Space One's Kairos exploded midair within seconds of its launch. The rocket was carrying a government satellite intended to temporarily replace intelligence satellites. Japanese company Space One's first attempt to make the country a contender in satellite launches ended in fire, smoke and debris after the Kairos rocket exploded shortly after its launch on Wednesday. Tokyo-based Space One's Kairos was Japan's first private-sector rocket to be launched. The 18-meter (59-foot) solid-fuel rocket blasted off from the company's own launch pad in the Wakayama region of western Japan at 11:01 a.m. (0201 GMT). Local media livestreams showed the rocket exploding midair within seconds of its launch. Hundreds of spectators had also gathered nearby to watch the launch. According to Shuhei Kishimoto, the governor of the local government, there were no injuries near the launch pad, and the fire has been extinguished. Company investigating cause The rocket was carrying a government satellite intended to temporarily replace intelligence satellites if needed. Space One said in a statement that following the launch of the first Kairos rocket, they took "a measure to abort the flight." The company further added that "details are being investigated." Katsumasa Tashima, the mayor of Kushimoto, a town in Wakayama, said he was disappointed but added that the town would support Space One and "continue to offer our help so that the first rocket will have a successful launch." Earlier, the company had to delay the inaugural launch window of Kairos — derived from an ancient Greek word meaning "the right moment" — four times, most recently on Saturday. Japan's aerospace industry scrambling to capture share of market The launch's failure is a setback for Space One, founded in 2018 by a Japanese consortium including Canon Electronics, IHI Aerospace, construction firm Shimizu and the government-owned Development Bank of Japan. Despite the explosion, Space One plans to continue its mission to provide "space courier services," with an aim to launch 20 rockets a year by the late 2020s, its president Masakazu Toyoda said. Last month, Japan's space agency JAXA successfully launched its new cost-efficient flagship rocket, the H3. This launch was also plagued with delays and two failed attempts. Although relatively small, Japan's aerospace industry is working hard to develop less expensive rockets, aiming to meet the growing demand for satellite launches from both the government and international customers.  

The Odysseus mission marks the first controlled descent to the moon's surface by a US spaceship since Apollo 17 in 1972. The company behind the mission said flight controllers received a weak signal from the moon lander. A spacecraft built and flown by Houston-based Intuitive Machines landed on the moon at 2323 GMT on Thursday, marking the first US touchdown on the lunar surface in more than half a century and the first ever by a private company. The news was confirmed by Intuitive Machine's chief executive Steve Altemus, who said: "I know this was a nail biter but we are on the on the surface and we are transmitting. Welcome to the moon." The company behind the mission said flight controllers received a weak signal from the ship. "We're evaluating how we can refine that signal," said mission director Tim Crain. "Without a doubt our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and we are transmitting," he said. "Congratulations, IM team, we'll see how much more we can get from that." What is the spacecraft's mission? The six-legged robotic lander, dubbed Odysseus, targeted the Malapert A crater near the moon's south pole. Odysseus carries a suite of scientific instruments and technology demonstrations for NASA and several commercial customers and is designed to operate on solar power for seven days before the sun sets over the polar landing site. The NASA payload will focus on collecting data on space weather interactions with the lunar surface, radio astronomy and other aspects of the lunar environment for future landers and NASA's planned return of astronauts later this decade. Odyssey to the moon Odysseus launched on February 15 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The spacecraft boasts a new type of supercooled liquid oxygen, liquid methane propulsion system that allows it to race through space in quick time. Odysseus remained "in excellent health" as it continued to orbit the moon, about 239,000 miles (384,000 kilometers) from Earth, transmitting flight data and lunar images to Intuitive Machines' mission control center in Houston, the company said Wednesday. History of lunar exploration The Intuitive Machines' mission marks the first controlled descent to the lunar surface by a US spacecraft since Apollo 17 in 1972, when NASA's last crewed mission to the moon landed with astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. To date, spacecraft from only four other countries have landed on the moon: the former Soviet Union, China, India and, most recently, Japan, just last month. The United States is the only country to have ever sent humans to the lunar surface.  

