The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, announced the first Venezuelan export of coltan for Europe, extracted from the Mining Arc in the state of Bolívar. 
"Today is going to give the first export in the economic history of Venezuela of a mineral called the coltan and will be exported from Venezuela to the Republic of Italy," said Maduro. 
In this regard, he stressed that the second half of 2018 will be "economic growth, stability, emergence and wealth, because we have created the basis for that." 
For its part, the Minister for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, José Gregorio Vielma Mora, explained that five tons of this mineral are being exported. In addition, it is an official transfer that has all the required documents and permits, according to the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV). 
The Minister for Ecological Mining Development, Víctor Cano, stressed that they will continue with the export processes of coltan through the strategic alliances that they have signed with various mixed companies of the entity.

El primer mandatario, Nicolás Maduro anunció la primera exportación venezolana de coltán para Europa extraída del Arco Minero en el estado Bolívar.

“Hoy se va a dar la primera exportación en la historia económica de Venezuela de un mineral llamado el coltán y será exportado desde Venezuela hasta la República de Italia”, expresó Maduro.

En este sentido, destacó que el segundo semestre de 2018 será de “ crecimiento económico, estabilidad, surgimiento y riquezas, porque hemos creado la base para eso “.

Por su parte, el ministro para el Comercio Exterior e Inversión Extranjera, José Gregorio Vielma Mora, detalló que se están exportando cinco toneladas de este mineral . Además, que es un traslado oficial que cuenta con todos los documentos requeridos y con la permisología, de acuerdo al Banco Central de Venezuela (BCV).

El ministro para el Desarrollo Minero Ecológico, Víctor Cano, destacó que van a seguir con los procesos de exportación del coltán a través de las alianzas estratégicas que han firmado con diversas empresas mixtas de la entidad.

These fascinating designs propose a different kind of city one made entirely of floating modular PYRAMIDS, each containing an array of liveable and entertainment facilities. The futuristic proposals hint at pyramids that would not only host living quarters and hotels, but also the likes of cinemas and bars, gyms and shops. They are the work of Pierpaolo Lazzarini and Lazzarini Design, which says that its project, named Wayaland, is partly inspired by a Japanese temples. Currently, the firm is looking for crowdfunding in order to make the vision to reality. 

Hello friends: 
I want to share with you the reading of the book: The Doctrine of the Shock, by N. Klein, I hope that it will be useful for you in the face of so many changes that have occurred on our planet. 
For example: 
What do traumatic experiences such as the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq by US troops and their allies since the beginning of 2003, the devastating tsunami that hit the coasts of Sri Lanka in 2004 or the destruction of New Orleans by the Hurricane Katrina in 2005? 
In his book The Doctrine of Shock. The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, the Canadian journalist Naomi Klein postulates that these "traumatic" experiences, as well as others during the last 30 years, have been exploited to establish what has been called as the "disaster capitalism", a doctrine formed under the political, economic and social budgets developed by the father of the Chicago School, Milton Friedman, whose main objective is to dismantle the remains of the Welfare State and promote the neoliberal development model at the global level. 
In the opinion of the author, for the followers of Friedman, characterized by their marked neoconservative character, the economic forces of the market such as supply and demand, inflation and unemployment, constitute natural forces, fixed and immutable, to which is necessary return erasing all traces of state intervention that prevent the achievement of the free market, understood as "utopia of entrepreneurs". In this sense, the "disaster capitalism" postulates that behind all "tragedy" it is possible to see an "opportunity", such as taking advantage of the collective trauma to promote and implement radical economic and social reforms based on the basic principles of the corporativism as they are the elimination of the public roll of the State, the absolute freedom of movements of the private companies and a practically null social cost.

