AFP

Four space tourists orbiting the Earth in a SpaceX capsule at 17,500 miles per hour (28,162 kph) talked to movie star Tom Cruise on Friday and provided a live update about life aboard the spacecraft.

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday for a three-day voyage that is to end with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at 4:06 pm Pacific time (2306 GMT) on Saturday.

Mission control said the crew members — Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski — spoke with Cruise, who is hoping to make a film in space, from the vessel on Friday.

“Rook, Nova, Hanks, and Leo spoke to @TomCruise sharing their experience from space,” said the Twitter account of Inspiration4, the official name of the first ever space mission to take place without an actual astronaut.

The names are the call signs of the four passengers aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

“Maverick, you can be our wingman anytime,” the tweet added, accompanied by a video clip of Cruise playing the elite fighter pilot whose call sign was Maverick in the movie “Top Gun.” 

Last year, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a film project starring Cruise to be shot in zero gravity on board the International Space Station.

However, no details have yet been delivered about the project, which would be done in collaboration with SpaceX.

– ‘Fortunate’ –

The four crew members shared their experiences in space during a 10-minute live webcast with mission control on Friday.

Proctor, 51, who teaches geosciences at a college in Arizona and was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut, displayed a picture she drew with metallic markers of the Dragon capsule being propelled into space by a dragon.

Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrated her impressive spins in zero gravity.

“Hayley is a champ at spinning,” Proctor said. “She has been spinning from the moment we got on orbit.”

“It’s a lot of fun and allows us to lift very heavy things without any issue,” said Arceneaux.

“We’ve also been taking several swabs of different parts of our body to evaluate the microbiome and how that changes in these three days in space,” she added. 

And “we have been spending so much time in this cupola,” she observed.

Sembroski, a 42-year-old US Air Force veteran, pulled out his ukelele and played a few chords.

The crew members also opened up the hatch in the nose of the capsule to show off the view from the cupola, a clear glass dome that allows for a 360 degree view outside.

Crew members said they were collecting blood samples for research and doing cognitive tests which will be compared with their results prior to liftoff.

“We know how fortunate we are to be up here,” said billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission commander.

Four space tourists orbiting the Earth in a SpaceX capsule at 17,500 miles per hour (28,162 kph) talked to movie star Tom Cruise on Friday and provided a live update about life aboard the spacecraft.

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday for a three-day voyage that is to end with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at 4:06 pm Pacific time (2306 GMT) on Saturday.

Mission control said the crew members — Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski — spoke with Cruise, who is hoping to make a film in space, from the vessel on Friday.

“Rook, Nova, Hanks, and Leo spoke to @TomCruise sharing their experience from space,” said the Twitter account of Inspiration4, the official name of the first ever space mission to take place without an actual astronaut.

The names are the call signs of the four passengers aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

“Maverick, you can be our wingman anytime,” the tweet added, accompanied by a video clip of Cruise playing the elite fighter pilot whose call sign was Maverick in the movie “Top Gun.” 

Last year, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a film project starring Cruise to be shot in zero gravity on board the International Space Station.

However, no details have yet been delivered about the project, which would be done in collaboration with SpaceX.

– ‘Fortunate’ –

The four crew members shared their experiences in space during a 10-minute live webcast with mission control on Friday.

Proctor, 51, who teaches geosciences at a college in Arizona and was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut, displayed a picture she drew with metallic markers of the Dragon capsule being propelled into space by a dragon.

Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrated her impressive spins in zero gravity.

“Hayley is a champ at spinning,” Proctor said. “She has been spinning from the moment we got on orbit.”

“It’s a lot of fun and allows us to lift very heavy things without any issue,” said Arceneaux.

“We’ve also been taking several swabs of different parts of our body to evaluate the microbiome and how that changes in these three days in space,” she added. 

And “we have been spending so much time in this cupola,” she observed.

Sembroski, a 42-year-old US Air Force veteran, pulled out his ukelele and played a few chords.

The crew members also opened up the hatch in the nose of the capsule to show off the view from the cupola, a clear glass dome that allows for a 360 degree view outside.

Crew members said they were collecting blood samples for research and doing cognitive tests which will be compared with their results prior to liftoff.

“We know how fortunate we are to be up here,” said billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission commander.

Firefighters battling to protect the world’s biggest tree from wildfires ravaging the parched United States said Friday they are optimistic it can be saved.

Flames are creeping closer to the majestic General Sherman and other giant sequoias, as man-made climate change worsens California’s fearsome fire season.

“We have hundreds of firefighters there giving it their all, giving extra care,” Mark Garrett, communications officer for the region’s fire department, told AFP, of the operation in Sequoia National Park.

