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CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to the show.
We're going to the moon and beyond this Wednesday
as a worldwide space race heats up.
But we begin with something else that's
been heating up-- a US inflation rate that some economists say
is out of control.
Not since December of 1981 has the United States
seen prices increase by so much over a one-year period.
The US government says between March of 2021
and March of this year, the consumer price
index, also referred to as the inflation rate,
rose by 8 and 1/2%.
That's higher than the 8.4% that economists had predicted.
And it means that for every $100 American spent on commonly
bought goods last March, they had to spend an extra $8
and 1/2 dollars on them this March.
That adds up as it spread out over things like gas,
groceries, housing, medical care, car insurance,
furniture, and airline tickets.
It was last year that America started seeing its highest
price rises in decades.
In May, they jumped to a level that was 5% higher than they
were in May of 2020, but by December,
that percentage had risen to 7% over the previous year.
And these rises have only gotten worse in 2022.
Is there a silver lining to this?
Well, some economists are hopeful that inflation
will soon hit its peak.
Its highest rate of this period, if it hasn't done that already.
That would at least mean that the price increases
would stop climbing higher.
But even if that happened in March,
and no one knows if it did, it could take months
or longer before inflation rates come
back down to manageable levels.
8 and 1/2% is dramatically higher than the 2% target
that America's central bank has for inflation rates.
Next, if you take public transportation,
you might notice more police on patrol.
Security has been increased at subway stations
nationwide after a New York passenger set off a gas
canister and started shooting at other passengers
Tuesday morning.
Police say none of the 10 people shot
has life-threatening injuries, though some
were in critical condition yesterday.
Numerous others were injured in the chaos.
The suspect was still on the loose
when we produced this show, and security
was tightened at transit systems from California to Georgia.
10 second trivia.
In Greek mythology, who is Apollo's twin sister
and the goddess of the moon?
Artemis, Luna, Athena, or Diana.
Artemis also served as the goddess
of the hunt and wild animals.
NASA is trying to get its Artemis
1 mission off the ground.
The $4.1 billion program, which aims
to return Americans to the moon, has seen a series
of setbacks and delays.
One of the latest issues involved
a helium check valve that wasn't working as it should.
But the Artemis 1 rocket was scheduled
to go through a sort of dress rehearsal Tuesday afternoon.
That involved turning it on, filling the tanks
with propellant, simulating a launch countdown,
and then draining the tanks and shutting everything back down.
After that, the plan was to move the rocket
back inside an assembly building and inspect the faulty valve.
An Artemis mission manager acknowledged that more problems
could come up, but overcoming them
will bring the rocket closer to its planned launch this summer.
Artemis 1 is a mission without a crew.
Its aim is to fly beyond the moon and then return to Earth.
That'll be the first in a series of $4-billion-missions
to ultimately put people back on the moon in 2025.
But according to space.com, that date
could be pushed back again because
of unexpected challenges like the COVID pandemic
that NASA says have caused delays and cost increases.
A 21st century space race is hurtling forward.
- Oh.
Yeah, well.
ISA SOARES: 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 dollars 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.
They 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, though their mission
didn't touch the surface.
The UAE's 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 in 2022.
After a failed attempt in 2019, the country
has been inching towards a new date
for the unmanned lunar landing.
NARENDRA MODI: [non-english speech]
ISA SOARES: 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 with lunar ambitions is the European
Space Agency, which is working to develop a moon lander.
The ESA also 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.
- Touchdown confirmed.
ISA SOARES: And in a first, both for space and cinema,
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 changed 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".
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CARL AZUZ: Experts say fully autonomous
or driverless car technology is still in its infancy.
There is a long and likely bumpy road
to travel before people can get in cars
that totally drive themselves.
One challenge regulators face is whom to blame when a driverless
car does something wrong.
JEANNE MOOS: It's surreal enough to know
there's a driverless ride service
operating in San Francisco.
- I cannot believe this is happening.
JEANNE MOOS: But imagine you're the police pulling over a car
and finding no one behind the wheel.
Who you're going to ticket?
- Ain't nobody in it.
JEANNE MOOS: A San Francisco police
officer tried to open the door.
The passerby who shot the video said the window did roll down.
Everyone's favorite part--
- This is the great part.
The cop goes back to his car.
Robotaxi says, "See you."
Drives off.
JEANNE MOOS: The Chevy Bolt cruises
through the intersection and then again pulls
over and puts on its flashers.
"Driverless car appears to flee the scene," read one headline.
But the company Cruise that runs the ride service
says, "Our autonomous vehicle yielded to the police vehicle,
then pulled over to the nearest safe location for the traffic
stop as intended."
- Are you serious?
How does that happen?
- An officer kept reaching inside the car trying in vain
to turn on the headlights.
The fact that they were off was what police
say led to the traffic stop.
A company spokesperson says human error led to the lights
being off.
No ticket was issued.
Police said that during the stop,
they made contact by phone with the remote operator.
The driverless cars have nicknames, like Poppy.
The one that got pulled over is named Rigatoni.
And for a minute, Rigatoni looked
like it was in hot water.
Jeanne Moos, "CNN", New York.
CARL AZUZ: They need to name more of them after pasta.
It makes for great excuses if they
try to get past the police.
It was just a rotini infraction.
It was on its way to the Papa Deli
to spaghetti some lasagna that's gotten ravioli reviews when it
took things a little too far Faella, like a linguine,
and you recorded its taglioni.
Please, officer, give it a pizzoccheri,
then it'll be up to the cup of toppy
to decide if it gets cooked.
Winter Haven High School is watching today.
Shout out to our viewers from Winter Haven, Florida,
and thank you for subscribing and leaving a comment
on our YouTube channel.
I'm Carl Azuz.
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