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All aboard! Next stop space...
Washington (AFP) - Several hundred people have already booked their tickets and begun training for a spectacular voyage: a few minutes, or perhaps days, in the weightlessness of space. The mainly wealthy first-time space travellers are getting ready to take part in one of several private missions which are preparing to launch. The era of space tourism is on the horizon 60 years after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space. Two companies, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, are building spacecraft capable of sending private clients on suborbital flights to the edge of space...
AFP
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International Space Station welcomes team of three new astronauts
Three astronauts reached the International Space Station (ISS) after their rocket took off punctually from the Russian spaceport in Baikonur on Friday. According to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the launch vehicle Soyuz 2.1a lifted off at 0742 GMT from a site in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. Weather conditions were sunny. On board are cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark T Vande Hei. They needed about three and a half hours to reach humanity's most far-flung staffed outpost. There are currently seven crew members on the ISS about 400 kilometres ab...
DPA
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Three-man crew docks at ISS after flight honouring Gagarin
Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP) - A three-man crew docked at the international Space Station Friday after a flight honouring the 60th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space. A Soyuz capsule carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei docked at 1105 GMT, footage broadcasted by NASA TV showed. "There is contact!" Russia's space agency Roscosmos wrote on Twitter. "Hey, Expedition 64 –- set the dinner table... Can't wait to join you on @Space_Station in a few hours!" Vande Hei tweeted to the crew on board the I...
AFP
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Trio of space travellers blast off for rendezvous with space station
Three astronauts are on their way to the International Space Station (ISS) after their rocket took off punctually from the Russian spaceport Baikonur on Friday. According to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the launch vehicle Soyuz 2.1a lifted off at 0742 GMT from a site in the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. Weather conditions were sunny. On board are cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark T Vande Hei. Commentators covering the launch on TV said they had been told the trio was well. If everything goes according to plan, it will take just more than three hou...
DPA
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Soyuz crew to blast off and mark 60 years of spaceflight
Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP) - A three-man crew will blast off to the International Space Station on Friday in a capsule honouring the 60th anniversary of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin becoming the first person in space. Reminders of Gagarin's achievement were everywhere at the Russia-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei prepared for their half-year mission aboard the orbital lab. The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that the trio take off in at 0742 GMT has been named after the legendary cosmonaut and Gagarin's ...
AFP
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Biden has invited Putin, Xi to virtual climate summit
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden has invited his counterparts Xi Jinping of China and Russia's Vladimir Putin to a virtual climate summit he is hosting in April, the White House announced on Friday. In all, 40 world leaders have been asked to attend the two-day meeting meant to mark Washington's return to the front lines of the fight against man-made climate change, after former president Donald Trump disengaged from the process. "They know they're invited," Biden said of Xi and Putin. "But I haven't spoken to either one of them yet." The start of the summit on April 22 coincides with E...
AFP
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Biden has invited Putin, Xi to virtual climate summit: US official
Washington (AFP) - President Joe Biden has invited his counterparts Xi Jinping of China and Russia's Vladimir Putin to a virtual climate summit he is hosting in April, the White House announced on Friday. In all, 40 world leaders have been asked to attend the two-day meeting meant to mark Washington's return to the front lines of the fight against man-made climate change, after former president Donald Trump disengaged from the process. "They know they're invited," Biden said of Xi and Putin. "But I haven't spoken to either one of them yet." The start of the summit on April 22 coincides with E...
AFP
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'Putin's chef' demands FBI remove him from wanted list
Moscow (AFP) - Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin has written to the FBI demanding that it remove him from its wanted list, calling it a violation of human rights principles, his company said on Wednesday. The FBI last month offered a $250,000 (210,000-euro) reward for Prigozhin, who was indicted by the United States three years ago for meddling in its 2016 presidential vote. It said Prigozhin, who is nicknamed "Putin's chef" because his company Concord has catered for the Kremlin, was wanted "for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to defraud the United States". In a statement o...
AFP
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Blinken keeps up US pressure on Berlin about Nord Stream 2
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken used his first visit to Brussels in his new post to pressure Germany to scrap the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and threatened fresh sanctions on involved businesses. Blinken met "briefly" with his German counterpart, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, at the sidelines of NATO foreign ministers' talks in Brussels, State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement. "Blinken underscored the U.S. commitment to work with Allies and partners to counter Russian efforts to undermine our collective security and, in that vein, emphasized U.S. opposition to the Nord St...
DPA
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Russia's relationship with EU has been 'destroyed,' Lavrov says
The European Union has "destroyed" its relationship with Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, in the wake of new EU sanctions against Moscow. "There are no relations with the European Union as an organization. The entire infrastructure of these relations has been destroyed by unilateral decisions made by Brussels," the top Russian diplomat said while on a trip to China. Lavrov said the EU-wide approach to Russian foreign policy was gone, and all that was left were individual European partner countries guided by their own national interests. The foreign minister has o...
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