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Four Seasons Before Lunch Gauteng (Pretoria)

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 I have lived in Pretoria for half my life, but even at almost 50, l still am not ready for mornings like this . I step out of  home in the morning at 7 a.m., greeted by a warm, gentle breeze and sunshine so golden it felt like summer had arrived overnight. The sky was clear; the jacaranda trees glowed purple; the air smelled of warmth and possibility. “Perfect day,” l muttered, locking his door. By the time l drive out—five minutes later—the sky starts to be darkened. A cold wind came crawling in from nowhere, sweeping dust across the pavement. The temperature dropped so suddenly that  l have  to switch the heater for warmth. Laughing. “Ah, Pretoria… you never disappoint.” Halfway to the office, the heavens opened. Not soft rain— a storm . Sheets of water hammered the road, street gutters overflowed instantly, and distant thunder rolled like a grumpy giant waking up too early. People scattered, hiding under bus shelters already too full.  “Ten minutes ago...
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Blue Origin’s latest launch brings it close to sending humans to space Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274834-blue-origins-latest-launch-brings-it-close-to-sending-humans-to-space/#ixzz6sqYvIQ59

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 SPACE 15 April 2021

By Leah Crane

New Scientist Default Image

The New Shepard booster after returning to the landing pad on 14 April

Blue Origin

Blue Origin, the space flight company founded by Jeff Bezos, has completed what may be its last test flight before attempting to put astronauts aboard its New Shepard rocket. On 14 April, the US-based company launched the spacecraft – without a crew – to just past the edge of space and then returned it to the ground.

This marked the second successful Blue Origin test flight in 2021. Before the launch, four of the company’s executives acted as “stand-in astronauts”, doing everything that actual passengers would do before flying aboard New Shepard.

They climbed to the top of the launch tower, got into the capsule, buckled in and checked the communications systems. Then they closed the hatch briefly before reopening it and getting out before the launch. For the flight, a test dummy nicknamed Mannequin Skywalker sat in the capsule.

Read more: Blue Origin assembles space industry dream team to build moon lander

The rocket flew about 100 kilometres up before releasing the crew capsule and returning to a landing pad near the launch site in Texas. The capsule spent about 3 minutes in microgravity before coming back down, its descent slowed by a set of parachutes.

Blue Origin hasn’t announced when the first crewed New Shepard flight will be, only saying that it will bring passengers to space “soon” during an online livestream of the launch. “Even if it’s not the next flight, it seems like they will have people onboard in the next few,” says space analyst Laura Forczyk. “We’ve all been wondering what’s been holding them up with their crewed flights, and maybe nothing is now.”

Those first passengers will probably be Blue Origin employees rather than paying customers until the company establishes a track record of safety with crewed flights, she says. “Eventually the crew will be tourists and researchers, and astronauts may be able to train for missions in lower gravity in one of these suborbital vehicles.”

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Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2274834-blue-origins-latest-launch-brings-it-close-to-sending-humans-to-space/#ixzz6sqZ0oGem

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