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Bomb disposal team at Russian consulate in Athens

Greek police say a bomb disposal squad has been sent to the Russian consulate in Athens after cameras showed a suspicious object believed to be a hand grenade being thrown over the perimeter fence overnight.

Police said Friday morning that the consulate's cameras showed two people on a motorbike throwing a small object over the fence, reportedly causing minor damage. Authorities cordoned off the area around the consulate, located in a suburb north of the city center.

Police said they were also examining whether a motorbike found partially burned in a central Athens neighbourhood was related to the incident.

Greece has a long history of small groups that periodically attack symbols of state authority, wealth or foreign diplomacy. They usually plant small explosive devices that do not cause injuries.

Source: Fox News World

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Oil prices rise to 2019 highs on OPEC cuts, U.S. sanctions

FILE PHOTO: Pumpjacks are seen against the setting sun at the Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang
FILE PHOTO: Pumpjacks are seen against the setting sun at the Daqing oil field in Heilongjiang province, China December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Stringe

March 19, 2019

By Dmitry Zhdannikov

LONDON (Reuters) – Oil prices rose to new 2019 highs on Tuesday, supported by supply cuts from OPEC and falling output from Iran and Venezuela due to U.S. sanctions.

Brent crude oil futures were up 55 cents at $68.09 per barrel at 1145 GMT, having earlier risen to a new 2019 high of $68.16 a barrel, their highest since November 2018.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were at $59.47 per barrel, up 38 cents from their last settlement. They have also risen on Tuesday to their highest since November 2019 of $59.57 a barrel.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries on Monday scrapped its planned meeting in April, effectively extending supply cuts that have been in place since January until its next regular meeting in June.

OPEC and a group of non-affiliated producers including Russia, known as OPEC+, cut supply in 2019 to halt a sharp price drop which began in the second-half of 2018 due to booming U.S. production and fears of a global economic slowdown.

Saudi Arabia has signaled that OPEC and its allies may continue to restrain oil output until the end of 2019.

“The OPEC+ deal has brought stability to crude prices and signs of an extension have taken crude higher,” said Alfonso Esparza, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA.

Prices have been further supported by U.S. sanctions against oil exports from Iran and Venezuela, traders said.

Venezuela has suspended its oil exports to India, one of its key export destinations, the Azeri energy ministry said on Tuesday, citing Venezuela’s oil minister.

Because of the tighter supply outlook for the coming months, the Brent forward curve has gone into backwardation since the start of the year, meaning that prices for immediate delivery are more expensive than those for dispatch in the future, with May Brent prices around $1.20 per barrel more expensive than December delivery Brent.

(GRAPHIC: Brent crude oil forward curves – https://tmsnrt.rs/2FlM7YZ)

Outside OPEC, analysts are watching U.S. crude oil production, which has risen by more than 2 million barrels per day (bpd) since early 2018, to around 12 million bpd, making the United States the world’s biggest producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Weekly output and storage data will be published by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note that economic “risks are skewed to the downside” and that “we forecast global demand growth of 1.2 million bpd year-on-year in 2019 and 1.15 million bpd during 2020”.

The bank said it expected “Brent and WTI to average $70 per barrel and $59 per barrel respectively in 2019, and $65 per barrel and $60 per barrel in 2020.”

(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; Editing Joseph Radford and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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U.S. approves Fresenius purchase of NxStage

FILE PHOTO - The headquarters of Fresenius is pictured in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO - The headquarters of Fresenius is pictured in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt February 24, 2010. REUTERS/Johannes Eisele

February 20, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has given Germany’s Fresenius Medical Care AG and U.S. home dialysis equipment maker NxStage Medical Inc antitrust approval for their merger, the agency said on Tuesday.

To win approval for the $2 billion deal, the companies agreed to sell NxStage’s bloodline tubing set business, the agency said. Fresenius and NxStage together dominate the market for the single-use plastic tubes used during dialysis, the agency said.

The five FTC commissioners split along party lines in voting on whether to approve the merger. The three Republicans, Joseph Simons, Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson, voted “yes,” while Democrats Rohit Chopra and Rebecca Slaughter dissented.

