Day: November 9, 2021

NASA on Tuesday delayed putting astronauts back on the moon until 2025 at the earliest, missing the deadline set by the Trump administration.

The space agency had been aiming for 2024 for the first moon landing by astronauts in a half-century.

In announcing the delay, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Congress did not provide enough money to develop a landing system for its Artemis moon program and more money is needed for its Orion capsule. In addition, a legal challenge by Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, stalled work for months on the Starship lunar landing system under development by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Officials said technology for new spacesuits also needs to ramp up, before astronauts can return to the moon.

NASA is still targeting next February for the first test flight of its moon rocket, the Space Launch System, or SLS, with an Orion capsule. No one will be on board. Instead, astronauts will strap in for the second Artemis flight, flying beyond the moon but not landing in 2024, a year later than planned. That would bump the moon landing to at least 2025, according to Nelson.

“The human landing system is a crucial part of our work to get the first woman and the first person of color to the lunar surface, and we are getting geared up to go,” Nelson told reporters. “NASA is committed to help restore America’s standing in the world.”

Nelson made note of China’s ambitious and aggressive space program, and warned it could overtake the U.S. in lunar exploration.

NASA’s last moon landing by astronauts occurred during Apollo 17 in 1972. Altogether, 12 men explored the lunar surface.

During a National Space Council meeting in 2019, Vice President Mike Pence called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years “by any means necessary.” NASA had been shooting for a lunar landing in 2028, and pushing it up by four years was considered at the time exceedingly ambitious, if not improbable.

Congress will need to increase funding, beginning with the 2023 budget, in order for NASA to have private companies competing for the planned 10 or more moon landings by astronauts, Nelson said.

The space agency also is requesting a bigger budget for its Orion capsules, from $6.7 billion to $9.3 billion, citing delays during the coronavirus pandemic and storm damage to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the main manufacturing site for SLS and Orion. Development costs for the rocket through the first Artemis flight next year stand at $11 billion.

Vice President Kamala Harris will convene her first National Space Council meeting, as its chair, on December 1. Nelson said he updated her on the latest schedule and costs during their visit to Maryland’s Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday.

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – The Angolan Executive foresees a budget of 827.4 billion Kwanzas (US $1.4billion equivalent) for structural investments in the year 2022, representing an increase of 349.9 billion kwanzas (US $582.3million equivalent) compared to the previous year.

The financial slice for the health sector is f 35.9 billion Kwanzas (US $58.2million equivalent), according to the 2022/General State Budget, presented this Tuesday by the minister of Finance, Vera Daves, at the National Assembly.

According to the minister, the public investment will continue to increase through the current public-investment plan approved on the ongoing General State Budget, highlighting the PIIM – Programme of Integrated Intervention in Municipalities.

On the scope of the programme, the transport sector will get an investment of 330.8billion kwanzas (US $548.6 million equivalent), while the public works connected to roads got a budget of about 108.1 million Kwanzas (US $197.9million equivalent).

The 2022 Budget predicts, for the energy and water sector, an investment of around 185.3 billion kwanzas (US $308.2million equivalent) and 155.8 0billion kwanzas (US $259.1million equivalent), respectively.

With this proposal, the Angolan Executive aims to encourage public investment in order to boost employment and economic growth, therefore the document points to expenses of about 18.7 billion kwanzas (US $31.2million equivalent), with the US $59 a barrel of crude-oil as reference.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Facebook Inc. said on Tuesday it plans to remove detailed ad-targeting options that refer to “sensitive” topics, such as ads based on interactions with content around race, health, religious practices, political beliefs or sexual orientation.

The company, which recently changed its name to Meta and which makes the vast majority of its revenue through digital advertising, has been under intense scrutiny over its ad-targeting abilities and rules in recent years.

In a blog post, Facebook gave examples of targeting categories that would no longer be allowed on its platforms, such as “Lung cancer awareness,” “World Diabetes Day,” “LGBT culture,” “Jewish holidays” or political beliefs and social issues. It said the change would take place starting Jan. 19, 2022.

