SpaceX readies private launch of four astronauts to International Space Station
Four crew members are set to launch Wednesday on a privately funded mission to the International Space Station.
The flight, organized by the Houston-based company Axiom Space, is slated to lift off at 8 a.m. ET from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The foursome will journey into orbit in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule atop a Falcon 9 rocket.
NASA will broadcast live coverage of the launch beginning at 7:05 a.m. ET on NASA+.
The flight was scheduled to launch Tuesday but high winds along the Florida coast forced a one-day delay. The mission, known as Ax-4, is expected to last about two weeks at the International Space Station.
The mission will be led by retired NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who has already logged a record 675 days in space — more than any other American astronaut. Joining her will be pilot Shubhanshu Shukla, an astronaut with the Indian Space Research Organization; mission specialist Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, a Polish scientist with the European Space Agency; and mission specialist Tibor Kapu, a mechanical engineer from Hungary.
Shukla, Uznański-Wiśniewski and Kapu will make history by becoming the first people from their countries to live and work on the International Space Station.
During their two-week stay at the orbiting lab, the Ax-4 crew members will conduct a host of scientific experiments, according to NASA, including studies of muscle regeneration, how sprouts and edible microalgae grow in microgravity and how tiny aquatic organisms survive at the ISS.
If the launch goes according to plan, the four astronauts will dock at the space station on Thursday at around 12:30 p.m. ET.
The upcoming flight will be Axiom Space's fourth crewed mission to the International Space Station. The company's first private expedition to the ISS was in 2022 with an all-civilian crew.
The price tag for the Ax-4 mission has not been publicly disclosed, but space tourists reportedly paid around $55 million per seat on previous Axiom Space expeditions.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business News Wales
10 hours ago
- Business News Wales
First Minister Visits Wrexham University to Tour Trail-Blazing Facilities and Discuss Civic Impact
First Minister of Wales Eluned Morgan MS paid a visit to Wrexham University to view some of the institution's ground-breaking facilities, including the soon-to-be complete Enterprise Engineering and Optics Centre (EEOC) building – North Wales Growth Deal's first construction project. The First Minister met students and staff from a range of subject areas to hear all about the university's newly launched 2030 Vision and Strategy and its overarching ambition to become a world-leading, modern civic university. During the visit, the First Minister toured the trail-blazing EEOC development, which will become a specialist centre for industry engagement, research, and innovation, and will provide North Wales with a centre for collaboration and skills development in sustainability, renewables, and high value manufacturing. The First Minister's tour of the EEOC came just days before International Women in Engineering Day. She spent time speaking with Selina Thomas, a final-year Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering student, who highlighted her work in supporting North Wales-based firm KnitMesh Technologies by investigating the impact strength of composites. She was also given the opportunity to view the university's Health Simulation Centre, where staff highlighted the institution's work in strengthening and developing the public sector workforce in North Wales, with Welsh language provision at the core of that. The First Minister heard how since launching 'Cyfle', the institution's Welsh Language Academic Strategy and Action Plan just under three years ago, Welsh language modules have been introduced to a number of degree courses including Speech and Language Therapy, Professional Policing, Education and more. Staff also updated the First Minister on progress relating to current works taking place on campus on the next phase of enhancing the University's Health and Education Innovation Quarter (HEIQ). She heard how the next phase will take the university's facilities to even further heights – ensuring that industry-leading technology is available to students' by creating a new immersive teaching environment, which will allow for a combination of both virtual and augmented reality. It will also include a Teaching and Learning Lab and a Hydrasimulation Suite – which is being developed in conjunction with the Hydra Foundation – that will help students with their critical decision-making skills, through simulation of emergency situations. The visit concluded with a positive discussion on the university's Civic Mission work, with a focus on how the institution is at the forefront of driving systemic change in the region through connecting partner organisations, sharing knowledge and unlocking collective action, all with the aim of helping to put an end to social inequality across North Wales by 2030. Professor Joe Yates, Vice-Chancellor of Wrexham University, said: 'We were delighted to welcome the First Minister to the university and proudly showcase our incredible facilities – in particular, our Enterprise Engineering and Optics Centre, which is due to open at the start of the next academic year in September, as well as our cutting-edge Health Simulation Centre. 'The visit also provided us with a welcome opportunity to highlight our newly launched 2030 Vision and Strategy, and also shine a light on how higher education institutions have a crucial role to play in helping to shape a more resilient and prosperous Wales. Our work in building skills but also strengthening and developing a bilingual public sector workforce in North Wales, and our Civic Mission, in terms of providing systems leadership, demonstrates the positive impact our institution has on the communities we serve. 'Thank you to the First Minister for her time and engagement with us – it was a pleasure to welcome her, and showcase just some of our fantastic work.' First Minister Eluned Morgan MS added: 'I was pleased to see first-hand the facilities at Wrexham University, especially the EEOC, which will soon become a vital hub for industry collaboration and skills development across North Wales. 'Through their civic work, our higher education institutions can serve as powerful anchors in their communities, supporting business and unlocking collective action to tackle inequality while preparing students for the jobs of tomorrow.'