It can also be said that the implementation of this model owes its success to a political strategy called "the doctrine of shock", which guides the reconstruction processes implemented in response to both the effects of military interventions and natural disasters of different types. , opening "appetizing business opportunities" to the agents, defenders and promoters of "disaster capitalism". 
Klein's present book constitutes a documented journalistic investigation that recreates in detail the long and intricate itinerary of maturation and reproduction of the model proposed by Friedman after the Great Depression of the year '29, constituting a critical reaction to the success achieved by the Keynesian proposals in the US, the social democratic proposals in Europe and the developmental theories in Latin America. Derived from the above, the book also analyzes the formation of a political and business class formed under its ideology and grouped around the Chicago School, from where it has developed an important expansion to different regions of the world since the mid-20th century until today . 
In the present text, the author gives a detailed account of the way in which "the doctrine of shock" has been applied at different historical moments and in different regions of the world, in order to impose its free market postulates. These experiences include, for example, the decisive role played by the US government and the CIA in the destabilization of Salvador Allende's socialist government and the active role played by the "Chicago Boys" to make Chile the laboratory of its model. political and economic, protected under the terror and coercion imposed by the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. In addition, the author also reports on the experiences of shock developed under the governments of Margareth Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the same US during the decade of the '80s, of the transformations implemented in Poland, Russia and South Africa during the decade of the '90s, or the same experience developed in Iraq after the invasion of 2003, and how advantageous it has been in economic terms for the service companies that have been awarded the concessions contemplated under the process of "reconstruction" of said country.

With its wide and profuse worldwide distribution from its original publication date to the present day, Klein's book loses relevance and relevance. 
On the one hand, it allows us to understand the historical process of formation of a new ruling class, the so-called "neoconservatives", and the evolution of the ideological postulates that underpin its conformation, as well as its expansion and implementation strategies in different regions of the world. 
On the other, it is an invitation to observe attentively, openly and critically the effects of reconstruction plans and programs currently under way in societies affected by armed conflicts or natural disasters, such as the cases of Haiti, Chile and China, currently affected. by individual earthquakes, or Pakistan, India and Brazil, affected by floods, among others. In the case of our country, it acquires even a particular relevance considering its recognition as a laboratory and "successful model" of Friedman's proposals, the depth with which they have been implemented by the political and economic elites, and the social and cultural transformations that have taken place. generated in Chilean society during the last 30 years. 
Finally, Klein's book is also an interesting contribution to understand the complexities that go through the processes of production and social construction of the habitat, mainly those characterized by high levels of poverty and vulnerability that affect its population and that are experienced daily by their families. population. Under the understanding that poverty and vulnerability do not constitute natural realities, Klein's work reveals the fundamental importance that actors and economic agents play in this process, the ideological postulates that sustain their proposals and the tools they use for these purposes, framed fundamentally in policies, programs and projects whose scope is not easily identifiable for the whole population.

Currently, Russian scientists from the Department of Astrobiology at the Central Nuclear Research Institute are looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life studying samples of meteorites that have fallen on Earth. Sputnik journalist Tatiana Pichúgina spoke with the Russian academic and head of the Astrobiology Department of the Central Nuclear Research Institute, Alexéi Rosanov. 

Rosanov became the pioneer of bacterial paleontology almost 20 years ago. He did so inspired by the work done by his American colleague of the NASA David McKay and published in 1996. McKay supposed that the meteorite ALH84001 contained structures similar to microorganisms. This meteorite fell in Antarctica approximately 13,000 years ago and remained buried until 1984. Its isotopic content points to its Martian origin. After investigating it by means of an electron microscope, the scientists discovered inside a similar object to a bacterium.

However, they could not say with certainty that it was the fossil of an organic bacterium due to the size of this body: several tens of nanometers, less than the nucleus of any cell. 
Today, Russian scientists from the Central Institute for Nuclear Research are studying the Orgueil meteorite, which fell in southern France on May 14, 1864. Rosanov decided to study Orgueil's samples using a novel electron microscope. The Russian scientist discovered in these samples formations that resemble cyanobacteria due to their shape. "There is a lot of water in the pores of Orgueil, it is a key factor for microorganisms," the British scientist from the center of astrobiology at Buckingham University and co-author of the study, Richard Guver, told the journalist. 
According to Guver, the microorganisms could be conserved in Orgueil since they were part of the nucleus of a comet protected by a solid outer layer. After traveling in space for millions or even billions of years, the meteorite approached the Sun, heated up and eventually exploded. One of its fragments fell on Earth. For his part, Dmitri Badiukov, head of the laboratory of the Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the discussion surrounding the presence of traces of microorganisms in the meteorites of the 60s of the last century was due to the imperfection of the equipment that existed at that time.

However, and according to the scientist, a strong galactic radiation 'bombs' the meteorites in space. No type of organic matter is able to survive its effects. "The plastic after spending several years in orbit turns to dust.The average life expectancy of a meteorite in space reaches between 10 and 15 million years or more.We have a great experience, enough to notice something strange in the content of the meteorites, I am sure that in 99.9% there are no traces of microorganisms in these celestial objects, "the scientist emphasized.

