Only Amanda Nguyen and Aisha Bowe were actually qualified to be up there. It’s a pity they ended up being relegated to spokesmodels for a billionaire’s vanity mission.
Delayed by a day during the inaugural attempt to reach orbit & compete with SpaceX in the satellite launch market, the launcher sat on the launchpad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
Jeff Bezos will travel to the edge of space in his New Shepard aircraft — more than a week after billionaire Richard Branson defeated him in a fast developing space race.
Bezos-owned Blue Origin, one of several high-profile space-tourism companies, will carry out a suborbital space trip on 20 July, reaching an altitude of about 100km.
For an industry globally classified as hazardous, protections such as health insurance and a provident fund for workers are necessities. In Sivakasi, they remain elusive.
The industry forecasts exports are set to grow 16% in 2025-26, boosted by surplus domestic production and a drive to push into 26 underserved global markets with strong potential.
Indigenisation level will progressively increase up to 60 percent with key sub-assemblies, electronics and mechanical parts being manufactured locally.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
COMMENTS