Cambodia Condemns Thai Military Attack on Preah Vihear Temple | Cambodia Confirms Troops Still Holding Mount Trop as Thailand Cannot Raise Flag on Sovereign Territory | Cambodia and Thailand Clashes Enter Third Day as Casualties Rise to 33 | UN Security Council Urges Restraint as Thailand-Cambodia Clashes Intensify | Cambodia Condemns Thai Aggression at UN, Calls for Ceasefire and International Intervention | Techo Hun Sen Advises Military Strategy Amidst Border Clashes with Thailand | 45 Staff Rescued After Being Trapped at Preah Vihear Temple Amidst Clashes | BREAKING: Cambodia Denies Firing Projectiles into Laos, Accuses Thailand of Disinformation | Cambodia's Tourism Ministry Seeks Aid for Troops, Refugees; Reaffirms Commitment to Peace | BREAKING: Laos Denies Border Clash with Cambodia; Cambodia Rejects Thai Accusations of Shelling Laos | BREAKING NEWS: Andrew MacGregor Marshall Claims Queen Mother Sirikit Has Died, Alleging Concealment by Thai Authorities | BREAKING NEWS: Cambodia and Thailand Agree to Malaysian Mediation Amid Escalating Border Clashes | Ministry of Education Announces Postponement of 2025 Baccalaureate Examination | Cambodian Community in Korea Holds Mass Protest Against Thailand’s Invasion | Techo Hun Sen: “In Times of National Crisis, We Have No Right to Rest or Fall Ill” | UN Secretary-General and Cambodian Officials Call for Immediate Ceasefire Amid Border Clashes | Lieutenant General Duong Samnieng Dies Fighting Thai Invaders at Preah Vihear | BREAKING NEWS: Prime Minister Hun Manet to Lead Cambodian Delegation to Kuala Lumpur for Special Meeting on Ceasefire | Secretary Rubio Calls for Immediate De-escalation in Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute | TOP NEWS: Cambodia and Thailand Agree to Ceasefire After Malaysia-Mediated Talks | ASEAN Issues Statement Supporting Ceasefire and Peaceful Resolution in Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute | BREAKING: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Welcomes Cambodia-Thailand Ceasefire Declaration | TOP NEWS: President Trump Announces Ceasefire and Peace Agreements with Thailand and Cambodia | Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet Reports Successful Ceasefire Negotiation with Thailand, Thanks U.S. Support | Techo Hun Sen Commends Trump Initiative That Saved Thousands of Lives During Cambodia-Thailand Conflict | Cambodia and Thailand Engage in High-Level Military Meetings Amid Ceasefire Implementation | All My Feelings at This Time Are Connected to Some Major Tasks: Prime Minister Hun Manet Shares Personal Reflection on Social Media | Techo Hun Sen Praises Cambodian and Thai Armies for Respecting Ceasefire and Urges Continued Efforts for Peace | UN Geneva Welcomes Cambodia-Thailand Ceasefire in Social Media Message |
Cambodia Condemns Thai Military Attack on Preah Vihear Temple | Cambodia Confirms Troops Still Holding Mount Trop as Thailand Cannot Raise Flag on Sovereign Territory | Cambodia and Thailand Clashes Enter Third Day as Casualties Rise to 33 | UN Security Council Urges Restraint as Thailand-Cambodia Clashes Intensify | Cambodia Condemns Thai Aggression at UN, Calls for Ceasefire and International Intervention | Techo Hun Sen Advises Military Strategy Amidst Border Clashes with Thailand | 45 Staff Rescued After Being Trapped at Preah Vihear Temple Amidst Clashes | BREAKING: Cambodia Denies Firing Projectiles into Laos, Accuses Thailand of Disinformation | Cambodia's Tourism Ministry Seeks Aid for Troops, Refugees; Reaffirms Commitment to Peace | BREAKING: Laos Denies Border Clash with Cambodia; Cambodia Rejects Thai Accusations of Shelling Laos | BREAKING NEWS: Andrew MacGregor Marshall Claims Queen Mother Sirikit Has Died, Alleging Concealment by Thai Authorities | BREAKING NEWS: Cambodia and Thailand Agree to Malaysian Mediation Amid Escalating Border Clashes | Ministry of Education Announces Postponement of 2025 Baccalaureate Examination | Cambodian Community in Korea Holds Mass Protest Against Thailand’s Invasion | Techo Hun Sen: “In Times of National Crisis, We Have No Right to Rest or Fall Ill” | UN Secretary-General and Cambodian Officials Call for Immediate Ceasefire Amid Border Clashes | Lieutenant General Duong Samnieng Dies Fighting Thai Invaders at Preah Vihear | BREAKING NEWS: Prime Minister Hun Manet to Lead Cambodian Delegation to Kuala Lumpur for Special Meeting on Ceasefire | Secretary Rubio Calls for Immediate De-escalation in Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute | TOP NEWS: Cambodia and Thailand Agree to Ceasefire After Malaysia-Mediated Talks | ASEAN Issues Statement Supporting Ceasefire and Peaceful Resolution in Cambodia-Thailand Border Dispute | BREAKING: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Welcomes Cambodia-Thailand Ceasefire Declaration | TOP NEWS: President Trump Announces Ceasefire and Peace Agreements with Thailand and Cambodia | Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet Reports Successful Ceasefire Negotiation with Thailand, Thanks U.S. Support | Techo Hun Sen Commends Trump Initiative That Saved Thousands of Lives During Cambodia-Thailand Conflict | Cambodia and Thailand Engage in High-Level Military Meetings Amid Ceasefire Implementation | All My Feelings at This Time Are Connected to Some Major Tasks: Prime Minister Hun Manet Shares Personal Reflection on Social Media | Techo Hun Sen Praises Cambodian and Thai Armies for Respecting Ceasefire and Urges Continued Efforts for Peace | UN Geneva Welcomes Cambodia-Thailand Ceasefire in Social Media Message |

