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SpaceX

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launch service provider and satellite communications company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas. The company was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and ultimately developing a sustainable colony on Mars. The company currently produces and operates the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets along with the Dragon, and Starship as a hybrid between a rocket and a spacecraft.

The company offers internet service via its Starlink subsidiary, which became the largest-ever satellite constellation in January 2020 and,, comprised more than 6,000 small satellites in orbit.

Meanwhile, the company is developing Starship, a human-rated, fully-reusable, super heavy-lift launch system for interplanetary and orbital spaceflight. On its first flight in April 2023, it became the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown. The rocket fully completed its test flight on its fourth flight by reaching space and returning both stages for a controlled splashdown in June 2024.

SpaceX is the first private company to develop a liquid-propellant rocket that has reached orbit; to launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft; to send a spacecraft to the International Space Station; and to send astronauts to the International Space Station. It is also the first organization of any type to achieve a vertical propulsive landing of an orbital rocket booster and the first to reuse such a booster. The company's Falcon 9 rockets have landed and flown again more than 300 times. As of June 2024, SpaceX has around US$200 billion valuation.

2001–2004: Founding
In early 2001, Elon Musk met Robert Zubrin and donated US$100,000 to his Mars Society, joining its board of directors for a short time. He gave a plenary talk at their fourth convention where he announced Mars Oasis, a project to land a greenhouse and grow plants on Mars. Musk initially attempted to acquire a Dnepr intercontinental ballistic missile for the project through Russian contacts from Jim Cantrell.

Musk then returned with his team a second time to Moscow this time bringing Michael Griffin as well, but found the Russians increasingly unreceptive. On the flight home Musk announced he could start a company to build the affordable rockets they needed instead. By applying vertical integration, using inexpensive commercial off-the-shelf components when possible, and adopting the modular approach of modern software engineering, Musk believed SpaceX could significantly cut launch cost.

In early 2002, Elon Musk started to look for staff for his company, soon to be named SpaceX. Musk approached five people for the initial positions at the fledgling company, including Michael Griffin, who declined the position of Chief Engineer, Jim Cantrel and John Garvey (Cantrel and Garvey would later found the company Vector Launch), rocket engineer Tom Mueller, and Chris Thompson. SpaceX was first headquartered in a warehouse in El Segundo, California. Early SpaceX employees, such as Tom Mueller (CTO), Gwynne Shotwell (COO), and Chris Thompson (VP of Operations), came from neighboring TRW and Boeing corporations. By November 2005, the company had 160 employees. Musk personally interviewed and approved all of SpaceX's early employees.

Musk has stated that one of his goals with SpaceX is to decrease the cost and improve the reliability of access to space, ultimately by a factor of ten.

2005–2009: Falcon 1 and first orbital launches

SpaceX developed its first orbital launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, with internal funding. The Falcon 1 was an expendable two-stage-to-orbit small-lift launch vehicle. The total development cost of Falcon 1 was approximately $90   million to $100    million. The Falcon rocket series was named after Star Wars's Millennium Falcon fictional spacecraft.

In 2004, SpaceX protested against NASA to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) because of a sole-source contract awarded to Kistler Aerospace. Before the GAO could respond, NASA withdrew the contract, and formed the COTS program. In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a human-rated commercial space program through the end of the decade, a program that would later become the Dragon spacecraft. In 2006, the company was selected by NASA and awarded $396   million to provide crew and cargo resupply demonstration contracts to the International Space Station (ISS) under the COTS program.

The first two Falcon 1 launches were purchased by the United States Department of Defense under the DARPA Falcon Project which evaluated new US launch vehicles suitable for use in hypersonic missile delivery for Prompt Global Strike. The first three launches of the rocket, between 2006 and 2008, all resulted in failures, which almost ended the company. Financing for Tesla Motors had failed, as well, and consequently Tesla, SolarCity, and Musk personally were all nearly bankrupt at the same time. Musk was reportedly "waking from nightmares, screaming and in physical pain" because of the stress.

The financial situation started to turn around with the first successful launch achieved on the fourth attempt on 28 September 2008. Musk split his remaining $30   million between SpaceX and Tesla, and NASA awarded the first Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract awarding $1.6    billion to SpaceX in December, thus financially saving the company. Based on these factors and the further business operations they enabled, the Falcon 1 was soon retired following its second successful, and fifth total, launch in July 2009. This allowed SpaceX to focus company resources on the development of a larger orbital rocket, the Falcon 9. Gwynne Shotwell was also promoted to company president at the time, for her role in successfully negotiating the CRS contract with the NASA Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier.

2010–2012: Falcon 9, Dragon, and NASA contracts

SpaceX originally intended to follow its light Falcon 1 launch vehicle with an intermediate capacity vehicle, the Falcon 5. The company instead decided in 2005 to proceed with the development of the Falcon 9, a reusable heavier lift vehicle. Development of the Falcon 9 was accelerated by NASA, which committed to purchasing several commercial flights if specific capabilities were demonstrated. This started with seed money from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program in 2006. The overall contract award was $278   million to provide development funding for the Dragon spacecraft, Falcon 9, and demonstration launches of Falcon 9 with Dragon. As part of this contract, the Falcon 9 launched for the first time in June 2010 with the Dragon Spacecraft Qualification Unit, using a mockup of the Dragon spacecraft.