Crews are battling the spreading Paradise and Colony fires, which have so far consumed 4,600 hectares (11,400 acres) of forest since they were sparked by lightning a week ago.

The blazes are threatening Giant Forest, a grove of around 2,000 sequoias that includes five of the largest trees on the planet — some up to 3,000 years old.

The biggest of them all, the General Sherman stands 83 meters (275 feet) tall.

On Thursday, General Sherman was wrapped in fire-proof blankets — aluminium foil intended to protect its giant trunk from the worst of the flames.

By Friday, managers felt they had the upper hand, thanks in part to clearing of undergrowth and controlled burns that starve the fire of fuel.

“I think the most challenging part is the terrain here,” said Garrett.

But “we haven’t seen explosive fire behavior; it really slowed down and gave us a chance to get ahead of it.”

Around 600 personnel are involved in the fight.

“We have folks up in the Giant Forest protecting structures and preparing everything. 

“The fact is that they’ve been prescribed burning for the past 25 or 30 years so it is really prepared.”

Millions of acres of California’s forests have burned in this year’s ferocious fire season.

Scientists say global warming, stoked by the unchecked use of fossil fuels is making the area ever-more vulnerable to bigger and more destructive wildfires.

The enormous trees of the Giant Forest are a huge tourist draw, with visitors traveling from all over the world to marvel at their imposing height and extraordinary girth.

While not the tallest trees — California redwoods can grow to more than 300 feet — the giant sequoias are the largest by volume.

Smaller fires generally do not harm the sequoias, which are protected by a thick bark and often only have branches 100 feet above the ground.

But the larger, hotter blazes that are laying waste to the western United States are dangerous to them because they climb higher up the trunks and into the canopy.

Four space tourists orbiting the Earth in a SpaceX capsule at 17,500 miles per hour (28,162 kph) talked to movie star Tom Cruise on Friday and provided a live update about life aboard the spacecraft.

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday for a three-day voyage that is to end with a splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean at 4:06 pm Pacific time (2306 GMT) on Saturday.

Mission control said the crew members — Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Hayley Arceneaux and Chris Sembroski — spoke with Cruise, who is hoping to make a film in space, from the vessel on Friday.

“Rook, Nova, Hanks, and Leo spoke to @TomCruise sharing their experience from space,” said the Twitter account of Inspiration4, the official name of the first ever space mission to take place without an actual astronaut.

The names are the call signs of the four passengers aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule.

“Maverick, you can be our wingman anytime,” the tweet added, accompanied by a video clip of Cruise playing the elite fighter pilot whose call sign was Maverick in the movie “Top Gun.” 

Last year, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a film project starring Cruise to be shot in zero gravity on board the International Space Station.

However, no details have yet been delivered about the project, which would be done in collaboration with SpaceX.

– ‘Fortunate’ –

The four crew members shared their experiences in space during a 10-minute live webcast with mission control on Friday.

Proctor, 51, who teaches geosciences at a college in Arizona and was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut, displayed a picture she drew with metallic markers of the Dragon capsule being propelled into space by a dragon.

Arceneaux, a 29-year-old physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrated her impressive spins in zero gravity.

“Hayley is a champ at spinning,” Proctor said. “She has been spinning from the moment we got on orbit.”

“It’s a lot of fun and allows us to lift very heavy things without any issue,” said Arceneaux.

Sembroski, a 42-year-old US Air Force veteran, pulled out his ukelele and played a few chords.

The crew members also opened up the hatch in the nose of the capsule to show off the view from the cupola, a clear glass dome that allows for a 360 degree view outside.

Crew members said they were collecting blood samples for research and doing cognitive tests which will be compared with their results prior to liftoff.

“We know how fortunate we are to be up here,” said billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission commander.

The first space tourism mission by Elon Musk’s SpaceX blasted off from Florida on Wednesday and the four crew members — a billionaire and three other Americans — have already seen more than 25 sunsets and sunrises.

SpaceX has released few details about their adventure since they reached an orbit which is more distant than that of the International Space Station.

Here’s what we know about their life on board:

– Nine square meters –

The four space tourists are aboard the SpaceX crew capsule called Dragon. 

It is 8.1 meters (26.7 feet) tall and has a diameter of four meters (13 feet).

The capsule is composed of a trunk, which is inaccessible to the crew, upon which sits the living quarters.

The entire volume of the capsule is just 9.3 square meters (328 square feet).

Chris Sembroski, a 42-year-old Air Force veteran who is one of the crew members, has compared it to travelling with friends in a van — one you can’t step away from though if you want to take a break.

