Month: January 2024
Archaeologists Map Lost Cities in Ecuadorian Amazon
WASHINGTON — Archaeologists have uncovered a cluster of lost cities in the Amazon rainforest, an area that was home to at least 10,000 farmers around 2,000 years ago.
A series of earthen mounds and buried roads in Ecuador was first noticed more than two decades ago by archaeologist Stephen Rostain. But at the time, ” I wasn’t sure how it all fit together,” said Rostain, one of the researchers who reported on the finding Thursday in the journal Science.
Recent mapping by laser-sensor technology revealed those sites to be part of a dense network of settlements and connecting roadways, tucked into the forested foothills of the Andes, that lasted about 1,000 years.
“It was a lost valley of cities,” said Rostain, who directs investigations at France’s National Center for Scientific Research. “It’s incredible.”
The settlements were occupied by the Upano people between around 500 B.C. and 300 to 600 A.D. — a period roughly contemporaneous with the Roman Empire in Europe, the researchers found.
Residential and ceremonial buildings erected on more than 6,000 earthen mounds were surrounded by agricultural fields with drainage canals. The largest roads were 33 feet (10 meters) wide and stretched for 6 to 12 miles (10 to 20 kilometers).
While it’s difficult to estimate populations, the site was home to at least 10,000 inhabitants, and perhaps as many as 15,000 or 30,000 at its peak, said archaeologist Antoine Dorison, a study co-author at the same French institute. That’s comparable to the estimated population of Roman-era London, then Britain’s largest city.
“This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complicated society,” said University of Florida archaeologist Michael Heckenberger, who was not involved in the study. “For the region, it’s really in a class of its own in terms of how early it is.”
Jose Iriarte, a University of Exeter archaeologist, said it would have required an elaborate system of organized labor to build the roads and thousands of earthen mounds.
“The Incas and Mayans built with stone, but people in Amazonia didn’t usually have stone available to build — they built with mud. It’s still an immense amount of labor,” said Iriarte, who had no role in the research.
The Amazon is often thought of as a “pristine wilderness with only small groups of people. But recent discoveries have shown us how much more complex the past really is,” he said.
Scientists have recently also found evidence of intricate rainforest societies that predated European contact elsewhere in the Amazon, including in Bolivia and in Brazil.
“There’s always been an incredible diversity of people and settlements in the Amazon, not only one way to live,” said Rostain. “We’re just learning more about them.”
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At CES, Connected Devices Are Becoming More Discreet and Invisible
An estimated 130,000 people have descended on Las Vegas for CES 2024, the consumer technology show that attracts big and small companies alike. VOA’s Tina Trinh met with some of the more than 4,000 exhibitors for a look at emerging trends in artificial intelligence, digital health and more.
Camera: Tina Trinh
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Hundreds Honor Ukrainian Poet-Soldier Killed in Action
KYIV, Ukraine — Hundreds of people attended a ceremony Thursday honoring the memory of renowned Ukrainian poet Maksym Kryvtsov, who was killed in action while serving as a soldier in the war Russia started in Ukraine nearly two years ago.
A large crowd gathered in the courtyard of Kyiv’s St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, where ceremonies are often held to honor soldiers killed in the war. People brought flowers adorned with blue and yellow ribbons — the colors of the Ukrainian flag — and patiently queued up to enter the monastery and pay their respects. A funeral was scheduled to be held in Kryvtsov’s hometown of Rivne on Friday.
Among those attending the memorial service were many fellow soldiers, including some who had served with Kryvtsov since 2014.
“He became a warrior right away, but he was very kind,” said a soldier who asked to be identified by his military call sign Grandpa. He said he finds it difficult to speak about Kryvtsov, saying that it feels like “a piece of the heart has been torn out.”
“He did not die,” Grandpa said. “We just gained another guardian angel. He will always be with us.”
Book earns high praise
Kryvtsov was killed on January 7 by artillery fire in the Kupiansk area of the Kharkiv region — one of the key fronts in Moscow’s winter offensive.
He was an active participant in the Revolution of Dignity, the uprising that unleashed a decade of momentous change for Ukraine, and joined the army in 2014 after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula. Several years later, he took a break from the war and focused on civil activities, including poetry.
His first and last book, “Poems from the Loophole,” published in 2023, received a warm reception and high praise within Ukraine’s cultural community. The published poems primarily reflect on the harsh reality imposed by the war.
With the onset of Russia’s invasion in 2022, Kryvtsov had re-enlisted.
The Ukrainian chapter of the International Association of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, and Novelists, or PEN, included his book on its list of the best books of 2023. Earlier, Kryvtsov’s poems were also featured in collections with the works of other poets. The print run of the book has been swept from the shelves of bookstores.
Poet’s work goes viral
Kryvtsov’s death sparked a broad reaction on social media, where his poetry went viral for several days following his passing. Many drew parallels with Ukrainian cultural figures killed during the Soviet repression of artists of the 1920s and early 1930s, known in Ukrainian history as the “Executed Renaissance.”
“They kill our artists and then laugh in our faces,” wrote Ukrainian composer Yana Yaschuk on Facebook.
An assessment by the Ukrainian PEN found that 95 people in artistic professions have been killed in the war as of December 2023. Among them are actors, painters, sculptors, linguists, historians and others. PEN noted that the actual number could be higher.
Award-winning Ukrainian writer Viktoria Amelina was killed in a deadly Russian missile attack on a popular restaurant in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region in July of last year.
Mourners kneel in respect
Many fans of Kryvtsov’s poetry also attended the memorial, some holding his book in their hands.
As the casket was carried out of the monastery, attendees in the crowded courtyard knelt to bid him farewell. An air raid siren announcing a possible missile threat went off but people continued to kneel, holding flowers and flags.
The crowd proceeded to Kyiv’s central square, where the second part of the memorial service took place. People on the streets stopped and some burst into tears as the column, led by the poet’s body, passed by.
“He left us not just his poems and testimonies of the era but his most powerful weapon, unique and innate,” said poet, volunteer and combat medic Olena Herasymiuk, who was a close friend of Kryvtsov. “It’s the kind of weapon that hits not a territory or an enemy but strikes at the human mind and soul.”