The first operational Dragon spacecraft was launched in December 2010 aboard COTS Demo Flight 1, the Falcon 9's second flight, and safely returned to Earth after two orbits, completing all its mission objectives. By December 2010, the SpaceX production line was manufacturing one Falcon 9 and Dragon every three months.

In April 2011, as part of its second-round Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, NASA issued a $75   million contract for SpaceX to develop an integrated launch escape system for Dragon in preparation for human-rating it as a crew transport vehicle to the ISS. NASA awarded SpaceX a fixed-price Space Act Agreement (SAA) to produce a detailed design of the crew transportation system in August 2012.

In early 2012, approximately two-thirds of SpaceX stock was owned by Musk and his seventy million shares were then estimated to be worth $875   million on private markets, valuing SpaceX at $1.3    billion. In May 2012, with the Dragon C2+ launch, Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. After the flight, the company private equity valuation nearly doubled to $2.4   billion or $20/share. By that time, SpaceX had operated on total funding of approximately $1   billion over its first decade of operation. Of this, private equity provided approximately $200   million, with Musk investing approximately $100    million and other investors having put in about $100    million.

SpaceX's active reusability test program began in late 2012 with testing low-altitude, low-speed aspects of the landing technology. The Falcon 9 prototypes performed vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL). High-velocity, high-altitude tests of the booster atmospheric return technology began in late 2013.

2013–2015: Commercial launches and rapid growth

SpaceX launched the first commercial mission for a private customer in 2013. In 2014, SpaceX won nine contracts out of the 20 that were openly competed worldwide. That year Arianespace requested that European governments provide additional subsidies to face the competition from SpaceX. Beginning in 2014, SpaceX capabilities and pricing also began to affect the market for launch of U.S. military payloads, which for nearly a decade had been dominated by the large U.S. launch provider United Launch Alliance (ULA). The monopoly had allowed launch costs by the U.S. provider to rise to over $400   million over the years. In September 2014, NASA's Director of Commercial Spaceflight, Kevin Crigler, awarded SpaceX the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract to finalize the development of the Crew Transportation System. The contract included several technical and certification milestones, an uncrewed flight test, a crewed flight test, and six operational missions after certification.

In January 2015, SpaceX raised $1   billion in funding from Google and Fidelity Investments, in exchange for 8.33% of the company, establishing the company valuation at approximately $12    billion. The same month SpaceX announced the development of a new satellite constellation, called Starlink, to provide global broadband internet service with 4,000 satellites.

The Falcon 9 had its first major failure in late June 2015, when the seventh ISS resupply mission, CRS-7 exploded two minutes into the flight. The problem was traced to a failed 2-foot-long steel strut that held a helium pressure vessel, which broke free due to the force of acceleration. This caused a breach and allowed high-pressure helium to escape into the low-pressure propellant tank, causing the failure.

2015–2017: Reusability milestones

SpaceX first achieved a successful landing and recovery of a first stage in December 2015 with Falcon 9 Flight 20. In April 2016, the company achieved the first successful landing on the autonomous spaceport drone ship (ASDS) Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean. By October 2016, following the successful landings, SpaceX indicated they were offering their customers a 10% price discount if they choose to fly their payload on a reused Falcon 9 first stage.

A second major rocket failure happened in early September 2016, when a Falcon 9 exploded during a propellant fill operation for a standard pre-launch static fire test. The payload, the AMOS-6 communications satellite valued at $200   million, was destroyed. The explosion was caused by the liquid oxygen that is used as propellant turning so cold that it solidified and ignited with carbon composite helium vessels. Though not considered an unsuccessful flight, the rocket explosion sent the company into a four-month launch hiatus while it worked out what went wrong. SpaceX returned to flight in January 2017.

In March 2017, SpaceX launched a returned Falcon 9 for the SES-10 satellite. This was the first time a re-launch of a payload-carrying orbital rocket went back to space. The first stage was recovered again, also making it the first landing of a reused orbital class rocket.

2017–2018: Leading global commercial launch provider
In July 2017, the company raised $350   million, which raised its valuation to $21    billion. In 2017, SpaceX achieved a 45% global market share for awarded commercial launch contracts. By March 2018, SpaceX had more than 100 launches on its manifest representing about $12   billion in contract revenue. The contracts included both commercial and government (NASA/DOD) customers. This made SpaceX the leading global commercial launch provider measured by manifested launches.