BBC News
18 hours ago
- BBC News
'Eldest daughter syndrome' to the rebellious youngest sibling: Does your birth order shape your personality?
The question of whether siblings' birth order shapes their personality has puzzled families and psychologists for years. But the evidence isn't as straightforward as you might think. As the eldest daughter of two, I often identify with the traits stereotypically associated with being the oldest sibling: responsible, conscientious, a perfectionist. My mum is an eldest daughter, too, and also shares those traits. My younger sister, on the other hand, is a bit more carefree – even though she and I grew up in the same household with the same parents, and are close, our personalities are quite different. I wondered whether that difference could be due to our birth order – is there any science to the idea that being the oldest, the youngest, or an only child, shapes who we are, and how we navigate the world? A century-long mystery Despite fascinating the scientific community and public for more than 100 years, the question of whether our birth order amongst siblings shapes our personalities is very much still up for debate. Historically, research has produced inconsistent findings. There are several reasons why this is, though to put it simply: it's hard to measure. Rodica Damian, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Houston, Texas, in the US, explains that previous studies have often included small sample sizes. In addition, since personality tests are often self-reported, they may be affected by bias. Recent studies point out that a number of confounding variables can make it hard to investigate if birth order is systematic, meaning that it affects every person in the same way. The total number of siblings may be a factor, for example: one would expect the overall dynamics to be different in a family with two siblings compared to a family with seven siblings. Being the eldest or youngest child in these differently-sized families might be a very different experience, and not directly comparable. Family size and the experience of being a child in any given family may in turn be entangled with many other factors, such as a family's socioeconomic status (wealthier families with higher socioeconomic status tend to have fewer children, for example). And then there is a person's age and gender, which could influence their experience within the family and beyond. Within this context, researchers have not been able to conclude that birth order has any consistent, universal impacts on our personalities. But that doesn't mean birth order is irrelevant. It could play a role within certain families, or cultures. "I think people have a lot of beliefs that are kind of outdated, or that were never well supported in the first place," says Julia Rohrer, a personality researcher at Leipzig University in Germany. "For example, the 'eldest daughter syndrome' thing is a big one – of course, women often still have different roles and are expected to provide more care. And then, first-borns are expected to take care of younger siblings," she says. "For some women, this might perfectly match their experience but for others it doesn't because every family is different." In other words, not every eldest daughter will be responsible and caring – but for some, the idea of an "eldest daughter syndrome" may ring true because they really did grow up having to look after their younger siblings and feel that this experience shaped them. Rohrer and her colleagues have found that birth order "does not have a lasting effect on broad personality traits" after examining three large datasets from surveys in the UK, US and Germany, each comprising data from several thousand people. However, the study did confirm previous findings on the impact of birth order on one specific trait: intelligence. Intelligence is a complex phenomenon and the study only measures it in the form of performance in intelligence tests, and self-reported intellect. "We confirmed the effect that firstborns score higher on objectively measured intelligence and additionally found a similar effect on self-reported intellect," Rohrer and her colleagues wrote in the study. Previous research had documented that performances in intelligence tests "decline slightly from firstborns to later-borns". As for birth order and other personality traits, Rohrer says reflecting on one's experience can still be meaningful, even if there is no universal pattern: "It does provide a label where you can find other people who grew up in a similar situation, and you can exchange experiences and so on," she says of terms such as "eldest daughter syndrome". There is nothing wrong with framing your experience that way, "as long as you don't assume that this experience is universal," she says. Damian echoes this: "While we don't find differences in personality that are systematic, that doesn't mean that there aren't social processes within each family or within each culture that can lead to different outcomes based on birth order." For example, the UK has a historically (male-preferring) primogeniture culture, meaning the eldest child would be the first in line to inherit family wealth, estate or titles. Only in 2013, with the passing of the Succession to the Crown Act did primogeniture within the monarchy end, removing the power of a male heir to displace an elder daughter in their right to the Crown. The idea of primogeniture is surprisingly widespread and persistent: in Succession, the HBO satirical comedy-drama, about a family's fight to take over a media empire, one character shouts "I'm the eldest boy!" in the finale. He believes his birth position should give him the right to take over his father's position of CEO. (He is actually the second-eldest son, but we won't get into that). "If the social practice is based on birth order, then yes, birth order will impact your outcomes," says Damian. Age is just a number? Age-related experiences can easily be mistaken for a personality trait or behaviour influenced