Many attended the memorial service with violets, a reference to his last poem, which was published on Facebook a few days before his death. The poem went viral and in it, he wrote, “my hands torn off will sprout violets in the spring.”
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NFL’s Patriots Part Ways with Coach Bill Belichick, Who Led Team to 6 Super Bowl Championships
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Six-time National Football League champion Bill Belichick agreed to part ways as the coach of the New England Patriots, ending his 24-year tenure as the architect of the most decorated dynasty of the league’s Super Bowl era.
Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft announced the move to the media Thursday at Gillette Stadium. They didn’t take questions, though Kraft scheduled an availability for later in the day.
Belichick, 71, is just the third coach in NFL history to reach 300 career regular-season victories earlier this season, joining Hall of Famers Don Shula and George Halas. With 333 wins including the playoffs, Belichick trails only Shula (347) for the record for victories by a coach.
But the Patriots ended this season 4-13, Belichick’s worst record in 29 seasons as an NFL head coach. It supplanted the 5-11 mark he managed in his last year in Cleveland in 1995 and again in his first year in New England in 2000. Including the playoffs, he ends his Patriots tenure with a 333-178 overall record.
With his cutoff hoodies and ever-present scowl, Belichick teamed with quarterback Tom Brady to lead the Patriots to six Super Bowl victories, nine AFC titles and 17 division championships in 19 years. During a less successful — but also tumultuous — stint with the original Cleveland Browns, Belichick earned 37 of his career victories.
It’s not immediately clear who Kraft will tap to replace the future Hall of Famer.
Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo won a Super Bowl ring playing under Belichick and has interviewed for multiple head coaching vacancies since becoming a New England assistant in 2019. Mayo turned down a few interviews last offseason before signing a contract extension to remain with the Patriots.
Mike Vrabel, who was fired earlier this week by the Tennessee Titans and won three Super Bowls with the Patriots, is also expected to be a candidate for the head coaching job.
Belichick had been grooming offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to replace him before McDaniels left following the 2021 season to become the coach of the Raiders. He has since been fired by Las Vegas. Belichick’s two sons, Steve and Brian, are also on the coaching staff.
Belichick’s exit from the Patriots comes just a day after another legendary coach and his longtime friend Nick Saban announced he’d retire after winning seven college national championships. Saban worked for Belichick’s father, Steve, in the 1980s as a coach at Navy, and Bill Belichick hired Saban as his defensive coordinator when he became Cleveland’s head coach in 1991.
The six Super Bowl wins tie Belichick with pre-merger mentors Halas and Curly Lambeau for the most NFL championships. Belichick also won two rings as Bill Parcells’ defensive coordinator with the New York Giants.
But the Patriots have stumbled to a 29-38 record since Brady departed following the 2019 season and missed the playoffs in three of those four seasons. Beginning in 2001 when Brady became the starting quarterback, the Patriots missed the playoffs only once (2008) when Brady was injured. This marked New England’s fifth consecutive season without a playoff victory.
Belichick’s subsequent solutions at quarterback haven’t panned out.
Brady’s initial replacement, Cam Newton, didn’t resemble the player who won the 2015 MVP award and was cut after a 7-9 finish in 2020. Meanwhile Brady won his seventh Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that same season.
Potential long-term replacement Mac Jones, a 2021 first-round draft choice, was a Pro Bowl selection as a rookie and led New England to the playoffs. But he regressed in Year 2 when Belichick put longtime defensive assistant Matt Patricia in charge of the offense. Jones didn’t fare much better this season when Bill O’Brien returned as offensive coordinator. He was benched four times before being replaced as starter by backup Bailey Zappe for the final six games.
That left the Patriots looking at a lengthy rebuild, with no candidate on the roster to bring stability to the sport’s most important position.
Belichick, who also served as the de facto general manager with final say on personnel decisions, was celebrated for his ingenuity managing the salary cap during the run of Super Bowl success. It included getting stars like Brady and others to accept cap-friendly contracts or adjust their deals to accommodate the signing of other players.
But that acclaim has waned in the years since Brady left, as a run of draft picks and high-priced free agents didn’t live up to expectations. In addition, Belichick has seen several members of his personnel and scouting departments leave for other jobs. The list includes his former player personnel director, Nick Caserio, who was hired as Houston’s general manager in 2021.
Now it won’t be Belichick making the decisions for the Patriots on or off the field.
The only child of a World War II veteran who spent three decades as a Navy assistant coach, Belichick is a football historian with an encyclopedic knowledge of strategy from the sport’s early days to current NFL trends. His players said his attention to detail never left them unprepared.
Belichick has been a master of the NFL rule book, unearthing loopholes in clock operations and offensive line formations that — though entirely legal — cemented his reputation as a mad genius.
But his legacy in New England also includes two major cheating investigations — and other, minor ones — that cost him and the team draft picks and more than $1 million in fines. Opponents accused the Patriots of everything from hacking their headsets to cutting corners on injury reports.
His friendship with former President Donald Trump, which Belichick insisted was not political, landed the coach on the list to receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom in the waning days of the administration. After the outcry against the U.S. Capitol siege, Belichick announced “the decision has been made not to move forward.”
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‘Oppenheimer’ Leads Screen Actors Guild Nominations as Gala Moves to Netflix
Los Angeles — Fresh from its wins at the Golden Globes, Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” on Wednesday topped the nominations for the influential Screen Actors Guild Awards, which are key to Oscars success.
The SAG Awards, voted on by Hollywood actors, are likely to enjoy a profile boost of their own this year as they are broadcast globally on Netflix — an awards show first for the world’s biggest streamer.
“Oppenheimer,” which tells the story of the inventor of the atomic bomb, earned nods for Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt, as well as “outstanding performance by a cast” — the SAG Awards’ top prize.
Nolan’s three-hour epic, which earned nearly $1 billion and received rave reviews from critics, is rapidly becoming the clear favorite for the Academy Awards in March.
“Barbie,” the other half of last summer’s “Barbenheimer” box office phenomenon, and the year’s highest grossing film, picked up nominations for Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and overall cast.
The surreal comedy based on the wildly popular doll also picked up an additional nomination for its stunt performers.
