Category: Science

Jeff Bezos’ challenges SpaceX-NASA moon lander deal: Report

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Space exploration company Blue Origin, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, filed a protest with the US Federal Government Accountability Office contesting NASA’s decision to award the $2.9 billion deal to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

According to New York Times, SpaceX has been awarded the deal to design and build NASA’s new generation of moon landers.

The 50-page document was filed by Blue Origin along with its other collaborators after NASA awarded the lucrative contract to SpaceX on April 17. Known as the National Team, the collaboration included other three aerospace companies — Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Draper.

Dynetics Inc, a subsidiary of Leidos Holdings, a defence contractor for the US Armed Forces, and the third company to submit its proposal has also filed documents appealing against the deal.

NYT reported, CEO of Blue Origin, Bob Smith said that NASA’s decision making process was flawed and the decision was based on misjudging the bids downplaying advantages of Blue Origin’s proposal, while it also glossed over the technical challenges that SpaceX’s design would face. Smith added that NASA had placed too much emphasis on bottom-line cost, something the organisation had said it wouldn’t do.

“It’s really atypical for NASA to make these kinds of errors,” Smith was quoted as saying. “They’re generally quite good at acquisition, especially its flagship missions like returning America to the surface of the moon. We felt that these errors needed to be addressed and remedied,” he added.

Dynetics Inc, also released a statement regarding its appeal on Tuesday and said, “Has issues and concerns with several aspects of the acquisition process as well as elements of NASA’s technical evaluation and filed a protest with the G.A.O. to address them.”

However, bottom line costs may have taken precedence in NASA’s decision making as Congress had decided to only provide NASA with $850 million for the current fiscal year. The amount is only a quarter of what NASA had asked for the new lunar lander project, currently named Artemis.

NASA is relying on private corporations and interests in order to fuel the next phase of lunar landings. Space X recently used its Falcon 9 rockets to transport the most recent batch of astronauts to the International Space Station as well. Blue Origin has seen very limited success in comparison but its collaborators have had decades of experience in the aeronautics industry.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Elon Musk’s SpaceX launches four-astronaut team on NASA space mission

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched a four-astronaut team to the International Space Station (ISS) using a recycled rocket and the Dragon capsule that the company’s debut crew had used last year. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Crew Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts on a NASA commercial crew mission, was launched at the the Kennedy Space Center on April 23.

The four astronauts who hail from the US, Japan and France are expected to reach International Space Station early on April 24 and will spend six months in space.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has become the first European to board a SpaceX Crew Dragon, reports said. The other three crew members on the mission are NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, NASA said.

The recent pack of astronauts is the third NASA crew that SpaceX has sent to the ISS in the past 12 months under its multibillion-dollar contract with the US space agency under the Commercial Crew Program.

Shane Kimbrough is commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-2 mission while Megan McArthur is the pilot of the spacecraft and second-in-command for the mission. Akihiko Hoshide and Thomas Pesquet are the mission specialists for Crew-2.

SpaceX did a full dress rehearsal for Crew-2 on Sunday with the four member group practicing suiting up and driving out to the launchpad in the pair of Tesla Model Xs that SpaceX uses for crew transportation.

Crew Dragon will be delivering about 250 pounds of cargo, new science hardware and experiments including a university student-led investigation to study possible causes for suppressed immune response in microgravity, a NASA statement read.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

NASA says SpaceX wins $2.9 billion contract for moon spacecraft

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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NASA said on Friday it has awarded billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s private space company SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a spacecraft to bring astronauts to the moon as early as 2024, picking it over Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and defence contractor Dynetics Inc.

The bid by Tesla Inc chief Musk beat one from Amazon.com Inc’s founder Jeff Bezos, who had partnered with Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and Draper. Bezos also owns the Washington Post.

The U.S. space agency made the announcement of the contract for the first commercial human lander, part of NASA’s as part of the Artemis program, in a video conference. NASA said the lander will carry the two American astronauts to the lunar surface.

