CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A Tokyo company aimed for the moon with its own private lander Sunday, blasting off atop a SpaceX rocket with the United Arab Emirates’ first lunar rover and a toylike robot from Japan that’s designed to roll around up there in the gray dust.
It will take nearly five months for the lander and its experiments to reach the moon.
The company ispace designed its craft to use minimal fuel to save money and leave more room for cargo. So it’s taking a slow, low-energy path to the moon, flying 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth before looping back and intersecting with the moon by the end of April.
By contrast, NASA’s Orion crew capsule with test dummies took five days to reach the moon last month. The lunar flyby mission ends Sunday with a Pacific splashdown.
The ispace lander will aim for Atlas crater in the northeastern section of the moon’s near side, more than 50 miles (87 kilometers) across and just over 1 mile (2 kilometers) deep. With its four legs extended, the lander is more than 7 feet (2.3 meters) tall.
With a science satellite already around Mars, the UAE wants to explore the moon, too. Its rover, named Rashid after Dubai’s royal family, weighs just 22 pounds (10 kilograms) and will operate on the surface for about 10 days, like everything else on the mission.
Emirates project manager Hamad AlMarzooqi said landing on an unexplored part of the moon will yield “novel and highly valued” scientific data. In addition, the lunar surface is “an ideal platform” to test new tech that can be used for eventual human expeditions to Mars.
Plus there’s national pride — the rover represents “a pioneering national endeavor in the space sector and a historic moment that, if successful, will be the first Emirati and Arab mission to land on the surface of the moon,” he said in a statement following liftoff.
In addition, the lander is carrying an orange-sized sphere from the Japanese Space Agency that will transform into a wheeled robot on the moon. Also flying: a solid state battery from a Japanese-based spark plug company; an Ottawa, Ontario, company’s flight computer with artificial intelligence for identifying geologic features seen by the UAE rover; and 360-degree cameras from a Toronto-area company.
Hitching a ride on the rocket was a small NASA laser experiment that is now bound for the moon on its own to hunt for ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar south pole.
The ispace mission is called Hakuto, Japanese for white rabbit. In Asian folklore, a white rabbit is said to live on the moon. A second lunar landing by the private company is planned for 2024 and a third in 2025.
Founded in 2010, ispace was among the finalists in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition requiring a successful landing on the moon by 2018. The lunar rover built by ispace never launched.
Another finalist, an Israeli nonprofit called SpaceIL, managed to reach the moon in 2019. But instead of landing gently, the spacecraft Beresheet slammed into the moon and was destroyed.
With Sunday’s predawn launch from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, ispace is now on its way to becoming one of the first private entities to attempt a moon landing. Although not launching until early next year, lunar landers built by Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic Technology and Houston’s Intuitive Machines may beat ispace to the moon thanks to shorter cruise times.
Only Russia, the US and China have achieved so-called “soft landings” on the moon, beginning with the former Soviet Union’s Luna 9 in 1966. And only the US has put astronauts on the lunar surface: 12 men over six landings.
Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of astronauts’ last lunar landing, by Apollo 17’s Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt on Dec. 11, 1972.
NASA’s Apollo moonshots were all “about the excitement of the technology,” said ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada, who wasn’t alive then. Now, “it’s the excitement of the business.”
“This is the dawn of the lunar economy,” Hakamada noted in the SpaceX launch webcast. “Let’s go to the moon.”
Liftoff should have occurred two weeks ago, but was delayed by SpaceX for extra rocket checks.
Eight minutes after launch, the recycled first-stage booster landed back at Cape Canaveral under a near full moon, the double sonic booms echoing through the night.
Japanese company’s lander rockets toward moon with UAE rover
https://arab.news/2bpft
Japanese company’s lander rockets toward moon with UAE rover
- It will take nearly five months for the lander and its experiments to reach the moon
Hamas releases video of two hostages calling for Gaza deal
“We are in danger here, there are bombs, it is stressful and scary,” Siegel, 64, said burying his face in his arms as he cried
GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories: Hamas’s armed wing released video Saturday of two men held hostage in Gaza who are seen alive and urging Israeli authorities to strike a deal for the release of all the remaining captives.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum identified the two as Keith Siegel and Omri Miran who were abducted by militants during the Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7.
“The proof of life from Keith Siegel and Omri Miran is the clearest evidence that the Israeli government must do everything to approve a deal for the return of all the hostages before Independence Day (on May 14),” the forum said in a statement.
“The living should return for rehabilitation, and the murdered should receive a dignified burial.”
The latest video comes just three days after Hamas released another video showing hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive.
Siegel and Miran appeared to speak under duress.
“I have been here in Hamas captivity for 202 days. The situation here is unpleasant, difficult and there are many bombs,” Miran, 47, is heard saying in the footage, indicating it was taken earlier this week.