The other films with three acting nominations were Martin Scorsese’s epic “Killers of the Flower Moon” — despite Leonardo DiCaprio missing out — and scathing satire “American Fiction,” starring Jeffrey Wright.
Both movies are nominated for best cast, with musical remake “The Color Purple” closing out that category.
Elsewhere, Globes winners Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph picked up nods for “The Holdovers,” as did Emma Stone and her co-star Willem Dafoe for “Poor Things.”
Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan were nominated for Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro.”
But all three films missed out on nominations for outstanding cast.
The winner of that prize has gone on to win best picture at the Oscars in three of the past four years (“Parasite,” “CODA” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).
The SAG Awards also honor television, with “Succession” on top with five nods, followed by “The Bear,” “The Last of Us” and “Ted Lasso,” all on four.
The 30th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will take place in Los Angeles on February 24.
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AI-Powered Misinformation Is World’s Biggest Short-Term Threat, Davos Report Says
London — False and misleading information supercharged with cutting-edge artificial intelligence that threatens to erode democracy and polarize society is the top immediate risk to the global economy, the World Economic Forum said in a report Wednesday.
In its latest Global Risks Report, the organization also said an array of environmental risks pose the biggest threats in the longer term. The report was released ahead of the annual elite gathering of CEOs and world leaders in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos and is based on a survey of nearly 1,500 experts, industry leaders and policymakers.
The report listed misinformation and disinformation as the most severe risk over the next two years, highlighting how rapid advances in technology also are creating new problems or making existing ones worse.
The authors worry that the boom in generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT means that creating sophisticated synthetic content that can be used to manipulate groups of people won’t be limited any longer to those with specialized skills.
AI is set to be a hot topic next week at the Davos meetings, which are expected to be attended by tech company bosses including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and AI industry players like Meta’s chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun.
AI-powered misinformation and disinformation is emerging as a risk just as billions of people in a slew of countries, including large economies like the United States, Britain, Indonesia, India, Mexico, and Pakistan, are set to head to the polls this year and next, the report said.
“You can leverage AI to do deepfakes and to really impact large groups, which really drives misinformation,” said Carolina Klint, a risk management leader at Marsh, whose parent company Marsh McLennan co-authored the report with Zurich Insurance Group.
“Societies could become further polarized” as people find it harder to verify facts, she said. Fake information also could be used to fuel questions about the legitimacy of elected governments, “which means that democratic processes could be eroded, and it would also drive societal polarization even further,” Klint said.
The rise of AI brings a host of other risks, she said. It can empower “malicious actors” by making it easier to carry out cyberattacks, such as by automating phishing attempts or creating advanced malware.
With AI, “you don’t need to be the sharpest tool in the shed to be a malicious actor,” Klint said.
It can even poison data that is scraped off the internet to train other AI systems, which is “incredibly difficult to reverse” and could result in further embedding biases into AI models, she said.
The other big global concern for respondents of the risk survey centered around climate change.
Following disinformation and misinformation, extreme weather is the second-most-pressing short-term risk.
In the long term — defined as 10 years — extreme weather was described as the No. 1 threat, followed by four other environmental-related risks: critical change to Earth systems; biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse; and natural resource shortages.
“We could be pushed past that irreversible climate change tipping point” over the next decade as the Earth’s systems undergo long-term changes, Klint said.
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Cyber ‘Kidnapping’ Scams Target Chinese Students Around the World
WASHINGTON — A recent cyber kidnapping incident involving a Chinese exchange student in Utah appears to be part of an international pattern in which unknown perpetrators, often masquerading as Chinese police or government officials, target Chinese students around the world and extort their families for upwards of tens of thousands of dollars.
In late December, 17-year-old Chinese student Kai Zhuang was reported missing near Salt Lake City, only to be found days later alone and freezing in a tent in the mountains. Authorities have said the case was part of an apparent cyber kidnapping scheme to scam his family in China out of $80,000.
Cyber kidnapping is when perpetrators pretend to have abducted someone to coerce their family into paying a ransom.
“At the heart of it are the heartstrings of the victim, who is told to go run and hide, and the heartstrings of the people who think their loved one is actually in the possession of kidnappers,” said Theresa Payton, CEO of cybersecurity company Fortalice Solutions.
“Virtual kidnapping is, at its very root, manipulative. It is coercive. It is emotionally draining and complex,” said Payton, who is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
On January 3, just days after Kai Zhuang was found, the FBI issued a warning about criminals impersonating Chinese police officers to defraud Chinese people based in the United States, especially Chinese students.
Around the world
VOA has learned that the cyber scams aren’t targeting only Chinese students studying in the United States.
Over the past year, Chinese students studying abroad in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Japan have also been targeted by cyber kidnapping scams and other cybercrime schemes, VOA found.
In these countries, the perpetrators also often pretended to be Chinese police officers or government officials. Cybersecurity experts said this tactic indicates criminals are leveraging China’s authoritarian system, in which deference to and fear of the police are the norm, to their advantage.
“Chinese people are naturally afraid of the police,” said Han Jiang Du Diao Seng, a pharmacist based in the United States who runs accounts on YouTube and Weibo that are popular among Chinese exchange students.
Han Jiang Du Diao Seng has helped four Chinese students caught up in cyber kidnapping scams, he said. In his experience, he said, scammers posing as government officials tend to approach Chinese students and first ask if they recently received money from their family in China.
If the student says yes, he said, the scammer either claims the money was transferred illegally or that their family is being targeted by criminals, before requiring the student to halt contact with their family during an investigation — all of which is a ploy to then extort money from the family.
Left their homes
In the incidents Han Jiang Du Diao Seng worked on, he said, the criminals coerced all the students to leave where they lived and go stay at a hotel, which helped convince their parents that they were actually kidnapped.
He said that these criminals may be taking advantage of the fact that Chinese parents may be less likely to report the incidents to American police — in part due to language barriers but also due to general distrust among Chinese people of the American police. Chinese state media regularly depict American police as violent and irresponsible.
“You have a fear of government involvement and law enforcement involvement because the relationship to the government is different,” cybersecurity expert Joseph Steinberg said, referring to people from authoritarian countries such as China.
There is no clear data on the number of cyber kidnapping cases in the United States or around the world, cybersecurity experts told VOA, but incidents seem to be rising. Technological advancements, particularly with artificial intelligence, risk making the schemes even easier to perpetrate, they said.