A SpaceX capsule flying four people to the International Space Station took off safely from Florida's Cape Canaveral. Alper Gezeravci becomes the first Turkish national to make it into outer space. A private mission to the International Space Station (ISS) was successfully launched on Thursday with Turkey's first astronaut on board, US space agency NASA said. A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule lifted off on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at 4.49 p.m. local time (21:49 GMT/UTC) from Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida. NASA said that docking at the ISS was expected early on Saturday morning with the crew expected to stay at the ISS for two weeks. Who is on board? Spanish-born former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is mission commander and is joined by Italy's Walter Villadei, Sweden's Marcus Wandt and Turkey's Alper Gezeravci — who becomes the first Turkish national to travel into space. Gezeravci served as a fighter pilot in the Turkish Air Force and has 15 years experience on multiple aircraft, according to Axiom Space. He spoke along with the other crew members from on board the vessel in a video shared online by SpaceX. "It was a great feeling, starting from the end of the countdown, all the way to here. A great ride," Gezeravci said, adding that he had dreamed "for so long" of being able to fly without a "ceiling."  Gezeravci will be serving as a mission specialist. People gathered around screens in Turkey where live video of the launch was shown on big screens. Third private mission by Axiom Space The mission has been arranged by private space-flight company Axiom Space and is being conducted in cooperation with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX company. It is the third such flight by Houston-based Axiom over the past two years and they describe the mission as "the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the International Space Station." A seat on board the space craft costs at least $55 million (€50.5 million). SpaceX said that more than 30 scientific experiments "focused on human physiology and technological industrial advancements" would be conducted during the 14-day mission.

China’s real estate market is undergoing a crisis with sluggish sales and a slow economic recovery. Meanwhile, Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are rapidly gaining dominance in real estate sales, while private companies, including giants like Evergrande Group and Country Garden, face looming debt defaults. This power shift is raising questions concerning the Chinese regime’s intent to expand the SOEs and its implications for the broader economy. This phenomenon in the Chinese economy gave rise to the catchphrase, “The state enterprises advance, the private sectors retreat,” meaning that the SOEs are expanding and forcing out private companies. The regime would generally favor SOEs in policies and subsidies and, therefore, gradually eliminate competitors from the market. This trend signals that China’s real estate power landscape is facing a major reshuffling. Real estate contributes to around 30 percent of China’s GDP and is, therefore, critical to the stability of the country’s economy. Data shows that the total sales of China’s top 100 real estate companies from Jan. to Oct. amounted to 4.56 trillion yuan (US$624.7 billion), a decrease of 12.8 percent compared to the same period last year. The top five companies on the sales list were dominated by SOEs backed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Topping the sales list was Poly Real Estate, a subsidiary of the state-owned China Poly Group, whose sales from Jan. to Oct. rose 1.4 percent year-on-year to 368.21 billion yuan (US$50.4 billion). This amount is 6.7 times that of 22nd-ranked China Evergrande’s 54.6 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion). In the second to fifth place on the sales list, all are SOEs, and three out of four of them had increased their sales volume in the past year. In China’s real estate sales rankings from Jan. to Oct., the pattern of the top 100 real estate companies is undergoing a complete remake. Country Garden, a privately owned company, fell out of the top five and ranked sixth, with its sales volume plummetting 49.3 percent year-on-year. Another private property developer, Sunac China, saw their sales plunge the most year-on-year by 50.5 percent among the top 50 companies. The real estate SOEs’ sales performance is even more remarkable in the land market. The amount of land ownership is a crucial resource for real estate companies to develop, which determines their future market share. However, due to the limited capital strength and the downturn of the Chinese real estate industry, the once-large private companies are no longer in a position to acquire more land. The CCP’s state-owned real estate companies are taking advantage of the situation to take control of high-quality land resources. According to data from January to the end of October, among the top 100 Chinese real estate companies, nearly 50 percent of them have almost stopped acquiring land, and most of these real estate companies are ranked in the lower half of the top 100 in terms of sales performance. The top ten real estate companies in land acquisition are all SOEs controlled by the CCP. SOEs also accounted for 66 percent of the land acquisitions, while private Chinese companies only accounted for 22%. This shows that the future dominance of China’s real estate market will be in the hands of these SOEs. Mike Sun, a North American investment consultant, spoke to The Epoch Times: “Seeing the difficulties experienced by private real estate companies, the SOEs seized the opportunity to acquire land for two major reasons. First, they wish to stabilize the market by having the CCP own most of the land in the country. The regime certainly does not want to see their land depreciate in value. Secondly, the SOEs have not suffered significant losses during the real estate crisis. So they are taking advantage of the decline of the private companies to accelerate their goal of expanding state ownership at the expense of privately owned companies, thus achieving dominance in the real estate power map.” Mr. Sun believes that the economic development model led by real estate development and urbanization since 1998 has come to an end and that the collapse of the real estate sector is inevitable. Since the second half of 2021, property prices in China have continued to fall, breaking the previous market trend of only rising prices. China’s economy has also been on a downward trend, with the youth unemployment rate hitting record highs at 21.3 percent in July. Some academics suggest that the actual figure could be as high as 46.5 percent. The real estate crisis in China is also starting to impact the financial sector, which may lead to a broader economic crisis.

Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein while highlighting the vast potential and opportunities for investment in Arunachal Pradesh owing to its abundance in natural resources and favourable climate on June 10 urged the private companies to invest and establish industries in the state, especially in the agro-based industries, food processing units and other ventures. “There is immense scope for several industries in the state to flourish and scale beyond regional and national markets including agri-based, tourism and more. I urge the entrepreneurs and investors in varied fields to explore the potentials of the state including agro-based industries and be a partner in the journey towards compounding the economic growth of Arunachal Pradesh,” said DyCM Chowna Mein in a social media post after attending the C20 Summit Corporate meeting. The C20 Summit being held in Namsai has brought together foreign diplomats, resource persons, intellectuals and delegates from various civil society organizations from G20 countries. The event, organized by Vivekananda Kendra and G20 Secretariat of Arunachal Pradesh, hosted in the picturesque “Land of Pagodas” has opened up a platform to discuss the potentials for investments and challenges of Arunachal Pradesh. Addressing the meeting, the deputy CM stated that the state offers immense opportunities for cultural tourism, religious tourism, eco-tourism and adventure tourism covering activities like trekking, river rafting & mountaineering, as well as sports and research tourism, due to its rich bio and cultural diversity. The state’s numerous torrential & perennial rivers such as Siang, Dibang, Subansiri, Kameng, Lohit offer immense hydropower generation possibilities. Arunachal Pradesh alone has the capacity to generate 50,000 MW of hydro-electricity, positioning it as a powerhouse for the country, he said. While highlighting the state’s remarkable progress including in the connectivity sector, he however added that despite its tremendous potential, Arunachal Pradesh faces certain limitations in terms of marketing, agro-processing units, skilled manpower and in research & development which needs to be improved. In this regard, he sought the intervention of private companies to invest and establish industries such as agro-based industries, food processing units and other ventures and help to overcome these challenges, a statement from the DyCM’s office said. It added, the C20 Summit at Namsai is serving as a platform to highlight the untapped potential of Arunachal Pradesh and invite national and international industrialists to explore investment opportunities in the state. With the support and collaboration of stakeholders, Arunachal Pradesh aims to transform into a thriving hub of sustainable economic growth, attracting investments and creating employment opportunities for its people. Source: thenewsmill.com

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that up to $2 billion was transported from south to north on an annual basis through private security vans. Addressing a news conference here on Friday, he said that every year, private security vans, carrying $2 billion in cash, move from south to north. He said dollars are smuggled out from there. He said that wheat and fertilisers were smuggled out, but now the dollar was also being smuggled. He said that they were discussing how to check and stop it. Source: The International News  

An improvised explosive device (IED) exploded at a private clinic at Lunda Sharif bus stand in the limits of Gomal University police station late on Wednesday night. The clinic was destroyed while nearby shops were partially damaged, police said here on Thursday. A police official said that unknown persons had planted an explosive device outside the private clinic of Dr Rehmatullah Baloch at Lunda Sharif Adda, which went off on Wednesday night. As a result, the clinic was destroyed while its nearby shops were partially damaged. However, there was no loss of life. The official said a heavy contingent of police and bomb disposal squad immediately reached the spot. According to the bomb disposal squad’s preliminary investigations, it was an IED explosion. Meanwhile, Band Korai police arrested two suspects for their involvement in a murder case and impounded the motorcycles used in the incident, police said here on Thursday. A police official said that on Dec 28, 2022, Samiullah of Dhap Shumali filed a report with Korai police that his brother Mohammad Asad was shot dead by unknown assailants. Paharpur Circle DSP Mohammad Imran and other officials investigated the case and arrested two friends of the victim, who were identified as Israr and Naeem. During investigations, a 30-bore pistol and two motorcycles used in the incident were also recovered. Source: DAWN

