For the Blockchain Industry, the COVID-19 Clock Is Ticking

The crypto industry has the best historical moment to change the discourse about crypto and its reputation into a successful innovative tech sector.

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Crypto Funds in Demand, Institutions See Bitcoin as Alternative Hedge

Grayscale Investments has been gobbling up Bitcoin in recent months, and most of its investors are institutions — but other funds are doing it, too.

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Conquering Decentralized Finance: Enter the Custodians

As decentralized finance becomes a principal focus for both investors and companies alike, custodians will ease their entry, making DeFi the future of finance.

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Conquering Decentralized Finance: Enter the Custodians

As decentralized finance becomes a principal focus for both investors and companies alike, custodians will ease their entry, making DeFi the future of finance.

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Art Piece Titled “I Can’t Breathe” Sold for Crypto at Auction

Crypto artist sold his “I Can’t Breathe” art piece for crypto on a blockchain-backed social network.

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Indian Banks Still Cryptophobic Despite No Banking Prohibition

Here are the legal resources available to Indian crypto users and businesses if a bank has declined services out of cryptophobia.

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$10,000 Bull Trap? Why Bitcoin Price Is Now Likely to Pull Back

Bitcoin price is up 25% for the month of May, but is a pullback now imminent?

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Crypto and Fiat Currencies Are Worlds Apart, Here Are the Reasons Why

Amid this current crisis, the Bitcoin halving highlights core differences between fiat and crypto monetary systems and the distribution of power in both.

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Swiss Regulators Green Light Crypto Transactions for Local Bank

InCore bank becomes the first Swiss business-to-business bank approved by the financial watchdog to operate with digital assets.

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Ransomware Attack Kidnaps Austrian City

An ongoing ransomware attack targets the public services infrastructure of Weiz.

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Custodian With 100k Users Plans to Tokenize $13 Billion in Assets

Kingdom Trust, a regulated custodian managing over $13 billion in assets, wants to tokenize the more than 20,000 assets that it currently custodies.

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‘Black Swans’ for Fiat Will Only Be a Favor for Cryptocurrencies

The more that government stimulus protects the economic pillars, the more it will support the liquidity inflows to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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Minecraft Meets the Blockchain Thanks to New Plug-In

Enjin announced the integration of EnjinCraft into the popular video game to boost its blockchain solutions for the gaming industry.

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‘Black Swans’ for Fiat Will Only Be a Favor for Cryptocurrencies

The more that government stimulus protects the economic pillars, the more it will support the liquidity inflows to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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Govt blocks Dutch file sharing website WeTransfer.com; Delhi Police had requested ban due to security reasons

New Delhi: The government has ordered internet service providers to block computer file sharing website WeTransfer on request of the Delhi Police due to security reasons.

The order issued by the Department of Telecom on 18 May directed all ISP to block two download links on Dutch website WeTransfer and also the entire website www.wetransfer.com.

"Delhi Police had requested the IT ministry to block two download links and the entire We Transfer website immediately. Following which orders were issued to the website and links suggested by the Delhi Police," an official source told PTI.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) asked the DoT to direct internet service providers to block the website.

"The compliance be submitted immediately failing which shall inter-alia invite initiation of actions under licence conditions," the DoT order e-mailed to several ISPs said.

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Amazon Patented a Blockchain System for Supply Chain Tracking

World’s top ecommerce firm Amazon filed a patent for a blockchain system that tracks goods as they move on the supply chain.

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Hong Kong Vending Machines Choose BCH over BTC

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponent Roger Ver says that he did not pay for a Hong Kong vending machine to avoid offering Bitcoin (BTC) as a payment option.

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SpaceX-NASA mission: A breakdown on rocket, crew capsule, astronauts, launch sequence

It was supposed to be a day of pride and joy for the Americans, who had not launched any of their astronauts into space for the last nine years. There were crowds gathered at what has been called the Florida space coast, and even the thought of potential infection by the novel coronavirus could not dampen their spirit. Even the pouring rain did not affect the faithful.

With under 17 minutes to go for liftoff, NASA and SpaceX announced that the first joint commercial human spaceflight mission would be ‘scrubbed’, or called off due to inclement weather. Both the space agency and the private aerospace company had mentioned that there was a possibility of the launch being postponed. An anti-climatic ending for what was going to be a momentous moment for America, since the Space Shuttle program was cancelled back in 2011.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will make the trip to the International Space Station on this milestone flight. NASA and SpaceX have rescheduled the launch to take place on Sunday, 31 May, 12.52 pm IST (May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT) from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida. This was also the launch site for the previous Apollo and Space Shuttle missions and is being leased by SpaceX. It also has another back-up date on Monday, 1 June, 12.30 am IST (Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 p.m. EDT). Live coverage of the event will begin at 8.30 pm IST on 30 May, four hours before the launch is to take place. 

The lift-off of the Falcon 9 has to be timed precisely to reach the space station, which is flying overhead 400 km above Earth at 17,500 mph. The spacecraft and crew have a launch window of one second (instantaneous launch window). If they miss it, the team will have to attempt it on another day.

However, even the second time around, the weather does not seem to be letting up. The Associated Press reported that “forecasters put the odds of acceptable weather conditions on Saturday (Sunday in India) at 50-50, with the outlook improving to 60 percent favourable on Sunday (Monday in India). Rain and clouds were the main concerns for both days.”

NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, during a press conference, expressed concern that the cancellations could be hard on the astronauts and the launch team. Hurley, however, tweeted on Friday that his first shuttle flight was scrubbed five times for weather and technical issues. Astronauts are no strangers to the possibility of cancelled flights. Safety first, always. 

Here’s a look at the components that makes up the SpaceX/NASA launch:

Crew Dragon

The Crew Dragon is the modified version of the Cargo Dragon that SpaceX has been using during its re-supply missions to the ISS, since 2008. During the wet rehearsal on Thursday, one of the SpaceX experts said that to make the cargo dragon suitable for human beings, they only needed to add seats, displays and controls. The Cargo Dragon was already flying mice to the ISS for science experiments, so life support and environment control was already installed. They did have to bump it up a bit to ensure it could support humans. They also, for practical purposes, had to remove the 'cargo cubies' to make room for the astronauts. 