“We should accomplish the next landing as soon as possible,” said Steve Jurczyk, NASA’s acting administrator. “This is an incredible time to be involved in human exploration, for all humanity.”

“If they hit their milestones we have a shot at 2024,” Jurczyk added.

NASA said it would require a test flight to the moon before humans make the flight.

“In addition, NASA is requiring a test flight to fully check out all systems with a landing on the lunar surface prior to our formal demonstration mission,” NASA official Lisa Watson-Morgan told reporters.

NASA official Mark Kirasich said the agency hopes to see all three of the companies that competed for the initial moon landing vying to provide recurring transportation to the moon.

“We have to be able to provide for recurring lunar services,” said Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems division, adding that NASA will work on a follow-on competition for “regularly recurring” lunar missions.

The NASA announcement added to an extraordinary run for Musk, who is one of the world’s richest people thanks to his 22% stake in electric car maker Tesla Inc.

Tesla has become the world’s most valuable automaker, with a market capitalization of $702 billion, far surpassing the auto industry’s giants. Musk has become a one-person technology conglomerate, launching or controlling companies pursuing space flight, electric cars, neural implants and subterranean tunnel boring.

A factor in the choice of SpaceX was “what’s the best value to the government,” said Kathy Lueders, associate administrator for NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

NASA said in a news release that SpaceX’s HLS Starship, designed to land on the moon, “leans on the company’s tested Raptor engines and flight heritage of the Falcon and Dragon vehicles.” It said Starship includes a spacious cabin and two airlocks for astronaut moon walks and that its architecture is intended to evolve to a fully reusable launch and landing system designed for travel to the Moon, Mars and other destinations in space.

NASA’s decision was a setback for Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast and one of the world’s richest people, who is now more focused on his space venture after having announced in February he would step down as Amazon CEO.

The contract was seen by Bezos and other executives as vital to Blue Origin establishing itself as a desired partner for NASA, and also putting the venture on the road to turning a profit, Reuters had reported in February.

SpaceX announced on Wednesday it had raised about $1.16 billion in equity financing.

Musk has outlined an ambitious agenda for SpaceX and its reusable rockets, including landing humans on Mars. But in the near term, SpaceX’s main business has been launching satellites for Musk’s Starlink internet venture, and other satellites and space cargo.

Unlike the Apollo lunar landings from 1969 to 1972, NASA now is gearing up for a long-term presence on the moon that it envisions as a steppingstone to an even more ambitious plan to send astronauts to reach Mars. NASA is leaning heavily on private companies built around shared visions for space exploration.

An uncrewed SpaceX Starship prototype rocket failed to land safely on March 30 after a test launch from Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship was one in a series of prototypes for the heavy-lift rocket being developed by SpaceX to carry humans and 100 tons of cargo on future missions to the moon and Mars. A first orbital Starship flight is planned for year’s end.

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Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Science and innovation – The new frontier

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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No single phenomenon has had a deeper and broader impact on modern society than science. Science as a culture has shaped our contemporary institutions, organisations and societies. The impact of scientific progress on the economy has been equally dramatic. Almost all goods and services with a high value-add, embody elements of scientific knowledge. Medicines and medical treatments are outcomes of research in biology, chemistry, biochemistry and genetic engineering. Software and hardware developments in computational science contain elements of advanced mathematics, physics and system engineering.

Today the service industry is increasingly dependent on advanced information technology, and insights from psychology, sociology, economics and management sciences. In a society where money and economic growth are regarded as the most valid indicators of performance, science is at the root of all economic impact. For policymakers too, focusing on science becomes a simple model of innovation and growth, where prudent investments foster innovation-based growth.

Without exaggerating the direct impact of science on innovation, we also need to acknowledge experienced-based learning that is ostensibly revolutionising innovation today. Understanding markets and organisations are on an equal footing with scientific research aimed at developing new technology. This experience-based learning is indeed a prerequisite for transforming scientific knowledge into economic performance. In order to transform the knowledge produced by R&D into commercial results, firms need to engage in interactive learning externally with customers and markets and manage the feedback from the broader social and institutional environments.