In 2017, SpaceX formed a subsidiary, The Boring Company, and began work to construct a short test tunnel on and adjacent to the SpaceX headquarters and manufacturing facility, using a small number of SpaceX employees, which was completed in May 2018, and opened to the public in December 2018. During 2018, The Boring Company was spun out into a separate corporate entity with 6% of the equity going to SpaceX, less than 10% to early employees, and the remainder of the equity to Elon Musk.

Since 2019: Starship, first crewed launches, Starlink and general
In 2019 SpaceX raised $1.33   billion of capital across three funding rounds. By May 2019, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $33.3   billion and reached $36    billion by March 2020.

On 19 August 2020, after a $1.9   billion funding round, one of the largest single fundraising pushes by any privately held company, SpaceX's valuation increased to $46    billion.

In February 2021, SpaceX raised an additional $1.61   billion in an equity round from 99 investors at a per share value of approximately $420, raising the company valuation to approximately $74    billion. By 2021, SpaceX had raised more than $6   billion in equity financing. Most of the capital raised since 2019 has been used to support the operational fielding of the Starlink satellite constellation and the development and manufacture of the Starship launch vehicle. By October 2021, the valuation of SpaceX had risen to $100.3   billion. On 16 April 2021, Starship HLS won a contract to play a critical role in the NASA crewed spaceflight Artemis program. By 2021, SpaceX had entered into agreements with Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure to provide on-ground computer and networking services for Starlink. A new round of financing in 2022 valued SpaceX at $127   billion.

In July 2021, SpaceX unveiled another drone ship named A Shortfall of Gravitas, landing a booster from CRS-23 on it for the first time on 29 August 2021. Within the first 130 days of 2022, SpaceX had 18 rocket launches and two astronaut splashdowns. On 13 December 2021, company CEO Elon Musk announced that the company was starting a carbon dioxide removal program that would convert captured carbon into rocket fuel, after he announced a $100    million donation to the X Prize Foundation the previous February to provide the monetary rewards to winners in a contest to develop the best carbon capture technology.

In August 2022, Reuters reported that the European Space Agency (ESA) began initial discussions with SpaceX that could lead to the company's launchers being used temporarily, given that Russia blocked access to Soyuz rockets amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Since that invasion and in the greater war between Russia and Ukraine, Starlink was extensively used.

In 2022, SpaceX's Falcon 9 also became the world record holder for the most launches of a single vehicle type in a single year. SpaceX launched a rocket approximately every six days in 2022, with 61 launches in total. All but one (a Falcon Heavy in November) was on a Falcon 9 rocket.

In November 2023, SpaceX announced it would acquire its parachute supplier Pioneer Aerospace out of bankruptcy for $2.2 million.

2024 headquarters move from California to Texas
On 16 July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X that SpaceX would move its headquarters from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas. Musk said this was because "of this law [California law AB1955] and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies". This new law in California ban school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents about changes to a student’s sexual orientation and gender identity.

Starship
In January 2019, SpaceX announced it would lay off 10% of its workforce to help finance the Starship and Starlink projects. The purpose of the Starship vehicle is to enable large-scale transit of humans and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. SpaceX's Starship is the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown, with a payload capacity of 100+ tons. Construction of initial prototypes and tests for Starship started in early 2019 in Florida and Texas. All Starship construction and testing moved to the new SpaceX South Texas launch site later that year.

On 20 April 2023, Starship's first orbital flight test ended in a mid-air explosion over the Gulf of Mexico before booster separation. After launch, multiple engines in the booster progressively failed, causing the vehicle to reach max q later than planned. "Max q" is the theoretical point of maximal mechanical stress which occurs during the launch sequence of a space vehicle. In the case of a rocket that must be self-destructed during its ascent, max q occurs at the point of self-destruction. Eventually, the vehicle lost control and spun erratically until the automated flight termination system was activated, which intentionally destroyed the rocket. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and other individuals familiar with the space industry have referred to the test flight as a success.

Musk said at the time that it would take between "six to eight weeks" to get the infrastructure prepared for another launch. In October 2023, a senior SpaceX executive stated the company had been ready to launch the next test flight since September. He accused government regulators of disrupting the project's progress, adding the delay could lead to China beating US astronauts back to the Moon.

On 18 November 2023, SpaceX launched its second integrated Starship test, with both vehicles flying for a few minutes before separately exploding.

In early March 2024 SpaceX announced that it was targeting 14 March as the tentative launch date for its next uncrewed Starship launch configuration flight test, pending the issuance of a "launch license" by the FAA. This license was granted on 13 March 2024. On 14 March 2024 at 13:25 UTC, Starship launched for the 3rd time and for the first time Starship reached its planned suborbital trajectory. The flight ended with the booster experiencing a malfunction shortly before landing and the ship being lost during reentry over the Indian Ocean.

On 4 June 2024, SpaceX received the launch license for Starship's 4th test flight. The licensure itself was notable in that it was the first time that the FAA included a clause that would allow SpaceX to launch subsequent test flights without a mishap investigation, provided that they met a similar launch profile and used the same specification of hardware. The provision could prove to speed the development timeline.