Reusability is SpaceX's MO, and the capsule follows in these footsteps. Partially. The capsule can last upto 10 flights before it needs a bit of elbow grease to be functional again. The spacecraft launches atop the Falcon 9 rocket and returns to Earth by splashing down in the ocean. Unlike its predecessor, the spacecraft can automatically dock itself to the ISS (Cargo Dragon needs to be manually berthed to the ISS) but the astronauts can take manual control if they want to enjoy the process of flying the capsule or in case of emergencies. 

The capsule carries its cargo in its trunk and one half of it is covered in solar panels, which will power the Dragon during its flight and when it is docked at the ISS. The trunk provides support to the capsule during ascent but will separate before it re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

In April 2019, a crew capsule was destroyed during a static fire testing. This caused some questions to be raised with regard to the safety of the capsule. However, the test was repeated in November 2019 without any incident.

The capsule also has an in-flight abort facility that will take its occupants to safety in case something goes wrong. During a test conducted in January 2020, an emergency like the situation was created and the Dragon successfully used its 8 SuperDracos abort engines to push itself and its trunk away from the Falcon 9, as intended. 

There were several tests that needed to be done to ensure that NASA signed off on allowing its astronauts to travel by the Crew Dragon, however, we will be focusing on the two important ones.

Demo 1

On 2 March 2019, SpaceX's Dragon capsule was launched, and on 8 March 2019, it completed its first unmanned flight test by docking to the ISS and returning to Earth after a five-day mission. This mission was called Demo 1. This was the first spacecraft that was built, operated and launched by SpaceX that was meant to charter human beings through space. It was also the first crew capsule that docked at the ISS on its own. The capsule can accommodate up to seven astronauts but will only carry 3-4 astronauts for NASA launches. For this test, it carried 200 kilograms of supplies and gear. During its stay, US astronaut Anne McClain and Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques ran tests and inspected the Crew Dragon’s cabin.

Since this mission was supposed to test the safety of the capsule, SpaceX couldn't possibly have an actual human sitting inside. So the team did the next best thing: they put in a test dummy that's named after and looks identical to Eileen Ripley from the Alien films. Dummy Ripley also wore the same white SpaceX spacesuit that astronauts are supposed to wear during their missions. Ripley is similar to Starman, the dummy that sat in the front seat of a red Tesla convertible, which blasted off last year during a test launch of the company's bigger Falcon Heavy rocket. 

Demo 2

After a successful first trial mission, the upcoming mission to the ISS has been termed ‘Demo 2’ and will carry the two astronauts — Hurley and Behnken. 

After a not-so breezy start on Thursday, this mission has been rescheduled for Sunday, 12.52 pm IST. Fans and the team really want this launch to happen. A lot is riding on Demo 2 making a good first impression with living astronauts onboard. If all goes well, NASA will approve SpaceX to carry other astronauts to the ISS, along with the commercial re-supply runs it has been making since 2008. This will halt NASA's dependence on the expensive Russian Soyuz program, and will be more cost-effective in the long run as well. One seat on SpaceX's Falcon 9 costs around $ 55 million, as compared to the $86 million per seat that NASA pays Russia to ferry its astronauts. It will also mean that SpaceX is one step closer to going to Mars, and beyond. 

The actual duration of this trip has not yet been decided, and a call will be made once the capsule reaches the space station. Initially, NASA had said that the astronauts will stay at the ISS for a week. A few days before the launch, NASA made the decision to extend their stay to for anywhere between one to four months. Currently, the ISS is understaffed, and their longer stay will mean that the two American astronauts can help man the station. It will also give them a chance to help swap out the station's batteries, a task that requires a spacewalk that Chris Cassidy cannot do alone. 

According to a NASA blog, the Crew Dragon can stay in orbit for 110 days but NASA requirements state that it needs to be able to stay at the ISS for 210 days. NASA has also bought one seat on the Soyuz rocket for $90 million to ensure that the station will have enough US presence. 

Falcon 9 rocket

The name Falcon 9 is derived from the Millennium Falcon, a spaceship from the movie Star Wars. It is a partially-reusable two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. The first stage is capable of re-entering the atmosphere and landing vertically after separating from the second stage, which has a single Merlin Vacuum Engine to deliver its payloads to whichever orbit is required. The second stage engine can be restarted multiple times to deliver multiple payloads into different orbits. The first stage is powered by nine Merlin engines that use liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene as propellants. 

A two-stage-to-orbit or two-stage rocket launch vehicle is a spacecraft in which two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity.

SpaceX successfully landed its first stage during its 20th flight in December 2015. They have also been recovering its payload fairing — that houses satellites — to re-use on future missions

In 2018, SpaceX introduced the Falcon Heavy version that could carry heavier payloads and used two normal Falcon 9 first stages as side boosters to propel it ahead. 

About the astronauts 

Hurley and Behnken have extensive experience in space and have been involved in NASA's Space Shuttle flights.

Behnken will be the joint operations commander in this mission and was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000. He has completed two space shuttle flights — STS-123 in March 2008 and STS-130 in February 2010 — and performed three spacewalks during each mission.

Hurley was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and will be the spacecraft commander for Demo 2. He has completed two spaceflights - STS‐127 in July 2009 and STS‐135 — the final space shuttle mission — in July 2011. He was the pilot and lead robotics operator for both missions.

What can we expect to see during the LIVE broadcast 

Pre-launch

During the Space Shuttle era, astronauts would travel in an Astro-van which both Hurley and Behnken would’ve travelled in since they were both part of this program. But this time around they will arrive in style with their cool, matchy-matchy, custom-made, astronaut suits and travel in a Tesla Model X sports cars to the Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Centre after waving goodbye to their families from a distance. The number plates, during the wet rehearsal, read 'ISS BND'. 

