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Jewish Billionaire Makes History Completing First Private Spacewalk With SpaceX: ‘It Looks Like a Perfect World’
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with Polaris Dawn, a private human spaceflight mission with two crew members expected to attempt the first-ever private spacewalk, at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, US, Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: Reuters
Jewish tech billionaire Jared Isaacman was one of two private astronauts aboard a SpaceX spacecraft to complete on Thursday the first-ever commercial spacewalk.
SpaceX live streamed the all-civilian Polaris Dawn mission on social media early Thursday morning. Isaacman, 41, was the first to exit SpaceX’s Dragon capsule as it orbited Earth, followed shortly afterward by SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis. After opening the hatch of the spacecraft, making his way out and looking at his view of the world, Isaacman said, “Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, it looks like a perfect world.” He and Gillis each spent roughly 10 minutes outside the Dragon capsule and the spacewalk ended at 7:58 am ET.
The Polaris Dawn mission included retired Air Force Lt. Col. Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and SpaceX engineer Anna Menon, both of whom remained in the capsule. It launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Tuesday. Isaacman funded the Polaris Dawn five-day mission, which included paying for seats for all the crew members. The mission reached an altitude of about 870 miles above Earth’s surface, making it the highest orbital altitude that a crewed space mission has reached since NASA’s final Apollo moon mission in 1972.
In a statement on X, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated SpaceX and the Polaris Dawn crew for completing the first commercial spacewalk in history. “Today’s success represents a giant leap forward for the commercial space industry and @NASA’s long-term goal to build a vibrant US space economy,” he wrote.
Isaacman is the founder of Shift4 Payments, a payment processing company, and has a net worth of $1.9 billion, according to estimates by Forbes. The Polaris Dawn mission is his second mission in space after he funded and commanded the Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, which helped raise over $240 million for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Inspiration4 mission was the first orbital spaceflight featuring only private citizens, according to Space.com.
Isaacman formerly owned the jet pilot training company Draken International and has about 6,000 hours of flying experience, Space.com added. He has also done a high-speed circumnavigation of the world and air shows.
The post Jewish Billionaire Makes History Completing First Private Spacewalk With SpaceX: ‘It Looks Like a Perfect World’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7
Michelle Shalmiev was born in a village in the Caucasian mountains and immigrated to Israel and settled on a kibbutz when she was 14. Her series “Putting Your Stamp on History” […]
The post Treasure Trove: An Israeli stamp reflects the complex mix of emotions about Oct. 7 appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News
Printable obituaries of eight Canadian victims and more of our original coverage.
The post Download a special Oct. 7 print edition of The Canadian Jewish News appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is seen addressing supporters, in Beirut, Lebanon. Photo: Reuters.
JNS.org – This Oct. 7 will not only be an anniversary of tears, of pure contrition, even if the memory is burning as the people of Israel live. As to how, it wasn’t at all obvious. Our whole history is made of miracles—from the splitting of the sea to escape from the Egyptians to the Inquisition to the pogroms to the thousand other genocidal attacks to which the Jews have been subjected. In every case, the results are always incredible and surprising, especially for how we have emerged active, faithful to our Torah tradition and committed to the return to Jerusalem until we made it happen.
The War of Independence in 1948 was fought by concentration-camp veterans, yet we defeated all the Arab armies, united in hatred, who marched against us. Later, in 1967, 1973 wars were won by a hair’s breadth with miraculous strokes of imagination and leaders who gave birth to ideas that people would have expected. No one would have ever bet a euro, penny or shekel on the idea that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and his entire hierarchy could be eliminated, petrifying Iran, especially since we have already reduced its other favorite proxy, Hamas, to pieces. And now we have bombed Iran’s other proxy, the Houthis, some 2,000 kilometers away, destroying the airport from which they receive their weapons and aid from the ayatollahs. The Islamic Republic’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is reportedly hiding underground, the Iraqi and Syrian Shi’ites are waiting to see if they are next, and cities controlled by Tehran are shaking.
As President Joe Biden said, it is a measure of justice, but one that Israel has undertaken in an impossible fashion, defending its citizens amid a thousand prohibitions with determination and without fear. Only in this way can a 76-year-old young state, which has been attacked from all sides, defend itself. The country’s existence is the latest chapter in the history of a people born many millennia ago in the Land of Israel, who are finally back home and defending their state.
The war is certainly not over, as Hezbollah reportedly had 100,000 fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows that he must see this fight through to the end, despite the international pressure to which Israel has been subjected for nearly a year. Israel’s leadership understands that its very existence is at definitive risk if there is no “new Middle East” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.
While previous generations and Israeli leaders hoped that peace agreements would establish peace in the region, today’s leaders know that there is also a need for battle to stop those who, dominated by absurd fanatical and religious beliefs, wish to kill you. (After all, what do the Houthi rebels in Yemen have to do with the Jews and Israel?)
This is the lesson of our time—not just for Israel and the Jewish people but for everyone. The Jewish people are writing a new page in history, one in which the free world must write and fight alongside them, as it is a battle for the survival of Western ideals. Israel has eliminated the two most dangerous terrorist groups in the world—Hamas and Hezbollah—with operations that will set a precedent for decades. And it challenges Iran. I would like to hear the applause, please.
The post The Jewish People Perform Another Miracle first appeared on Algemeiner.com.