Hi.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to the show.
Yes, that's a partial quote from a US Senator
who was asked recently if America is
in a new space race with China.
Neither of those countries was the first to reach
space with a satellite.
That feat was accomplished by the Soviet Union in 1957.
Four years later, that same country
also launched the first person into space, Yuri Gagarin
in 1961.
But in the years that followed, the United States eventually
outpaced the USSR, and historians
say America effectively won the first space race by putting
two men on the moon in 1969.
Since then, the US has been the global leader in space
exploration and development.
But China as you'll see in just a minute
is taking steps to catch up.
General David Thompson who heads up the US Space Force
says China is moving twice as fast to develop
its capabilities in space.
And he says, the Asian country could surpass America
there by the end of the decade.
Is all this space exploration worthwhile?
There's been a debate going on about that for years.
Supporters say investigating other planets and galaxies
teaches us more about our own and encourages
the development of new technologies to solve problems.
Opponents say deep space missions carry too much risk
and bring too little benefit to people on Earth
to justify the amount of money and time spent on them.
In the past, that money came through government investment
using taxpayer funds.
More recently, privately funded space efforts
have gotten off the ground.
And regardless of how people may feel about space exploration,
the efforts to push it onward and upward
are expanding in several parts of the world.
- Oh. Yeah.
Yeah, well.
- Lifting off from the Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi
Desert, China rocketed three astronauts
towards the country's new Space Station.
The crew will now live and work there for 183 days.
It's China's longest mission yet.
And a major step in the country's
young space program quickly becoming one of the world's
most advanced.
Though China arrived late to space exploration,
the government has been investing
billions of in its advancement.
In the past three years, Chinese missions
have brought rock samples from the moon back to Earth
for the first time in 40 years.
Successfully landed an exploratory Rover
on the far side of the moon, and then one on Mars.
There were only the second country to do so.
The United States unsurprisingly came first.
But America's cosmological dominance
could soon be challenged by China, as well as
other space ambitious nations.
As its space program expands, the United Arab Emirates also
reached Mars earlier this year.
Though their mission didn't touch the surface,
the UAE scientific satellite began orbiting
the red planet in February.
The country also plans to send an uncrewed spacecraft
to the moon in 2024.
India hopes to do the same later this year or in 2022.
After a failed attempt in 2019, the country
has been inching towards a new date
for the unmanned Lunar landing.
India's prime minister is also encouraging the private sector
to help the country's space ambitions
following the US in a pivot towards commercializing space.
Another would Lunar ambitions is the European
Space Agency, which is working to develop a moon Lander.
The ESA has probes currently exploring the solar system.
Still, a player in space, Russia is planning
a collaborative asteroid mission joining
forces with China for a robotic probe set for 2024.
They are also hoping to launch an automatic Lunar
station in July of next year.
- Touchdown confirmed.
- And in a first both for space and Sinema,
a Russian film crew returned to Earth
after shooting scenes on the International Space Station
for the first ever movie partly filmed in space.
As a whole, however, Russia's space program
has dwindled from decades ago when the Soviet Union launched
the first satellite into space.
In the meantime, Russia's former space
rival has grown more ambitious.
NASA has sent five rovers to explore the surface of Mars
just launched a 12-year mission to explore asteroids
and says it will soon land the first woman and first person
of color on the moon.
As advancements unfold, the space race
is much change from its former stand off era
now mixing contest with collaboration.
Take a look at the crew on the International Space Station.
Astronauts from the United States, Japan,
Belarus, France, and Russia.
High above geopolitics, a truly international cooperation
at the helm of humanity's next frontier.
Isa Soares, CNN.
- 10 second trivia.
Which of these grocery store chains is oldest?
Albertsons, Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, or Kroger?
In 1883, Barney Kroger opened his first store in Ohio,
and it's the oldest chain on this list.
His motto, never sell anything you would not want yourself.
But one challenge facing every grocery store
is, how to sell the meats, fruits,
and veggies that are close to their expiration
or sell by dates?
No one benefits when these foods are thrown out.
But grocery stores efforts to discount them
haven't always worked.
And some attempts to sell so-called ugly produce, which
may have bruises or blemishes, but is still good to eat
haven't worked either.
There are several companies working to fix this.
But they have their limits.
For the application, you're about to see
you can't find everything you need at a discount.
Only what the store has available and listed.
And some users have reported getting moldy or soft
produce through the app.
But it could be one step in reducing food waste.
- Not all of the food that's grown, harvested,
and sold in markets or restaurants
winds up on someone's plate.
In the US, up to 40% of the food supply
is thrown out most of it will make its way to landfills,
where it eventually rots.
Emitting methane, a gas more than 25 times as
potent as CO2 when it comes to trapping
heat in the atmosphere.
- The International Food waste for our country
be the third leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions
behind the US and China.
- Some of that waste comes from grocery
stores, where unsold food often ends up in the dumpster.
Around the world, grocery stores throw out
an estimated 133 million tons of food every year.
- The average store throws out anywhere
from like $5,000 to $10,000 worth of food every day.
- Canadian-based startup flash food wants to change that.
Working with supermarkets, the company
sells groceries that are approaching their sell by date
before they're thrown out.
To attract customers flash food marks
items down by as much as 50%, savings
that could really add up.
- Some of our top shoppers have saved tens of thousands
of dollars.
- Shoppers use an app to see what
items are available to them at nearby stores.
The most commonly found products according to the company
are fruit, vegetables, meat, and seafood.
Typically, one to two days from their sell by dates.
But still fresh and perfectly good to eat.
- We're actually dictating what people
are going to have for dinner based
on what's available through the flash food app.
It almost becomes this treasure hunt,
where they're clicking stores, and seeing what's available,
and seeing what deal they can get.
- The groceries can be picked up from a flash food locker
like this one located at a giant supermarket
in Central Pennsylvania.
One of the 1,200 locations the company
is in across Canada and the US.
- Grocers forever have always marked
product down whenever it's getting
close to the expiration date.
But what you aren't able to do is really catalog it
and put it out in a way, where customers
can see what's fresh today.
Flash food was quite innovative in putting all of that
in one app, where customers are able to see
the different variety.
- The Giant company has deployed flash food in all of its 187
grocery stores in the US.
- Year to date, we have diverted 700,000 pounds from food
recycling or landfills.
- Overall, flash food says it's diverted more than 30
million pounds of food that would have ended up
in landfills saving customers $90 million at the same time,
and has plans to continue its expansion.
- We're willing to work with any partners in any capacity
as we continue scaling.
This is a big problem, and it takes a village to solve.
And we're open and excited to continue
to do that across America.
- For 10 of the 10, there's no place like a new home
for the holidays.
Ebony Johnson and Suzanne Burke had a common bond.
Donuts.
Johnson worked at the Dunkin' Donuts
where Burke regularly saw her at the drive-thru.
They got to become friends.
But when Johnson lost her home because of financial problems,
Burke contacted local organizations, a furniture bank
and a designer who all worked together
to provide a fully furnished home
for Johnson and her family.
Sounds like a good seasonal story.
Donut, an old fashioned friendship
can make anyone jelly.
You can glaze on it as the cream of the cream and chalk a lot
of good outcomes up to it because very
few things are sweeter.
With hazelnuts roasting over an open fire and Jack Frost
nipping at our noses, there's nothing like a warm donut,
whether you like to dunk them, or prefer the cream crispy
to bring people together.
Our YouTube channel has brought a lot of us together.
We are looking at you Winfield High
School in Winfield, Kansas.
Thank you for your request.
For CNN 10, I'm Carl Azuz.