Crewed launches
A significant milestone was achieved in May 2020, when SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts (Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken) into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during Crew Dragon Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station and marking the first crewed orbital launch from American soil in 9 years. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) in Florida.

Starlink
In May 2019, SpaceX launched the first large batch of 60 Starlink satellites, beginning to deploy what would become the world's largest commercial satellite constellation the following year. In 2022, most SpaceX launches focused on Starlink, a consumer internet business that sends batches of internet-beaming satellites and now has over 6,000 satellites in orbit.

On 16 July 2021, SpaceX entered an agreement to acquire Swarm Technologies, a private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet of things (IoT) devices, for $524million.

In December 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved the launch up to 7,500 of SpaceX's next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.

Launch vehicles

SpaceX has developed three launch vehicles. The small-lift Falcon 1 was the first launch vehicle developed and was retired in 2009. The medium-lift Falcon 9 and the heavy-lift Falcon Heavy are both operational.

Falcon 1 was a small rocket capable of placing several hundred kilograms into low Earth orbit. It launched five times between 2006 and 2009, of which two were successful. The Falcon 1 was the first privately funded, liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit.

Falcon 9 is a medium-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 22,800 kilograms (50,265   lb) to orbit, competing with the Delta IV and the Atlas V rockets, as well as other launch providers around the world. It has nine Merlin engines in its first stage. The Falcon 9 v1.0 rocket successfully reached orbit on its first attempt on 4 June 2010. Its third flight, COTS Demo Flight 2, launched on 22 May 2012 and launched the first commercial spacecraft to reach and dock with the International Space Station (ISS). The vehicle was upgraded to Falcon 9 v1.1 in 2013, Falcon 9 Full Thrust in 2015, and finally to Falcon 9 Block 5 in 2018. The first stage of Falcon 9 is designed to retro propulsively land, be recovered, and flown again.

Falcon Heavy is a heavy-lift launch vehicle capable of delivering up to 63,800   kg (140,700    lb) to Low Earth orbit (LEO) or 26,700    kg (58,900    lb) to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). It uses three slightly modified Falcon 9 first-stage cores with a total of 27 Merlin 1D engines. The Falcon Heavy successfully flew its inaugural mission on 6 February 2018, launching Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit

Both the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy are certified to conduct launches for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL). As of, the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have been launched times, resulting in  full mission successes, one partial success, and one in-flight failure. In addition, a Falcon 9 experienced a pre-flight failure before a static fire test in 2016.

SpaceX is developing a fully reusable super-heavy lift launch system known as Starship. It comprises a reusable first stage, called Super Heavy, and the reusable Starship second stage space vehicle. , the system was intended to supersede the company's existing launch vehicle hardware by the early 2020s.

Rocket engines

Since the founding of SpaceX in 2002, the company has developed several rocket engines – Merlin, Kestrel, and Raptor – for use in launch vehicles, Draco for the reaction control system of the Dragon series of spacecraft, and SuperDraco for abort capability in Crew Dragon.

Merlin is a family of rocket engines that uses liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 propellants. Merlin was first used to power the Falcon 1's first stage and is now used on both stages of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles. Kestrel uses the same propellants and was used as the Falcon 1 rocket's second-stage main engine.

Draco and SuperDraco are hypergolic liquid-propellant rocket engines. Draco engines are used on the reaction control system of the Dragon and Dragon 2 spacecraft. The SuperDraco engine is more powerful, and eight SuperDraco engines provide launch escape capability for crewed Dragon 2 spacecraft during an abort scenario.

Raptor is a new family of liquid oxygen and liquid methane-fueled full-flow staged combustion cycle engines to power the first and second stages of the in-development Starship launch system. Development versions were test-fired in late 2016, and the engine flew for the first time in 2019, powering the Starhopper vehicle to an altitude of 20 m.

Dragon spacecraft

SpaceX has developed the Dragon spacecraft to transport cargo and crew to the International Space Station (ISS). The first version of Dragon, used only for cargo, was first launched in 2010. The currently operational second generation Dragon spacecraft, known as Dragon 2, conducted its first flight, without crew, to the ISS in early 2019, followed by a crewed flight of Dragon 2 in 2020. The cargo variant of Dragon 2 flew for the first time in December 2020, for a resupply to the ISS as part of the CRS contract with NASA.

In March 2020 SpaceX revealed the Dragon XL, designed as a resupply spacecraft for NASA's planned Lunar Gateway space station under a Gateway Logistics Services (GLS) contract. Dragon XL is planned to launch on the Falcon Heavy, and is able to transport over 5000 kg to the Gateway. Dragon XL will be docked at the Gateway for six to twelve months at a time.

SpaceX designed a spacesuit to be worn inside the Dragon spacecraft to protect from possible depressurization. On 4 May 2024, SpaceX unveiled a second spacesuit designed for extravehicular activity, planned to be used for a spacewalk during the Polaris Dawn mission.