by birth order, the researchers explain. Take the older, "responsible" sibling as an example: "As people grow older, they become more responsible, more self-controlled. So, the firstborn is always going to be older than the later born, and as you observe your children grow, the firstborn will always be more responsible," says Damian. "Another thing is that people become more self-conscious as they grow older," she adds. "So the second-born might appear more sociable and less neurotic, because a 10-year-old is much more happy and full of themselves… compared to the 14-year-old, who's freaking out about everything. That's because they have different challenges." Factors such as children's friendship circles also matter. Multiple studies suggest a link between delinquent peers and delinquent behaviour, for example, so an older child could be more of a rule-breaker depending on the people with whom they surround themselves. Smart siblings As aforementioned, one consistent finding that crops up in birth order research is the link between birth order and intelligence, with firstborns averaging slightly higher in intellect-related traits than younger-borns. "[The intelligence link] mostly shows up in verbal intelligence test results, and it has a very small effect," says Damian. Also, "if you took a test twice, you'll probably score depending on the day or mood, [or] whatever you ate that morning, [or] how long you slept." It may also be explained by cognitive stimulation in the early years of life. Damian points out that the more adults per child you have in a family, the more exposed they are to mature language and vocabulary. But when there are more siblings born into a family, levels of intellectual stimulation might decrease. "So it's not so much that they're genetically smarter or that they have more potential – it's more that they translate into a higher verbal IQ score on the test which could be due to knowing more words, because more adults versus children spoke to them," she says. "With two children, maybe some of that reading time is taken by managing sibling interactions where the verbal input is a little bit less elevated." There are also suggestions that as older siblings tutor younger siblings, or explain things to them, they use "more cognitive resources". Interestingly, these patterns of intelligence aren't replicated globally. Data from developing countries differs to data from developed countries, for example. In Indonesia, later-born siblings are likely to have better educational opportunities than their older siblings, potentially due to financial constraints, easing only when older siblings begin contributing to family income. According to Damian and her colleague, birth order has "negligible effects" on careers, too. In the past, there an idea prevalent among scientists was that the older sibling would enter a more academic or scientific career, and the younger a more creative one. But Damian found the opposite: in her longitudinal study, which looked at a sample of US high students in 1960 and then the same participants 60 years later, first-borns ended up in more creative careers. 'Selfish' only children? Only children often face the stereotype of being more selfish than children born with siblings, supposedly because they do not have to compete for a parents' attention. Recent studies, however, have shown that this is not the case, and that growing up without siblings does not lead to increased selfishness or narcissism. Other research suggests that the social behaviours of only children compared to children with siblings are not large or pervasive, and "may grow smaller with age". Birth order research has typically not included only children on the grounds that they cannot be fairly compared to children who have grown up with siblings. However, it is possible to compare the personality traits of siblings and only children, according to a 2025 paper by Michael Ashton, a professor of psychology at Brock University, Canada, and Kibeom Lee, a professor of psychology at the University of Calgary, Canada. Their study presented some new and fascinating results. It examined the association between personality, birth order, and number of siblings, in 700,000 adults online in one sample and more than 70,000 in another, separate sample. Middle-born and last-born siblings averaged higher on the "Honesty-Humility" and "Agreeableness" scales than first-born siblings. "Honesty-Humility" measures how honest and humble a person is, meaning, a high-scoring person is unlikely to manipulate others, break rules, or feel entitled. A low-scoring person may be more inclined to break rules and may feel a strong sense of self-importance. On the agreeableness scale, a high-scoring person tends to be forgiving, lenient in judging others, even-tempered and willing to compromise, while a low-scoring person may hold grudges, be stubborn, be quick to feel anger, and be critical of others. "These differences were quite small in size, particularly when the comparisons involve people from families having the same number of children," Ashton and Lee say in an email. "In contrast, the differences in these dimensions between persons from a one-child family (i.e., only children) and persons from a six-or-more-child family were considerably larger, somewhere between the sizes that social scientists would call 'small' and 'medium'." So, I ask, is the influence of birth order just a zombie theory – a concept that is wrong but which refuses to die? Rohrer disagrees. "I'm not sure whether I would call it a zombie theory," she says. "From the scientific perspective, I think the literature is progressing quite productively." So we may, one day, have a clearer answer as to what it means to be an eldest daughter. Until then, I'll keep letting my younger sister believe I'm inherently smarter than her. -- For more science, technology, environment and health stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Spectator
21 hours ago
- Spectator
Why is China rushing to grow its nuclear arsenal?