They will walk down the Astro arm that connects to the capsule and the launch team that will help them get strapped in. Soon the communication checks then begin with the ground team to ensure that the astronauts are in constant touch in the event of an emergency.

After the hatch is closed, fueling begins. Unlike other rockets, SpaceX’s rockets are fueled only after the astronauts are inside the capsule. SpaceX makes their own rules, but they have some logic behind this dicey method. The Verge reports that SpaceX uses extremely cold propellants, which gives the vehicle a performance boost. By loading the fuel just half an hour before launch, the fuel has less time to heat up and boil away. 

Launch 

If the weather is on their side, they will get the all-clear from the mission director and the countdown to launch will begin. SpaceX will become the first private company to send astronauts to space this Sunday. However, the mission can be cancelled at the last moment as it happened on Thursday.

About 2.5 minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster will detach from the rocket and return to Earth. It will land on SpaceX's drone ship called "Of Course I Still Love You" that is stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Florida.

Following the first stage, the second stage will also detach from the Crew Dragon capsule. Unlike the first stage, this will not directly return to Earth and SpaceX will not be spending any of its resources to make it reusable. 

Post-launch

The Dragon will then orbit the Earth and undertake a series of what are known as 'phasing burns' i.e. re-ignite its engines to propel it to the next level in order to play catch-up with the ISS, that is travelling at a speed of 7.66 km/s. 

Dragon is supposed to automatically dock with the ISS after 19 hours of raising its altitude to match that of the ISS. The astronauts will have a sort of a welcoming ceremony waiting for them.

Hurley and Behnken will stay on the ISS for anywhere between one to four months doing science experiments and helping in the upkeep of the station. 

Once NASA deems it is a good time to return, the astronauts will then begin their journey back home. They will strap in and undock from the ISS.

Before it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, the Crew Dragon will lose its trunk. This, like the second stage, will not be returning to Earth.

The re-entry of the dragon will look somewhat scary, like a ball of fire but the heat-shields will ensure no harm comes to the astronauts.

Four Mark 3 Parachutes will be deployed that will slow down the entry of the vehicle, and Dragon will splashdown in the Atlantic Ocean. The astronauts will be fished out of the water along with the Dragon capsule, which will be inspected at the Cape Canaveral facility in Florida. 

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Review: Cointelegraph-Inspired Climate Change Art Exhibition

Cointelegraph reviews a digital art show inspired by a series of articles examining the space where cryptocurrency and climate change collide.

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3 Common Compliance and Regulatory Pitfalls to Watch for in 2020

Using regulation to one’s advantage is the main factor of an innovative fintech business. The best way to achieve it is closely monitoring the shifting regulatory landscape.

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Is Bitcoin Price Finally Ready for Breakout Above $10,000?

Bitcoin price is looking to retake the key psychological level at $10,000, which may now propel BTC to multi-year highs.

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Superhero spacesuits: Elon Musk’s SpaceX astronaut suit is like a Tuxedo for the Starship Enterprise

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

Michael Bay, the director of the 1998 cosmic disaster movie “Armageddon,” once gave an interview discussing the worst crisis in the making of the film.

“Three weeks before our first day of principal photography, I went to see the spacesuits,” Bay said. “They looked like an Adidas jogging suit on a rack. That’s where I almost killed myself.” Because, he said, if you don’t have “cool” spacesuits, the whole movie is sunk.

Apparently, Elon Musk subscribes to the same school of thought.

Or so it seems, judging from the white-and-black launch and re-entry suits astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will wear when they hop into their white-and-black Tesla and ride to the Cape Canaveral launchpad to climb into the white-and-black SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule for the maiden voyage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station.

After all, when it comes to capturing the public imagination around space travel, style matters.

“Suits are the charismatic mammals of space hardware,” said Cathleen Lewis, the curator of international space programs and spacesuits at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. “They evoke the human experience.”

Actually, what the SpaceX suits evoke most of all is James Bond’s tuxedo if it were redesigned by Tony Stark as an upgrade for James T. Kirk’s next big adventure. Streamlined, graphic and articulated, the suits are more a part of the pop-culture-Comic-Con continuum of space style than the NASA continuum.

It’s little wonder, given that the prototype was created by Jose Fernandez, a costume designer who worked on “Batman v Superman,” “The Fantastic Four,” “The Avengers,” “X-Men II” and — well, you get the idea. As Bay said apropos of his “Armageddon” experience: “There are people around Hollywood that are expert designers, there are expert spacesuit helmet designers. It’s a very specialized craft.”

Musk simply went to that source rather than to the usual Air Force and Navy contractors, although when Fernandez was first contacted, he told Bleep magazine in 2016, “I didn’t know what SpaceX was.”

Invited to be one of six to try out for the job, Fernandez created a helmet (he had only two weeks) and ended up working with Musk for six months to design the suit, which was later reverse engineered to meet space travel requirements. The tuxedo associations are not an accident.

Fernandez told Bleep that during the design process, Musk “kept saying, ‘Anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are.’” The goal, Fernandez said, was to have the astronauts put the suit on and “look better than they did without it, like a tux.”

The space program has always understood the use of visual cues, Lewis said. The Mercury suits were originally a standard Air Force green until someone painted them silver. And although there are, she said, “a lot of theories as to why,” including that the silver was reflective and made the astronauts more visible, “the most likely conclusion is it looked new and high tech.” Musk is taking that insight to a new level.

The results tap into the romance and mythology of space — the “to boldly go where no one has gone before” promise — rather than serve as an awkward reminder of tiny individuals adrift in an environment where they clearly don’t belong, as represented by the inflated Michelin Man profile of the classic spacesuits. Think of the big white ones worn by the Apollo crew for the original moon shots.

Even Boeing’s new cobalt blue Starliner suits, although sleeker than the orange ones of the Discovery launch in 2011, known as “pumpkin suits,” have the same general profile.

By contrast, the SpaceX suits speak to the traditions of the fashion industry, the way designers like Courrèges and Paco Rabanne embodied space travel in the 1960s, the time of “Barbarella,” when it was all body-con physicality and optimism.

