Moon mission a step forward to reach Mars: NASA chief
Washington, May 10: NASA's new head, Jim Bridenstine, has defended the new agency directive to return astronauts to the Moon, saying that the mission will not derail the US goal of becoming the first country to put humans on Mars.
"Our return to the surface of the Moon will allow us to prove and advance technologies that will...(enable) us to land the first Americans on the Red Planet," the NASA Administrator said on Wednesday during his keynote address at the "Humans to Mars" summit in Washington, DC.
US President Donald Trump in December 2017 signed a change in national space policy that provides for a US-led integrated programme with private sector partners for a human return to the Moon, followed by missions to Mars and beyond.
The policy calls for the NASA administrator to "lead an innovative and sustainable programme of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities".
In his first major address as NASA administrator, Bridenstine, however, did not disclose any new initiatives by NASA to send humans to the Red Planet, Space.com reported.
Mars and the moon will be complementary initiatives, said Bridenstine, who was sworn in as administrator three weeks ago after NASA went 15 months without a permanent leader.
"If some of you are concerned that the coming focus is the moon, don't be," Bridenstine said.
"We're doing both the Moon and Mars in tandem, and the missions are supportive of each other," he added.
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At least 11 killed, dozens injured in Israeli strikes in Beirut as diplomats push for cease-fire
Beirut (Lebanon), Nov 23: Israeli airstrikes on Saturday killed at least 11 people and injured dozens in central Beirut, officials said, as diplomats scrambled to broker a cease-fire.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency responders dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, it said, adding that 63 people were wounded. The strikes were the fourth in the Lebanese capital in less than a week.
The escalation comes after US envoy Amos Hochstein traveled to the region this week in an attempt to broker a cease-fire deal to end the more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has erupted into full-on war in the past two months.
Israeli bombardment has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million, or a quarter of Lebanon's population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by rockets, drones and missiles in northern Israel and in fighting in Lebanon.
Israel's war with Hamas also shows no signs of abating. Gaza's health ministry said at least 80 people were killed between Thursday and Friday in multiple strikes in the enclave's north, including the Kamal Adwan and Al-Ahli hospitals. Dozens of people are still trapped under the rubble, it said.