– Toilets with a view –

The exact technology behind the toilets aboard the capsule is a SpaceX secret.

But Hayley Arceneaux, one of the four crew members, said in a Netflix documentary that the “bathroom is on the ceiling.”

“Really literally a panel that we take off and there’s like a funnel,” Arceneaux said. “There’s no upside down in space.”

The toilet is located near the clear glass observation dome, or cupola, installed on Dragon, which provides a spectacular 360-degree view of the cosmos.

“When people do inevitably have to use the bathroom, they’re going to have one hell of a view,” billionaire Jared Isaacman, the mission commander, told Business Insider.

Privacy is ensured with a simple curtain.

– ‘Eating, doing chores’ –

SpaceX released a video call Friday between the Inspiration4 crew and patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

The 29-year-old Arceneaux, who was treated for bone cancer as a child at St. Jude and works there now as a physician assistant, was asked by a patient what the astronauts do for “fun” in space.

She said they have spent time “eating, doing chores and looking out the window at the world.”

Sembroski said they’ve also been doing “a lot of blood tests and glucose monitoring.”

The astronauts were also asked what is their favorite “space food.”

“My favorite space food is pizza which I had yesterday and I’ll probably have for dinner tonight also,” said Sian Proctor, 51, who teaches geology at a small college in Arizona and was a finalist to become a NASA astronaut.

Musical interludes are also planned. Each passenger drew up a 10-song playlist and Sembroski planned to bring his ukelele.

The instrument and other objects are to be auctioned later with the proceeds going to St Jude.

The goal of the mission is to raise $200 million for the hospital, with Isaacman personally donating $100 million. 

– Scientific research –

SpaceX tweeted on Thursday that the crew had carried out a “first round of scientific research.”

One of the goals of the mission is to collect data on the effects of the environment of space on complete novices.

Their cardiac rhythms, sleep and blood oxygen levels will be monitored along with radiation exposure.

Their cognitive functions were tested before the flight and will be examined again on their return.

Four space tourists who are orbiting the Earth in a SpaceX craft talked to movie star Tom Cruise — who is hoping to make a film in space — from the vessel on Friday, mission control said.

The amateur astronauts will also appear live on YouTube at around 5:00 pm Eastern (2100 GMT) for an “update about their multi-day journey aboard the Dragon spacecraft,” it said.

“Rook, Nova, Hanks, and Leo spoke to @TomCruise sharing their experience from space,” said the official Twitter account of Inspiration4, the official name of the first ever space mission to take place without an actual astronaut. 

The names are the call signs of the four passengers.

“Maverick, you can be our wingman anytime,” the tweet added, accompanied by a video clip of Cruise playing an elite fighter pilot whose call sign was Maverick in the movie “Top Gun.” 

Last year, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced a film project starring Cruise to be shot in zero gravity on board the International Space Station. 

However, no details have yet been delivered about the project, which would be done in collaboration with SpaceX. 

The four Inspiration4 passengers — billionaire Jared Isaacman and three other Americans — took off Wednesday night from Florida. They are currently flying farther out than the International Space Station, and their mission is scheduled to last a total of three days.

Southern EU leaders on Friday pledged their adherence to the climate targets of the Paris 2015 agreement in an Athens summit that also tackled migration and regional security challenges.

“Now, more than ever, (it is) necessary to tackle the escalating climate and environmental crisis and create a safe, secure prosperous, fair and sustainable future for our societies,” Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain said in a joint statement.

With the Mediterranean already feeling the effects of climate change in violent weather swings, wildfires and floods, the participants agreed to “intensify” cooperation by sharing best practices in prevention measures.

The group, typically known as the Med7 but adding Croatia and Slovenia this year, also reiterated their “firm commitment” to the implementation of the Paris 2015 Agreement, limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5 Celsius (34.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

And they pledged to work towards the protection of the Mediterranean’s cultural and natural heritage, while advancing a shift from fossil fuels to renewables and low carbon technologies.

– ‘We cannot delay’ –

“The nine countries of the European south are coordinating to protect our forests and seas, we claim a stronger civil protection mechanism, we exchange technology and means of prevention to address the attacks of nature,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“The destructive fires of this summer that in particular hit Greece, Italy, Cyprus, did not spare any Mediterranean country. At the same time, the European north was hit by deadly floods. It is the strongest proof that climate crisis concerns us all, and an alarm signal that it has already landed on our shores.”

“As the danger is common, so should our defence be,” he said.

The summer’s fires are a “trigger to expedite our efforts so we can tackle climate change…We no longer have the luxury of time, we cannot delay,” said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.