The recent coronavirus crisis has clearly demonstrated the role of science and technology in addressing the many global challenges faced by the world around us. The pharmaceutical industry is one segment where innovation has had a crucial role to play, as it impacts the quality of life. The creation of the COVID-19 vaccine and its deliveries across the world has indeed brought science and innovation back to focus, particularly for our pharma world.

According to McKinsey’s ‘Innovation Through Crisis’ Survey report in April 2020, only pharma and medical products have increased their focus on innovation during the coronavirus crisis. Also, the commitment to innovation was higher by 30 percent for pharmaceuticals sector, according to the report.

Companies that invest and focus on innovation perform better than their peers. Interestingly, innovation cannot be a one-sided affair; it needs a collaborative approach with peers and partners. Companies today, are realigning their budgets and are incorporating innovative solutions like digital communications, Artificial intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality which will help organisations emerge smarter and sustainable with enhanced productivity.

For the pharmaceutical sector, the focus on research and innovation has significantly strengthened. Companies are collaborating with scientific institutes and research bodies to fast-track innovation and strengthen infrastructure, like never before. A lot of pharmaceutical companies are entering some exciting spaces through collaborations and partnerships.

The challenges this industry faces are no less daunting. It costs a pharma company anywhere between $1 billion and $4 billion and 10-15 years to bring a new drug to market. What’s worse, fewer than 10 percent of drugs actually make it to market to help people. (In comparison, SpaceX’s flagship rocket system, Falcon 9, cost about $400 million and took five years.)

That drug discovery is becoming slower and more expensive over time is known as Eroom’s law, which says the cost of bringing a new drug to market roughly doubles every nine years. This is despite advances at the intersection of technology and biology, including computational drug design, high-throughput automation, and the ability to read, write and edit DNA faster and cheaper every day. Compare that to Moore’s law which claims the power of computing per unit cost doubles every 18 months, making computational costs cheaper by the day. In just the reverse under Eroom’s law, the unit cost of drug development has increased to the point where drug development has become nearly cost-ineffective.

The challenges don’t just end here. Despite the staggering time and cost to make a new drug, nine out of ten drugs still fail in clinical trials. Nothing but science, technology and innovation can transform the pharmaceutical industry into greater prosperity. Hopefully, that transformation may already be unfolding.

At Merck, we have seriously deep-dived into the field of synthetic biology, the most radical field of bioresearch. Synthetic biology combines advances in computation, automation, and our ability to read, write and edit genes to change the way we build things with biology. Synthetic biology is rooted in academia, industrial biotechnology, and bioengineering with an aim to rationally engineer cells to solve society’s needs more quickly, more effectively and more sustainably than conventional biological and chemical technologies.

The story of how the pharma industry responds to COVID—and synthetic biology’s role in that response—isn’t done being written yet. Let’s hope it’s the first chapter of a bright new future where tools and technologies—ultimately science—are used to create better medicines, faster and cheaper. We must always remember technology shapes human progress, which is very crucial not only for meagre survival but for overall progress.

Today, more than ever, there is a strong need for organisations to keep up the pace of innovation. An important element of tomorrow’s innovation is digitalisation. Organisations that have analysed immense data for entering newer portfolios or for creating a new business model are only being future-ready. Data analysis can give real-time information on ways to improve the existing product portfolio and focus on innovation in newer product offerings.

There is indeed a need to adopt a multi-pronged approach to foster a culture of science and innovation. Young minds are naturally curious and developing this curiosity positively and effectively should be the way forward. Corporate India as well the state needs to expand the horizon and promote scientific thinking in our education system as well. Only then can we create future generations who will be engaged in finding innovative solutions to many more crises that might be lurking around the corner.