Autonomous spaceport drone ships

SpaceX routinely returns the first stage of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets after orbital launches. The rocket lands at a predetermined landing site using only its propulsion systems. When propellant margins do not permit a return to a launch site (RTLS), rockets return to a floating landing platform in the ocean, called autonomous spaceport drone ships (ASDS).

SpaceX also plans to introduce floating launch platforms. These are modified oil rigs to use in the 2020s to provide a sea launch option for their second-generation launch vehicle: the heavy-lift Starship system, consisting of the Super Heavy booster and Starship second stage.

Starlink
Starlink is an internet satellite constellation under development by Starlink Services, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SpaceX, that consists of thousands of cross-linked communications satellites in ~550   km orbits. Its goal is to address the significant unmet demand worldwide for low-cost broadband capabilities. Development began in 2015, and initial prototype test-flight satellites were launched on the SpaceX Paz satellite mission in 2017. In May 2019, SpaceX launched the first batch of 60 satellites aboard a Falcon 9. Initial test operation of the constellation began in late 2020 and first orders were taken in early 2021. Customers were told to expect internet service speeds of 50 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s and latency from 20 ms to 40 ms. In December 2022, Starlink reached over 1 million subscribers worldwide.

The planned large number of Starlink satellites has been criticized by astronomers due to concerns over light pollution,  with the brightness of Starlink satellites in both optical and radio wavelengths interfering with scientific observations. In response, SpaceX has implemented several upgrades to Starlink satellites aimed at reducing their brightness. The large number of satellites employed by Starlink also creates long-term dangers of space debris collisions. However, the satellites are equipped with krypton-fueled Hall thrusters which allow them to de-orbit at the end of their life. They are also designed to autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.

In December 2022, SpaceX announced Starshield, a program to incorporate military or government entity payloads on board a Starlink-derived satellite bus. The Space Development Agency is a key customer procuring satellites for a space-based missile defense system.

In June 2024, SpaceX introduced a compact version of its Starlink antennas, the "Starlink Mini," designed for mobile satellite internet use. Offered for $599 in an early access release, it was more expensive than the base model. The Mini antenna, half the size and one-third the weight of the Standard version, featured a built-in WiFi router, lower power consumption, and over 100 Mbps download speeds.

Other projects
In June 2015, SpaceX announced that it would sponsor a Hyperloop competition, and would build a 1.6 km long subscale test track near SpaceX's headquarters for the competitive events. The company has held the annual competition since 2017.

In collaboration with doctors and academic researchers, SpaceX invited all employees to participate in the creation of a COVID-19 antibody-testing program in 2020. As such, 4300 employees volunteered to provide blood samples resulting in a peer-reviewed scientific paper crediting eight SpaceX employees as coauthors and suggesting that a certain level of COVID-19 antibodies may provide lasting protection against the virus.

In July 2018, Musk arranged for his employees to build a mini-submarine to assist the rescue of children stuck in a flooded cavern in Thailand. Richard Stanton, leader of the international rescue diving team, urged Musk to facilitate the construction of the vehicle as a back-up, in case flooding worsened. Engineers at SpaceX and The Boring Company built the mini-submarine from a Falcon 9 liquid oxygen transfer tube in eight hours and personally delivered it to Thailand. By this time, however, eight of the 12 children had already been rescued using full face masks and oxygen under anesthesia; consequently Thai authorities declined to use the submarine.

Facilities
The company is headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas, which is also the primary manufacturing facility for its Starship launch vehicle. The primary manufacturing facility for the Falcon rocket and Dragon capsule is located in Hawthorne, California, the site of the company’s former headquarters. The company operates a research and major operation in Redmond, Washington, owns a test site in Texas and operates three launch sites, with another under development. SpaceX also operates regional offices in Texas, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. SpaceX was incorporated in the state of Delaware, but later reincorporated in Texas.

Headquarters, mission control, manufacturing, and refurbishment facilities
SpaceX Headquarters is located in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California. The large three-story facility, originally built by Northrop Corporation to build Boeing 747 fuselages, houses SpaceX's office space, mission control, and Falcon 9 manufacturing facilities.

The area has one of the largest concentrations of space sector headquarters, facilities, and/or subsidiaries in the U.S., including Boeing/McDonnell Douglas main satellite building campuses, The Aerospace Corporation, Raytheon, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, United States Space Force's Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, and AECOM, etc., with a large pool of aerospace engineers and recent college engineering graduates.

SpaceX uses a high degree of vertical integration in the production of its rockets and rocket engines. SpaceX builds its rocket engines, rocket stages, spacecraft, principal avionics and all software in-house in their Hawthorne facility, which is unusual for the space industry.

In January 2015, SpaceX announced it would be entering the satellite production business and global satellite internet business. The first satellite facility is a 30,000 sqft office building located in Redmond, Washington. As of January 2017, a second facility in Redmond was acquired with 40,625 sqft and has become a research and development laboratory for the satellites. In July 2016, SpaceX acquired an additional 8000 sqft office space in Irvine, California to focus on satellite communications.