La eterna obscuridad del espacio siempre está bañada de millones de estrellas, millones de mudos nos esperan en esta nueva frontera para el ser humano que gracias a sus paradigmas y debilidades se ha mantenido atado a este único mundo al que llamamos Tierra, un mundo al que hay que darle las gracias por servirnos de inmenso vientre donde nos desarrollamos y crecimos. Es momento de salir de la zona de confort y romper nuestros esquemas, para comenzar nuestro camino hacia el cosmos.

Que he aprendido en este camino que recorrí hasta hoy y que continuaré recorriendo mañana, pues que el valor más importante es el respeto a la Vida, buscando desarrollar todo aquello que nos permita vivir y que le brinde a nuestros hermanos de la tierra tener bienestar y no hablo solo de los hombres sino de otros animales que hoy nos acompañan, de esa bella vida vegetal que se nos presenta majestuosa y todo aquello que disfrute de la libertad.

tenemos el deber de construir un mundo mejor, donde los seres humanos sean protectores de este bello mundo y desarrollen herramientas tecnológicas que den solución a muchos de los actuales problemas de la sociedad humana, su mundo diseñado y el mundo natural que le rodea. Demos a la naturaleza su espacio y que este sea 4 veces mayor al que nosotros utilizamos. Es momento de mirar hacia las estrellas y viajar hacia ellas para buscar mundos nuevos donde vivir en libertad y con justicia.

Todos somos uno, somos uno con el Todo.

Un Abrazo,

Alexis Hernandez.

alfa1971@gmail.com

The asteroids are bodies formed by diverse materials, like rocks, metals and ice, that travel without fixed direction by the cosmos, sometimes in really immense orbits. And they represent enormous risks for the continuity of life on planet earth. Due to the great danger posed by a possible collision, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has several projects underway. 

One of them is called the Dual Asteroid Redirection Test Mission (DART), which is NASA's main project in its attempt to keep meteorites away from Earth. This will take place from December of the year 2020 and will serve as test and learning. 

The mission of DART is to be the first demonstration that you can deflect the trajectory of an asteroid by hitting it directly.

The impact, which will be the responsibility of the ship that bears the name of the mission, will be made against a body of small size (about 150 meters) that accompanies the asteroid Didymos. With the blow, which will occur at about 6 km / s, the object will be redirected. The aircraft will disappear in its fall against the rocks. Everything is planned so that the encounter between the ship and Didymos takes place in October 2022, so the device must make a trip of two years towards its goal. This project also had the collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA, for its acronym in English).

I was invited by the authorities of the humbolt planetarium and the highest authorities of the Russian embassy in Venezuela.

The Asgardian, Venezuelan Jaime Ramoni, candidate number 1 for the government of the space nation Asgardia participated in the Ceremony of floral offering to the bust of Gagarin in the Planetarium Humboldt in Caracas,Venezuela.

The occasion was propitious to strengthen ties with the officials of the Russian embassy in Venezuela. especially with the excellent addition of the Russian embassy in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Andrey Ryaposov.

Planetarium Humbolt, Caracas.

Bust of Yuri Gagarin where the candidate for the government of Asgardia Ramoni participated.

Asgardia was created with three main objectives in mind: to guarantee the peaceful use of space, to protect the Earth from space hazards and to create a demilitarized and knowledge-free scientific base in space. Asgardia also has a long-term goal of establishing habitable platforms in space and building settlements on the Moon. 

 
We believe that the creation of a new legal platform for the exploration of the Earth and deep space is crucial to keep pace with the rapid technological and scientific expansion of humanity outside the planet. The universal spatial law and astro-politics have to replace the current outdated international spatial and geopolitical law. 
On April 16, the partial elections in asgardia begin, the candidate Jaime Ramoni is a 34-year-old Venezuelan professor who promises to come to the asgardia government to work for a world without nuclear weapons and world peace, the Asgardian professor Ramoni has left see his appreciation towards the Russians and their 
political position of support for Russia.

It should be noted that the creator of the 
Asgardia space nation is Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli a leading Russian scientist and leader of the Asgardian space nation. 

 

Photos of the meeting between the Russian Embassy and the Asgardian Jaime Ramoni:

Professor Magister Ramoni and the secretary of the Russian embassy in Venezuela Andrey RYAPOSOV strengthening ties of friendship between asgardia and russia.

