SpaceX launches Starship, the most powerful rocket ever made, on April 20, 2023. The rocket exploded above the Gulf of Mexico minutes after launching.
Credit: SpaceX

The most ambitious private rocket program ever got off to a tentative, but explosive, start today. In its first test launch, the giant rocket Starship lifted off, but exploded during flight.

Starship is a heavy-lift rocket developed and operated by the American spacecraft company SpaceX. It consists of the first-stage booster, called Super Heavy, and the spacecraft itself, which is also called Starship. It is more powerful than the Saturn V, the rocket that took astronauts to the moon throughout the Apollo program.

Super Heavy ignited and cleared the launch pad at Boca Chica, Texas. This was the company’s primary objective, as an explosion on or near the ground could have damaged the launch pad infrastructure. The second stage was then supposed to separate and fly in a suborbital trajectory most of the way around Earth, splashing down near Hawaii. But the second stage failed to separate; and the rocket began spinning. It exploded in a fireball about four minutes after liftoff.

SpaceX already has one extremely successful rocket. The Falcon 9 debuted in 2010 and, thanks to the reuse of its first stage, has become one of the most reliable and cost-efficient rockets of all time. It has flown over 200 successful missions.

SpaceX plans to expand on the reusability gains made with the Falcon 9. Super Heavy will return to the launch pad, where giant arms will grab it as it slowly descends. The second-stage starship will be able to coast back into the atmosphere in a way similar to the space shuttle, before using its engines to land vertically. Both stages can then be reused.

SpaceX and its founder, South-African born entrepreneur (business developer) Elon Musk, have big plans for Starship. Musk is most interested in using Starship to send crewed missions to Mars. He hopes to use the craft’s massive payload to send enough crew and material to the planet to create a self-sustaining colony.

But there are more prosaic uses for the big rocket. SpaceX predicts it will be even cheaper to launch than the Falcon 9, further driving down the cost of access to space. The craft will be able to carry the larger next-generation satellites for Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service. SpaceX is working for contracts to return U.S. astronauts to the moon for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) using Starship.

Space tourism is also on Starship’s flight manifest. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa has financed the first crewed mission on Starship, tentatively scheduled to launch later this year. He will fly around the moon with a crew of seven artists, filmmakers, and other creatives.

More tests are needed before the rocket can take anyone anywhere, however. SpaceX engineers will analyze the data from the launch and see what went wrong. Musk stated that the company will conduct another Starship test launch in a few months. They’re hoping the next one will fly straighter and further.

South African DJ Black Coffee
Credit: © WENN Rights/Alamy Images

July is Disability Pride Month. Behind the Headlines will feature people claiming their disability and excelling. Claiming disability means actively accepting their condition and integrating it into their identity.

Over thirty years ago, the world-renowned DJ Black Coffee was in a taxi accident during celebrations for the release of South African activist Nelson Mandela from prison. He suffered an injury that permanently paralyzed his left arm. Black Coffee is the stage name of Nkosinathi Innocent Sizwe Maphumulo, a South African disc jockey (DJ) and music producer. He creates electronic dance music (EDM). Black Coffee is known for his futuristic, tribal, and jazz-inspired sounds.

Maphumulo was born on March 11, 1976, in Durban, South Africa. Maphumulo grew up in Mthatha, in the Eastern Cape. Maphumulo later studied jazz music at the Durban University of Technology. Black Coffee earned one of two spots for South African artists in the Red Bull Music Academy in Cape Town in 2003. The academy is a traveling EDM festival and workshop. Maphumulo released his first album, Black Coffee, in 2005. His breakthrough hit was the single “Happiness” (2005).

Black Coffee began making appearances at nightclubs and music festivals. His other albums include Have Another One (2007), Home Brewed (2009), Africa Rising (2012), and Pieces of Me (2015). He released the EP Music is King in 2018. EP stands for extended play and is a type of musical recording that includes several songs but is not considered a full-length album. In 2022, Black Coffee won a Grammy award for best dance/electronic album for Subconsciously (2021).

Black Coffee has spoken out about how he stopped wearing his arm brace due to bullying and also rarely shows his left arm in public. Black Coffee has honed the hands-on skill of disc jockeying.

