Flood relief: Deve Gowda, HD Kumaraswamy attack Yediyurappa
Bengaluru, Sep 22: Attacking Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa over delay in getting flood relief from the Centre, JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda on Sunday alleged the former was more bothered about retaining his position than the people of the state.
Chair is important (for Yediyurappa), not the people.
When chair becomes important for a politician, he never thinks about people, the former prime minister told reporters here.
He said there was "an agonising situation" prevailing in the state with people affected by the floods last month were in 'tears.' "He (Yediyurappa) has only one concern how to save his position, Gowda charged.
The JDS leader was replying to a question on the delay in Central aid for flood relief.
Opposition Congress and JDS have been targeting the BJP government in the state for not securing central aid to take up relief and rehabilitation works in flood hit districts.
Gowda's son and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy too hit out at Yediyurappa over the latter's statement that he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek Central aid for 22 districts hit by flood and did not discuss about disqualified MLAs.
It is a political drama when the chief minister says he has gone to seek funds for the flood affected people," he said.
In a series of tweets, Kumaraswamy alleged Yedyiyurappa has gone to Delhi to protect the interest of "disqualified victims of anti-democratic Operation Lotus, which was hatched using Amit Shahs clout."
By Operation Lotus, Kumaraswamy was referring to the resignation by Congress and JDS MLAs from the assembly, which toppled his government in July.
Rejecting their resignations, then assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 MLAs for their anti-party activities till 2023.
The election commission has announced byelections to 15 out of 17 assembly segments on October 21.
The disqualified MLAs have approached the Supreme Court challenging the Speaker's order and their case is coming up for hearing on Monday when they will seek a stay on the bypoll notification.
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Gopi Thotakura becomes 1st Indian space tourist on Blue Origin's private astronaut launch
Washington, May 19: Gopi Thotakura, an entrepreneur and a pilot, on Sunday became the first Indian to venture into space as a tourist aboard Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin’s NS-25 mission.
Thotakura was selected as one of the six crew members for the NS-25 mission, making him the first Indian space tourist and the second Indian to venture into space after the Indian Army's Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma in 1984.
Blue Origin's seventh human flight, NS-25, lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas on Sunday morning, the company announced on social media.
This mission was the seventh human flight for the New Shepard programme and the 25th in its history. To date, the programme has flown 31 humans above the Karman line, the proposed conventional boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin.
According to Blue Origin, "Gopi is a pilot and aviator who learned how to fly before he could drive."
He co-founded Preserve Life Corp, a global centre for holistic wellness and applied health located near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
In addition to flying jets commercially, he pilots bush, aerobatic, and seaplanes, as well as gliders and hot air balloons, and has served as an international medical jet pilot.
A lifelong traveller, his most recent adventure took him to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Andhra Pradesh-born Thotakura is a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Other crew members of the flight include Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Kenneth L. Hess, Carol Schaller, and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight, who was selected by President John F Kennedy in 1961 as the nation's first Black astronaut candidate but was never granted the opportunity to fly to space.
The rocket booster landed safely a couple minutes prior to the capsule, CNN reported.
During the mission, the crew soared to more than three times the speed of sound. The rocket vaulted the capsule past the Kármán line, an area 100 kilometers above Earth’s surface that is widely recognized as the altitude at which outer space begins — but there’s a lot of gray area, the channel said.
At the peak of the flight, passengers experienced a few minutes of weightlessness and striking views of Earth through the cabin windows, it added.
During the flight, each astronaut carried a postcard to space on behalf of Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future.
This programme gives students access to space on Blue Origin’s rockets, including an all-digital method to create and send postcards. The Club’s mission is to inspire and mobilise future generations to pursue careers in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) for the benefit of Earth.
From an environmental standpoint, nearly 99 per cent of New Shepard’s dry mass is reused, including the booster, capsule, engine, landing gear, and parachutes.
New Shepard’s engine is fuelled by highly efficient liquid oxygen and hydrogen. During the flight, the only byproduct is water vapour with no carbon emissions, the company earlier said.
Blue Origin released the NS-25 mission patch. A few of the symbols embedded include: The Gemini spacecraft represents Dwight’s aerospace training era. The hand lifting of the crew capsule is a nod to his extensive artwork.
The sunrise represents Angel and Schaller’s desire to experience the overview effect. The mountains symbolise Schaller, Thotakura, and Chiron’s passion for climbing and skiing.
Jeff Bezos’ space company had paused its suborbital tourism programme following a liftoff malfunction of the New Shepard rocket. In September 2022, an uncrewed flight of New Shepard ended in flames around a minute after liftoff.