Count Down First Private Astronaut Mission To Space Station Readies For Launch

INTERNATIONAL: The International Space Station (ISS) is set to become busier than usual this week when its crew welcomes aboard four new colleagues from Houston-based startup Axiom Space, the first all-private astronaut team ever flown to the orbiting outpost.

The launch is being hailed by the company, NASA and other industry players as a turning point in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures collectively referred to by insiders as the low-Earth orbit economy, or "LEO economy" for short.

Weather permitting, Axiom's four-man team will lift off on Friday (April 8) at the earliest from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket furnished and flown by Elon Musk's commercial space launch venture SpaceX.

The launch was initially scheduled for Wednesday (April 6). An Axiom statement did not give a reason for the delay, but the company said on its website it was continuing pre-launch processing work.

If all goes smoothly, the quartet led by retired NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will arrive at the space station 28 hours later as their SpaceX-supplied Crew Dragon capsule docks at ISS some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Lopez-Alegria, 63, is the Spanish-born mission commander and Axiom's vice president of business development. He is set to be joined by Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator from Ohio designated as the mission pilot. Connor is in his 70s but the company did not provide his precise age.

Rounding out the Ax-1 team are investor-philanthropist and former Israeli fighter pilot Eytan Stibbe, 64, and Canadian businessman and philanthropist Mark Pathy, 52, both serving as mission specialists. Stibbe is set to become the second Israeli in space, after Ilan Ramon, who perished with six NASA crewmates in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster.

The Ax-1 crew may appear to have a lot in common with many of the wealthy passengers taking suborbital rides lately aboard the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic services offered by billionaires Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson, respectively. But Axiom executives said their mission is more substantive.

"It is the beginning of many beginnings for commercializing low-Earth orbit," Axiom's co-founder and executive chairman, Kam Ghaffarian, told Reuters in an interview. "We're like in the early days of the internet, and we haven't even imagined all the possibilities, all the capabilities, that we're going to be providing in space."

The so-called Ax-1 team will be carrying equipment and supplies for 26 science and technology experiments to be conducted before they are slated to leave orbit and return to Earth 10 days after launch. These include research on brain health, cardiac stem cells, cancer and aging as well as a technology demonstration to produce optics using the surface tension of fluids in microgravity, company executives said.

Launched to orbit in 1998, ISS has been continuously occupied since 2000 under a U.S.-Russian-led partnership including Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.

While the space station has hosted visits by civilian visitors from time to time, the Ax-1 mission will mark the first all-commercial team of astronauts to use ISS for its intended purpose as an orbiting laboratory.

They will be sharing the weightless work space alongside seven regular crew members of the ISS - three U.S. astronauts, a German astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts.

Axiom said it has contracted with SpaceX to fly three more missions to orbit over the next two years. NASA selected Axiom in 2020 to design and develop a new commercial wing to the space station, which currently spans the approximate size of a football field. Flight hardware for the first Axiom module is currently undergoing fabrication, the company said.

Plans call for eventually detaching the Axiom modules from the rest of the outpost when ISS is ready for retirement, around 2030, leaving the smaller Axiom station in orbit as a commercial-only platform, Ghaffarian said.

Other private operators are expected to place their own stations in orbit once ISS is decommissioned.

AXIOM'S CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, KAM GHAFFARIAN, Said:

“We're like (in the) early days of (the) internet, and we haven't even imagined all the possibilities, all the capabilities that we're going to be providing in space. So our part is to sort of create this platform, like you said, where it will enable all these other capabilities, all these other companies, to flourish and do their activities, and will be selling that platform as a service for them.”

"We now know that when you go to space there is a little bit of acceleration in aging, right? And so we are doing some clinical research and saying, wow, if there is a little acceleration, you know, identifying what causes that acceleration, and by understanding that, can we slow aging? Or even stop it for that matter? And then there is also some relationship for example to the T cells that we discovered. And there is some connectivity to even cancer, and so for example, can we come up with a cure of cancer?"



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