But most of all they connect to the Hollywood tradition of the idealized human warrior body, often with exaggerated shoulders and a carapace of articulated musculature, not the high-altitude pilot’s suit that formed the basis of most previous launch suits, Lewis said.

The Musk suits have darker panels down the sides to visually taper and mould the torso, squared-off shoulder lines, aerodynamic seams from collarbone to the knee and matching knee-high superhero boots. They do not have the dangling hoses, knobs and wires of the traditional suits.

The SpaceX suits can do this partly because they are not meant for use outside the spaceship and thus do not need to be what Lewis calls “personal spaceships” equipped with an oxygen supply, cooling system and communications capabilities.

And unlike most past suits, which were designed to be comfortable for an astronaut strapped into a couch and often looked baggy and hunchbacked when vertical, the SpaceX suits look as neat standing up as they do reclining.

They also fulfil the myriad and demanding technical requirements of what is an entirely functional garment. A spacesuit is a piece of hardware that must connect to the ship, not just colour coordinate with it. That is what distinguishes the suits as an Elon Musk production.

“As long as space travel was being subsidized by governments, there was no need to make the suits attractive, as the astronauts’ safety was the sole concern,” Gary Westfahl, the author of “The Spacesuit Film: A History, 1918-1969,” wrote in an email. “Yet, if space travel is going to become an activity of private companies seeking profits, they have a natural interest in making their astronauts seem attractive.”

(There’s a reason Richard Branson hooked up with Under Armour when he was looking for a designer for his Virgin Galactic uniforms, which are aesthetically somewhere between the NASA past and the SpaceX present.)

Like Steve Jobs before him, Musk has long prioritized the importance of design in technology. In 2016, he told the startup incubator Y Combinator that he spent about 80% of his time on engineering and design.

He understands that the look of something is part of the story it tells. It can create an emotional connection that translates into market power, as well as subliminal recognition of a group that comes from a shared identifiable style.

This is an insight borrowed from the fashion world, a sector Musk flirted with for a while: He used the Met Gala in 2018 to unveil his relationship with the musician Grimes and was profiled in Vogue in 2015 (with a photo of him in a spacesuit). And he is not the only Musk involved in fashion: His mother, Maye Musk, is a very successful model.

“It’s smart branding because it signals we are starting a new age,” said Lewis, who is hoping to acquire a SpaceX suit to add to the 278 spacesuits, prototypes and suit pieces already in the Smithsonian’s collection. It is the age of commercialized spaceflight, with all the brand extension opportunities that imply.

Indeed, what the SpaceX suits may represent above all is the ultimate in that previously dismissed initiative: wearable technology. We just have to see what Jeff Bezos comes up with for Blue Origin.

Vanessa Friedman c.2020 The New York Times Company

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SpaceX to launch NASA astronauts on 31 May, 12.52 am IST: Here is how to watch it LIVE

The two NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken were strapped in and had completed communication checks. The fuelling of the rocket had already begun but with just under 17 minutes to go for liftoff, NASA and SpaceX made the choice to cancel their first joint commercial human spaceflight mission due to inclement weather.

While both the space agency and the private aerospace company had mentioned that there was a possibility of it being postponed, this was the most anti-climatic ending for what was going to be the first American lift-off in nine years, since the Space Shuttle program was cancelled back in 2011.

NASA and SpaceX have re-scheduled their Demo-2 mission for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST (May 30 at 3:22 p.m. EDT)  the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida.  The space agency and the aerospace company also has another back-up date on Monday, 1 June, 12.30 am IST (Sunday, May 31 at 3:00 p.m. EDT).

Live coverage of the event will begin at 8.30 pm IST on 30 May, four hours before the launch is to take place.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, as well as the Apollo moonshots a half-century ago. Coincidently, Hurley had served as pilot on the last shuttle mission and will be the spacecraft commander for SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule.

SpaceX's Demo-2 mission has been on for the past four years and will take 19-hours to reach the International Space Station. Here the astronauts, along with three others already on board, will spend between one to four months living and working in the space station.

Where can you watch it live

You can watch it live on NASA's YouTube channel or follow along on NASA's social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitch.tv. You can also watch it live on SpaceX's YouTube channel.

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How Blockchain Will Revolutionize Healthcare

Emerging technologies such as blockchain can aid both medical practitioners and patients, who stand to gain the best from its implementation.

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Sichuan Rainy Season to Give Bitcoin Hash Rate a Much Needed Jolt

The wet season in Sichuan normally leads to a spike in Bitcoin’s hash rate. Will the same happen this year?

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Google Maps rolls out new feature on Android to make it easier to share location without an address

Google Maps is introducing a new feature that will allow users to share their location in a short alphanumerical format when they simply can’t find an address. The feature named Plus Code is being rolled out to Android users.

The search-engine giant claims that more than two billion people either don’t have an address or have one that isn’t easy to locate. To help people tide over this challenge, the company launched Plus Codes in 2015. But, the feature does not seem to have been used by many as of now. The company is now providing an easier way to share Plus Code.

The location appeared using the update will “look like a regular address, but with a short code where a street name or number would be.”

To use this feature, one will have to simply tap on one’s blue location dot within Google Maps. Following which, a Plus Code will be generated and users will get the option to share or save the location.

These codes are searchable on Google Maps and even Google Search. They can even be printed on paper, posters and signs. This update is free to use and available offline.

Plus Code can also be obtained for a separate location. For this, one needs to tap and hold on a place in the map to drop a pin.

The technology behind the code is open source, allowing developers to implement it into their own apps for free.

The update will help people and organizations in emergency and crisis response scenarios.

According to The Verge, Plus Code is not the only feature that let people share location easily, but What3Words also offer this facility. It displays its digital addresses in the form of three words separated by periods.

What3Words is compatible with different mapping service, but its digital addresses can’t be entered directly into Google Maps.

 

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SpaceX reaches for milestone in human spaceflight – a private company will launch NASA astronauts into orbit

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

On 27 May, two American astronauts, Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley are planning to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on a mission to the International Space Station. If successful, this will mark the first time in nine years that American astronauts will launch into space from American soil. What’s even more remarkable is they will not be launched by NASA but by a private company, SpaceX.

