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Virgin Galactic acknowledged on Tuesday that billionaire founder Richard Branson never rode a bicycle to the launch site of his space flight on Sunday, as depicted in a highly publicised video included in the company’s webcast of the event.

The video clip showed Branson riding his bike toward New Mexico’s state-owned Spaceport America near the town of Truth or Consequences, flanked by two SUVs, and handing his safety helmet to an assistant upon arrival.

Branson, 70, is then seen greeting crewmates dressed in their flight suits with a hug, with one of them, Beth Moses, the company’s chief astronaut instructor, telling him, “You’re late, hurry up.”

On Tuesday, a Virgin Galactic official, speaking anonymously, affirmed to Reuters by text that the video in question was filmed on July 5, the Monday before the flight, and that Branson did not ride his bike at all the day of the launch.

“The footage of Sir Richard Branson shown during the event Sunday was prerecorded and misidentified in the broadcast. We regret the error and any confusion it may have caused,” the official said in a text message.

It was unclear whether the disclosure that the Sunday cycling ride was fictional would complicate Virgin Galactic’s cross-promotional deal with Wisconsin-based Trek Bicycle. Trek had claimed that Branson rode one of its custom-made bikes to the spaceport on launch day.

Representatives of Trek were not immediately available to comment on the matter.

Branson has touted his rocket plane ride, the company’s first fully crewed test flight of the vehicle to space, as a precursor to a new era of astro-tourism, with the company he founded poised to begin commercial operations next year.

The purported Sunday bike ride seemed to typify his public persona as the adventuresome business executive whose Virgin brands – from airlines to music companies – have been associated with ocean-crossing exploits in sailboats and hot-air balloons.

The bicycle video clip was posted to Branson’s Twitter feed shortly before Sunday’s launch. Virgin also broadcast the clip, with the tagline “earlier today,” during its livestream presentation of the flight.

Branson, himself, made mention of the bike ride from the stage of a post-flight celebration back at the spaceport, telling a crowd of supporters, “It’s so awesome to arrive on a bicycle, across this beautiful New Mexico countryside.”

Reuters, along with many other news outlets, included the videotaped account of Branson’s bike ride in some of its launch-day coverage on Sunday. Reuters dropped the bicycle ride from its story when doubts about its timing emerged early on Sunday.

© Thomson Reuters 2021

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Axiom-4 Mission Successfully Docks on the ISS, Shubhanshu Shukla Makes History

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June 26, 2025

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Axiom-4 Mission Successfully Docks on the ISS, Shubhanshu Shukla Makes History

Axiom 4 Mission carrying the crew members has now reached the International Space Station (ISS) after getting launched from Kennedy Space Centre at 12:01 PM IST on June 25, 2025. Dragon has Commander Peggy Whitson, Mission Specialists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski and Tibor Kapu, and Pilot Shubhanshu Shukla. It will dock to the Harmony module space-facing port on Thursday at 7 a.m. The flight engineers at NASA, Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, will be on duty and monitor Dragon during the automated approach of it, and also for the manoeuvres.

Dragon Capsule to Dock at Harmony Module on June 27

As per the confirmation by NASA, after docking, the Ax-4 astronauts will meet with the seven Expedition 73 crewmates. They will further participate in a safety briefing with the residents of the station. McClain and Ayers, with the rest of the crew, had a normal shift on Wednesday doing the microgravity research and lab maintenance.

McClain went through the research hardware and processed samples in the Destiny lab module, further photographed the work for ground analysis. Ayers performed the study on fluid physics in the Microgravity Science Glovbox, which can benefit pharmaceutical manufacturing techniques and 3D printing in space.

Expedition 73 Crew Prepares for Ax-4 Arrival with Routine Duties

NASA Fight Engineer Jonny Kim and Commander Takuya Onishi tested a specialised thigh cuff that can reverse the space-caused fluid shifts towards the upper body of the crew member. Both of them took turns wearing the biomedical device in the Columbus lab module as ultrasound 2 scans and measured blood pressure with cardiac output, heart rate and more to know the effectiveness of the thigh cuff concerning the health of the crew.