China is growing its nuclear arsenal at a faster pace than any other country on the planet, according to new figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). It estimates that Beijing now has more than 600 nuclear warheads and is adding about 100 per year to its stockpile. That means that by 2035, it will have more than 1,500 warheads, still only a third of the arsenal of each of Russia and the US, but nevertheless an enormous increase and a marked shift away from its proclaimed policy of 'minimum deterrence'. To facilitate this expanding arsenal, China is building fields of new missile silos in its western desert regions. The Federation of American Scientists, which identified the silos via satellite imagery, has described them as 'the most significant expansion of the Chinese nuclear arsenal ever.' China is engaged in one of the largest military build-ups ever seen during peacetime The Pentagon believes China is planning to quadruple its nuclear weapons stockpile by 2030, and its fears have been further heightened by People's Liberation Army (PLA) tests of nuclear-capable hypersonic weapons designed to evade America's nuclear defences. One test involved the launch of a rocket into space, which circled the globe before releasing into orbit a highly manoeuvrable hypersonic glider. The nuclear-capable glider – which has been likened to a weaponised space shuttle – had the ability to surf along the earth's atmosphere before powering down to its target at up to five times the speed of sound (hence the hypersonic). Hypersonic weapons are far more difficult to detect and destroy than traditional ballistic missiles. This week, China's foreign ministry spokesperson insisted: 'China has always adhered to the nuclear strategy of self-defence, always maintained its nuclear forces at the minimum level required for national security, and has not participated in the arms race.' This claim is almost as hackneyed as that of China's 'peaceful rise', but understanding China's evolving military doctrine is especially challenging because Beijing 'is refusing to take part in nuclear arms control talks. China last year suspended talks over arms control and nuclear proliferation with the US ostensibly because of American arms sales to Taiwan. However, Beijing has always been a reluctant participant. It is engaged in one of the largest military build-ups ever seen during peacetime, yet there are none of the protocols and little of the depth of mutual knowledge about capabilities and intentions that existed and provided a level of stability during the last Cold War with the Soviet Union. Western strategists believe that one aim of the rapid nuclear build-up is to deter America from coming to the defence of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, and which it has repeatedly threatened to invade. The thinly disguised message to Washington is that America is deluding itself if it thinks a conflict over Taiwan could be contained to the immediate area and not endanger the American homeland. Trying to make sense of China's military doctrine is made all the more challenging by an ongoing purge at the top of the PLA and a heightened level of intrigue surrounding both the army and the Chinese Communist party (CCP). Earlier this year, General He Weidong, the number-two officer in the PLA and a member of the CCP's 24-strong politburo, was removed from his post. This followed the disappearance of Miao Hua, a navy admiral and one of six members (along with He) of the party's powerful central military commission, which is chaired by President Xi Jinping. Miao was also head of the PLA's political works department – charged with ensuring CCP control over the military. The PLA is a party organisation, and in the military pecking order, Miao was regarded as more powerful even than defence minister Dong Jun. Rumours have also swirled that Dong himself has been under investigation. He appears to have survived, at least for now, but if deposed, he would be the third successive defence minister to face corruption charges. China's rocket force, the most secretive and sensitive branch of China's military responsible for overseeing in part all those shiny new nukes, has also been the target of an extensive purge. Those targeted included the two heads of the force. Among others purged have been a navy commander responsible for the South China Sea and several others responsible for procuring equipment – long a notoriously corrupt part of the military. When Xi came to power in 2012, he pledged to clean up the PLA, which ran a business empire so big that preparing for war often appeared to be a secondary concern. In spite (or possibly because of) Xi's efforts, the graft only seems to have got worse – though it should be noted that 'corruption' is frequently used as a catch-all and a pretext for the removal of those considered insufficiently loyal to the leader. Because many of those now being targeted include Xi's hand-picked officials, it will inevitably be seen as an indictment of his abilities and judgement. This week's figures from SIPRI certainly confirm the worrying extent of China's nuclear ambitions. For the country's top brass charged with wielding these fearsome weapons, however, navigating the corridors of power at the pinnacle of Xi Jinping's capricious CCP is proving considerably more dangerous than the battlefield.