Director of the Planetarium Lebis Jiménez and Andrey RYAPOSOV

the ambassador of russia in venezuela as well as the attaché of the russian embassy in venezuela the excellent Mr. Andrey RYAPOSOV wished all the success for the candidate Jaime Ramoni to the government of Asgardia.

I thank all of you especially the addition of the Russian Embassy in Venezuela Andrey RYAPOSOV for all your attention, humility and good wishes. Caracas April 12, 2018.

Меня пригласили власти планетария-гумбольта и высшие власти российского посольства в Венесуэле. Асгардиан, венесуэльский Хайме Рамони, кандидат № 1 для правительства космической нации Асгардия, участвовал в церемонии цветочного предложения бюста Гагарина в Планетарии Гумбольдта в Каракасе, Венесуэла. Этот случай был благоприятным для укрепления связей с должностными лицами российского посольства в Венесуэле. особенно с отличным добавлением российского посольства в Боливарианской Республике Венесуэла Андрея Ряпосова.

Асгардия была создана с учетом трех основных целей: гарантировать мирное использование пространства, защитить Землю от космических опасностей и создать в космосе демилитаризованную и научную базу знаний. Асгардия также имеет долгосрочную цель - создать жилые платформы в космосе и строить поселения на Луне.   Мы считаем, что создание новой правовой платформы для исследования Земли и глубокого космоса имеет решающее значение, чтобы идти в ногу с быстрым технологическим и научным расширением человечества за пределами планеты. Универсальный пространственный закон и астрополитика должны заменить нынешний устаревший международный пространственный и геополитический закон. 16 апреля начались частичные выборы в ашгардии, кандидат Хайме Рамони является 34-летним венесуэльским профессором, который обещает прийти в правительство ашгармии для работы в мире без ядерного оружия и мира во всем мире, профессор Асгарда Рамони оставил видеть его высокую оценку по отношению к русским и их политической позиции поддержки России. Следует отметить, что создатель Асгардская космическая нация - д-р Игорь Ашурбейли, ведущий российский ученый и лидер асгардийской космической нации.

посол России в Венесуэле, а также атташе российского посольства в Венезуеле, отличный г-н Андрей РЯПОСОВ пожелал всем кандидатам Хайме Рамони правительству Асгардии. Я благодарю всех вас, особенно за добавление российского посольства в Венесуэле Андрея РЯПОСОВА за все ваше внимание, смирение и добрые пожелания. Каракас 12 апреля 2018 года.

hi dear Asgardians and people from all over the earth. I bring you my humble reflection, at this time the global geopolitics

the level of distrust among nations has grown a lot. In these moments of great political upheaval we must raise the banners of peace in every way. I make a call not only to the governments of the great world potentials but to all the peoples of the whole world so that peace reigns.

The government of the United States increasingly in its desire to remain the world policeman endangers life on the planet. the fight for natural resources and a terrifying arms race more serious than during the cold war place our race and the entire planet on the verge of extinction, maybe the planet can survive but we do not ..

Russia and China must continue to balance world power for the good of our entire human race. But it is not enough if many great nations of the planet do not reflect on the importance of maintaining world peace for our own survival.

How beautiful is a sunrise, a sunset, the air, the water. Our dreams. Let's not destroy our humanity and our planet. Sasquerade should be free of world conflicts but that does not mean that we are going to be blind and deaf before the great escalation of war. worldwide, from my candidacy to the asgardia government I make a call for world peace and that first reign in our hearts

Asgardians of my heart we fight for peace and raise our voices so that the world hears and awakens that we are dangerously moving towards our own extinction

Greetings to all the peoples of the whole world and I trust that you will defend life in our beloved, contaminated and unique spaceship.

Let's not be another moon, let's become conscious. We must fight for a world without nuclear weapons. today more than ever my campaign slogan is current but without your help asgardiano it will not be possible to achieve a safe world. Asgardian people of the world. I love them. May the light be with all of us and the creator our God enlighten us, let us be worthy to reach Peace, light.

valencia, venezuela, carabobo state Master's degree, Jaime Ramoni. candidate for the government of the Asgardian space nation.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has shown Monday what he describes as the "main body tool" to build the interplanetary BFR (Big Falcon Rocket, for its acronym in English). So that netizens can appreciate the size of the structure, in the form of a cylinder, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla Motors placed a car next to him. The device is used to build the fuselage of the rocket, that is, its upper stage, explains the Daily Mail newspaper. The newspaper notes that Musk does not normally make public what the equipment used to make his rockets looks like, nor does it the SpaceX company with parts of the BFR that are being built.

Last September, Musk said the top part of the rocket will have 40 compartments, which will allow it to transport five or six people. The SpaceX account specified that same month that the new rocket will be able to put satellites into orbit, take astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station and fulfill future lunar and Martian missions. Even before that, in October 2016, the company showed the fuel tank built for the same project, with a capacity of up to 1,200 tons of liquefied oxygen. It was made of carbon fiber, something that should provide great resistance to enormous pressures.

Last March, it was announced that a subsidiary company of SpaceX was holding preliminary talks with the administration of the Port of Los Angeles on the rental of a section of the west coast, to implement a part related to the BFR project there.

Southern California (USA) was rocked on Thursday by an earthquake of magnitude 5.3, the strongest in recent years. The chambers of the philanthropic organization Explore, which record wildlife live, captured the reaction of a bald eagle to the earthquake in one of the parks on the Californian island of Santa Cruz. This is the father of the pigeons, who was taking care of them in the nest when the telluric movement occurred. In the images you can see how the bird is frightened and leaves the nest when everything begins to shake violently. The little eaglets are left alone. But there is no need to worry! As a good father, he returns moments later to make sure that his offspring are well.

The world "is approaching a point where 'Star Wars' will not be just a film," and the US is not ready

The world is approaching "a point where 'Star Wars' will not be just a film," and the Pentagon admits it is not ready for a space war, as revealed by several experts and US politicians consulted by Politico. 
The article notes that Russia and China are "far ahead" of the United States. in the development of means capable of destroying or rendering inoperative the satellites on which the US Army depends. "for everything": from gathering intelligence, to guiding precision bombs, missiles and drones. 
Meanwhile, the Pentagon is trying to catch up after years of underinvestment, injecting "billions of dollars" to bolster its defenses against antisatellite weapons, train troops and refine means to retaliate in a new form of combat. . 
"We are increasingly dependent on space, and our adversaries know it" "Now we are approaching a point where 'Star Wars' will not be just a film," warns Steve Isakowitz, director of The Aerospace Corp., a government-funded think tank that serves as the Army's chief adviser. in the space. In these circumstances, the USA he can no longer afford to take his domain for granted, the expert warns.

And, according to Isakowitz, "that supremacy in space" has allowed Washington "to have the greatest combat capability of war in the world." However, it has also made "every day more and more, literally", Washington "becomes dependent" on space, and "our adversaries know it". 
Not surprisingly, US President Donald Trump recently called for the creation of a "space force": a separate military branch responsible for guaranteeing US supremacy in space (a role now played mainly by the Air Force). Likewise, Trump's new National Security Strategy designated space as "vital interest" for the first time, and ordered the Armed Forces to consider space as "a priority domain," Politico recalls. 
"We can not allow adversaries to take our eyes and ears" Some, however, think that it is not enough. Congressman Mike Rogers, who chairs the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the Armed Forces of the House of Representatives, predicts that war in space will "happen," and that "it's just a matter of whether it happens in the next two years or in the next five or six years. " 
In this sense, the politician is worried about whether the US Air Force is paying enough attention to space. "They always say: 'We have this, we are planning this in the future,'" says Rogers. "But when you ask them to prioritize space this year, they say they can not," he laments.

"People have to remember that when it comes to fighting in a war, our eyes and ears are in space, we can not allow adversaries to take our eyes and ears," says the congressman. 
Other specialists urge the Trump Administration to think more carefully about its military space policy. Thus, Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security at Naval War College, doubts that space can be treated like any other battle zone. "You can not control all the space all the time," he says, explaining that "simply the physics of space is different than the others." 
"An armed conflict in space would be catastrophic for all" On the other hand, Cassandra Steer, acting executive director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law of the University of Pennsylvania, warns that "an armed conflict in space would be catastrophic for all players," including "neutral states. , commercial actors and international civil society. " 
In this sense, he considers that the biggest challenge would be to develop a space defense that does not become an offensive. 
"How do we protect our space assets without creating the exact conditions for an arms race that leads to war in space?" The analyst asks and warns: "Try to dominate space in the way that the United States dominates other sites It could be a very bad idea. "

European astronomers managed to capture and film with SDO solar observatory cameras several giant plasma tornadoes that moved along the surface of our Sun. 
A new analysis of these gigantic structures - each of which is several times the size of the Earth - indicates that they could have been wrongly called 'tornadoes' because until now scientists have only been able to observe them in two-dimensional images.

