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Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which combusts as water vapor AFP/Handout - 

After years of waiting, Richard Branson's journey to space this month on a Virgin Galactic vessel was supposed to be a triumphant homecoming. Instead, the jaunt attracted significant criticism - about its carbon footprint.

With Jeff Bezos set to launch on a Blue Origin rocket on Jul 20, and Elon Musk's SpaceX planning an all-civilian orbital mission in September, the nascent space tourism industry finds itself facing tough questions about its environmental impact.

"The carbon dioxide emissions are totally negligible compared to other human activities or even commercial aviation," NASA's chief climate advisor Gavin Schmidt told AFP.

But some scientists are worried about the potential for longer term harm as the industry is poised for major growth, particularly impacts to the ozone layer in the still poorly understood upper atmosphere.

Virgin Galactic, which came under fire in op-eds on CNN and Forbes, as well as on social media, for sending its billionaire founder to space for a few minutes in a fossil fuel-guzzling spaceship, says its carbon emissions are about equivalent to a business-class ticket from London to New York.

The company "has already taken steps to offset the carbon emissions from its test flights and is examining opportunities to offset the carbon emissions for future customer flights, and reduce our supply chain's carbon footprint", it said in a statement to AFP.

But while transatlantic flights carry hundreds of people, Virgin's emissions work out to around 4.5 tonnes per passenger in a six passenger flight, according to an analysis published by French astrophysicist Roland Lehoucq and colleagues in The Conversation.

"The issue here is really one of disproportionate impacts," Darin Toohey, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder told AFP.

"I actually grew up on the space program and that got me into science ... but if someone offered me a free ride, I would be very nervous taking it because I would know that my own footprint is way larger than it should be," he said.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo uses a type of synthetic rubber as fuel and burns it in nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.

The fuel pumps black carbon into upper stratosphere, 30km to 50km high.

Once there, these particles can have multiple impacts, from reflecting sunlight and causing a nuclear winter effect, to accelerating chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer, which is vital to protecting people from harmful radiation.

"We could be at a dangerous point," said Toohey, who wants more scientific investigations into these effects before the launches become more frequent.

Virgin has said it wants to conduct 400 flights a year.

Compared to Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplanes, Blue Origin's are much cleaner, according to a recent paper by scientist Martin Ross of Aerospace, which Bezos' company plugged on Twitter.

That is because it burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, which combusts as water vapor.

Ross' paper found Blue Origin's vertical launch reusable rocket causes a hundred times less ozone loss and 750 times less climate forcing magnitude than Virgin's, according to ballpark calculations.

But that does not mean it is totally clean.

"It takes electricity to make liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen," Ross told AFP.

"You could go back and calculate how much electricity was used to make the propellant," he said. "It depends how far back in the supply chain you look."

The world is far more aware of the climate crisis now than when these companies were founded in the early 2000s and that could encourage businesses to look at ways to minimize pollution through cleaner technologies to get ahead of the problem//CNA

People queue outside a vaccination centre for young people and students at the Hunter Street Health Centre, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, June 5, 2021. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls - 

Every adult in the United Kingdom has been offered a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, the health ministry said on Sunday (Jul 18), ahead of the end of legal restrictions in England on Monday.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's target was for every adult who wanted to a shot to be able to get one by Jul 19.

Johnson is proceeding with the full re-opening of the economy despite a fresh surge of cases fuelled by the highly transmissible Delta variant. New infections are running at their highest level since January.

Some scientists have expressed concern about the re-opening given the high case rates, the substantial proportion of the population which is not yet fully vaccinated and the projected increases in hospitalisations and deaths.

Johnson's health minister, Sajid Javid, on Saturday said he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was self-isolating.

