in Italy, Marine Le Pen of France and Austria's Freedom Party Far had traditionally close ties to Moscow.

That became more than awkward following Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading to party leaders to change their rhetoric.

Mark Leonard cites far-right relations with the EU as another example of their 'centrification'.

You may remember, after the UK's Brexit vote in 2016 that Brussels feared a domino effect - Frexit (France leaving the EU), Dexit (Denmark leaving the EU), Italexit (Italy leaving the EU) and more.

Many European countries had deeply Eurosceptic populist parties doing well at the time but over the years those parties have felt obliged to stop agitating to leave the EU or even its euro currency.

That seemed too radical for a lot of European voters.

IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA

Image caption,

The UK's former Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a Conservative Party Conference

They looked at the social and political - never mind the hotly-debated economic impact - Brexit had in the UK and many concluded that exiting the EU would cause further destabilisation in a world that already feels very volatile.

Think: Covid pandemic, living next door to aggressive, unpredictable Russia, worrying about China, struggling with soaring living costs - with millions of European families still suffering the after-effects of the 2008 economic crisis.

Polls suggest the EU is more popular amongst Europeans at the moment than it has been for years.

And so far right parties now speak about reforming the EU, rather than leaving it. And they're predicted to perform strongly in next year's elections for the European parliament.

Paris-based Director of Institut Montaigne's Europe Programme Georgina Wright told me she believes the far-right renaissance in Europe is largely down to dissatisfaction with the political mainstream. Currently in Germany, 1 in 5 voters say they're unhappy with their coalition government, for example.

Wright said many voters in Europe are attracted by the outspokenness of parties on the far-right and there's tangible frustration that traditional politicians don't appear to have clear answers in 3 key areas of life:

1. Issues linked to identity - a fear of open borders and an erosion of national identity and traditional values
2. Economics - a rejection of globalisation and resentment that children and grandchildren aren't assured a better future
3. Social justice - a feeling that national governments are not in control of the rules that govern the lives of citizens

You can see these issues bleeding into the debate about green energy in Europe too.

In the Netherlands this year, the right-wing populist Farmer-Citizen Movement made headlines by grabbing the largest number of seats of any party in the upper house of parliament after provincial elections.

In France, Emmanuel Macron was faced by so-called yellow vest protesters, including far-right groupings, when he tried to raise petrol prices in an attempt to put people off travelling by car.

While in Germany, public concern and anger about finances is holding back the Green Party sitting in government from introducing environmental reforms it promised.