Development and test facilities

SpaceX operates its Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas. All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on rocket test stands, and low-altitude VTVL flight testing of the Falcon 9 Grasshopper in 2012–2013 were carried out at McGregor. Testing of the much larger Starship prototypes is conducted at the SpaceX Starbase near Brownsville, Texas.

The company purchased the McGregor facilities from Beal Aerospace, where it refitted the largest test stand for Falcon 9 engine testing. SpaceX has made improvements to the facility since its purchase and has also extended the acreage by purchasing adjacent farmland. , the McGregor facility had seven test stands that are operated "18 hours a day, six days a week" and is building more test stands due to increased production and the company having a large manifest in the next several years. In addition to routine testing, Dragon capsules (following recovery after an orbital mission), are shipped to McGregor for de-fueling, cleanup, and refurbishment for reuse in future missions.

Launch facilities

SpaceX operates four orbital launch facilities: SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and LC-39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and SLC-4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for Falcon rockets, and OLM-A at Starbase near Brownsville, Texas for Starship.

SpaceX plans to open two additional launch facilities: SLC-6 at Vandenberg for Falcon launches and SLC-37 at Cape Canaveral for Starship launches. The company also plans to add Starship launch pads at Starbase (OLM-B) and Kennedy LC-39A.

SpaceX has indicated that they see a niche for each of the four orbital facilities and that they have sufficient launch business to fill each pad. The Vandenberg launch site enables highly inclined orbits (66–145°), while Cape Canaveral and Kennedy enable orbits of medium inclination (28.5–55°). Larger inclinations, including SSO, are possible from Florida by overflying Cuba.

Before it was retired, all Falcon 1 launches took place at the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Omelek Island of the Marshall Islands.

In April 2007, the Pentagon approved the use of SLC-40 by SpaceX. The site has been used since 2010 for Falcon 9 launches, mainly to low Earth and geostationary orbits. The former LC-13 at Cape Canaveral, now renamed Landing Zones 1 and 2, has since 2015 been used for Falcon 9 first-stage booster landings.

SLC-4E was leased from the military in 2011 and is used for payloads to polar orbits. The Vandenberg site can launch both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, but cannot launch to low inclination orbits. The neighboring SLC-4W was converted to Landing Zone 4 in 2015 for booster landings.

On 14 April 2014, SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for LC-39A. The pad was subsequently modified to support Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. SpaceX launched its first crewed mission to the ISS from Launch Pad 39A on 30 May 2020. Pad 39A has been prepared since 2019 to eventually accommodate Starship launches. With delays in launch FAA permits for Boca Chica, Texas, the 39A Starship preparation was accelerated in 2022.

SpaceX manufactures and flies Starship test vehicles from the SpaceX Starbase in Boca Chica near Brownsville, Texas, having announced first plans for the launch facility in August 2014. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the permit in July 2014. SpaceX broke ground on the new launch facility in 2014 with construction ramping up in the latter half of 2015, with the first suborbital launches from the facility in 2019 and orbital launches starting in 2023. Some residents of Boca Chica Village, Brownsville, and environmental activists criticized the site along with Starship development program in various aspects.

Contracts
SpaceX won demonstration and actual supply contracts from NASA for the International Space Station (ISS) with technology the company developed. SpaceX is also certified for U.S. military launches of Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle-class (EELV) payloads. With approximately thirty missions on the manifest for 2018 alone, SpaceX represented over $12   billion under contract.

Cargo to ISS

In 2006, SpaceX won a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) Phase 1 contract to demonstrate cargo delivery to the ISS, with a possible contract option for crew transport. Through this contract, designed by NASA to provide "seed money" through Space Act Agreements for developing new capabilities, NASA paid SpaceX $396   million to develop the cargo configuration of the Dragon spacecraft, while SpaceX developed the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with their resources. These Space Act Agreements have been shown to have saved NASA millions of dollars in development costs, making rocket development 4–10 times less expensive than if produced by NASA alone.

In December 2010, twith he launch of the SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 1 mission, SpaceX became the first private company to successfully launch, orbit, and recover a spacecraft. Dragon successfully berthed with the ISS during SpaceX COTS Demo Flight 2 in May 2012, a first for a private spacecraft.

Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) is a series of contracts awarded by NASA from 2008 to 2016 for the delivery of cargo and supplies to the ISS on commercially operated spacecraft. The first CRS contracts were signed in 2008 and awarded $1.6   billion to SpaceX for 12 cargo transport missions, covering deliveries to 2016. SpaceX CRS-1, the first of the 12 planned resupply missions, launched in October 2012, achieved orbit, berthed, and remained on station for 20 days, before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

CRS missions have flown approximately twice a year to the ISS since then. In 2015, NASA extended the Phase 1 contracts by ordering an additional three resupply flights from SpaceX, and then extended the contract further for a total of twenty cargo missions to the ISS. The final Dragon 1 mission, SpaceX CRS-20, departed the ISS in April 2020, and Dragon was subsequently retired from service. A second phase of contracts was awarded in January 2016 with SpaceX as one of the awardees. SpaceX will fly up to nine additional CRS flights with the upgraded Dragon 2 spacecraft. In March 2020, NASA contracted SpaceX to develop the Dragon XL spacecraft to send supplies to the Lunar Gateway space station. Dragon XL will be launched on a Falcon Heavy.

Crewed

SpaceX is responsible for the transportation of NASA astronauts to and from the ISS. The NASA contracts started as part of the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program, aimed at developing commercially operated spacecraft capable of delivering astronauts to the ISS. The first contract was awarded to SpaceX in 2011, followed by another in 2012 to continue development and testing of its Dragon 2 spacecraft.

In September 2014, NASA chose SpaceX and Boeing as the two companies that would be funded to develop systems to transport U.S. crews to and from the ISS. SpaceX won $2.6   billion to complete and certify Dragon 2 by 2017. The contracts called for at least one crewed flight test with at least one NASA astronaut aboard. Once Crew Dragon received NASA human-spaceflight certification, the contract required SpaceX to conduct at least two, and as many as six, crewed missions to the space station.

SpaceX completed the first key flight test of its Crew Dragon spacecraft, a Pad Abort Test, in May 2015, and successfully conducted a full uncrewed test flight in early 2019. The capsule docked to the ISS and then splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. In January 2020, SpaceX conducted an in-flight abort test, the last test flight before flying crew, in which the Dragon spacecraft fired its launch escape engines in a simulated abort scenario.

On 30 May 2020, the Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission was launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, the first time a crewed vehicle had launched from the U.S. since 2011, and the first SpaceX commercial crewed launch to the ISS. The Crew-1 mission was successfully launched to the International Space Station on 16 November 2020, with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, all members of the Expedition 64 crew. On 23 April 2021, Crew-2 was launched to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and K. Megan McArthur, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet. The Crew-2 mission successfully docked on 24 April 2021.

SpaceX also offers paid crewed spaceflights for private individuals. The first of these missions, Inspiration4, launched in 2021 on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman. The mission launched the Crew Dragon Resilience from the Florida Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle, placed the Dragon capsule into low Earth orbit, and ended successfully about three days later when the Resilience splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean. All four crew members received commercial astronaut training from SpaceX. The training included lessons in orbital mechanics, operating in a microgravity environment, stress testing, emergency-preparedness training, and mission simulations.

National defense

In 2005, SpaceX announced that it had been awarded an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, allowing the United States Air Force to purchase up to $100   million worth of launches from the company. Three years later, NASA announced that it had awarded an IDIQ Launch Services contract to SpaceX for up to $1   billion, depending on the number of missions awarded. In December 2012, SpaceX announced its first two launch contracts with the United States Department of Defense (DoD). The United States Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center awarded SpaceX two EELV-class missions: Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and Space Test Program 2 (STP-2). DSCOVR was launched on a Falcon 9 launch vehicle in 2015, while STP-2 was launched on a Falcon Heavy on 25 June 2019.

The Falcon 9 v1.1 was certified for National Security Space Launch (NSSL) in 2015, allowing SpaceX to contract launch services to the Air Force for any payloads classified under national security. This broke the monopoly held since 2006 by United Launch Alliance (ULA) over U.S. Air Force launches of classified payloads. In April 2016, the U.S. Air Force awarded the first such national security launch to SpaceX to launch the second GPS III satellite for $82.7   million. This was approximately 40% less than the estimated cost for similar previous missions. SpaceX also launched the third GPS III launch on 20 June 2020. In March 2018, SpaceX secured an additional $290   million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three GPS III satellites.

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also purchased launches from SpaceX, with the first taking place on 1 May 2017. In February 2019, SpaceX secured a $297   million contract from the U.S. Air Force to launch another three national security missions, all slated to launch no earlier than FY 2021. In August 2020, the U.S. Space Force awarded its National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contracts for the following 5–7 years. SpaceX won a contract for $316   million for one launch. In addition, SpaceX will handle 40% of the U.S. military's satellite launch requirements over the period.

SpaceX also designs and launches custom military satellites for the Space Development Agency as part of a new missile defense system in low Earth orbit. The constellation would give the United States capabilities to sense, target and potentially intercept nuclear missiles and hypersonic weapons launched from anywhere on Earth. Both China and Russia brought concerns to the United Nations about the program, and various organizations warn it could be destabilizing and trigger an arms race in space.

In March 2024, Reuters reported that, as part of a $1.8 billion contract signed with the National Reconnaissance Office in 2021, SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites. This new network, Reuters reported, would be able to operate as a swarm in low orbits.

Launch market competition and pricing pressure
SpaceX's low launch prices, especially for communications satellites flying to geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), have resulted in market pressure on its competitors to lower their own prices. Prior to 2013, the openly competed comsat launch market had been dominated by Arianespace (flying the Ariane 5) and International Launch Services (flying the Proton). With a published price of $56.5   million per launch to low Earth orbit, Falcon 9 rockets were the least expensive in the industry. European satellite operators are pushing the ESA to reduce launch prices of the Ariane 5 and Ariane 6 rockets as a result of competition from SpaceX.