Human spaceflight is incredibly difficult and expensive; the rockets must be reliable and the vehicle must be built with expensive life support systems and a certain level of redundancy. To date, only three countries – Russia, the United States and China – have achieved this feat.

As a space policy expert, I find it hard to overstate the significance for both SpaceX and spaceflight in general. For SpaceX, it’s another step on their road to Mars, but more generally, it demonstrates that spaceflight need not be reserved for only the most powerful of states.

A dream and an opening

In many ways, SpaceX’s achievement is due not only to technological advances, but opportunity brought about by disaster. The breakup of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 led the Bush administration to decide to end the shuttle program by 2010. They directed NASA to develop a replacement, Project Constellation, but due to budget cuts and other problems, NASA failed to make significant progress. As a result, in 2010, the Obama administration directed NASA to refocus its efforts on deep space missions and rely on private companies to provide access to the ISS and low Earth orbit.

Enter SpaceX. Dreaming of colonization of Mars but frustrated with the slow pace at which it was coming, Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002. To get to Mars, he decided that spaceflight would first need to be made cheaper. His philosophy was to devise a rocket system that could be used again and again with minimal refurbishment between flights. Over the next decade, SpaceX designed, built and tested its Falcon series of rockets. It signed contracts with NASA to provide cargo services to the ISS and with other companies and the US military to provide general launch services. Perhaps most importantly, SpaceX has demonstrated that its rockets can be reused, with the core stages flying their way back to Earth to land themselves.

The 2010 shift in American space policy gave SpaceX an opportunity to build on its early successes. By 2014, both SpaceX and Boeing were given contracts from NASA to provide commercial crew launch services. And it appears, so far, that SpaceX has made good on its promise of reducing the cost of human spaceflight. Compared to an average space shuttle mission that cost US$1.6 billion, NASA is paying only $55 million per seat for SpaceX’s upcoming ISS flights.

Tourists in space?

This massive reduction in cost made possible through reusable rockets is contributing to several developments in spaceflight. First, it provides NASA a means of access to the ISS without relying on the Russian Soyuz. Since 2011, the US has been paying Russia upwards of $86 million per seat for flights to the space station.

Second, with SpaceX and Boeing providing access to the ISS, NASA can concentrate on Project Artemis, which intends to return humans to the Moon by 2024. They are also leveraging new commercial capabilities from SpaceX, Blue Origin and others to further reduce costs to get there.

If SpaceX is successful, it could also mean the opening of space to tourism. Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are planning to offer brief suborbital launches that don’t enter Earth orbit. SpaceX, on the other hand, is already signing up passengers for several-day trips to space at $35 million a seat. Even Tom Cruise is looking to fly on SpaceX and film a movie aboard the ISS. While space companies have long predicted opportunities for space tourism, SpaceX’s Dragon brings that possibility closer to reality.

More broadly, adding tourists to the mix in low Earth orbit may even help make space safer. Debris in orbit is a growing problem, along with increasing tensions between the US, China and Russia in space. Both of those things make operating in space more difficult, dangerous and costlier.

For the space economy to really take off, countries will need to put in place regulations that ensure safety and reliability in several areas, including vehicle safety and debris mitigation. And, as I suggest in my new book, having more humans in space might force countries to think twice before taking potentially dangerous actions in space. While orbital space tourism might still be far off for the average American, SpaceX’s crew launch brings us closer to the day when an extraordinary event is a normal occurrence.

Wendy Whitman Cobb, Professor of Strategy and Security Studies, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A new era dawns in human spaceflight: SpaceX needs to get the rocket science right to launch the NASA astronauts

Two NASA astronauts, Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley will make history by travelling to the International Space Station in a privately funded spacecraft, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. But the launch, which was due to take place on 27 May, has been aborted due to bad weather, and will instead take place on May 30 at 3:22 pm EDT.

The astronauts will take off lying on their backs in the seats, and facing in the direction of travel to reduce the stress of high acceleration on their bodies. Once launched from Kennedy Space Centre, the spacecraft will travel out over the Atlantic, turning to travel in a direction that matches the ISS orbit.

The astronauts during a dress rehearsal. Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls/EPA

With the first rocket section separating at just over two minutes, the main dragon capsule is then likely to separate from the second stage burn roughly an hour later and continue on its journey. All being well, the Dragon spacecraft will rendezvous about 24 hours after launch.

Space mission launches and landings are the most critical parts. However, Space X has conducted many tests, including 27 drops of the parachute landing system. It has also managed an emergency separation of the Dragon capsule from the rocket. In the event of a failed rocket launch, eight engines would lift the capsule containing the astronauts up into the air and away from the rocket, with parachutes eventually helping it to land. The Falcon 9 rocket has made 83 successful launches.

Docking and return

The space station has an orbital velocity of 7.7km per second. The Earth’s rotation carries launch sites under a straight flight path of the ISS, with each instance providing a “launch window”.

To intercept the ISS, the capsule must match the station’s speed, altitude and inclination, and it must do it at the correct time such that the two spacecraft find themselves in close proximity to each other. The difference in velocity between the ISS and the Dragon capsule must then be near to zero at the point where the orbits of the two spacecraft intersect.

Once these conditions are met, the Dragon capsule must manoeuvre to the ISS docking port, using a series of small control thrusters arranged around the spacecraft. This is due to be done automatically by a computer, however, the astronauts can control this manoeuvre manually if needed.

ISS orbit. Author provided

As you can see in the figure below, manoeuvring involves “translation control” as indicated by green arrows – moving left/right, up/down, forward/back. The yellow arrows show “attitude control” – rolling clockwise/anti-clockwise, pitching up/down, and yawing left/right.

This is complicated by Newton’s first law of motion – that any object at rest or in motion will continue to be so unless acted upon by an external force. That means any manoeuvre, such as a roll to the right, will continue indefinitely in the absence of air resistance to provide an external force until it is counteracted by firing thrusters in the opposite direction.