As a result of April 2022 flooding, a river burst its banks and destroyed a bridge in Durban, South Africa.
Credit: © Rogan War, Reuters/Alamy Images

Several days of heavy rain have caused severe flooding and mudslides on the east coast of South Africa. A new storm came off the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, April 12th, destroying bridges, roads, houses, and other structures. The storm hit the city of Durban, South Africa’s chief seaport and one of its largest cities, killing at least 443 people. Officials report that 63 people remain missing amidst the damage in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.

The influx of rain is a result of a weather phenomenon called a cut-off low, which occurs when a low-pressure system is disrupted and moves slowly across an area. The storm produced the heaviest rains in South Africa in 60 years and is the deadliest storm on record in the country. Meteorologists estimate that over a month’s worth of rain, nearly 12 inches (30.5 centimeters), fell in one day in Durban.

The downpour of rain caused mudslides that washed away entire hillsides, destroying nearly 600 schools and  60 health facilities. More than 12,000 homes have been damaged from the flooding and mudslides. Some schools were in session during the storm, trapping students and teachers inside. Many people sought higher ground and climbed on top of roofs to stay out of reach of the rushing water and mud.

The flooding also washed out complete roads and bridges. One bridge outside Durban collapsed, leaving people stranded on both sides. The rushing water knocked out all power in the area. The mudslides and damage cut off the supply of clean water. Stacks of shipping containers have collapsed into the water.

Rescue efforts continue to find missing people believed to be underneath houses affected by the mudslides. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa visited with people affected by the disaster and pledged to help rebuild the community.

Smoke rises from the National Assembly building of the South African Parliament in Cape Town, on Jan. 2, 2022. 
Credit: © Lyu Tianran, Xinhua/Alamy Images

South Africa’s Houses of Parliament in Cape Town caught fire on Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022. The flames started in a building next to the National Assembly and spread from there. More than 60 firefighters quickly responded to tame the flames. But the fire burned for hours. Strong winds reignited the flames on a roof on Monday, continuing the blaze into Tuesday morning.

The National Assembly chamber burned down and the roof of one building collapsed. The buildings were empty because Parliament was not in session. No one was injured.

Other parts of parliament were damaged severely by smoke and by water used to put out the fire. Offices of the African National Congress and National Freedom Party were destroyed. The buildings will not be habitable for some time. Parliament will meet in an alternative location, such as the city council chamber.

Security arrested Zandile Christmas Mafe on Sunday for starting the fire. He was charged with arson, housebreaking, theft, and possession of explosives in connection with the blaze.

South Africa’s Parliament consists of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces. The South African Parliament meets in Cape Town, the country’s legislative capital. The National Assembly has at least 350 and no more than 400 members.

The National Council of Provinces is the upper house of South Africa’s Parliament, representing provincial interests at the national level. The National Council has 90 members.

March 20, 2020

Tomorrow, March 21, marks 60 years since the Sharpeville Massacre took place in South Africa in 1960. On that day, South African police opened fire into a crowd of black demonstrators. The incident occurred in the township of Sharpeville, now part of the city of Vereeniging. The shooting left 69 people dead and more than 180 wounded.

People flee from gunfire during the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa on March 21, 1960. Credit: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty images

The demonstration in Sharpeville was part of a nationwide protest against the pass laws. The pass laws required black adults to carry identity papers called passes. They also restricted the movement of black people around the country. The pass laws were part of a policy of rigid racial segregation called apartheid. The policy had existed in South Africa since 1948.

An antiapartheid group called the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) organized the protest. The group called on black South Africans to go to police stations without their passes on March 21, 1960, and peacefully submit to arrest. Only a few demonstrators responded in most cities. In Sharpeville, however, several thousand protesters gathered outside the police station. A few hundred police officers faced them from behind a wire fence surrounding the station. In the early afternoon, the officers began to fire, probably in confused reaction to a scuffle between police and protesters near the fence. Many demonstrators were shot in the back as they fled.

The events at Sharpeville had long-lasting effects on the antiapartheid campaign. At first, the shooting sparked large demonstrations in sympathy for the victims. The government then banned the PAC and the African National Congress (ANC), a larger antiapartheid organization. Forced underground, the organizations altered their tactics to include violent forms of protest. Outrage over the deaths at Sharpeville also helped spur an international antiapartheid movement.

Apartheid ended in South Africa during the early 1990’s. Today, South Africans honor March 21, the anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre, as Human Rights Day.