—Anand Narasimhan is Managing Director, Merck Specialties. The views expressed are personal

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

SC notice to Centre on IMA plea against order allowing post-grad Ayurveda docs to perform surgery

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Supreme Court Monday sought response from the Centre on a plea by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) against a Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) order authorising post-graduate practitioners in specified streams of Ayurveda be trained to perform surgical procedures. A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notices to the Ministry of Ayush, CCIM and National Medical Commission while seeking their replies on the petition.

IMA has moved the top court seeking to set aside or quash the amendment to regulations to the Postgraduate Ayurveda Surgery by CCIM and declare that the council does not have the powers to include modern medicine in the syllabus. The notification by the CCIM listed 39 general surgery procedures and around 19 procedures involving the eye, ear, nose and throat by amending the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016.

According to the November 20, 2020 gazette notification the procedures listed include removal of metallic and non-metallic foreign bodies from non-vital organs, excision of simple cyst or benign tumours of non-vital organs, amputation of gangrene, traumatic wound management, foreign body removal from stomach, squint surgery, cataract surgery and functional endoscopic sinus surgery.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

PSLV rocket lifts off with 19 satellites from Brazil, US and India

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C51 (PSLV-C51) rocket loaded with 19 satellites from Brazil, the US and India lifted off from the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday morning.

The rocket carrying Brazil’s 637-kg Amazonia-1 satellite as its primary passenger and 18 others (13 from the US and five from India including a defence satellite) as co-passengers lifted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here at 10.24 a.m. on Sunday.

India’s first space mission for 2021 is one of the longest for a PSLV rocket and is expected to conclude 1 hour, 55 minutes and 7 seconds into its flight.

If all goes well India will end the mission orbiting a total of 342 foreign satellites, all for a fee.

The rocketing is a fully commercial one of NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) with the primary passenger being the Amazonia-1 satellite.

At 10.24 a.m. the 44.4-metre tall PSLV-C51 rocket blasted off from the first launch pad here and slowly rose-up towards the skies with thick orange flame at its tail.

The rocket slowly gained speed as it went up while emitting a rolling thunder sound.

Amazonia-1 is the optical earth observation satellite of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE).

This satellite would further strengthen the existing structure by providing remote sensing data to users for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analysis of diversified agriculture across the Brazilian territory, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The 18 co-passenger satellites include four from IN-SPACe (three UNITYsats from a consortium of three Indian academic institutes (Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, Sriperumbudur, G.H.Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur and Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore), one Satish Dhawan Sat from Space Kidz India) with an engraved picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on it as well as Bhagavad Gita in a flash.

The remaining 14 satellites Sindhu Netra, an Indian technology demonstration satellite from Defence Research Development Organisation’s (DRDO) research centre Imarat, Hyderabad to identify suspicious ships and 13 satellites from the US viz., SAI-1 NanoConnect-2, a technology demonstration satellite and 12 SpaceBees satellites for two-way satellite communications and data relay.

For the third time, ISRO is using the PSLV rocket’s DL variant that will have two strap-on booster motors.

In normal configuration, the PSLV is a four-stage/engine expendable rocket powered by solid and liquid fuels alternatively. Six booster motors will also be strapped on to the first stage to give higher thrust during the initial flight moments.

But the 44.4-metre tall PSLV rocket that flew on Sunday was the DL variant having only two strap-booster motors. This variant was used for the first time to put the Microsat R satellite into orbit on January 24, 2019.

The Indian space agency has PSLV variants with two and four strap-on motors, larger PSLV-XL and the Core Alone variant without any strap-on motors.

The choice of the rocket to be used for a mission depends on the weight of the satellite and the orbit where the satellite has to be orbited.

Be that as it may, the PSLV-C51 mission is one of the longest ones.

As per its flight plan, the rocket will put the 19 satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit over a duration of 1 hour, 55 minutes and 7 seconds.

During its flight, the rocket’s fourth stage engine will be cut off and restarted a couple of times, the first one will be at 16 minutes into its flight.

Seventeen minutes into its flight the rocket will sling the Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1.

Just over one hour into its flight the rocket’s engine will be restarted for about nine seconds before it is shut down again.

