MANILA: Joint maritime and air patrols in the South China Sea between the Philippines and the United States military were launched on Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said, describing it as a “significant initiative.”
The Philippine leader’s announcement comes amid a rapid strengthening of ties this year between the two defense treaty allies, including a decision to almost double the number of Philippine bases accessible to the US military.
“This significant initiative is a testament to our commitment to bolster the interoperability of our military forces in conducting maritime and air patrols,” Marcos said on social media platform X.
The announcement comes a day after Marcos told a forum in Hawaii the situation in the South China Sea had become more “dire than it was before,” saying the Chinese military have inched closer to Philippine coastline.
China claims most of the South China Sea through a “nine-dash line” that stretches as far as 1,500km (900 miles) south of its mainland, cutting into the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of rival claimants such as Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Marcos had rekindled Manila’s ties with Washington after its testy relationship with a predecessor who had pivoted closer to China, despite Beijing developing military installations on manmade islands within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Relations with China have soared, with repeated standoffs between Chinese and Filipino vessels in waters claimed by both countries, prompting heated rhetoric between them and concerns of an escalation.
Philippines’ Marcos says joint patrols with US underway in South China Sea
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Philippines’ Marcos says joint patrols with US underway in South China Sea
- Philippine leader’s announcement comes amid a rapid strengthening of ties this year between the two defense treaty allies
NASA’s new moon rocket heads to the pad ahead of astronaut launch as early as February
- The 98-meter rocket began its 1.6 kph creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak
- The six-kilometer trek could take until nightfall
CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: NASA’s giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.
The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1 mph (1.6 kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. The four-mile (six-kilometer) trek could take until nightfall.
Thousands of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.
Weighing in at 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.
The first and only other SLS launch — which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon — took place back in November 2022.
“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.
Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyzes and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won’t orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will take come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience — will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.
They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.
NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. Depending on how the demo goes, “that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday.
The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.
