October 2020

SpaceX canceled the launch of the Falcon 9 rocket with GPS III satellite two seconds before launch. The live broadcast was conducted on the company's website.

The launch was to take place from the cosmodrome at Cape Canaveral (Florida) at 21.43 local time (04.43 Moscow time). Two seconds before the start, the MCC gave the command to cancel the launch.

Details and reasons for the cancellation were not disclosed. There will be no more launch attempts today.

The rocket was supposed to launch the satellite GPS III-4 into orbit. It should enter the constellation of GPS geolocation satellites, where there are already three new generation devices. GPS III caters to the needs of the US military and civilians.

Earlier, SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted on Twitter a photo of the Starship ship with a finished tail unit. Musk also said that the flaps are now directly driven by electric motors with a gearbox.

A GoPro camera captured an air leak in the compartment of the Russian Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS). This is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the negotiations of the station's crew with the Earth, which were broadcast by NASA.

A specialist from the Moscow Region Mission Control Center told the crew that the camera would again be placed in the compartment of the Russian module for three days.

The camera was closed in the compartment in order to take readings of the manovacuum meter. This made it possible to understand how quickly the pressure drops. On the evening of October 2, cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner opened the hatches and took out the camera. They looked at the pictures and reported that in half a day, the pressure in the compartment dropped from 733 to 643 millimeters of mercury.

The leak at the Zvezda module, according to Roscosmos, provided a total atmospheric pressure drop on the ISS at the level of 1 millimeter of mercury in 8 hours.

As Business Insider wrote at the end of September, the leakage rate increased to 1.4 kilograms per day, which required re-isolation of the crew.

At the end of August 2018, Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of Roscosmos, spoke about an air leak from the Russian manned spacecraft Soyuz docked to the ISS, the source of which was a drilled hole with a diameter of 1.5 millimeters. The manager stressed that the hole in question had been sealed with Kapton tape.

Agronomist Elizaveta Tikhonova called the beneficial properties of palm oil in an interview with Sputnik radio.

According to her, this product eliminates the lack of body fat. The expert noted that when choosing between butter and palm oil, it is better for an adult to trust the latter.

“Nobody has died of palm oil yet, nobody has got sick. Everything that is vegetable is better absorbed by the body, and it is not deposited anywhere. Palm oil is better absorbed, it will give energy faster, it does not clog the vessels with cholesterol, ”Tikhonova said.

In August, it was reported that in the first half of 2020, Russia began to abandon palm oil, reducing its imports by seven percent compared to the same period in 2019. In total, over the past 20 years, the volume of imports of palm oil has increased more than 10 times. At the end of 2019, they amounted to 1.06 million tons. Its demand is due to its ease of use and low cost compared to most vegetable and milk fats. Indonesia is the main supplier.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the consumption of palm oil can lead to obesity and the development of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular diseases.

Russia plans to send a mission to find life on Venus, RIA Novosti reports, citing a representative of the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association (NPO).

It is noted that the Russian Venus exploration program includes three missions in 2029-2034. The first is Venera-D, launched in November 2029 to study the surface, atmosphere, internal structure and surrounding plasma of the planet. The task of the second mission, which is scheduled to be sent in June 2031, is to continue the exploration of the planet's atmosphere. The third mission will be sent in June 2034, its task is to deliver samples of the atmosphere, aerosols, and possibly soil from Venus to Earth.

However, the planetary exploration program may be supplemented by an urgent dispatch in 2027 of a station to study possible signs of life in the atmosphere.

On September 15, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it was time to prioritize the study of Venus. Earlier, astronomers discovered mysterious traces of phosphine in the upper layers of the planet. The found compound is a waste product of living organisms.