After 1 hour, 49 minutes and 52 seconds the rocket’s engine will be reignited for eight seconds after which the 18 piggyback satellites will be put into orbit.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Who is Swati Mohan, the woman leading NASA’s Mars 2020 landing?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Thursday said its largest and most advanced rover, Perseverance, touched down on Mars at the Jezero Crater. The space agency described the moment leading up to the landing as “seven minutes of terror”,  reported CNN.

However, throughout the process, there was the calming voice of an Indian-American, Dr Swati Mohan, leading the landing and keeping the world abreast with updates every second.

When Swati, a NASA engineer announced, “Touchdown confirmed! Perseverance is safely on the surface of Mars, ready to begin seeking the signs of past life,” scientists and observers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California broke into jubilation.

According to her bio on the official NASA website, Swati has been engaged in the Mars 2020 project since its beginning in 2013. Currently, she is the Mars 2020 Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Operations Lead. The attitude control system that Swati led throughout the project points where it needs to be and helps figure out where the spacecraft is oriented in space.

Swati had moved to the United States at the age of 1 and spent her childhood in the Northern Virginia-Washington DC metro area. After completing her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Swati did her M.S. and PhD from MIT in Aeronautics/Astronautics.
Besides leading the Mars 2020 (GN&C) Operations, Swati is also responsible for the training of the team, scheduling the mission control staffing, as well as the policies and procedures the GN&C uses in the mission control room.

While Swati might have led Mars 2020, it wasn’t until 16 that she took her first physics class. Until then, she aspired to be a paediatrician. The reason? Swati says even though she always took interest in space, she had no idea about how to turn that interest into a job. But Swati also credits her teacher, who made it easy and understandable for her. “That was when I really considered engineering, as a way to pursue space,” she says.

Interestingly, it was Star Trek that sparked her interest in space and science. Swati says she remembers watching the first episode of the Star Trek series and “the beautiful depictions of the new regions of the universe” made her realise: “I want to do that. I want to find new and beautiful places in the universe.” The accomplished scientist says humans have just begun to learn about the knowledge the vastness of space holds.

After a 203-day journey and travel of 472 million km, NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars. Launched on July 30, 2020, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the rover is packed with ground-breaking technology, The Perseverance rover mission marks an ambitious first step in the effort to collect Mars samples and return them to Earth.

Acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk described the landing as a pivotal moment not just for NASA and the US but for the entire space exploration community. “… We know we are on the cusp of discovery and sharpening our pencils, so to speak, to rewrite the textbooks,” he said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

World faces around 4,000 COVID-19 variants as Britain explores mixed vaccine shots

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The world faces around 4,000 variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, prompting a race to improve vaccines, Britain said on Thursday, as researchers began to explore mixing doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots in a world first.

Thousands of variants have been documented as the virus mutates, including the so-called British, South African and Brazilian variants which appear to spread more swiftly than others.

British Vaccine Deployment Minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was very unlikely that the current vaccines would not work against the new variants.

“Its very unlikely that the current vaccine won’t be effective on the variants whether in Kent or other variants especially when it comes to severe illness and hospitalisation,” Zahawi told Sky News.

“All manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca and others, are looking at how they can improve their vaccine to make sure that we are ready for any variant – there are about 4,000 variants around the world of COVID now.”

While thousands of variants have arisen as the virus mutates on replication, only a very small minority are likely to be important and to change the virus in an appreciable way, according to the British Medical Journal.

The so-called British variant, known as VUI-202012/01, has mutations including a change in the spike protein that viruses use to bind to the human ACE2 receptor – meaning that it is probably easier to catch.

“We have the largest genome sequencing industry – we have about 50% of the world’s genome sequencing industry – and we are keeping a library of all the variants so that we are ready to respond – whether in the autumn or beyond – to any challenge that the virus may present and produce the next vaccine,” Zahawi said.