So now that you have a grasp of orbital manoeuvring, why not have a go yourself? This simulator, provided by Space X, allows you to try and pilot the Dragon capsule to the ISS docking port.

The astronauts will return to Earth when a new set are ready to take their place, or at NASA’s discretion. NASA are already planning the first fully operational flight of crew Dragon, with four astronauts, although a launch date for that has not yet been announced and will undoubtedly depend on the outcome of this demonstration flight.

New era for spaceflight

The launch puts SpaceX firmly ahead of the other commercial ventures looking at providing crewed space launches. This includes both Boeing’s Starliner, which first launched last year but was uncrewed, and Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser which is planned to be tested with cargo during a trip to the ISS next year.

The ability of the commercial sector to send astronauts to the ISS is an important step toward further human exploration, including establishing a human presence at the Moon, and ultimately, Mars.

With companies competing, however, an open question remains whether safety could at some point be compromised to gain a commercial edge. There is no suggestion this has happened so far, but any crewed mission which failed due to a fault stemming from economic concerns would have serious legal ramifications.

How to manoeuver a spacecraft. Author provided

In a similar way to modern aircraft legislation, a set of space safety standards and regulations will need to be put in place sooner rather than later. For commercial lunar and beyond missions we also have to ensure that any spacecraft does not contaminate the location they are visiting with germs from Earth.

With more nations and companies developing plans for lunar missions, there are obvious advantages in international cooperation and finding cost-efficient launch methods. This is not least because it’s not as dependent on the whim of elected governments for direction, which can change completely from one administration to the next.

So for us scientists looking to expand our knowledge of space, it is a very exciting moment.

Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, the University of Birmingham and Ian Whittaker, Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are badass astronauts and dads: SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

It’s the Bob and Doug Show.

On Wednesday, weather permitting, two NASA astronauts, Robert L. Behnken and Douglas G. Hurley, are to be sitting on top of a SpaceX rocket headed to orbit. But NASA and SpaceX officials more often than not just call the pilots of this historic mission “Bob and Doug.”

“I wanted to make sure everyone at SpaceX understood and knew Bob and Doug as astronauts, as test pilots — badass — but also as dads and husbands,” Gwynne Shotwell, president of the company that built the Crew Dragon spacecraft that will carry the men to orbit, said at a news conference this month. “I wanted to bring some humanity to this very deeply technical effort as well.”

NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley , and Robert Behnken, wearing SpaceX spacesuits. Image credit: NASA/Twitter

The men’s trip to the space station will be the first from the United States since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011, and Behnken and Hurley, friends and colleagues for two decades, have travelled remarkably similar paths to this moment.

“One of the things that’s really helpful for us as a crew is the long relationship that Doug and I have had,” Behnken said this month during rounds of interviews with reporters. “We’re kind of at the point in our experience — whether it’s flying in the T-38 or executing in a SpaceX simulation or approaching and docking to the International Space Station — where we, in addition to finishing each other’s sentences, we can predict, you know, almost by body language, what the person’s opinion is or what they’re going to do, what their next action is going to be.”

The rapport and good humour between the astronauts were evident in a video created by NASA. Behnken said he was looking forward to the splashdown at the end of their mission before adding, with a grin, “I’m expecting a little bit of vomiting, maybe, to happen in that end game. When we get to that opportunity to do that in the water together, it’s kind of a weird thing to say, but I’m looking for that kind of celebratory event.”

Hurley offered a more serious answer, talking about how he enjoyed working together with a close friend.

“And yes,” he said, “the celebratory vomiting at the end of the mission will be excellent.”

Both are former military pilots who rose to the rank of colonel — Behnken in the US Air Force, Hurley in the Marines — before deciding they wanted to go even higher. Both joined NASA in 2000 — two of the 17 astronauts selected by the space agency that year.

They have each flown to space twice on space shuttle missions, although never on the same mission. Hurley flew on the final space shuttle mission in 2011.

They both married astronauts from their class. Behnken’s wife is Megan McArthur, an oceanographer who was part of the shuttle mission that made one last visit in 2009 to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. Hurley is married to Karen Nyberg, who spent nearly six months on the International Space Station in 2013 and who retired from NASA at the end of March.

Behnken and McArthur’s son, Theodore, is 6. Hurley and Nyberg’s son, Jack, is 10.

“I think it’s a pretty cool-looking vehicle and my 10-year-old son certainly thinks it’s a cool vehicle with a cool name, Dragon,” Hurley said. “So I got the thumbs up from him and in the end, that’s all that matters.”

Hurley, 53, grew up in Apalachin, New York, outside Binghamton. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Tulane University.

Behnken, 49, is a native of Saint Ann, Missouri, graduating from Washington University in St. Louis with degrees in physics and mechanical engineering. He then completed masters and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology.

Space shuttle Atlantis launches July 8, 2011 on the STS-135 mission, the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program. Image credit: NASA

The road to the launchpad has been longer than had been expected and planned. After a successful uncrewed test flight of a Crew Dragon to the space station last year, it looked like Behnken and Hurley would soon follow on their mission.

But then the spacecraft’s parachutes — essential for the safe return of the astronauts — failed in some tests. More disconcerting, the Crew Dragon that had made the successful trip to space exploded on a test stand while being fueled for a test firing of its thrusters. No one was on board, and no one was hurt, but a video of the explosion leaked online.

In October, the astronauts said they still had confidence in the spacecraft.

“Certainly, it’s disappointing,” Hurley said. “You get questions from your family. What happened? Do you know what happened? That kind of thing. But the other part of it, you have to keep in mind, is this is a test, evaluation development, and it’s part of the process.”

Behnken said he and Hurley were quickly and fully informed about the incident and the subsequent investigation as well as changes to the design.

“Giving us insight and sharing that understanding as we go forward has been part of what has made us comfortable with this team going forward,” Behnken said.

NASA recently made the decision to extend the Bob and Doug Show a bit longer than the two weeks originally planned. The space station is short-staffed at the moment, so Behnken and Hurley will stay longer to pitch in with operations.