The solar tornadoes were first seen in the early twentieth century, and the term was popularized a few years ago when scientists began to analyze the recordings obtained by the Solar Dynamics Observatory of NASA (SDO). The images show the hot plasma in extreme ultraviolet light apparently turning on its axis to form a giant structure that takes the shape of a tornado - as this phenomenon is seen on Earth. 
Now, after using the Doppler effect to add a third dimension to their data, scientists have been able to measure the speed of the moving plasma, as well as its direction, temperature and density. Thanks to the data obtained during several years of observations, they were able to construct a more complete picture of the structure of the magnetic field that supports the plasma.

"We discovered that in spite of how the prominences and tornadoes appear in the images, the magnetic field is not vertical and the plasma moves mainly horizontally along the lines of the magnetic field", explains Nicolas Labrosse, the main author of the study. Scientists believe that these vortices are the result of ejections of the coronal mass, that is, explosive emissions of solar plasma that exceed in destructive power the capacity of all the world's nuclear arsenals added together.

The American company Orion Span has announced that in 2021 it plans to put into orbit a space station called Aurora Station, called to become "the first luxury space hotel," according to the company's website. 
The company's chief executive, Frank Bunger, revealed on Thursday at the Space 2.0 conference, held in San Jose, California (USA), that the space station will consist of a module of 42 square meters capable of holding up to six people (four tourists and two crew). 
Bunger revealed that the 12-day trip aboard the Aurora Station would cost 9.5 million dollars, a price lower than that of flights to the International Space Station (ISS). As Space recalls, the seven 'tourists' who have gone through the ISS each paid between 20 and 40 million dollars. 
The 'all-inclusive' price will cover three months of the pre-flight training program, as well as round-trip transportation to the station.

12 days and hundreds of sunrises and sunsets Passengers will have the opportunity to grow vegetables and even access a "fast" Wi-Fi. The station will describe an orbit around the Earth every 90 minutes, allowing guests to contemplate sunrises and sunsets "hundreds" of times during the entire stay. The station, whose orbit will be located at 320 kilometers of height, could grow over time by sending additional modules that would be attached to the main module. Those who wish to live this odyssey can now make their reservation on the company's website, for which they will have to make a deposit of $ 80,000.

Virgin Galactic successfully held on Thursday the first supersonic test of its VSS Unity, a spacecraft designed to make tourist flights into space. After being released from the mothership over the Mojave Desert in California, VSS Unity activated its 30-second rocket engine, during which time it reached Mach 1.87, according to the aerospace company's portal. The ship reached a height of 25 kilometers before starting a descent and then make a conventional landing on the track.

"Another excellent test flight, another step that makes us more and more prepared," the company wrote in a tweet. This is the first test of a ship of Virgin Galactic with a propellant rocket activated since the crash of VSS Enterprise in 2014, when one of the two pilots of the ship died. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson hopes to send the VSS Unity to the stratosphere, with a capacity of 8 people on board, later this year. A passage to this space transport will cost around 250,000 dollars. One of the people who wished to embark towards the cosmos was the physicist Stephen Hawking, who died last month. After his death, Branson announced that he would vacate his space on the ship to honor his memory.

The new sanctions of the United States against the largest exporter of Russian arms Rosoboronexport are pure unfair competition, said the state corporation Rostec. "The fact that the target was Rosoboronexport confirms the true purpose of the sanctions (...) It is pure unfair competition," said a Rostec spokesman.

The US accusations are just an excuse to expel Russia from the global arms market, he added. The largest Russian exporter of arms, Rosoboronexport, for its part said it was accustomed to operate under the pressure of US restrictions after getting the news that it was included in a new list of sanctions made by the US. 
"We do not comment on this information, we want to remember that our company has been working under US sanctions for a long time," his press office told Sputnik.

In September 2015, the United States imposed unilateral sanctions on several Russian companies in the defense sector, including the Rosoboronexport agency, for alleged infractions of the non-proliferation regime in relation to Iran, North Korea and Syria. A year later, the US government partially lifted the restrictions on Rosoboronexport so that it can provide technical maintenance for the Mi-17 helicopters in Afghanistan. However, in March 2017, the US Department of State announced an extension of the sanctions related to the US law against nuclear proliferation in Iran, North Korea and Syria (INKSNA, according to its English acronym).