VACCINE RACE

The novel coronavirus – known as SARS-CoV-2 – has killed 2.268 million people worldwide since it emerged in China in late 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

Israel is currently far ahead of the rest of the world on vaccinations per head of population, followed by the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, the United States and then Spain, Italy and Germany.

Britain on Thursday launched a trial to assess the immune responses generated if doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca are combined in a two-shot schedule. Initial data on immune responses is expected to be generated around June.

The trial will examine the immune responses of an initial dose of Pfizer vaccine followed by a booster of AstraZeneca’s, as well as vice versa, with intervals of four and 12 weeks.

The trial will be the first of its kind to combine a mRNA shot – the one developed by Pfizer and BioNtech – and a adenovirus viral vector vaccine of the type developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca’s shot is separately being trialled in combination with another viral vector vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V.

The British researchers behind the trial said data on vaccinating people with the two different types of vaccines could help understanding of whether shots can be rolled out with greater flexibility around the world, and might even increase immune responses.

Matthew Snape, an Oxford vaccinologist who is leading the trial, said mixing different shots had proven effective in Ebola vaccine schedules, and though the new trial mixed vaccine technologies, it could also work.

“Ultimately, it all comes down to the same target – cells making the spike protein – just using different platforms,” he told reporters.

“For that reason, we do anticipate that we’ll generate a good immune response with these combinations.”

Public Health England’s head of immunisation Mary Ramsay said there was a lot of precedent for such work, as vaccines against Hepatitis A and B were interchangeable from two different manufacturers, and similar work has been undertaken for human papillomavirus (HPV).

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Who is Bhavya Lal, NASA’s acting chief of staff?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Indian-American engineer Bhavya Lal was on Monday appointed as acting chief of staff for the NASA.

As a senior White House appointee at NASA, Lal served as member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency and oversaw agency’s transition under the administration of President Biden, according to NASA.

NASA has named Bhavya Lal as acting chief of staff for the agency. As senior White House appointee at NASA, Lal served as member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency & oversaw agency’s transition under the administration of President Biden: NASA

— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2021

According to a statement issued by the space agency, Lal brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020.

There, she led analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organizations, including NASA, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community.

Lal is an active member of the space technology and policy community, having chaired, co-chaired, or served on five high-impact National Academy of Science committees.

She served two consecutive terms on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Federal Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing and was an External Council member of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program and the Technology, Innovation and Engineering Advisory Committee of the NASA Advisory Council.

Before joining STPI, Lal was president of C-STPS LLC, a science and technology policy research and consulting firm. Prior to that, she was the director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Studies at Abt Associates, a global policy research consultancy based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Lal will also serve as the senior advisor for budget and finance at NASA.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Elon Musk overtakes Amazon’s Bezos to become world’s richest person

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Tesla Inc chief and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk surpassed Amazon.com Inc’s top boss Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest man, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Including Thursday’s gains in Tesla shares, Musk, 49, had a net worth of more than $188.5 billion, $1.5 billion more than Bezos, the report said.

Musk’s personal wealth has been boosted by last year’s more than eight-fold surge in the shares of Tesla, which became the world’s most valuable carmaker.

He has a 20% stake in the carmaker and about $42 billion of unrealized paper gains on vested stock options, according to the Bloomberg report.

Tesla shares were up as much as 7.4% on Thursday at a record high of $811.61.

The Forbes Billionaires List, however, said Musk still trails Amazon’s Bezos by $7.8 billion.

Forbes has a more conservative estimate based on the Tesla stake that he has pledged as a collateral for personal loans. To take that into account, it applies a 25% discount to his shareholding, according to its report in November.

Musk, who co-founded and sold Internet payments company PayPal Holdings Inc, now leads some of the most futuristic companies in the world.

Besides Tesla, he heads rocket company SpaceX and Neuralink, a startup that is developing ultra-high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect the human brain to computers.

He set up the Boring Company to make affordable tunnels below busy city streets for an all-electric public transportation system to avoid the nasty traffic jams in U.S. cities.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow