'''China accuses US of spreading ‘panic’ over coronavirus outbreak

The Chinese government on Monday accused the US of spreading “panic” over the coronavirus outbreak by pulling its citizens out of the country and restricting travel instead of offering significant assistance. The US was the first country to begin evacuations, issued a travel warning against going to China, and from Sunday barred entry to foreigners recently in China.

Washington has “unceasingly manufactured and spread panic,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, noting that the World Health Organization had advised against trade and travel restrictions, according to Reuters. “It is precisely developed countries like the United States with strong epidemic prevention capabilities and facilities that have taken the lead in imposing excessive restrictions contrary to WHO recommendations,” she added, saying countries should make reasoned and science-based judgments. There are more than 17,000 confirmed cases of the virus in China. More than 360 people have died, all but one in the country. At least another 171 cases have been reported in more than two dozen other countries and regions, including the US, where 11 cases have been confirmed, officials said Sunday. There are three suspected cases in the Big Apple. The results of their tests are pending.

Conducting her daily news briefing via the WeChat app, Hua criticized Washington for lack of help, despite President Trump’s weekend comments that US officials had offered “tremendous help.” “So far, the US government has yet to provide any substantial assistance to China,” she said. But national security adviser Robert O’Brien told an interviewer that China had not yet accepted American offers of aid. Trump said this weekend that the US had “shut down” the coronavirus threat. “We can’t have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem,” he said on Fox.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said Monday it was working around the clock with internet and social media giants to fight widespread misinformation about the outbreak. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of the dangers posed by “the spread of rumors and misinformation,” according to Agence France-Presses. “We have worked with Google to make sure people searching for information about coronavirus see WHO information at the top of their search results,” Tedros said in opening remarks to the UN health agency’s Executive Board meeting in Geneva. “Social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, Tencent and Tiktok have also taken steps to limit the spread of misinformation,” he said. The WHO chief’s comments were interrupted by a fit of coughing, but he assured the assembly that there was no need to worry. “It is not corona,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2020/02/03/china-accuses-us-of-spreading-panic-over-coronavirus-outbreak/

A Small Rocket Maker

Is Running A Different Kind of Space Race

Astra, Darpa's rocket startup of choice, is preparing to launch satellites into orbit in record time

The 40-foot-long, 4-foot-wide rocket loomed over the quiet suburb of Alameda, Calif., on the morning of Jan. 18, near the Pottery Barn Outlet. A handful of engineers and metal wrenchers got to work early, setting up the rocket and connecting it to a mess of electronics and tubes. The device stood up straight, with the help of some black metal scaffolding. Its bottom third gleamed aluminum; the rest, actor-teeth white. Over the course of the day, the team pumped in various gases and liquids to prepare the rocket’s valves, chambers, and other components for a crucial test. Shortly after midnight, the rocket was ready for an exercise called a cold flow, meant to ensure that its propellant tanks can handle liquid fuel. Once the team had filled the rocket, taken the needed measurements, and checked for leaks, they simply evacuated the machine by releasing huge volumes of liquid nitrogen into the air. The thing about liquid nitrogen is that it must be kept supercold to remain liquid. It boiled instantly on contact with the outside air, creating a billowing white cloud that stretched out more than 200 yards. With the team’s floodlights beaming down on the test site, this odd fog monster easily could have been seen by anyone living in the houses as close as 2,000 feet away. Soon, though, the rocket was trucked off toward its next temporary home, a spaceport in Kodiak, Alaska.

Until speaking with Bloomberg Businessweek, Astra, the three-year-old rocket startup behind the test, had operated in secret, rolling nitrogen clouds aside. The company’s founders say they want to be the FedEx Corp. of space. They’re aiming to create small, cheap rockets that can be mass-produced to facilitate daily spaceflights, delivering satellites into low-Earth orbit for as little as $1 million per launch. If Astra’s planned Kodiak flight succeeds on Feb. 21, it will have put a rocket into orbit at a record-setting pace. Chief Executive Officer Chris Kemp says he’s focused less on this particular launch than on the logistics of creating many more rockets. “We have taken a much broader look at how we scale the business,” he says. Going fast in the aerospace business is a rarity and doesn’t usually work out so well. But the U.S. government has made speedy rocket launches something of a national priority, and Astra stands as a Department of Defense darling right now. The Pentagon’s R&D arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, made Astra one of three finalists in a contest called the Launch Challenge. The terms: Whichever startup could send two rockets from different locations with different payloads within a few weeks of each other would win $12 million. Astra is the only finalist still in the running. Virgin Orbit, part of billionaire Richard Branson’s spaceflight empire that’s been working on its rocket for about a decade, has withdrawn from the contest. Vector Launch Inc., the third finalist, filed for bankruptcy in December. That’s left Astra in a competition against itself and physics, which may be why Kemp, a relentless ball of confident energy who dresses in head-to-toe black, is uncharacteristically trying to set modest expectations for the Kodiak launch. “It would be unprecedented if this was a successful orbital flight,” he says. “We want to emphasize that this is one of many launches we will do in an ongoing campaign.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-astra-rocket/