July 18, 2018

On July 18, 1918, 100 years ago today, activist and politician Nelson Mandela was born in the Transkei territory (now the Eastern Cape province) of South Africa. Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, was instrumental in ending apartheid, a policy of strict racial segregation, and he helped unify a very fragmented nation. His efforts earned him international admiration and a Nobel Peace Prize. Mandela is remembered as the father—or tata—of modern South Africa, where July 18th is celebrated annually as Mandela Day. Commonly called by his clan name, Madiba, Mandela died on Dec. 5, 2013, at age 95.

Nelson Mandela was the first black president of South Africa. He was born 100 years ago today on July 18, 1918. Credit: © AP Photo

To honor Mandela on what would have been his 100th birthday, South Africa issued a special set of bank notes and gold coins depicting Mandela’s upbringing in rural Eastern Cape; his 27-year incarceration; and the end of apartheid. Yesterday, on July 17, 2018, former United States President Barack Obama delivered a Mandela Day speech before 15,000 people in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city. The United Nations is sponsoring centenary events for its Nelson Mandela International Day and hosting a “Building on the Legacy of Nelson Mandela” exhibit at its headquarters in New York City. The Nelson Mandela Foundation is dedicating this year’s anniversary to Action Against Poverty, an independent development organization that helps poverty-stricken people in northeastern Africa.

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South Africa
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Mandela had a long history of protesting against apartheid, and he paid a heavy price for it. In 1962, he was imprisoned on charges of conspiring to overthrow the white minority government. While in prison, Mandela became a global symbol of the struggle for racial justice. After his release in 1990, he led negotiations with white leaders that eventually brought an end to apartheid and established a nonracial system of government. From 1991 to 1997, Mandela served as president of the African National Congress (ANC), a group that helped win political and civil rights for the country’s blacks.

This illustration is from Nelson Mandela, a picture book biography by African American illustrator and author Nelson Kadir. Credit: © Kadir Nelson, Harper Collins

Mandela and then-President Frederik Willem de Klerk of South Africa shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. They were honored for their work to end apartheid and to enable the country’s nonwhites to fully participate in the South African government. In 1994, South Africa held its first elections in which people of all races could vote. Blacks won a majority of the seats in a new National Assembly, and the Assembly selected Mandela to be president. The election marked the beginning of a new era in South Africa. Mandela served as president until 1999, when he retired from public service.

December 1, 2017

South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard electrified the world 50 years ago on Dec. 3, 1967, by performing the first successful human heart transplant. On that day, Barnard removed the dying heart of Louis Washkansky and replaced it with a healthy one taken from an accident victim. The operation took place at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. Barnard’s surgical skill and daring—combined with his telegenic looks and ready wit—catapulted him overnight into the role of international celebrity. Newspapers and television interviewers scrambled to hear his expert opinion on most everything from health and physical fitness to science to global politics.

The South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard, seen at the center of this photo among his surgical team, performs open heart surgery in Cape Town in 1967. Later that year, Barnard performed the first human heart transplant operation. Credit: © Corbis/Bettmann

Prior to Barnard’s accomplishment, surgeons in Europe and the United States—including pioneering American heart surgeon Norman Shumway—had experimented with several techniques to perform a human heart transplant but had met with little success. In 1967, Barnard was presented with a unique scientific opportunity. Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old office clerk, was unfortunately struck by an automobile in Cape Town. She was rushed to Groote Schuur Hospital, where her brain was found to be clinically dead. However, her still-beating heart was in good condition, and she had the same blood type as Washkansky, an ailing 54-year-old Lithuanian-born grocer. The successful operation took about six hours to complete.

Organ transplant surgery is difficult for even the most skilled surgeons and is prone to complications. The first truly successful human organ transplant operation was done in 1954, when doctors in Boston transplanted a kidney from one person to his identical twin. Because the donor and recipient were genetically identical, there was no danger the transplanted organ would be attacked by the recipient’s immune system. Doctors refer to this complication as organ rejection. The risk of rejection affecting a vital organ such as the heart posed a daunting challenge for surgeons. Washkansky was vulnerable to infection from the large doses of drugs and radiation used to suppress his immune system and prevent organ rejection. He died of pneumonia 18 days after the operation, but his heart functioned normally until his death.