“It’s time to reach a deal that will get us out of here safe and healthy... Keep protesting, so that there will be a deal now.”
Saturday’s video comes as Hamas says it is studying Israel’s latest counterproposal for a Gaza ceasefire after reports that mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to jump-start stalled negotiations.
Siegel, 64, who also spoke in the video, broke down as he talked of their captivity.
“We are in danger here, there are bombs, it is stressful and scary,” he said, burying his face in his arms as he cried.
“I want to tell my family that I love you very much. It’s important to me that you know that I am fine.
“I have very, very beautiful memories of last year’s Passover that we all celebrated together. I really hope that we will have the best possible surprise,” he said, appealing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal soon.
Siegel said he seen footage of demonstrations in Israel calling for a deal to secure the release of hostages.
“I hope and believe that you will all continue,” he said, addressing the demonstrators who have been holding regular rallies calling on Netanyahu to agree a deal.
The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, published some lines in Hebrew in the video.
“The military pressure did not succeed in freeing your captive sons,” it said.
“Do what you need to do before it is too late,” said another message in Hebrew.
Later on Saturday, crowds of protesters gathered in Tel Aviv demanding that the authorities strike a deal for the release of the hostages.
“A deal now,” chanted demonstrators as they called for Netanyahu and his government to resign.
Miran’s father Dani attended the rally and urged Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar to agree a deal.
“All the people of Israel and the nations of the world want to see an end to the bloodshed and especially an end to the suffering of your people,” he said.
“Please, one request — make a decision now.”
Organizers of the rally showed the video as protesters chanted against the authorities, an AFP correspondent reported.
“Keith, I love you. We will fight until your return,” said Siegel’s wife Aviv who took part in the protest.
Israeli authorities accuse Sinwar of planning the October 7 attack during which Hamas-led militants abducted some 250 people.
The military says 129 of them are still held captive in Gaza, including 34 who are dead.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive in Gaza has killed 34,388 people, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Iraqi authorities investigate the killing of social media influencer
- Videos featuring a prominent influencer during Thursday’s 93rd anniversary of the Iraqi Air Force’s founding sparked a backlash, with many criticizing the Ministry of Defense for allowing them to record and publish videos from sensitive military sites
BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities on Saturday were investigating the killing of a well-known social media influencer, who was shot by an armed motorcyclist in front of her home in central Baghdad.
Ghufran Mahdi Sawadi, known as Um Fahad or “mother of Fahad,” was popular on the social media sites TikTok and Instagram, where she posted videos of herself dancing to music and was followed by tens of thousands of users.
An Iraqi security official said that the assailant opened fire as Sawadi parked her Cadillac in front of her house on Friday, killing her, then took her phone and fled the scene.
The killing took place in Zayoona, the same neighborhood where a prominent Iraqi researcher and security expert, Hisham Al-Hashimi, was gunned down in 2020.
Before the US invasion of 2003, the neighborhood was home to military leaders and considered a prestigious area in Baghdad.
In recent years, many militia leaders have taken up residence there.
Sawadi is not the first prominent social media figure to be gunned down in central Baghdad.
Last year, Noor Alsaffar or “Noor BM,” was also fatally shot in the city.
A neighbor of Sawadi, who identified himself only by his nickname, Abu Adam or “father of Adam,” said he came out to the street after hearing two shots fired and saw “the car’s door open and she was lying on the steering wheel.”
“The woman who was with her (in the car) escaped, and security forces came and sealed off the entire area, and they took the victim’s body and towed her car,” he said.
In Iraq, the role of social media influencers has broadened from promoting beauty products and clothing to government projects and programs.
Official government invitations classify these influencers as key business figures at sports, security, and cultural gatherings.
Videos featuring a prominent influencer during Thursday’s 93rd anniversary of the Iraqi Air Force’s founding sparked a backlash, with many criticizing the Ministry of Defense for allowing them to record and publish videos from sensitive military sites.
The ministry defended itself, saying that, like defense ministries worldwide, it uses influencers alongside traditional media to communicate with the public in the era of social media.
Last year, an Iraqi court sentenced Sawadi to six months in prison for posting several films and videos containing obscene statements and indecent public behavior on social media as part of a recent push by the Iraqi government to police morals.
Separately on Saturday, the Iraqi parliament passed an amendment to the country’s prostitution law — widely criticized by human rights groups — that would punish same-sex relations with a prison term ranging from 10 to 15 years. A previous version of the law would have imposed the death penalty.
Ships from Turkiye planning to deliver aid to Gaza were denied right to sail
- The Freedom Flotilla Coalition described the cancelation of the vessels’ registry as a “blatantly political move,” adding: “Without a flag, we cannot sail”
- The organizers blamed Israel for applying pressure to prevent the flotilla
ISTANBUL: A three-ship flotilla planning to reach Gaza with humanitarian aid from Turkiye was prevented from sailing by Guinea-Bissau authorities, which took down their country’s flags from two ships, organizers said.
