During the 1960s the USSR and the USA were competing to break world records and drive rapid innovation for humankind to enter space. The decade began with Yuri Gagarin of the USSR making his first crewed orbital flight in space and ended with the renowned broadcast footage of the US moon landings.

Georgy Timofeevitch Beregovoi, a 47-year old man from Ukraine, was older than the recommended maximum age for space flight and he was also taller and heavier. However, his war record (flying 185 combat sorties and rising through the ranks to squadron commander), combined with his sixteen years of experience as a test pilot in the air force gave him the chance to take the Soyuz 3 into orbit.

On October 26th, 1968, Beregovoi launched the rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (in Kazakhstan) and spent nearly four days in space, finishing 64 orbits in total. On-Orbit 18, he accomplished an altitude of 254.6km which set a record at the time.

What’s more, he broke another record that still stands today. The ‘Greatest mass lifted to altitude in a rocket at 6575kg.’

In other news, the Planetary Society has revealed that the USAF and SpaceX are now looking at Falcon Heavy’s first launch for a government customer in “early 2019”. The Planetary Society is connected to the rocket and mission via their own LightSail 2 solar sail satellite.

Although expected to launch around November 30th, only a month from now, it’s clear that SpaceX’s second Falcon Heavy rocket is not ready to fly yet, likely overshadowed by a more urgent focus on the near-term Falcon 9 missions and Crew Dragon’s upcoming flight debuts.

According to the Planetary Society, a USAF official gave an update – as per the group’s involvement in its STP-2 rideshare launch – explaining that its initial launch capability was being reassessed. Basically, stating that a new launch date is being determined. 

Moreover, humanity is getting closer to colonizing the solar system. However, scientists think that if they are to accomplish this feat, they must know about how space effects every aspect of the human body.

Thus, researchers are seeking volunteers to become the first women to give birth in space.

The experiment is trying to begin in 2024, and the first known extraterrestrial – something defined as not from Earth – will be born.

The company behind the experiment is SpaceLife Origin and Kees Mulder, CEO and Founder, stated that if humanity wants to become a multi-planetary species, we also need to learn how to reproduce in space.

Lastly, even though artificial intelligence is starting to play an active role in many aspects of our lives, particularly in government circles, where leaders are trying to get ahead of the technological curve; when it comes to the military they don’t really want true AI, as reported by a former deputy defence secretary.

Bob Work, who served as deputy defence secretary under Presidents Obama and Trump, said Tuesday during a speech at the annual SAP NS2 Solutions Summit that he’s not talking about Skynets or Terminators. Those are what you would call an artificial general intelligence-type weapon. They’re looking for narrow AI systems that can compose courses of action to achieve the tasks that the machine is given and it can choose among the courses of action.

Work made a big distinction between general AI and more narrow forms—what he preferred to call machine intelligence and algorithmic warfare.

Would you volunteer to be the first woman to give birth in space? If so, why? 

Let us know in the comments below!