U.S. sanctions several Russians in 1st official response to Navalny case
U.S. sanctions several Russians in 1st official response to Navalny case
Chinese vaccines sweep world, despite concerns
In what some are calling “vaccine diplomacy,” China is offering its vaccines to dozens of poorer nations around the world. But concerns over safety and efficacy, as well as a dearth of publicly available data also means many are suspicious. (March 2)
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- SpaceX's first engineers lived on a remote Pacific island to prepare the company's earliest rocket for launch.
- In the first year that SpaceX was on the island, food shipments sometimes failed.
- So one day, hungry engineers refused to work until a helicopter brought chicken and cigarettes.
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
In SpaceX's earliest days, its rocket engineers lived on a remote Pacific island, where they occasionally ran out of food.
On that island, called Omelek, the team was racing to build a launchpad and set up the company's Falcon 1 rocket.
Journalist Eric Berger, who works as the space editor at Ars Technica, describes those early days of Elon Musk's rocket company in his new book, Liftoff, which will be published Tuesday. Berger's telling of SpaceX's beginnings is packed with anecdotes that have never been previously reported - such as Elon Musk's first encounter with a Pop-Tart, a rocket launch attempt thwarted by salty ocean spray, and an island mutiny staged by hungry workers in 2005.
HarperCollins Publishers
SpaceX engineers were living and working on Omelek, part of the Marshall Islands' Kwajalein Atoll, because that's the spot the company chose to escape the US Air Force. The Air Force had indefinitely delayed the company's efforts to launch from California. But the US Army, which oversaw the atoll, was friendlier to SpaceX's plans. Being close to the equator also made it easier to reach orbit.
However, during that first year on the island, Berger writes, "logistics were poor." Supply deliveries were often delayed, and the workers sometimes went without food.
So one day in the fall of 2005, tensions boiled over into mutiny. The employees went on strike to force an emergency supply drop, and were eventually quelled with chicken wings and cigarettes.
'We were just wild animals on the island, waiting for food'
After Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, he had to prove to investors that his company could actually fly rockets, and do so faster and cheaper than traditional launch providers.
The need to demonstrate that quickly was, in part, the reason SpaceX used the islands of the Kwajalein Atoll for its rocket launches for four years.
But Bulent Altan, an engineer who worked for SpaceX at the time, told Berger that the workers there "felt like slaves out on Omelek, with all the power stripped away from us."
On the day of the mutiny, SpaceX managers had scolded the engineers on Omelek for not sufficiently documenting changes to the rocket. Some of the island workers felt that they were being pushed to work ever faster, while managers were at the same time suddenly expecting them to do "paperwork, forms, and tickets" that hadn't been required before, Berger reported.
"We got our asses chewed out, just this huge reprimand," Altan said.
The engineers had been anticipating that a boat would arrive that day with a shipment of food, beer, and cigarettes. When the vessel didn't come, that was the last straw.
"We had been going around the clock," Jeremy Hollman, the engineer who led the Omelek team, told Berger. "At some point everybody got fed up and decided that we needed to find a way to let them know that we were a part of this team as well."
Hollman called the launch director, Tim Buzza, and explained that the Omelek team members wouldn't work until they received a supply drop with food and cigarettes. The SpaceX engineers were going on strike.
Buzza "recognized the gravity of the situation," according to Berger, so he called in an Army helicopter to bring cigarettes and trays of chicken wings to Omelek that night.
"We were just wild animals on the island, waiting for food," Ed Thomas, a SpaceX technician at the time, told Berger.
At first it seemed that the helicopter supply drop might fail, too. The pilot refused to land, saying that the tower the workers were building on the launchpad made it unsafe for his helicopter. After Buzza promised to buy him a few drinks, the pilot dropped the supplies out of the helicopter's door.
With chicken in their stomachs, the engineers went back to work.
SpaceX attempted its first launch the following spring, but the rocket caught fire and fell into the ocean.
To improve morale after that, Musk booked a Zero-G flight on a 727 aircraft for about three dozen employees so they could briefly experience the weightlessness that astronauts feel.
In March 2007, SpaceX's first rocket finally reached space. By the time the company launched its third flight, the employees on Omelek had set up a well-stocked kitchen where they took turns cooking meals. They also had a "refrigerated sea van" with unlimited drinks, according to Berger.
"Everything was fantastic luxury, compared to the first flight, so we loved it on Omelek," Altan said.
Today, SpaceX no longer has any presence in the Marshall Islands. The company is currently testing new rocket prototypes at its facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.
U.S. sanctions several Russians in 1st official response to Navalny case The Week Magazine
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Аргументы и Факты
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Российская Газета
1. Russian Press from Michael_Novakhov (80 sites)
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Член администрации рассказал, что Америка хотят иметь предсказуемые и стабильные связи с Россией. Он отметил, что Вашингтон не заинтересован ни в “перезагрузке” отношений с Москвой, ни в их эскалации.
В Белом доме также заверили, что Соединенные Штаты привлекут Россию к ответственности, если она попытается “преступить границы”, принятые и уважаемые другими государствами.
Во время брифинга член администрации сообщил, что Вашингтон вводит санкции против 14 организаций, связанных с делом блогера Алексея Навального. В список попали девять российских компаний, три немецких, одна швейцарская и один российский государственный исследовательский институт.
Известие прокомментировал генерал ФСБ Владимир Джабаров. По его мнению, Америка “перешла все грани допустимого”, Россия должна жестко ответить на введенные ограничения. Эксперт признался, что у него сложилось впечатление, будто администрация ищет любой предлог для санкций, передает РИА Новости.
Ранее американская администрация предупредила Москву о возможном введении ограничений за “злонамеренные действия”. В частности, Россию обвиняют во вмешательстве в американские выборы, многочисленных кибератаках и в отравлении Навального.
Дни.ру
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Inopressa
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Аргументы и Факты
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The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Myanmar's coup leaders. For Japan, among the most influential countries in Myanmar, it's not so simple.
(Image credit: Eugene Hoshiko/AP)
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