There are different tiers of sophistication in these cybercrime syndicates, according to Payton. At the lower end, perpetrators may use an auto dialer to target random people in hopes of getting a few hundred dollars, she said.
More sophisticated schemes
At the upper end, perpetrators use artificial intelligence algorithms to identify targets and deepfake technology to create photos and audio intended to make victims believe their loved one has actually been kidnapped, Payton said.
“You do not actually have to be technically minded to get into this type of crime. You just have to be a twisted, evil individual,” she said.
AI advancements mean perpetrators don’t even need to speak the same language as their victims, according to Steinberg, who is based in New York City.
“AI is only going to get better, and that means that the attacks will only be more and more realistic,” he told VOA.
Some cybercriminals are just after a quick buck, Steinberg said. “But you have some that are after the big dollars and will spend the time to do the research,” he said.
That may help explain why Chinese exchange students apparently are being specifically targeted.
Payton said that given the complex relationship between the Chinese government and its citizens, as well as other factors such as culture, history and economics, “it is conceivable that global criminal syndicates engaging in such activities as virtual kidnapping may perceive young Chinese adults studying abroad as more susceptible to fall prey to this crime,” Payton said.
In Canada in February 2023, regional police said Chinese students had been swindled out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by scammers claiming to be Chinese government officials.
Similar incidents have played out in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. It is not clear whether the perpetrators of any of these crimes are linked in any way. The investigation into the recent Utah incident is ongoing, and it is not clear whether the perpetrators imitated Chinese officials.
China’s embassy in Washington did not respond to that question when VOA reached out for comment.
Warnings from embassies and police
The embassy did urge Chinese citizens in the U.S., especially those studying in the country, to boost safety awareness, take necessary precautions, and stay vigilant against “virtual kidnapping” and other forms of telecom and online fraud.
In the span of two months in Japan last summer, at least six Chinese students were targeted in cyber kidnapping schemes, local police said. The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo issued a warning about the scams in August, urging Chinese citizens in the country to “be wary” and “vigilant.”
Local British police issued a warning about cyber scams targeting Chinese students in September, and the Australian government released a similar warning a month later.
“These criminal syndicates demonstrate a profound understanding of human behavior, potentially leveraging fear tactics to manipulate individuals into compliance and their families into making payments. They are targeting all demographics, but the trend appears to indicate they favor targeting Chinese exchange students studying abroad,” Payton said.
To avoid falling victim to these kinds of schemes, cybersecurity experts recommended families set up a password to verify one another’s identity over the phone during these kinds of scenarios.
“The cyber kidnapping scam very much can happen to anybody, and that’s what people need to be aware of,” Steinberg said.
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US Delays Planned Return of Astronauts to Moon Until 2026
washington — The United States is pushing back its planned return of astronauts to the surface of the Moon from 2025 to 2026, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Tuesday.
Artemis, named after the sister of Apollo in Greek mythology, was officially announced in 2017 as part of the US space agency’s plans to establish a sustained presence on Earth’s nearest space neighbor, and apply lessons learned there for a future mission to Mars.
Its first mission, an uncrewed test flight to the Moon and back called Artemis 1, took place in 2022, after several postponements.
Artemis 2, involving a crew that doesn’t land on the surface, has been postponed from later this year to September 2025, Nelson told reporters.
Artemis 3, in which the first woman and first person of color are to set foot on lunar soil at the Moon’s south pole, should now take place in September 2026.
“Safety is our top priority, and to give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges,” said Nelson.
NASA is also looking to build a lunar space station called Gateway where spacecraft will dock during later missions.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has won the contract for a landing system for Artemis 3 based on a version of its prototype Starship rocket, which remains far from ready. Both of its orbital tests have ended in explosions.
Delays to Starship have knock-on effects because the spacesuit contractor needs to know how the suits will interface with the spacecraft, and simulators need to be built for astronauts to learn its systems.
And the Artemis 1 mission itself revealed technical issues, such as the heat shield on the Orion crew capsule eroded in an unexpected way, and the ground structure used to launch the giant SLS rocket sustained more damage than expected.
As of March 2023, NASA has agreed to pay approximately $40 billion to hundreds of contractors in support of Artemis, the same watchdog found.
A key difference between the 20th-century Apollo missions and the Artemis era is the increasing role of commercial partnerships, part of a broader strategy to involve the private companies in space exploration to reduce costs and to make space more accessible.
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Sinead O’Connor Died of Natural Causes, London Coroner Says
LONDON — Irish singer Sinead O’Connor, who was found unresponsive at an address in London in July last year, died of natural causes, the coroner said on Tuesday.
O’Connor, known for her stirring voice, outspoken views and 1990 chart-topping hit “Nothing Compares 2 U,” was pronounced dead at the scene. Police had said her death, at the age of 56, was not being treated as suspicious.
The coroner’s court said at the time that an autopsy would be conducted before a decision was made on whether to hold an inquest.
“This is to confirm that Ms O’Connor died of natural causes. The coroner has therefore ceased their involvement in her death,” London Inner South Coroner’s Court said in a statement.
Artists around the world reacted to the news of her death last year, with REM frontman Michael Stipe and U.S. musician Tori Amos among those who paid tribute to O’Connor’s fierce honesty, intense presence and uncompromising spirit.
Thousands gathered outside O’Connor’s former seaside home to bid farewell to her when her funeral was held in August, some singing along to hits blasted from a vintage Volkswagen camper van and others showering her hearse with flowers.
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Franz Beckenbauer, World Cup Champion as Player and Coach for Germany, Dies at 78
Munich — Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup both as player and coach and became one of Germany’s most beloved personalities with his easygoing charm, has died, news agency dpa reported Monday. He was 78.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” the family said in a statement to dpa, the German news agency. “We ask that we be allowed to grieve in peace and be spared any questions.”
The statement did not provide a cause of death. The former Bayern Munich great had struggled with health problems in recent years.
Beckenbauer was one of German soccer’s central figures. As a player, he reimagined the defender’s role in soccer and captained West Germany to the World Cup title in 1974 after it had lost to England in the 1966 final. He was the coach when West Germany won the tournament again in 1990, a symbolic moment for a country in the midst of reunification, months after the Berlin Wall fell.
