🌕 NASA moon rocket on track for launch despite lightning hits

The new moon rocket remained on track to blast off on a crucial test flight Monday, despite a series of lightning strikes at the launch pad. The 322-foot (98-meter) Space Launch System rocket is the most powerful ever built by NASA. It’s poised to send an empty crew capsule into lunar orbit, a half-century after NASA’s Apollo program, which landed 12 astronauts on the moon.

Astronauts could return to the moon in a few years, if this six-week test flight goes well. NASA officials caution, however, that the risks are high and the flight could be cut short. The capsule alone has more than 1,000 sensors.

After so many years of delays and setbacks, the launch team was thrilled to finally be so close to the inaugural flight of the Artemis moon-exploration program, named after Apollo’s twin sister in Greek mythology.

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According Sky News, Britain's biggest warship, HMS Prince of Wales, has broken down shortly after leaving Portsmouth Naval Base.

The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier was headed to join the US Navy for training, but had to anchor off the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. This is at least the third time the £3Bln ($3.5Bln) has broken down since its launch in September 2017, the last time being in 2020

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⚡️ The gas price on European exchanges has lost more than 12 percent of its value and now stands at less than $3,100 per thousand cubic meters, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said

⚡️⚡️Dugina's murder planned by one more member of Ukrainian sabotage group: FSB

Watch: Russia's MoD has published footage of the Blagodatnoye settlement in the Nikolaev region being liberated from Ukrainian forces

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📹 Russia's MoD shows the combat operations of a Russian portable anti-tank guided missile (Kornet) during a special military operation

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A Volnovakha resident has been left homeless because Ukrainians shelled his house and all his possessions were burned

⚡️ Russia welcomes IAEA mission to ZNPP, envoy in Vienna says

⚡️ Kamikaze drone shot down near Zaporozhye NPP was made in US, local authorities say

⚡️ Russian MoD: Three Ukrainian Tochka-U missiles, 21 Olkha MLRS shells and HIMARS rockets intercepted in Kherson region

⚡️Gas futures in Europe lost more than 19 % of its value, dropped below $2900 per thousand cubic meters, the ICE says

📌Russia's MoD issues its latest statements on the Ukraine crisis:

▪️Russian forces have eliminated more than 100 Ukrainian “Aidar”, “Azov” and territorial defense fighters in Dnepropetrovsk region;

▪️Russia's Aerospace Forces have shot down two Ukrainian Su-25s in the Zaporozhye region and in the DPR;

▪️Russian Air Forces destroyed up to 70 Ukrainian nationalists in the Kherson region and near Dnepropetrovsk;

▪️Russian forces have destroyed more than 30 and wounded more than 50 Ukrainian nationalists of the 53rd Mechanized brigade and the Kraken militants in the Artemovsk area;

▪️Russia's air defenses shot down six Ukrainian UAVs in a day, intercepted three Tochka-U ballistic missiles and 21 shells of the Alder and HIMARS MLRS

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⚡️ Report: IAEA mission to Zaporozhye NPP to begin on Aug 31 and last until Sep 3

📌 Latest statements by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov:

▪️Russia is interested in the visit of the IAEA delegation to Zaporozhye NPP (ZNPP) and is prepared to cooperate and interact;

▪️The IAEA delegation will arrive at the ZNPP from the area controlled by Ukrainian forces;

▪️Russia believes that all countries should put pressure on Ukraine so that it stops attacking the ZNPP and threatening Europe's security;

▪️Russia will ensure that the IAEA delegation is safe, taking into account the risks associated with incessant Ukrainian shelling

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Peskov said in reply to a statement by NATO's secretary-general that the alliance's presence in the Arctic should be increased, that "Russia's capabilities in the high North are a strategic challenge for the whole Alliance":

▪️The Kremlin believes that the NATO chief’s statement about the Arctic is nothing more than an expression of intention to oppose Russia’s interests;

▪️Cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic can’t pose a threat to anyone;

▪️Russia condemns statements about increasing NATO's presence in the Arctic

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🗣 The Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi says that, during his trip to the UN General Assembly in New York, he will not meet with US President Joe Biden as such a meeting would not have any benefit to the Iranian people

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⚡️ Netherlands may allow Hague city administration to purchase Russian gas that falls under EU sanctions as exception, source in Brussels told Sputnik