A spokesman for Fresenius was not available for comment outside of European business hours.

Fresenius and rival DaVita Inc dominate the U.S. market for dialysis clinics. Fresenius, which has 2,200 U.S. dialysis clinics, struck the deal to buy NxStage in August 2017 as a way for it to move into cheaper home dialysis. It has served 190,000 U.S. patients, according to its website.

Simons and the Republican commissioners defended the settlement by arguing that since most patients cannot use in-home dialysis, the two services do not compete against each other, among other reasons.

Chopra and Slaughter, in separate statements, noted that the clinic dialysis market was already concentrated and that the merger could lead to higher prices for people with kidney ailments.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Susan Thomas and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Toddler mauled to death by 2 family dogs

Authorities say a Florida toddler was mauled to death by a family member's dogs.

The Gainesville Sun reports that the attack occurred Friday morning at a High Springs home.

The Alachua County Sheriff's Office says the 2-year-old boy was with his grandmother as she went to her daughter's home to check on the dogs. The grandmother let the dogs out in the yard with the boy while she went inside to prepare food.

Deputies say the grandmother eventually came out of the home to find two dogs attacking the boy in a shed. The grandmother sustained serious injuries while trying to help the boy, who died at the scene.

Animal control officers removed the two dogs that attacked the boy and four others from the home.

The boy's death remains under investigation.

___

Information from: The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun, http://www.gainesvillesun.com

Source: Fox News National

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Israeli envoy: no action on West Bank until after peace plan

Israel's U.N. ambassador says he believes the government will take no action on annexing Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank until after the Trump administration releases its long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

Danny Danon told reporters Wednesday he thinks the U.S. will present the plan between May and the summer.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged in the final stretch of his campaign to annex the settlements if he was re-elected. Netanyahu was asked Wednesday to form a government after his election victory.

Danon sidestepped a question on what Israel would gain from annexing the settlements, saying that "I don't think we will see any major action by our government before the peace plan" is presented.

He noted that the new Palestinian prime minister called the plan "dead on arrival."

Source: Fox News World

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No call for simulators in new Boeing 737 MAX training proposals

FILE PHOTO: 737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton
FILE PHOTO: 737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

March 29, 2019

By Eric M. Johnson, Alwyn Scott and Allison Lampert

SEATTLE/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Boeing Co said it will submit by the end of this week a training package that 737 MAX pilots are required to take before a worldwide ban can be lifted, proposing as it did before two deadly crashes that those pilots do not need time on flight simulators to safely operate the aircraft.

In making that assessment, the world’s largest planemaker is doubling down on a strategy it promoted to American Airlines Group Inc and other customers years ago. Boeing told airlines their pilots could switch from the older 737NG to the new MAX without costly flight simulator training and without compromising on safety, three former Boeing employees said.

At the time billions of dollars in plane orders hung on Boeing’s ability to deliver a new plane that matched European rival Airbus SE in performance but kept changes and training for pilots converting from a previous model to a minimum. Airbus had already booked hundreds of orders for its A320neo jet, which came to market nine months ahead of Boeing.

At Boeing’s factory in Renton, Washington, managers told engineers working on the MAX, including its anti-stall system known as MCAS, their designs could not trigger Level C or D training designations from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the three former Boeing employees and a senior industry executive with knowledge of MAX development told Reuters. Otherwise, pilots would have to spend time in simulators before flying the new planes. Instead pilots will need to complete a roughly 30-minute training program on a computer.

“Boeing said all along that we believe that we can design this new MAX with all the fuel efficiencies and design improvements over the NG and it will only require Level B training,” said a former Boeing test pilot with direct knowledge of the matter, referring to an earlier iteration of the 737 jetliner.

Level B training does not involve simulators.

On Wednesday, Boeing outlined a series of changes to the MCAS system. It continues to believe existing emergency protocols allow pilots to correct a runaway stabilizer, which can be caused by a MCAS failure among other things. Boeing says its new changes give pilots more authority. (Graphic: Understanding controls on the Boeing 737 MAX, click https://tmsnrt.rs/2OjLSAt)

SYSTEM UNDER SCRUTINY

The amount and quality of training that Boeing and airlines provided to 737 MAX pilots is one of the issues as investigators around the world try to determine the causes of two 737 MAX crashes within five months that claimed 346 lives. All 737 MAX airliners are grounded until regulators around the world approve the new software and training protocols.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Boeing’s development process and what Boeing disclosed about MCAS.

A Boeing spokeswoman said the company followed industry standards and conducted thorough safety analyses in designing the MAX flight controls and other systems.

“The design and certification of the MCAS flight control law adhered to these processes and assumptions,” she said.

The decisions to avoid simulator training had their roots in the company’s decision under intense pressure from the aircraft market over a weekend in 2011 to change strategy and outfit an upgraded 737 with more efficient engines similar to those on the new Airbus, rather than build an all-new design.

The new 737 MAX engines had to be mounted further forward on the wing, raising the risk that the plane’s nose would tilt up, threatening a stall in some situations.

MCAS was designed to automatically and powerfully push the nose down if data from an “angle of attack” sensor mounted near the front of the plane showed risk of a stall.

Former Boeing engineers who worked on MCAS said there was no pressure to compromise safety. After analyzing solutions for MCAS, Boeing’s engineers chose a simpler design for solving the jet’s pitch-up tendency, according to the three former Boeing employees and an industry executive with knowledge of the decision.

“It wasn’t necessarily the simplest way to get around the regulations,” said Mike Renzelmann, a former Boeing engineer who worked on flight controls on the 737 MAX. “It was the safest way to get around the regulations.”

MCAS was just one of many so-called control laws on the 737 MAX, a few lines of code embedded into the flight control system.

“It’s always a balance between complexity and availability of the function. The more complex you make something, the more likely it is to be unavailable when you need it,” a Boeing official said.

LAST LINE OF DEFENSE Boeing rated MCAS a “hazardous” risk, an FAA term that means multiple deaths could result if the system failed, the Boeing official said. That is a step below “catastrophic,” which could cause loss of the plane and death of all on board.

Boeing’s rationale was that trained pilots would know how to respond if MCAS failed, the official said. Long-established procedures for runaway stabilizer trim would prompt pilots to shut down MCAS, whether they knew it existed or not.

Under FAA rules, hazardous risks are allowed to happen more frequently than catastrophic ones.

One industry source familiar with plane certification said he was “astonished” that Boeing was able to gain FAA approval for the MCAS system with one angle of attack sensor and pilots as backup.

“In reality, no single device is that robust and reliable which is why there needs to be mitigations,” he said.

On Wednesday, Boeing said the MCAS system would now rely on two sensors.

During nine to 12 months of MAX flight testing, test pilots injected errors into the flight system that tested stall conditions and runaway stabilizer, among other scenarios, the people said. But no one was aware of a specific test of an MCAS failure mode triggered by erroneous sensor data.

“The problem with these two accidents is that there were failure modes that people didn’t analyze properly or consider they could happen that way,” according to an FAA official with direct knowledge of the 737 MAX certification.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle and Allison Lampert and Alwyn Scott in New York; Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, David Shepardson in Washington and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Editing by Joe White and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: OANN

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Police: Body in Minnesota appears to be missing 2-year-old

A child's body found wrapped in a blanket along a Minnesota highway is believed to be that of a missing 2-year-old girl whose mom police have said was fatally shot by her former pimp, authorities announced Saturday.

The discovery of the child's body came hours after officials had put out a plea asking "the entire nation" to help find Noelani Robinson, whose father, Dariaz Higgins, is charged with killing her mom in Milwaukee on Monday. Police had said the child could be anywhere because her parents had traveled through numerous states.

An off-duty public works employee found the body that's believed to be Noelani's while driving home Friday night, Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales told reporters. The body was inside a blanket off the shoulder of Minnesota Highway 218 north of Austin, about 300 miles (483 kilometers) west of Milwaukee, Morales said.

How and when the child died is not yet known. An autopsy has not been conducted yet, but authorities believe the death did not occur in the last 24 hours and that the girl "had been there for quite some time," Morales said. He would not comment on the condition of the body, and said he hoped to get autopsy results by Monday.