For space missions, usually planned in precise detail, this trip is unusually open-ended. They will probably spend at least a month in orbit, and the stay could stretch to four months. Behnken has devoted time in the huge pool that NASA uses to rehearse spacewalks, and Hurley has taken refresher classes on the operation of the station’s Canadian-built robotic arm.

Other astronauts who could have been in this spotlight, including Nicole Mann — one of two NASA astronauts assigned to a future flight on another spacecraft, Boeing’s Starliner — do not begrudge Behnken and Hurley.

“It feels kind of like one of your close family members having a great lifetime achievement,” she said, “and really, that’s what it is.”

Kenneth Chang c.2020 The New York Times Company

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What do we know spacex’s astronaut suits and the vehicle they use to travel to the launchpad; launch on Sunday, 31 May, 12.52 am IST

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

The first astronauts launched by SpaceX are breaking new ground for style with hip spacesuits, gull-wing Tesla's and a sleek rocketship — all of it white with black trim.

The colour-coordinating is thanks to Elon Musk, the driving force behind both SpaceX and Tesla, and a big fan of flash and science fiction.

NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken like the fresh new look. They’ll catch a ride to the launch pad in a Tesla Model X electric car.

(Also read: Elon Musk's SpaceX raises USD 346 million in funding ahead of its debut astronaut mission)

astronauts Doug Hurley, left, and Robert Behnken pose in front of a Tesla Model X at a SpaceX launch dress rehearsal, at Kennedy Space Center Image credit: AP

“It is really neat, and I think the biggest testament to that is my 10-year-old son telling me how cool I am now,” Hurley told The Associated Press.

“SpaceX has gone all out” on the capsule’s appearance, he said. “And they’ve worked equally as hard to make the innards and the displays and everything else in the vehicle work to perfection.”

The true test comes Wednesday when Hurley and Behnken climb aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and, equipment and weather permitting, shoot into space. It will be the first astronaut launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center since the last shuttle flight in 2011.

It will also mark the first attempt by a private company to send astronauts into orbit. Only governments — Russia, the US, and China — have done that.

The historic send-off deserves to look good, according to SpaceX. It already has a nice ring. Musk named his rocket after the “Star Wars” Millennium Falcon. The capsule name stems from “Puff the Magic Dragon,” Musk’s jab at all the doubters when he started SpaceX in 2002.

SpaceX designed and built its own suits, which are custom-fit. Safety came first. The cool — or wow — factor was a close second.

“It’s important that the suits are comfortable and also are inspiring,” explained SpaceX’s Benji Reed, a mission director. “But above all, it’s designed to keep the crew safe.”

The bulky, orange ascent and entry suits are worn by shuttle astronauts had their own attraction, according to Behnken, who like Hurley wore them for his two previous missions. Movies like Armageddon and Space Cowboys stole the orange look whenever actors were “trying to pretend to be astronauts.”

On launch day, Hurley and Behnken will get ready inside Kennedy’s remodelled crew quarters, which dates back to the two-man Gemini missions of the mid-1960s. SpaceX techs will help the astronauts into their one-piece, two-layer pressure suits.

Hurley and Behnken will emerge through the same double doors used on 16 July 1969, by Apollo 11′s Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins — the Operations and Checkout Building now bear Armstrong’s name.

But instead of the traditional Astrovan, the two will climb into the back seat of a Tesla Model X for the nine-mile ride to Launch Complex 39A, the same pad used by the moonmen and most shuttle crews. It’s while they board the Tesla that they’ll see their wives and young sons for the last time before the flight.

Making a comeback after three decades is NASA’s worm logo — wavy, futuristic-looking red letters spelling NASA, the “A” resembling rocket nose cones. The worm adorns the Astro-Tesla, Falcon and even the astronauts’ suits, along with NASA’s original blue meatball-shaped logo.

The white-suited Hurley and Behnken will transfer from the white Tesla to the white Dragon atop the equally white Falcon 9.

“It’s going to be quite a show,” Reed promised.

Also Read: Looking at the journey of how NASA and its astronauts became one of SpaceX’s biggest customers

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A decade in the making: After a few stumbles and explosions, NASA will launch its astronauts to the ISS on Sunday, 31 May, 12.52 am IST

Editor's Note: The NASA-SpaceX joint human spaceflight was scheduled for liftoff on Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST (Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida. However, due to bad weather conditions, they had to cancel the launch. It has now been re-scheduled for 31 May, 12.52 AM IST.

NASA and SpaceX are all set to launch its astronauts, almost 10 years after the fatal Space Shuttle accident that shut down their human spaceflight program. The space agency and the private aerospace company have decided to launch on Wednesday, 27 May at 4.32 pm EDT (Thursday, 28 May, 2.00 am IST) from the Launch Complex 39A from the Kenndy Space Centre, Florida.

Astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken will blast off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, departing from the same Kennedy Space Center launch pad used by shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, as well as the Apollo moonshots a half-century ago. Coincidently, Hurley had served as pilot on the last shuttle mission and will be the spacecraft commander for SpaceX’s Dragon crew capsule.

NASA astronauts during a pre-flight test in SpaceX Crew Dragon. Image credit: Twitter

Only three countries have launched human beings into orbit since 1961 - Russia, the US and China, in that order. SpaceX would be the first company.

As with most missions, this date could change depending on pre-flight testing and last-minute emergencies. However, if all goes as planned, the mission would mark the first time NASA launches its astronauts from US soil, since 2011. It is also too soon to tell how the novel coronavirus pandemic that shut down the entire world will affect this mission affect this launch and what will it mean for visitors. Recently, Expedition 63 that launched on 9 April had an empty launch due to fear of the transmission of the disease.

Next month’s mission will be the final test for Crew Dragon before it starts regularly flying astronauts to space for NASA, under its Commercial Crew Program, a public-private initiative.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced the mission with a tweet about Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and owner of SpaceX sending two astronauts to the ISS aboard the Falcon 9 rocket.