Beckenbauer was also instrumental in bringing the highly successful 2006 World Cup to Germany, though his legacy was later tainted by charges that he only succeeded in winning the hosting rights with the help of bribery. He denied the allegations.
Beckenbauer and three other members of the committee were formally made criminal suspects that year by Swiss prosecutors who suspected fraud in the true purpose of multi-million euro (dollar) payments that connected the 2006 World Cup with FIFA. But he was eventually not indicted in 2019 for health reasons and the case ended without a judgment when the statute of limitations expired in 2020 amid delays to the court system caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The allegations damaged Beckenbauer’s standing in public perception for the first time. Until then, Beckenbauer had seemingly been unable to say or do anything wrong. Germans simply loved him.
The son of a post official from the working-class Munich district of Giesing, Beckenbauer became one of the greatest players to grace the game in a career that also included stints in the United States with the New York Cosmos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Born on Sept. 11, 1945, months after Germany’s surrender in World War II, Beckenbauer studied to become an insurance salesman but he signed his first professional contract with Bayern when he was 18.
“You are not born to become a world star in Giesing. Football for me was a deliverance. Looking back, I can say: Everything went according to how I’d imagined my life. I had a perfect life,” Beckenbauer told the Sueddeutsche newspaper magazine in 2010.
Beckenbauer personalized the position of “libero,” the free-roaming nominal defender who often moved forward to threaten the opponent’s goal, a role now virtually disappeared from modern football and rarely seen before his days.
An elegant, cool player with vision, Beckenbauer defined as captain the Bayern Munich side that won three successive European Cup titles from 1974 to 1976.
In his first World Cup as player in 1966, West Germany lost the final to host England. Four years later, with his arm strapped to his body because of a shoulder injury, Germany lost a memorable semifinal to Italy.
Finally, in 1974 at home, Beckenbauer captained West Germany to the title.
Beckenbauer left Bayern for New York in 1977 to play for the Cosmos of the North American Soccer League. He missed the 1978 World Cup because the Germans decided not to invite players playing abroad. He returned to Germany in 1980, spent two seasons with Hamburger SV — and won another Bundesliga championship, his fifth — before returning for a final season with the Cosmos.
Although he had never coached before, Beckenbauer was hired to revive West Germany in 1984 after a flop at the European Championship.
West Germany made it to the final of the 1986 World Cup, losing to Diego Maradona’s Argentina in Mexico City. Although West Germany failed to win the 1988 Euros title at home, it went to the final of the 1990 World Cup and defeated Argentina in the final in Rome, another highlight in the year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Later, at the news conference, he said he was “sorry for the rest of the world” because a united Germany would be unbeatable for years to come. But Germany had to wait 24 years before winning another World Cup title.
Beckenbauer retired from the West Germany job after coaching the team to the 1990 World Cup triumph. The final was the last tournament game played by a West Germany-only team.
He didn’t have much success at coaching Marseille but won the Bundesliga title with Bayern in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996, both after taking over as coach late in the season. He later became Bayern’s president, until leaving most functions when he turned 65 in 2010.
Beckenbauer’s legal issues around the 2006 World Cup continued into his retirement, but he remained a much-loved figure in German soccer and society.
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First US Lunar Lander In More Than 50 Years Rockets Toward Moon With Commercial Deliveries
Cape Canaveral, Florida — The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years rocketed toward the moon Monday, launching private companies on a space race to make deliveries for NASA and other customers.
Astrobotic Technology’s lander caught a ride on a brand new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan. The Vulcan streaked through the Florida predawn sky, putting the spacecraft on a roundabout route to the moon that should culminate with an attempted landing on Feb. 23.
The Pittsburgh company aims to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. But a Houston company also has a lander ready to fly, and could beat it to the lunar surface, taking a more direct path.
“First to launch. First to land is TBD” — to be determined, said Astrobotic chief executive John Thornton.
NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers. The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the place before astronauts arrive while delivering NASA tech and science experiments as well as odds and ends for other customers.
Astrobotic’s contract for the Peregrine lander: $108 million.
The last time the U.S. launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972.
Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA’s pinnacle.
The space agency’s new Artemis program — named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology — looks to return astronauts to the moon’s surface within the next few years.
First will be a lunar fly-around with four astronauts, possibly before the end of the year.
Highlighting Monday’s moonshot was the long-delayed initial test flight of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
The 61-meter rocket is essentially an upgraded version of ULA’s hugely successful workhorse Atlas V, which is being phased out along with the company’s Delta IV. Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, provided the Vulcan’s two main engines.
The Soviet Union and the U.S. racked up a string of successful moon landings in the 1960s and 70s, before putting touchdowns on pause. China joined the elite club in 2013 and India in 2023. But last year also saw landers from Russia and a private Japanese company slam into the moon. An Israeli nonprofit crashed in 2019.
Next month, SpaceX will provide the lift for a lander from Intuitive Machines. The Nova-C lander’s more direct one-week route could see both spacecraft attempting to land within days or even hours of one another.
The hourlong descent to the lunar surface — by far the biggest challenge — will be “exciting, nail-biting, terrifying all at once,” said Thornton.
Besides flying experiments for NASA, Astrobotic drummed up its own freight business, packing the 1.9-meter-tall Peregrine lander with everything from a chip of rock from Mount Everest and toy-size cars from Mexico that will catapult to the lunar surface and cruise around, to the ashes and DNA of deceased space enthusiasts, including “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
The Navajo Nation recently sought to have the launch delayed because of the human remains, saying it would be a “profound desecration” of a celestial body revered by Native Americans.
Thornton said the December objections came too late but promised to try to find “a good path forward” with the Navajo for future missions.
One of the spaceflight memorial companies that bought room on the lander, Celestis, said in a statement that no single culture or religion owns the moon and should not be able to veto a mission.
More remains are on the rocket’s upper stage, which, once free of the lander, will indefinitely circle the sun as far out as Mars.
Cargo fares for Peregrine ranged from a few hundred dollars to $1.2 million per kilogram, not nearly enough for Astrobotic to break even. But for this first flight, that’s not the point, according to Thornton.