Asked whether authorities believe Higgins was responsible for the child's death, Morales told reporters, "That's where the criminal investigation is shooting for. It's just too early to tell."

Authorities have not disclosed a motive in the death of the girl's mom, 24-year-old Sierra Robinson. Police say Higgins was Robinson's pimp and they had been romantically involved but were no longer together. Robinson had left Noelani with Higgins when she moved to Las Vegas last month but wanted her back, authorities said.

Higgins, 34, is accused of fatally shooting Robinson and wounding one of her friends. Police arrested him Wednesday and prosecutors have charged him with first-degree intentional homicide. Online court records do not list an attorney who could comment on his behalf.

The friend told police that Higgins had been living in Miami when he agreed to meet Robinson in Milwaukee to return Noelani to her. However, charging documents list a Milwaukee address for Higgins.

According to those documents, Higgins, Robinson, and her friend spent time driving around together in Milwaukee doing drugs Monday, before Higgins took them to an apartment building where he told them Noelani was. Authorities have not said whether they believe Noelani was there at the time. Prosecutors said Higgins shot Robinson and her friend when they got out of the car.

An Amber Alert had been issued for Noelani but was canceled Saturday.

Morales had suggested Friday that Noelani could be in the hands of human traffickers, but declined to provide details for why investigators believed that, other than to say, "That's the world that these two individuals lived in, the victim and the suspect."

The chief said Saturday that his department has sent two detectives to Minnesota.

"This is our job, and the closure is not the closure we like to find. But ... it's something that we have to come out and do," Morales said.

___

This story corrects charge against Higgins from "first-degree murder" to "first-degree intentional homicide."

Source: Fox News National

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Joe Biden’s brain surgeon said his former patient is “totally in the clear” as speculation over the candidate’s health — with Biden possibly becoming the oldest president in U.S. history — is likely to become a campaign issue.

The former vice president, who had been perceived by many as the strongest potential contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

But Biden’s age – 76 – is expected to become a source of attacks from a younger generation of Democrats not because of obvious generational differences, but possibly for actual health concerns if Biden gets into office.

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

Biden himself agreed last year that “it’s totally legitimate” for people to ask questions about his health if he decides to run for president, given his medical history — which has included brain surgery in 1988.

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality,” Biden told “CBS This Morning.” “Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I – do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it’s totally legitimate people ask those questions.”

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality. …  I think it’s totally legitimate [that] people ask those questions.”

— Joe Biden

But Dr. Neal Kassell, the neurosurgeon who operated on Biden for an aneurysm three decades ago, told the Washington Examiner that Biden appears to be “totally in the clear” — and even joked that the operation made Biden “better than how he was.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it,” Kassell said. “That’s more than I can say about all the other candidates or the incumbents.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it.”

— Dr. Neal Kassell

BIDEN’S CLAIM HE DIDN’T WANT OBAMA TO ENDORSE TRIGGERS MOCKERY

At the same time, however, Biden hasn’t been forthcoming about his health at least since 2008 when he released his medical records as a vice presidential candidate. The disclosure that time revealed some fairly minor issues such as an irregular heartbeat in addition to detailing previous operations, including removing a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996, the outlet reported.

It remains unclear if Biden had more aneurysms. Some medical experts say that people who have had an aneurysm can have another one.

An aneurysm, or a weakening of an artery wall, can lead to a rupture and internal bleeding, potentially placing a patient’s life in jeopardy.

Biden won’t be the only Democrat grappling with old age. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 frontrunner, is currently 77 years old and agreed with Biden last year that their ages will be an issue in the race.

“It’s part of a discussion, but it has to be part of an overall view of what somebody is and what somebody has accomplished,” Sanders told Politico.

“Look, you’ve got people who are 50 years of age who are not well, right? You’ve got people who are 90 years of age who are going to work every day, doing excellent work. And obviously, age is a factor. But it depends on the overall health and wellbeing of the individual.”

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Sanders released his medical records in 2016, with a Senate physician saying in a letter that the senator was “in overall very good health.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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