All posts tagged: space industry

Elon Musk’s SpaceX hit with NLRB complaint over severance

Elon Musk’s SpaceX hit with NLRB complaint over severance

Published by skeptic

The SpaceX logo is shown on a Falcon 9 rocket as it is prepared for launch to carry NASA’s SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin to the International Space Station at the Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., March 2, 2024. Joe Skipper | Reuters The National Labor Relations Board accused SpaceX in a new complaint of entering into unlawful severance agreements with terminated employees nationwide. The unfair labor practices complaint comes two months after SpaceX filed a federal lawsuit challenging the legality of the NLRB’s oversight authority, and after the federal agency in a separate complaint accused the company of illegally firing eight workers who had criticized its CEO Elon Musk in an open letter. The new NLRB complaint claims that SpaceX included unlawful confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses in severance agreements and that it unlawfully limited the terminated workers’ ability to participate in other claims against the company. It also alleges that the rocket maker and satellite internet company maintained an unlawful rule …

China’s military, state media slam U.S. after report on SpaceX spy satellites

China’s military, state media slam U.S. after report on SpaceX spy satellites

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Chinese military and state-run media on Sunday accused the United States of threatening global security, days after a Reuters report which found Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building hundreds of spy satellites for a U.S. intelligence agency. Orlando Sentinel | Tribune News Service | Getty Images Chinese military and state-run media on Sunday accused the United States of threatening global security, days after a Reuters report which found Elon Musk’s SpaceX was building hundreds of spy satellites for a U.S. intelligence agency. SpaceX’s Starshield unit is developing the satellite network under a classified $1.8 billion contract with the National Reconnaissance Office, or NRO, Reuters reported on Friday, citing five sources familiar with the program. A social media account run by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA, said the SpaceX program exposed the United States’ “shamelessness and double standards” as Washington accuses Chinese tech companies of threatening U.S. security. “We urge U.S. companies to not help a villain do evil,” Junzhengping, an account run by the PLA, posted on social media platform Weibo on Sunday. The account has 1.1 million followers. “All countries worldwide should be vigilant and protect against new and even bigger security threats created by the U.S. government,” the post said. Wang Yanan, chief …

Trump wants Elon Musk to speak at Republican convention

Trump wants Elon Musk to speak at Republican convention

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Former President Donald Trump and his allies on the Republican National Committee want to convince Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to speak at the GOP convention in July, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. Republican leaders believe that giving Musk a speaking slot at the convention could lead to some of his fans boosting what has been the party’s historically lagging support among young adult voters on Election Day, said a source with knowledge of that belief. Trump is expected to be confirmed at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, event as the Republican presidential nominee, setting up a rematch of his 2020 contest against President Joe Biden in the election this November. Musk’s potential speaker role was disclosed after he reportedly met with Trump and a group of wealthy Republican donors last weekend in Palm Beach, Florida. It is not clear if Trump or his allies have raised the idea with Musk. That sitdown came days before the former president’s landslide victories in the Super Tuesday primaries, which led his last major challenger, former South …

Artemis II: The 4 astronauts NASA picked for moon mission

Artemis II: The 4 astronauts NASA picked for moon mission

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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN  —  Astronauts who will helm the first crewed moon mission in five decades were revealed on Monday, queuing up the quartet to begin training for the historic Artemis II lunar flyby that is set to take off in November 2024. The astronauts are NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen of the Canadian Space Agency. Wiseman is a 47-year-old decorated naval aviator and test pilot who was first selected to be a NASA astronaut in 2009. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he’s completed one prior spaceflight, a 165-day trip to the International Space Station that had launched aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in 2014. Most recently, Wiseman served as chief of the astronaut office before stepping down in November 2022, making him eligible for a flight assignment. Wiseman will serve as commander of the Artemis II mission. Hansen, 47, is a fighter pilot who was selected by the Canadian Space …

Girls to design Africa’s first private space satellite

Girls to design Africa’s first private space satellite

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Story highlights Africa will launch its first private satellite into space It’s been built by schoolgirls CNN  —  They may be teenagers, but 17-year-old Brittany Bull and 16-year-old Sesam Mngqengqiswa have grand ambitions – to launch Africa’s first private satellite into space in 2019. They are part of a team of high school girls from Cape Town, South Africa, who have designed and built payloads for a satellite that will orbit over the earth’s poles scanning Africa’s surface. Once in space, the satellite will collect information on agriculture, and food security within the continent. Using the data transmitted, “we can try to determine and predict the problems Africa will be facing in the future”, explains Bull, a student at Pelican Park High School. “Where our food is growing, where we can plant more trees and vegetation and also how we can monitor remote areas,” she says. “We have a lot of forest fires and floods but we don’t always get out there in time.” Information received twice a day will go towards disaster prevention. It’s …

This NASA astronaut voted from space

This NASA astronaut voted from space

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Story highlights Shane Kimbrough is a NASA astronaut He voted in the 2016 election CNN  —  From infinity and beyond, he found a way to vote. Shane Kimbrough, a NASA astronaut currently living on board the International Space Station, filed his ballot in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to a Tumblr post by NASA. NASA told Yahoo News that Kimbrough filed his ballot in the 2016 election from the space station sometime over the past few days. For astronauts who will be in space on Election Day, the voting process starts a year before launch. At that time, they are able to select the elections in which they want to participate. Then, six months before the election, astronauts are provided with the form “Voter Registration and Absentee Ballot Request – Federal Post Card Application.” NASA astronaut David Wolf was the first American to vote in space while on the Russian Mir Space Station in a 1997 local election, according to NPR. Source link

Space travel: Going to space is a real pain in the back

Space travel: Going to space is a real pain in the back

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Story highlights Astronauts can temporarily gain 2 inches in height but suffer muscle loss and back pain More countermeasures involving exercise may help mitigate pain and muscle loss CNN  —  A six-month stay on the International Space Station can be a pain in the back for astronauts. While they may gain up to 2 inches in height temporarily, that effect is accompanied by a weakening of the muscles supporting the spine, according to a new study. Astronauts have been reporting back pain since the late 1980s, when space missions grew longer. Their flight medical data show that more than half of US astronauts have reported back pain, especially in their lower backs. Up to 28% indicated that it was moderate to severe pain, sometimes lasting the duration of their mission. Things don’t improve when they return to Earth’s gravity. In the first year after their mission, astronauts have a 4.3 times higher risk of a herniated disc. “It’s sort of an ongoing problem that has been a significant one with cause for concern,” said Dr. …