“A lot of people’s dreams and hopes are riding on this,” he said.
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‘Oppenheimer’ Dominates Golden Globes, ‘Poor Things’ Upsets ‘Barbie’ in Comedy
BEVERLY HILLS, California — “Oppenheimer has dominated the Golden Globe Awards, taking home the night’s top honor. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” has won best comedy or musical at the 81st Golden Globes, an upset victory over the category favorite, “Barbie.”
Emma Stone also won for her performance in “Poor Things.”
On the television side, “Succession” and “The Bear” are took multiple honors. Christopher Nolan’s epic American drama “Oppenheimer” picked up five big awards including best drama film, best director for Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and for Ludwig Göransson’s score.
Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph both won for their performances in “The Holdovers.”
Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic “Oppenheimer” dominated the 81st Golden Globes, winning five awards including best drama, while Yorgos Lanthimos’ Frankenstein riff “Poor Things” pulled off an upset victor over “Barbie” to triumph in the best comedy or musical category.
If awards season has been building toward a second match-up of Barbenheimer, this round went to “Oppenheimer.”
The film also won best director for Nolan, best drama actor for Cillian Murphy, best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. and for Ludwig Göransson’s score.
“I don’t think it was a no-brainer by any stretch of the imagination to make a three-hour talky movie — R-rated by the way — about one of the darkest developments in our history,” said producer Emma Thomas accepting the night’s final award and thanking Universal chief Donna Langley.
Along with best comedy or musical, “Poor Things” also won for Emma Stone’s performance as Bella, a Victorian-era woman experiencing a surreal sexual awakening.
“I see this as a rom-com,” said Stone. “But in the sense that Bella falls in love with life itself, rather than a person.
She accepts the good and the bad in equal measure, and that really made me look at life differently.”
Lily Gladstone won best actress in a dramatic film for Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Gladstone, who began her speech speaking the language of her native tribe, Blackfeet Nation, is the first Indigenous winner in the category.
“This is a historic win,” said Gladstone. “It doesn’t just belong to me.”
The Globes were in their ninth decade but facing a new and uncertain chapter. After a tumultuous few years of scandal, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was dissolved, leaving a new Globes, on a new network (CBS), to try to regain its perch as the third biggest award show of the year, after the Oscars and Grammys. Even the menu (sushi from Nobu) was remade.
“Golden Globes journalists, thank you for changing your game, therefore changing your name,” said Downey in his acceptance speech.
It got off to a rocky start. Host Jo Koy took the stage at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom in Beverly Hills, California.
The Filipino American stand-up hit on some expected topics: Ozempic, Meryl Streep’s knack for winning awards and the long-running “Oppenheimer.” (“I needed another hour.”)
After one joke flubbed, Koy, who was named host after some bigger names reportedly passed, also noted how fast he was thrust into the job.
“Yo, I got the gig 10 days ago. You want a perfect monologue?” said Koy. “I wrote some of these and they’re the ones you’re laughing at.”
Hi, Barbie
Downey’s win, his third Globe, denied one to “Kenergy.” Ryan Gosling had been seen as his stiffest competition, just one of the many head-to-head contests between “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.”
The filmmakers faced each other in the best director category, where Nolan triumphed.
It was two hours before “Barbie,” the year’s biggest hit with more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales, won an award Sunday. Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” took best song, and swiftly after, “Barbie” took the Globes’ new honor for “cinematic and box office achievement.”
Some thought that award might go to Taylor Swift, whose “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” also set box-office records. Swift, though, remains winless in five Globe nods.
Margot Robbie, star and producer of “Barbie,” accepted the award in a pink gown modeled after 1977’s Superstar Barbie.
“We’d like to dedicate this to every single person on the planet who dressed up and went to the greatest place on Earth: the movie theaters,” said Robbie.
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” two blockbusters brought together by a common release date, also faced off in the best screenplay category.
But in an upset, Justine Triet and Arthur Harari won for the script to the French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall.” Later, Triet’s film picked up best international film, too.
Though the Globes have no direct correlation with the Academy Awards, they can boost campaigns at a crucial juncture. Oscar nomination voting starts Thursday, and the twin sensations of Barbenheimer remain frontrunners.
Other contenders loom, though, like “Poor Things” and “The Holdovers.”
Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph both won for Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers.” Giamatti, reuniting with Payne two decades after “Sideways,” won best actor and Randolph won for her supporting performance as a grieving woman in the 1970s-set boarding school drama.
“Oh, Mary you have changed my life,” Randolph said of her character. “You have made me feel seen in so many ways that I have never imagined.”
Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” won best animated film, an upset over “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”
‘Succession,’ ‘The Bear’ Lead TV Winners
The final season of “Succession” cleaned up on the television side. It won best drama series for the third time, a mark that ties a record set by “Mad Men” and “The X-Files.” Three stars from the HBO series also won: Matt Macfadyen, Sarah Snook and Kieran Culkin.
“It is bittersweet, but things like this make it rather sweeter,” said “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong.
Hulu’s “The Bear” also came away with a trio of awards, including best comedy series. Jeremy Allen White won for the second time, but this time he had company.
Ayo Edebiri won her first Globe for her leading performance in the Hulu show’s second season. She thanked the assistants of her agents and managers.
“To the people who answer my emails, you’re the real ones,” said Edebiri.
“Beef” won three awards: best limited series as well as acting awards for Ali Wong and Steven Yeun.
The Globes also added a new stand-up special award. That went, surprisingly, to Ricky Gervais, who didn’t attend the show he so often hosted. Some expected Chris Rock to win for “Selective Outrage,” his stand-up response to the Will Smith slap.
The Globes Comeback
A few years ago, the Golden Globes were on the cusp of collapse. After The Los Angeles Times reported that the HFPA had no Black members, Hollywood boycotted the organization.
The 2022 Globes were all but canceled and taken off TV. After reforms, the Globes returned to NBC last year in a one-year deal, but the show was booted to Tuesday evening.
With Jerrod Carmichael hosting, the telecast attracted 6.3 million viewers, a new low on NBC and a far cry from the 20 million that once tuned in.
The Golden Globes were acquired by Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions, which Penske Media owns, and turned into a for-profit venture.