In the United States and Europe, the prospect of heart transplant operations also raised many ethical, moral, and legal considerations. Because the donor’s heart must be transplanted immediately, the problem of determining the exact moment of death was debated by physicians and lawyers. In the United States, death was normally defined as when a person’s heart stopped. Law enforcement officials threatened to arrest surgeons who took organs from brain-dead individuals while the heart remained beating. The delay often led to tissue damage and decreased the chances of a successful transplant operation. Barnard’s success with a brain-dead victim as a heart donor made the practice more acceptable for future organ transplants worldwide.

A month later, on Jan. 2, 1968, Barnard caused a new sensation in racially segregated South Africa by transplanting the heart of a young man of mixed race into a white man. The recipient survived for 19 months and 15 days, in part because Barnard’s team had reduced the amount of antirejection drugs the patient received. Over the years, surgical techniques have been improved and new antirejection drugs have been developed. Today, about 3,000 human heart transplant operations are performed each year in the United States, and about 5,000 are performed annually worldwide.

June 1, 2017

Recent studies show that Homo naledi, an intriguing species of prehistoric humans, may have lived far more recently than previously believed. Paleoanthropologists (scientists who study human evolution) say that H. naledi, a primitive hominin (human ancestor) known from a collection of fossils discovered at the Rising Star cave system in South Africa, may have lived at the same time and in the same region as more advanced prehistoric humans. Other new evidence shows that H. naledi may have had remarkably modern cultural practices that are seen among living people today, including funeral customs.

This nearly complete adult Homo naledi skull was found in the Rising Star cave system in South Africa. Credit: © John Hawks, Wits University

Between 2013 and 2017, an international team of excavators recovered more than 1,500 fossilized bones from the Rising Star cave site about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Johannesburg. The fossils were discovered in two deep cave chambers called Dinaledi and Lesedi (meaning stars and light in the local Lesotho language). Scientists quickly recognized the fossils as belonging to a previously unknown hominin that they named H. naledi. The anatomy of H. naledi shows a brain case less than half the size of that of modern people. The anatomy of the hands and shoulders suggests H. naledi was adept at climbing trees. These primitive characteristics suggest H. naledi lived perhaps 2 million years ago, when the first humanlike creatures appeared in Africa.

The fossilized remains of this Homo naledi skeleton suggest a stature of about 5 feet tall (150 centimeters). Credit: © John Hawks, Wits University

This May, researchers led by geoscientist Paul Dirks of James Cook University in Australia determined the age of the Rising Star cave fossils and their surrounding sediments using a combination of dating techniques. The fossils and sediments were determined to be between about 335,00 and 236,000 years old. These dates are much more recent than most scientists thought possible for such a primitive-appearing hominin.

The scientists who examined the fossils also suggest that the hominins called H. naledi may have intentionally placed their dead at the site—a remarkable behavior not seen among most ancient human ancestors. They point out that the Dinaledi and Lesedi chambers are deep underground and cannot be easily reached from the surface. By studying the sediments in the chambers, scientists could see that the bones had not been washed into the site by floodwaters.

Through studies of the fossil record, scientists know that other hominins lived in Africa and elsewhere at the same time as H. naledi. These archaic humans include Homo heidelbergensis, who were physically different from modern people, yet far more advanced than H. naledi, with larger brains and sophisticated stone tool cultures. However, evidence of intentional burial or other funeral customs is completely unknown from the fossil record of these early hominins.

Scientists contend the discovery of more H. naledi bones in another difficult-to-access part of the cave system supports their hypothesis that these hominins deliberately placed their dead in these locales. Such mortuary behavior was thought to be exclusive to larger-brained Homo sapiens.

In 2017, more H. naledi fossils were excavated from the recently found Lesedi chamber of the Rising Star cave system. The Lesedi chamber has no direct connection to the Dinaledi chamber. The fossil remains of at least three individuals were recovered from Lesedi. The remains include the well-preserved skeleton of a child and an adult male with a nearly complete skull.

Scientists are puzzled by how the remains came to be in the Lesedi part of the cave. The chamber contains almost no other ancient remains. Many of the hominin fossils were discovered undamaged with no evidence of being bitten or chewed by predators. Here too there was no evidence that the bones were washed into the site by floodwaters. If the remains were not intentionally placed there, as the evidence suggests, another possibility is that the hominins somehow became trapped in the cave and died together. If the hominins known as H. naledi did indeed practice funeral customs, they would be the earliest known hominins to do so.