“BREAKING: On May 27, @NASA will once again launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil!” Bridenstine wrote on Twitter.

 

 

Learn more about the mission: https://t.co/z6aPUkUJ37

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine) April 17, 2020

Hurley and Behnken have extensive experience in space and have been involved in NASA's Space Shuttle flights.

Behnken will be the joint operations commander in this mission and was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000. He has completed two space shuttle flights - STS-123 in March 2008 and STS-130 in February 2010 and performed three spacewalks during each mission.

Hurley was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and will be the spacecraft commander for Demo-2. He has completed two spaceflights - STS‐127 in July 2009 and STS‐135, the final space shuttle mission, in July 2011. He was the pilot and lead robotics operator for both missions.

NASA has not announced how long they will be spending in the space station and it is currently 'under review'. The agency is wondering if their stay can be extended from a week to six months as this will ensure that the station is staffed with NASA astronauts continuously. With the space station crew now down to three, Hurley and Behnken will have to help maintain the orbiting lab. Since 2009 the ISS can, at one point, support six astronauts.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon to be used for Demo-2, arrives for processing. Image credit: Wikipedia

According to a NASA blog, the Crew Dragon that will be used in this flight can stay in orbit for around 110 days but the specific duration will be determined once the astronauts are in the station. As a NASA requirement, the crew capsules should be able to stay in orbit for up to 210 days and the decision will be taken considering the readiness of the next commercial crew launch.

US Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle program was a reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system that was operated from 1981 to 2011. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS).  It has launched man satellites and interplanetary probes, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope and helped in the construction and servicing of the International Space Station. However, the program was deadly with two major disasters, shutting it down forever. On 28 January 1986, the STS-51-L disintegrated 73 seconds after its launch, due to an equipment failure and killed seven astronauts on board.  Again, on 1 February 2003, a spacecraft disintegrated during re-entry and killed all seven of the STS-107 crew.

Soyuz missions

NASA has been working with SpaceX's and Boeing's to develop its own human space flight program but there have been countless delays with the private companies' crew capsules which in turn has forced NASA to continue to buy seats on Russia's Soyuz rockets. They have become a very expensive necessity for the US space agency as Russia has scaled back it program to just two missions a year. For this mission, as a precaution, NASA has bought seats on the Soyuz rocket. The Soyuz capsules have been the only way to transport the crews the space station since 2011.

Boeing

Boeing has had a lot of trouble with developing a safe and functional crew capsule that can take NASA astronauts to the ISS. Its last flight test was a massive failure and NASA has even opened an investigation into this disaster test flight. Boeing Co’s CST-100 Starliner astronaut capsule had a successful launch of its first unmanned test mission, but an automated timer error prevented the spacecraft from attaining the correct orbit for it to rendezvous and dock with the space station. It is supposed to have another test flight, later this year.

With input from agencies

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Amazon Fire TV gets Alexa voice control support for apps like Netflix, Hotstar, Zee5

Amazon has announced that it has expanded Alexa voice discovery and control for apps on Fire TV.

Using Alexa voice or pairing Fire TV with echo devices, users will be able to browse and search content from apps like Netflix, Hotstar, Zee5, Voot, JioCinema and Apple TV+, among others.

The new feature allows users to control playback on YouTube, Netflix and Jio Cinema, besides Amazon Prime Video.

When someone asks Alexa to find horror movies, it will find the requested content from the available apps and show search results best matching the request. One can also give commands like “Alexa, forward thirty minutes”, “Alexa, rewind twenty seconds” or “Alexa, play cricket highlights on YouTube.”

Alexa on Fire TV lets people check the weather, control smart home, and stream music, among other features.

Amazon in January announced that Fire TV has crossed 40 million active users globally. The company witnessed an eight percent rise in active users as compared to figures recorded in September 2019.

The company around two weeks back said that it was adding a new “free” tab to the main Fire TV navigation bar to help people find TV shows and movies that can be streamed at no charge easily.

In the new tab, people will be able to browse content that can be viewed for free from apps like Pluto TV, Tubi, Crackle, IMDb TV, the CW, and Amazon’s News app.

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Infinix Hot 9, Hot 9 Pro with Helio P22 chipset debut in India at a price of Rs 8,499 and Rs 9,499 respectively

Hong Kong-based smartphone maker Infinix has unveiled its Hot 9 Pro and Hot 9 in India. Infinix Hot 9 Pro will go on sale from 5 June, while Infinix Hot 9 will be available from 8 June. Both the smartphones will be up for grabs on Flipkart.

Infinix Hot 9’s 4 GB RAM + 64 GB model is priced at Rs 8,499, while the same variant of Infinix Hot 9 Pro will come at a price of Rs 9,499.

Finally the moment of revelation! Presenting the All New HOT 9 with 6.6" HD+ Pin-hole display, 13 MP AI Quad Cam, 5000 mAh big battery and much more for just Rs.8,499.
Sale starts on 8th June at 12 Noon. pic.twitter.com/8LaU4JMKm6

— InfinixIndia (@InfinixIndia) May 29, 2020

Both phones support dual-SIM slots (Nano + Nano) and have a 6.6-inch HD+ (720 x 1,600 pixels) hole-punch LCD IPS display with a 20:9 aspect ratio. They come with 90.5 percent screen-to-body-ratio and 480nits brightness.

Powered by 12nm Helio P22 octa-core processor, the phones feature a gem-cut texture design at the back.

The two smartphones are equipped with the DTS-HD surround sound and offer different modes for video, gaming, and music to help users choose the ideal sound output.

The devices run on Android 10-based XOS 6.0 and house a quad-camera setup at the back. They are equipped with a 5,000 mAh battery.

They are different in terms of rear camera specifications. Infinix Hot 9 Pro has a 48 MP main back camera with Quad-LED flash, while Infinix Hot 9 features a 13 MP main rear camera with triple LED flash support. However, they sport an 8 MP selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture and LED flash support.

Hot 9 Pro and Hot 9 will have a fingerprint sensor available on the back. The company had launched the Infinix 9 smartphone in Indonesia in March. 

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