The HFPA (which typically numbered around 90 voters) was dissolved and a group of some 300 entertainment journalists from around the world now vote for the awards.
Questions still remain about the Globes’ long-term future, but their value to Hollywood studios remains providing a marketing boost to awards contenders. (The Oscars won’t be held until March 10.)
This year, because of the actors and writers strikes, the Globes are airing ahead of the Emmys, which were postponed to Jan. 15.
With movie ticket sales still 20% off the pre-pandemic pace and the industry facing a potentially perilous 2024 at the box office, Hollywood needed the Golden Globes as much as it ever has.
The most comical evaluation on the Globes came from presenters Will Ferrell and Kristin Wiig, who blamed the awards body for the constant interruption of a song they found irresistible while otherwise solemnly presenting best actor in a drama.
A furious, dancing Ferrell shouted: “The Golden Globes have not changed!”
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Private Industry Leads America’s First Moon Landing Since Apollo
Cape Canaveral, Florida — The first American spacecraft to attempt to land on the Moon in more than half a century is poised to blast off early Monday — but this time, private industry is leading the charge.
A brand-new rocket, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, should lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 2:18 a.m. (7:18 GMT) for its maiden voyage, carrying Astrobotic’s Peregrine Lunar Lander. The weather so far appears favorable.
If all goes to plan, Peregrine will touch down on a mid-latitude region of the Moon called Sinus Viscositatis, or Bay of Stickiness, on February 23.
“Leading America back to the surface of the Moon for the first time since Apollo is a momentous honor,” Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic’s CEO John Thornton said ahead of the launch.
Until now, a soft landing on Earth’s nearest celestial neighbor has only been accomplished by a handful of national space agencies: the Soviet Union was first, in 1966, followed by the United States, which is still the only country to put people on the Moon.
China has successfully landed three times over the past decade, while India was the most recent to achieve the feat on its second attempt, last year.
Now, the United States is turning to the commercial sector to stimulate a broader lunar economy and ship its own hardware at a fraction of the cost, under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.
A challenging task
The space agency has paid Astrobotic more than $100 million for the task, while another contracted company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, is looking to launch in February and land near the south pole.
“We think that it’s going to allow… more cost effective and more rapidly accomplished trips to the lunar surface to prepare for Artemis,” said NASA’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration.
Artemis is the NASA-led program to return astronauts to the Moon later this decade, in preparation for future missions to Mars.
Controlled touchdown on the Moon is a challenging undertaking, with roughly half of all attempts ending in failure. Absent an atmosphere that would allow the use of parachutes, a spacecraft must navigate through treacherous terrain using only its thrusters to slow descent.
Private missions by Israel and Japan, as well as a recent attempt by the Russian space agency have all ended in failure — though the Japanese Space Agency is targeting mid-January for the touchdown of its SLIM lander launched last September.
Making matters more fraught is the fact it is the first launch for ULA’s Vulcan, although the company boasts it has a 100 percent success rate in its more than 150 prior launches.
ULA’s new rocket is planned to have reusable first stage booster engines, which the company, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, expects will help it achieve cost savings.
Science instruments, human remains
On board Peregrine are a suite of scientific instruments that will probe radiation and surface composition, helping to pave the way for the return of astronauts.
But it also contains more colorful cargo, including a shoebox-sized rover built by Carnegie Mellon University, a physical Bitcoin, and, somewhat controversially, cremated remains and DNA, including those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, legendary sci-fi author and scientist Arthur C. Clarke, and a dog.
The Navajo Nation, America’s largest Indigenous tribe, has said sending these to the Moon desecrates a body that is sacred to their culture and have pleaded for the cargo’s removal. Though they were granted a last-ditch meeting with the White House, NASA and other officials, their objections have been ignored.
The Vulcan rocket’s upper stage, which will circle the Sun after it deploys the lander, is meanwhile carrying more late cast members of Star Trek, as well as hair samples of presidents George Washington, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
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‘Wonka’ Is No. 1 at Box Office Again as 2024 Gets Off to Slower Start
LOS ANGELES — Timothee Chalamet and “Wonka” topped the box office charts for the third time in its four weekends in theaters. Warner Bros.’ family-oriented musical added $14.4 million in ticket sales according to studio estimates Sunday, bringing its total domestic grosses to $164.7 million.
“‘Wonka’ is following in the tradition of a film like ‘The Greatest Showman,'” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. That Hugh Jackman musical opened under $9 million in December 2017 and went on to gross $435 million globally.
“‘Wonka’ is a perfect crowd pleaser released at the perfect time and it’s going to ride that wave into January,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s an opportune time for it to be in the marketplace.”
After finishing 2023 on a high note, 2024 is getting off to a slower start than last year, down around 16%, with the Universal/Blumhouse horror “Night Swim” as the only major new offering in theaters. The movie stars Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon as a couple with a sinister, supernatural swimming pool.
“Night Swim” drew in an estimated $12 million in its first weekend in 3,250 theaters in North America against a reported $15 million production budget. Including international showings in 36 markets, “Night Swim” is heading towards a $17.7 million global debut.
“Not only did it perform really well at the box office, but it’s going to make us look at every swimming pool with a little more trepidation,” said Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution.
Horror movies are largely critic-proof, but with fairly negative reviews and a C CinemaScore rating, it’s unlikely to repeat the viral success of last year’s demon doll movie “M3GAN.”
“We don’t have ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ which totally dominated the box office a year ago, or ‘M3GAN,’ which made that a bigger weekend,” said Dergarabedian. “But it’s a bit early to call it in terms of how the year is going to turn out.”
Warner Bros. and Universal placed third and fourth on the charts as well. Warner Bros.’ DC superhero movie “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” earned $10.6 million in its third weekend, bumping its domestic tally just over the $100 million mark. Universal’s animated “Migration” added $10.3 million, bringing its running domestic total to $77.8 million.
Sony’s Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney romantic comedy “Anyone But You” landed in fifth place with $9.5 million, up 9% from last weekend. The movie has grossed $43.7 million to date.
Cineplexes are full of awards contenders, including “The Color Purple,” “The Iron Claw” and “Poor Things,” and the Golden Globes broadcast Sunday night might help spread awareness for those and other films.