Scientific Research and Biomedical Tests Continue Aboard the ISS

Sergey Ryzhikov, the veteran cosmonaut and thrice a space visitor, started his shift in the Zvezda service lab module and replaced computer components before the day closed. Further, he charges science experiment batteries and activates an Earth observation camera. Alexey Zubritskiy, flight engineer at NASA, reorganised cargo inside the Nauka science module and stowed trash, and also discarded gear in the Progress 90 cargo craft because they had to depart the Poisk module after seven days. Another flight engineer, Kirill Peskov, cleaned the Nauka ventilation system and checked the exposure data of radiation while orbiting the Earth.

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NASA and ISRO Confirm Japan’s Moon Lander Resilience Crashed at Mare Frigoris

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June 25, 2025

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NASA and ISRO Confirm Japan’s Moon Lander Resilience Crashed at Mare Frigoris

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter have captured images of Japan’s Resilience lunar lander after it suffered a catastrophic crash on the Moon. Resilience, developed by private firm ispace, had been attempting to touch down in the Mare Frigoris region on June 5. The lander was carrying scientific experiments and a small European lunar rover, Tenacious, slated to deploy an art model on the surface. Contact was lost about 100 seconds before the planned touchdown, and the new images show debris scattered around the impact site. These images provide the first confirmation of Resilience’s fate.

Crash site images reveal debris field

According to the captured crash site image by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 11, 2025, there is a dark smudge of disturbed regolith where Resilience hit the surface. India’s Chandrayaan-2 orbiter captured follow-up images on June 16 showing the debris field in greater detail. Astronomy experts identified at least a dozen fragments of the lander and its small rover Tenacious in these photos.

One enthusiast catalogued at least 12 separate debris items, though their exact spread is unclear. A faint bright halo of ejected dust surrounds the smudge, consistent with a violent impact. These detailed views provide clues to investigators piecing together how Resilience broke apart on impact.

Laser rangefinder fault pinpointed as cause

Resilience’s onboard laser altimeter began lagging about 100 seconds before landing, causing the descent to proceed too fast. On June 24, ispace confirmed that this rangefinder malfunction during descent prevented the lander from decelerating to the planned touchdown speed. The hard impact “likely tore the spacecraft apart” and destroyed all scientific payloads.

Investigators are examining factors like lunar surface reflectivity or hardware degradation as possible triggers of the failure. Resilience was ispace’s second Hakuto-R moon lander; its predecessor (April 2023) likewise crash-landed. CEO Takeshi Hakamada said the company is working on fixes and “will not let this be a setback” as it pursues future lunar missions.

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Supermassive Black Hole Burps Matter at Near-Light Speeds After Consuming Gas Too Fast

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1 day ago

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June 25, 2025

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Supermassive Black Hole Burps Matter at Near-Light Speeds After Consuming Gas Too Fast

A distant supermassive black hole has stunned astronomers by expelling matter at speeds nearing a third of light velocity after consuming material at an extreme rate. Designated PG1211+143, this cosmic powerhouse lies in a Seyfert galaxy 1.2 billion light-years away and boasts a mass 40 million times greater than the Sun. Researchers using the ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray telescope tracked an influx of gas equivalent to 10 Earths over just five weeks, only to find the black hole burping out excess matter at around 0.27 times the speed of light.

Supermassive Black Hole’s Outflows May Halt Star Formation and Alter Galaxy Evolution Permanently

As per a report in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, these ultra-fast outflows followed the inflow by a delay of a few days, heating the surrounding active galactic nucleus (AGN) to millions of degrees. The radiation pressure generated was powerful enough to push out surrounding gas, potentially starving the black hole’s galaxy of star-forming material. This feedback loop, scientists suggest, might represent the transition from active star-birth sites to galaxies entering a quieter period.

The winds ejected at more than 181 million mph most likely blew away clouds of cold gas, which were necessary for stellar births. The evidence found allowed Pounds to observe a black hole as it grew, even though there is not much matter to feed the black hole, even if it is large.

This discovery can enable people to understand the influence of quasars and AGNs on galaxy life cycles. High-speed ejections of outflowing matter paralyse the star-formation process and turn star-forming regions into barren space. However, additional monitoring in pursuit to determine their frequency and global pattern of cosmic evolution.

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