Just before the flotilla was set to sail from Turkiye to Gaza on Friday with 5,000 tons of aid, a surprise inspection by the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry resulted in the removal of the flags from two of the Freedom Flotilla ships.
A press release by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition described the cancelation of the vessels’ registry as a “blatantly political move,” adding: “Without a flag, we cannot sail.”
The organizers blamed Israel for applying pressure to prevent the flotilla. “It is obvious, and I think it is publicly known, that there has been close contact between Israel and the president of Guinea-Bissau,” organizer and steering committee member Torstein Dahle told The Associated Press, without elaborating.
He said that hundreds of Turkish and international participants were disappointed by the cancelation. “It is very hard for us, because it takes time to procure a flag. It’s a procedure that can’t be done in a few days. ... But we’re not giving up.”
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition includes Turkish and international organizations, among them the IHH and the Mavi Marmara Association from Turkiye, which also organized an ill-fated 2010 flotilla.
On May 31, 2010, Israeli commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara in international waters, leading to an altercation that left nine people dead and dozens of activists wounded. On the Israeli side, seven soldiers were wounded by activists who attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes.
Lebanon moves toward accepting ICC jurisdiction for war crimes on its soil
- Neither Lebanon nor Israel are members of the ICC
- Filing a declaration to the court would grant it jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute relevant crimes in a particular period
BEIRUT: Lebanon has moved toward accepting the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction to prosecute violations on Lebanese territory since October, in what Human Rights Watch said on Saturday was a “landmark step” toward justice for war crimes.
Lebanon has accused Israel of repeatedly violating its sovereignty and committing breaches of international law over the last six months, during which the Israeli military and Lebanese armed group Hezbollah have traded fire across Lebanon’s southern border in parallel with the Gaza War.
That cross-border shelling has killed at least 70 civilians, including children, rescue workers and journalists, among them Reuters visuals reporter Issam Abdallah, who was killed by an Israeli tank on Oct. 13, a Reuters investigation found.
Lebanon’s caretaker cabinet voted on Friday to instruct the foreign affairs ministry to file a declaration with the ICC accepting the court’s jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes committed on Lebanese territory since Oct. 7.
The decree also instructed the foreign ministry to include in its complaints about Israel to the United Nations a report prepared by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), an independent research institute.
That report looked specifically into Abdallah’s killing, and was produced by examining shrapnel, flak jackets, a camera, tripod and a large piece of metal that were gathered by Reuters from the scene, as well as video and audio material.
Neither Lebanon nor Israel are members of the ICC, which is based in The Hague. But filing a declaration to the court would grant it jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute relevant crimes in a particular period.
Ukraine has twice filed such declarations, which allowed for the court to investigate alleged Russian war crimes.
“The Lebanese government has taken a landmark step toward securing justice for war crimes in the country,” said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, urging the foreign minister to “swiftly” formalize the move by filing a declaration to the ICC.
“This is an important reminder to those who flout their obligations under the laws of war that they may find themselves in the dock,” Fakih said.
British troops may be tasked with delivering Gaza aid, BBC report says
- Britain is already providing logistical support for construction of US pier, including a Royal Navy ship that will house hundreds of American soldiers
LONDON: British troops may be tasked with delivering aid to Gaza from an offshore pier now under construction by the US military, the BBC reported Saturday. UK government officials declined to comment on the report.
According to the BBC, the British government is considering deploying troops to drive the trucks that will carry aid from the pier along a floating causeway to the shore. No decision has been made and the proposal hasn’t yet reached Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, the BBC reported, citing unidentified government sources.
The report comes after a senior US military official said on Thursday that there would be no American “boots on the ground” and another nation would provide the personnel to drive the delivery trucks to the shore. The official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet made public, declined to identify the third party.
Britain is already providing logistical support for construction of the pier, including a Royal Navy ship that will house hundreds of US soldiers and sailors working on the project.
In addition, British military planners have been embedded at US Central Command in Florida and in Cyprus, where aid will be screened before shipment to Gaza, for several weeks, the UK Ministry of Defense said on Friday.
The UK Hydrographic Office has also shared analysis of the Gaza shoreline with the US to aid in construction of the pier.
“It is critical we establish more routes for vital humanitarian aid to reach the people of Gaza, and the UK continues to take a leading role in the delivery of support in coordination with the US and our international allies and partners,” Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.
Development of the port and pier in Gaza comes as Israel faces widespread international criticism over the slow trickle of aid into the Palestinian territory, where the United Nations says at least a quarter of the population sits on the brink of starvation.
The Israel-Hamas began with a Hamas-led attack into southern Israel on Oct. 7, in which militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people as hostages. Israel says the militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others. Since then, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s air and ground offensive, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, around two-thirds of them children and women.