The long elusory private investment is reviving and getting new pace after the pandemic sponsored uncertainties melting considerably, chief economic advisor (CEA) Krishnamurthy V Subramaniam told The financial express in an interview.  Companies cut costs, recorded profitability and have deleveraged, partly supported by a much-needed corporate tax rate cut just months before the pandemic began. So, the ability of the companies to start fresh investments remains strong, Subramanian said. However, it’s also a “simple fact” that in times of great uncertainties, private investments take a knock, as firms take a wait-and-watch approach. But there is huge scope for improvement, he explained. Gross fixed capital formation grew 11% in the September quarter. Meanwhile, private consumption of goods and services, the most critical pillar of the economy, has grown this fiscal even when spending avenues remained limited due to localized curbs, he added. As the manufacturing sector remains strong and the services sector gains momentum with greater headway in the vaccination drive, as reflected in the Purchasing Managers’ Index, private consumption of goods and services, too, will recieve further boost in the coming months, the CEA said. In fact, India’s manufacturing growth over a five-year period (through 2019) piped China’s for the first time since 1990s, he said. As the government decides to bring in a crypto currency Bill in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament, the CEA endorsed the official position that private cryptocurrencies shouldn’t get legal tender status. Even granting legal status to the private crypt currency  holder is fraught with risks at this point, and any such decision, if at all it’s made, must be followed careful examination, he said.   This is because a cryptocurrency doesn’t derive its value from any underlying assets or earnings nor does it add to real economic activities, he conceded. So, the valuation can be easily swayed with speculative bids, causing excessive volatility. Retail investors, especially the small ones, would struggle to cope with such wild fluctuations. For instance, as some analysts have pointed out, the value of Bitcoin crashed from $20,000 per coin in December 2017 to just $3,800 by November 2018, before rising again.  “As demand for investments rises up, loans to the corporate sector will also rise up significantly. Also, companies currently have deleveraged and are sitting on cash. Only when they exhaust their internal cash flow, they will go for borrowing,” he said. Subramanian asserted that India doesn’t stare at a flight of capital in the wake of the taper tantrum in the US. The impact, at most, would be felt for a very short period, and won’t be wide-ranging, he added. This is because the economy of India is on a solid footing now unlike in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial recession when three key indicators of macro-economy —inflation, current account balance and fiscal deficit — went highly downhill fast due to the UPA government’s excessive focus on stimulating only demand. “In contrast, this time around, the V-shaped recovery that we had predicted last year did successfully happen and India has achieved the sharpest recovery among all economies. Comparing peer economies, Fiscal deficit of India is still lower than other economies. Inflation is less than 5% and I expect it to remain around that level for some more upcoming months, given the supply-side measures we have undertaken. Current account deficit, which has risen a bit of late, would still be well under control,” he said. So, India is doing very well on both macro-stability and growth fronts, and that is something global investors would keep in mind.   Source: The financial express.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque today (Sunday) said the government has taken initiatives to fix medical service charges for private hospitals to make healthcare cost affordable for all. “Out-pocket expenditure is gradually increasing as most private hospitals are charging very high from service seekers…. Service will be fixed on the basis of standard of different private hospitals,” he told a meeting on “Incorporating private sector in healthcare facilities” at his ministry, an official release said. Secretary of Health Service Division Abdul Mannan, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Dr Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam and President of Bangladesh Private Medical Association Mubin Khan, among others, were present at the meeting. Describing various reasons for the increase of out-pocket expenditure, the health minister said other key reasons for higher medical cost include taking medical treatment from abroad, dependency on private hospitals and price hike of medicines. Maleque acknowledged private medical sector’s considerable contribution to providing healthcare facilities to the people alongside public hospitals. But a section of private hospitals are charging very high from patients, creating huge financial burden on service seekers, he added. There are huge number of clinics in the country, the health minister said adding, many clinics are not equipped enough to provide quality healthcare services to the people. “We are working to fix a set of conditions for all clinics in the country to ensure quality medical service,” he added Source: BSS AH

Health Secretary Abdul Mannan said that no official decision has been taken yet about vaccinating people at the private hospitals. He said this after inspecting the vaccination activities at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) on Saturday. The Health Secretary said, vaccination activities are going on in a beautiful atmosphere. So far no problem is created. The Corona vaccination program is going on in a fair manner for the country’s long time experience in vaccination activities. Abdul Mannan said, it needs highest 5 minutes time to be vaccinated. There is no confusion about receiving the vaccines. The next consignment will arrive in due time. AH