Johnson argues that the vaccine rollout has substantially weakened the link between COVID cases and deaths, and that summer is the best time to reopen the economy since pressures on the health service are lower

"Thank you again to everyone coming forward, and to those helping others to get jabbed. You are the reason we are able to cautiously ease restrictions next week, and return closer towards normal life," Johnson said in a statement//CNA

Governor of Riau Islands, Ansar Ahmad, observes vaccinations of children in Bintan Regency. (ANTARA/Ogen/RA) - 

As many as 61,973 children in the 12-17 age group have been vaccinated in Riau Islands, according to spokesperson for the province's COVID-19 Response Task Force, Mochammad Bisri.

They account for 27.22 percent of the 228,245 children targeted by the COVID-19 vaccination program in the province, Bisri informed here on Saturday.

The task force is targeting to vaccinate the remaining 165,691 children by July 23, 2021, he said.

This would be in keeping with Riau Islands Governor Ansar Ahmad's target of completing the vaccinations of children aged 12 to 17 years by July 23, 2021, he added.

Meanwhile, the number of vaccinated people aged 18 years and above in Riau Islands has reached 857,337, accounting for 61.14 percent of the 1,140,997 targeted recipients, he disclosed.

The vaccination program for people aged 18 years and above is targeted to be completed by July 30, 2021. By doing so, the province can reach the 70-percent vaccination target required for achieving herd immunity or community immunity, he added.

"The remaining 70 percent of the target until July 30, 2021, is 124,295 people," he informed.

Therefore, each district and city must ramp up vaccinations in order to achieve the target set by the Riau Islands provincial government, he said.

He also urged people who have yet to get vaccinated so far to participate in the government's vaccination program to support efforts to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission.

"The government will not succeed in suppressing COVID-19 cases without the support of the residents," he emphasized.

The task force has requested additional vaccines from the central government as vaccine stocks have declined in the province, partly due to the enthusiastic response from residents for the vaccination drive, he said//ANT

A truck carrying oxygen concentrators prepares for dispatch from the Industry Ministry to the Health Ministry building in Jakarta. (ANTARA/HO-Industry Ministry/sh) - 

The Industry Ministry has mobilized supply from oxygen generation plants nationwide to meet the growing demand for medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients across Indonesia.

"Oxygen stocks are available in Java as well as outside Java. Now, as the demand in Java is high, we are mobilizing the supply from plants in Java as well as outside Java to meet the sharply increased demand," the ministry's director of upstream chemical industry, Fridy Juwono, said here on Thursday.

The demand for medical oxygen in Indonesia has jumped from just 400 tons per day in March, 2020, when the country reported its first coronavirus infections, to two thousand tons per day on average currently.

Data from the Health Ministry shows that medical oxygen demand has reached 2,323 tons per day as of July 6, 2021, Juwono said.

Meanwhile, the national oxygen production capacity has been recorded at just 1,850 tons per day, which means the industry would need to boost production, he pointed out.

The Industry Minister has issued instruction no. 1/2021, asking industry operators to contribute to efforts to meet the oxygen demand for COVID-19 handling, he informed.

Dry air, which serves as the raw material for obtaining pure oxygen, is a mixture of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, and 1 percent argon, he said.

During purification, oxygen is separated from other components of the air through pressure swing absorption, he said adding, the oxygen can then be directly supplied for industrial use through a pipeline.

Some of the oxygen is liquefied and stored in oxygen cylinders as industrial stock, Juwono said.

To produce medical oxygen, liquefied oxygen would need to be converted into gas, he added.

"The liquefied oxygen would be further treated to meet the Health Ministry's standard, to reach up to 99 percent of purity, before it can be used for medical purposes," he further informed.

There are five major oxygen producers in Indonesia catering to industries as well as medical facilities, he noted.

In keeping with the ministerial instruction, oxygen producers are currently prioritizing medical oxygen production, he said.

"Many industries have also contributed to deliver their oxygen supply. From Batam, we received 100 tons, Bontang 500 tons. The oxygen would be collected and used for medical purposes," Juwono said.

Oxygen supply to the industry could get disrupted once demand for medical oxygen surpasses 2,500 tons per day, he added.

"Under such a situation, we will have to import (oxygen). But, this is something we do not want to happen," he remarked//ANT