The company has been hit with criticisms around its micro-targeting capabilities, including over abuses such as advertisers discriminating against or targeting vulnerable groups. In 2019, it agreed to make changes to its ads platform as part of a settlement over housing discrimination issues.

“We’ve heard concerns from experts that targeting options like these could be used in ways that lead to negative experiences for people in underrepresented groups,” Graham Mudd, the company’s vice president of product marketing for ads, said in the post.

Its tailored ad abilities are used by wide-ranging advertisers, including political campaigns and social issue groups, as well as businesses.

“The decision to remove these Detailed Targeting options was not easy, and we know this change may negatively impact some businesses and organizations,” Mudd said in the post, adding that some advertising partners were concerned they would not be able to use these ads to generate positive social change.

Advertisers on Facebook’s platforms can still target audiences by location, use their own customer lists, reach custom audiences who have engaged with their content and send ads to people with similar characteristics to those users.

The move marks a key shift for the company’s approach to social and political advertising, though it is not expected to have major financial implications. CEO Mark Zuckerberg estimated in 2019, for example, that politicians’ ads would make up less than 0.5% of Facebook’s 2020 revenue.

The issue of political advertising on social media platforms, including whether the content of politicians’ ads should be fact-checked, provoked much debate among the public, lawmakers and companies around the U.S. presidential election.

Twitter in 2019 banned political ads altogether, but Facebook had previously said it would not limit how political advertisers reached potential voters.

Facebook, which now allows users to opt to see fewer ads related to topics like politics and alcohol, said on Tuesday it would early next year give people more controls over the ads they see, including ones about gambling and weight loss.

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – The Angolan health authorities announced, this Tuesday, the recovery of 863 patients infected with Covid-19, the registration of 38 new infections and 2 deaths, on the last 24 hours.

According to the daily bulletin, 180 of the recovered patients are resident in Cabinda, 169 are from Zaire, 154 from Benguela, 150 from Luanda, 50 from Huambo, 47 from Cuanza-Norte, 35 from Huíla, 34 in Uíge, 21 in Malanje, 20 in Cunene and 3 in Moxico.

Regarding the new infections, 24 of them were diagnosed in Luanda, 6 in Cabinda, 3 in Cuanza-Sul and Huambo, and two cases in Huíla.

With ages ranging from 1 to 82 years, there are 23 males and 15 females.

In the last 24 hours, the labs processed 2,873 samples through RT-PCR, with a daily infection rate of 1.3%.

Angola sums an overall of 64,762 confirmed cases, of which 1,723 resulted in deaths, plus 61,092 recoveries and 1,947 active cases.

On the current diseased, are 5 in critical condition, 6 severe, 13 moderate, 22 mild and 1,901 asymptomatic.

There are 55 patients hospitalized in treatment centers, as 83 citizens are complying institutional quarantine and 96 contacts of positive cases are under medical surveillance.

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Cidade da Praia – The President of Angola, João Lourenço and the president of Cabo Verde, Jose´ Maria Neves, addressed this Tuesday, in the city of Praia, issues of bilateral cooperation.

At the end of the meeting, that occurred at the official house of the Cabo Verdean president, right after his swearing-in ceremony, no audience to the press was given.

Invited to the act, João Lourenço arrived Monday afternoon in the Cabo-Verdean capital city.

Besides the Angolan president, the investiture act was also witnessed by president of Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana and Senegal, at the Cabo Verdean parliamentary headquarters.

Angolan president receives Pedro Pires

On schedule of his stay in the Cabo-Verdean capital, the Angolan president received in audience the former Cape Verdean Head of State, Pedro Pires, a personality that led that country for 10 years (2001 – 2011).

Pedro Pires is also a historical reference on the fight against the Portuguese colonialism in that country.

Angola and Cape Verde have strong cooperation ties in several legal instruments signed, such as the visa waiver agreements, technical cooperation on education, defence, petroleum, diplomacy, agriculture, transport, finance and administration domains.

Source: Angola Press News Agency