“Deterrence means proper preparation. You have to shore up the land to avert natural disasters,” said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

The one-day gathering, with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen attending a separate meeting on climate change and its effects on the Mediterranean, also focused on security challenges including migration and the Afghan crisis.

Greece was badly hit by wildfires this summer, losing over 100,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land in the process. 

The last summit in 2020 issued a warning to Turkey over its confrontational behaviour in the Mediterranean.

This year, the EU is concerned that chaos in Afghanistan could spark an influx of refugees similar to 2015’s migrant crisis.

Greece and other southern EU states, the countries that deal with the most migrants, have long complained over a lack of support from their northern peers.

The EU has now committed 276 million euros ($326 million) for new migrant camps on the Greek islands that receive most arrivals by sea from neighbouring Turkey.

US President Joe Biden on Friday announced a bid with the European Union to lead slashing of methane gas emissions ahead of a UN climate change summit where he urged the world to show “highest” ambition.

“We’re working with the European Union and other partners… (on) a global methane pledge to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30 percent below 2020 levels by 2030,” Biden said from the White House at a virtual forum with nine foreign leaders.

This will “not only rapidly reduce the rate of global warming but it will also produce very valuable side benefits, like improving public health,” he said.

Biden called the goal “ambitious but realistic,” urging countries to commit at the COP26 summit organized by the United Nations in Glasgow, Scotland in November.

There was no immediate comment from the European Union.

Biden said the United States was taking concrete steps toward UN climate goals but noted that recent devastating flooding in the US northeast and wildfires in western states echoed extreme weather events from China to the Amazon.

Last month, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the Earth’s average global temperature will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels around 2030, a decade earlier than projected three years ago.

Biden said this represents “a code red for humanity” and that “we have to act, all of us, we have to act now.”

“We have to bring to Glasgow our highest ambitions. Those who have not yet done so, time is running out,” he warned.

Biden called the virtual White House forum — where there were notable absences of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the leaders of Brazil and India — in preparation for the Glasgow summit.

World leaders will also be attending a separate closed-doors climate conference on Monday on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York.

The Glasgow summit is focused on ensuring the world sticks to an agreed goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

But “without adequate commitments from every nation in this room, the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 slips through our hands and that is a disaster,” Biden said.

He noted the US commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by between 50 and 52 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels, along with several other hefty targets.

Attending the White House meeting by video link were the presidents of Argentina, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Mexico, South Korea, Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Council President Charles Michel, and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Six lions and three tigers at the National Zoo in Washington have tested positive for Covid-19 and are undergoing treatment after falling unwell, the zoo said Friday.

“Last weekend, animal keepers observed decreased appetites, coughing, sneezing and lethargy” in six African lions, a Sumatran tiger and two tigers from Siberia, who all tested positive for Covid in preliminary tests, the zoo said in a statement.

Results of tests to confirm the diagnosis are expected in a few days.

The sick cats are being treated with anti-inflammatories and anti-nausea medication, as well as antibiotics to ward off pneumonia.

People who visit the zoo are not at risk because of the distance between them and the felines, and no other animals have shown signs of infection, the zoo said.

The bout of sickness comes as several US zoos including the one in Washington announced Tuesday the launch of a vaccination campaign for animals susceptible to Covid-19.

Primates in several zoos have become infected. Several gorillas at the zoo in Atlanta tested positive last week.

To protect them from Covid, animals at the Washington zoo will be injected with a product developed by Zoetis, a drug company that makes vaccines and medicine for pets and livestock.

Mining for bitcoin generates substantial electronic waste that “represents a growing threat to the environment”, according to a recent study.

A co-author of the report told AFP on Friday that the average life cycle of the powerful computers used to unearth the units of the world’s leading cryptocurrency was only 1.3 years.

Alex de Vries noted that this was “extremely short compared to any” other electronic devices such as iPhones.

At 30,700 tonnes, the amount of electronic waste generated by bitcoin mining in the 12 months to May was “comparable to the amount of small IT and telecommunication equipment waste produced by a country like the Netherlands”, the report said.

The race to find new bitcoins — on Friday, one unit was worth more than $47,000 following a stellar rise this year — means the mining computers’ processing power soon becomes obsolete.

And the more bitcoin is worth, the larger the amount of electronic waste, according to the study published by scientific journal, Elsevier.

Alex de Vries works as an economist at the Dutch central bank, while the report’s co-author Christian Stoll is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Despite the high amount of waste, it remains a fraction of the global total from throwing away electronic devices, which stood at 53.6 million tonnes last year.