“The Golden Globes are like a three-hour infomercial for the industry,” Dergarabedian said. “There’s no downside to having a very high profile telecast that puts a spotlight on the movies.”
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
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“Wonka,” $14.4 million.
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“Night Swim,” $12 million.
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“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” $10.6 million.
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“Migration,” $10.3 million.
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“Anyone But You,” $9.5 million.
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“The Boys in the Boat,” $6 million.
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“The Color Purple,” $4.8 million.
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“The Iron Claw,” $4.5 million.
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“Ferrari,” $2.5 million.
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“Poor Things,” $2 million.
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Hollywood Festivities Return as ‘Barbie’ Vies for Golden Globes
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Margot Robbie, Oprah Winfrey and Leonardo DiCaprio will mingle with other top stars on Sunday at the Golden Globe awards, Hollywood’s first big celebration since twin strikes shut down most of show business last year.
The red carpet, champagne-fueled awards ceremony will honor the best of film and television selected by a new group of 300 entertainment journalists from around the world, part of reforms made after a diversity and ethics scandal among voters.
“Barbie,” the summer blockbuster starring Robbie as the iconic doll, leads all nominees with nine nominations. Historical drama “Oppenheimer,” about the making of the atomic bomb, follows with eight nods.
The Globes kick off Hollywood’s annual awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on March 10, and will bring top stars together after six months of strikes by actors and writers in 2023. The ceremony will give celebrities the chance to shine a spotlight on their films and TV shows after months when promotion was prohibited.
“I’m a little biased, but this is the best awards show and we’re going to have fun,” said comedian Jo Koy, who will host his first major awards show starting at 8 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Monday).
The ceremony will be broadcast live on U.S. TV network CBS and streamed simultaneously for subscribers to Paramount+ with Showtime.
Acting nominees include Robbie and “Barbie” co-star Ryan Gosling, plus “Oppenheimer” stars Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro, who starred in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” also are up for trophies.
Winfrey is among the night’s presenters. Pop superstar Taylor Swift also may join the A-list crowd as a nominee for “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” her concert film that is in the running in a new category for cinematic and box office achievement.
In the television field, “Succession” is expected to win accolades for its final season about the high-stakes battle for control of a global media empire. It leads all nominees with nine nods, followed by restaurant dramedy “The Bear” with five.
There are 27 first-time nominees for this year’s Globes.
Known as a boozy celebration more relaxed than the Oscars, the Globes nearly became extinct. A 2021 Los Angeles Times report revealed ethical lapses and a lack of diversity among the roughly 80 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the group that previously voted on the Globes. The 2022 ceremony was scrapped while the organization made reforms.
Last year, the Globes were sold to new owners and the association was disbanded. Eldridge Industries and Dick Clark Productions now operate the awards, with a voting body of 300 journalist members from 75 countries with 60% racial and ethnic diversity.
The changes appear to have persuaded Hollywood’s top talent to embrace the show and its new members.
“They’re trying to announce that they’re new and improved,” said Joyce Eng, senior editor at awards website Gold Derby. “I feel like people are more receptive to them.”
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India’s First Solar Observatory Reaches Destination
New Delhi — India has achieved another milestone in space exploration by successfully placing a spacecraft in an orbit from which it will study the sun for five years.
India joined a select group of nations already studying the sun four months after it became the first country to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon’s southern polar region, cementing its reputation as a nation that is emerging on the frontlines of space exploration.
The Indian Space Research Organization said that the space observatory, Aditya L-1, reached the position from which it can monitor the sun’s outer layer and send data back to Earth on Saturday. The spacecraft, which was launched September 2, took four months to reach its destination.
“The orbit of Aditya-L1 spacecraft is a periodic Halo orbit which is located roughly 1.5 million km [kilometers] from earth,” according to an ISRO statement.
Aditya-L1 is named after the Hindu god of the sun, called Aditya in Sanskrit. “L1” refers to Lagrange point 1, the location in space between the sun and Earth, where the satellite has been parked.
“This demonstrates India’s capability to travel over a million kilometers away from the Earth’s orbit. It is a capability that very few countries have and India is the first in Asia to do so,” according to Chaitanya Giri, associate professor of environmental sciences at Flame University in Pune. “The ability to maintain deep space communication with a spacecraft that has traveled so far and sustain a mission for a long period is also significant.”
The Indian mission is scheduled to study the sun for five years. The “Lagrange 1” point, where the spacecraft has been positioned provides an uninterrupted view of the sun, even during eclipses.
The major focus of the mission is to gain a better understanding of space weather, variations in the environment in space between the Earth and the sun, which is crucial for protecting satellites and other spacecraft, according to space scientists.
“It is vital to understand space weather at a time when there are thousands of satellites in space,” Ajay Lele, space scientist and former senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, said.
“Space weather is about disturbances that happen on the sun such as solar winds, solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These three components need to be studied,” he said.
Aditya-L1 is expected to be able to give warnings about space storms that can have an impact on Earth, occasionally affecting the operation of satellites and radio communications.
The spacecraft is equipped with seven scientific instruments to study solar wind particles and magnetic fields.
Solar observatory missions have been launched so far by the U.S. space agency NASA, the European space agency, Japan and China.
India’s space program, which began in the 1960s, has gained prominence under Prime Minister Narendra Modi — it is seen as part of his efforts to promote India’s global stature.
“India creates yet another landmark. It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists in realizing among the most complex and intricate space missions,” Modi said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday.
Other major missions planned by the Indian space agency include a manned mission to space that is due to be launched this year and an interplanetary mission to Mars.
Besides scientific space explorations such as these, India is also looking to enhance its military capabilities in space, according to experts. The first signal that it is giving a military profile to its space program came in 2019 when it conducted an anti-satellite weapon test to demonstrate that it could shoot down satellites in space — a capability that only the United States, China and Russia have.
India has plans to develop 50 new satellites based on artificial intelligence technology in the next five years to beef up the country’s border surveillance and enhance its “geo-intelligence” capabilities, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath said last month.
Enhancing surveillance capabilities from space from a military perspective is key for India, according to experts. Its concerns center both on its Himalayan borders with China, where disputed borders between the two have sparked military tensions, and on the Indian Ocean region, where China has been increasing its influence.
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