July 20, 2016

On Saturday, July 16, a South African meerkat made international news, but it wasn’t one of the cute and cuddly critters of TV’s “Meerkat Manor.” This meerkat—or, rather, MeerKAT—is a radio telescope complex under construction near Carnarvon, South Africa, south of where the TV series studied actual meerkats in the Kalahari Desert. On Saturday, images from the first 16 MeerKAT reflectors (dish antennas)—in operation for only a few hours and looking at only a tiny corner of the universe—revealed black holes some 200 million light-years away and hundreds of previously unknown galaxies. A radio telescope consists of a radio receiver with an antenna fixed on a wide bowl-shaped reflector that records radio waves coming from stars and other objects in outer space. A radio receiver amplifies the signals and sends them to a computer. The computer then analyzes the radio spectrum of the wave source to produce an image.

A MeerKAT dish antenna scans the night sky above the dry Karoo region of South Africa.
Credit: © SKA South Africa

The KAT in MeerKAT stands for Karoo Array Telescope, which refers to the complex’s location in South Africa’s remote Karoo semidesert region. MeerKAT, which will have 64 reflectors when completed late next year, is the first phase of Square Kilometer Array (SKA) South Africa that will eventually have 250 antennas. SKA South Africa will then pair with a SKA complex of 256 antennas being built in Western Australia. Together, they will explore and measure the universe at different radio frequencies. If the first few hours of the first 16 SKA reflectors are any indication—which glimpsed less than 1/100^th of 1 percent of the celestial sphere—imagine what 64, then 250, then 506 antennas mapping huge areas of the sky might find!

This portion of MeerKAT’s first radio image shows more than 200 astronomical radio sources (white dots). Previous mapping of this area showed just five sources, marked here by the violet circles.
Credit: © SKA South Africa

But wait, there’s more! This is only SKA Phase 1. SKA Phase 2—scheduled to be operating by the mid-2020’s—will eventually include thousands of radio telescope antennas throughout Africa and Australia. The SKA project will no doubt enhance our understanding of the universe and may possibly even change it. It will also test our current understanding of physics and expand our technological grasp. SKA has a number of key objectives, such as investigating the origins and structure of the universe and studying gravitational waves and astrobiological (the search for and study of life in the universe) possibilities. But the project’s statement purpose, “Exploration of the Unknown,” reflects the expectation that SKA will discover things we cannot yet conceive.

June 16, 2016

Earlier today, June 16, South Africans marked the 40th anniversary of the bloody Soweto Uprising of 1976. The uprising began as a protest against education programs under South Africa’s policy of racial segregation known as apartheid. Apartheid lasted from the late 1940’s to the early 1990’s. The Soweto uprising and its aftermath motivated black Africans to become more organized in their struggle for freedom. It also forced the South African government to make gradual reforms that slowly led to the end of apartheid.

Police confront kneeling Soweto youths on June 16, 1976, the first day of protests in what became known as the Soweto Uprising. Credit: © Foto24/Getty Images

In 1975, protests started in African schools after the government decreed that Afrikaans had to be used equally with English as languages of instruction in secondary schools. Although Afrikaans—the language of the ruling white minority—was at best a third language for most black Africans, the education problems under apartheid were much broader. Black students had separate schools and universities, and the facilities were old, ill funded, overcrowded, and often led by inadequately trained teachers. The protests, then, were the result of years of frustration and discrimination.

The first protest in Soweto (now part of Johannesburg) took place on June 16, 1976, as thousands of schoolchildren marched through the streets. Police opened fire on the children, killing two and wounding several others. This action prompted disturbances in many parts of South Africa during the next few months. Several clashes erupted between black Africans and the police, and at least 575 people, almost all of them young black Africans, were killed.

Soon after the uprising, the South African government enacted some reforms. It recognized black African trade unions, allowed township residents to take possession of their property under 99-year leases, and promoted a black middle class. In Soweto, the construction of new schools and houses began, bringing an end to a long period of no development.

In response to domestic and international pressure, South Africa began repealing apartheid laws in the 1970′s and 1980′s. In 1990 and 1991, the government repealed most of the remaining laws that had formed the legal basis of apartheid.

Soweto is South Africa’s largest urban black African community. Originally set up to house people forcibly removed from Johannesburg, it became an important center in the struggle for democracy in South Africa. Soweto became part of the city of Johannesburg in 1995.