SpaceX ended the United Launch Alliance (ULA) monopoly of U.S. military payloads when it began to compete for national security launches. In 2015, anticipating a slump in domestic, military, and spy launches, ULA stated that it would go out of business unless it won commercial satellite launch orders. To that end, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce to decrease launch costs by half.

Congressional testimony by SpaceX in 2017 suggested that the NASA Space Act Agreement process of "setting only a high-level requirement for cargo transport to the space station [while] leaving the details to industry" had allowed SpaceX to design and develop the Falcon 9 rocket on its own at a substantially lower cost. According to NASA's own independently verified numbers, SpaceX's total development cost for the Falcon 9 rocket, including the Falcon 1 rocket, was estimated at $390   million. In 2011, NASA estimated that it would have cost the agency about $4   billion to develop a rocket like the Falcon 9 booster based upon NASA's traditional contracting processes, about ten times more. In May 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine remarked that thanks to NASA's investments into SpaceX, the United States has 70% of the commercial launch market, a major improvement since 2012 when there were no commercial launches from the country.

As of 2024, SpaceX operates a Rideshare and Bandwagon (mid inclination) programs. This provides additional competition for small satellite launchers.

Leadership changes
In November 2022, the company announced COO Gwynne Shotwell and vice president Mark Juncosa would oversee Starbase, its Texas launch facility, along with Omead Afshar, who at the time oversaw operations for Tesla in Texas. Shyamal Patel, who was senior director of operations at the site, would shift to its Cape Canaveral site. CNBC reported that these executive moves demonstrated "the sense of urgency within the company to get Starship flying."

Workplace culture
According to former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, the company overall has a male-dominated employee culture, similar to that of the spaceflight industry in general. In December 2021, claims of workplace sexual harassment from five former SpaceX employees, ranging from interns to full engineers, were published. The former employees claimed to have experienced unwanted advances and uncomfortable interactions. Additionally, the accounts included claims of a culture of sexual harassment existing at the company and one where complaints made to executives, managers, and human resources officers went largely unaddressed.

In May 2022, a Business Insider article alleged that Musk engaged in sexual misconduct with a SpaceX flight attendant in a private jet in 2016 citing an anonymous friend of the flight attendant. In response, some employees collaborated on an open letter condemning "Elon's harmful Twitter behavior". It also asks the company to clearly define SpaceX's "no-asshole" and "zero tolerance" policies, which it says is unequally enforced from one employee to the next. The next day, Gwynne Shotwell announced that those employees who were involved with the letter had been terminated and claimed that unsponsored, unsolicited surveys were sent to employees during the work day and that some felt pressured to sign the letter.

The company has also been described as having a work culture that pushes employees to work excessively and is described as fostering a burnout culture. According to a memo by Blue Origin, a rival aerospace company,  SpaceX expected very long work hours, work on weekends, and limited use of holidays.

In June 2024, eight ex-employees, the same who had previously been fired for penning the open letter against Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against Musk and SpaceX alleging sexual harassment and discrimination.

Corporate vision
SpaceX has put forward an explicitly settler colonial vision for its launch systems and services like Starlink.

This colonial vision and impact has been identified as being essentially the same as terrestrial colonialism, with the same exploitive nature and new exploitive impact on Earth and extraterrestrial spaces.

title: SpaceX


text:
Michal Viewegh

Michal Viewegh  is one of the most popular contemporary Czech writers.

He is the most published Czech author of all time, with over a million books sold. In 1993 he earned the prestigious Jiří Orten award for Czech writers 30 years old or younger.

Viewegh survived a traumatic aortic rupture in 2012.

Life
Michal Viewegh was born in Prague on 31 March 1962. His mother is a lawyer. His father was a chemical engineer, and then the mayor of Sázava.

Viewegh graduated from Benešov Gymnazium in 1980. He studied economics at the Prague University of Economics and Business, but dropped out. He then completed a degree in Czech and in pedagogy at Charles University in the Philosophy department in 1988. While in school, Viewegh began publishing short stories in Mladá fronta, with his first story published in 1983.

After graduating from university in 1988, Viewegh worked as an elementary school teacher until 1993. In 1993, he was awarded the Jiří Orten award for young Czech authors. For two years, he worked as an editor at the publishing company Český spisovatel; after that, he was able to support himself  as a professional author.

Viewegh has been married twice, first to Jaroslava Macková, with whom he has one daughter, Michaela. In 2002, he married Veronika Vieweghová (née Kodytková). They have two daughters, Sára and Barbora. They divorced in 2015.

On 12 December 2012, Viewegh suffered a traumatic aorta rupture. He suffered from depression and memory loss during his rehabilitation and was unable to write. However, it also helped him gain a new perspective on the relative importance of some of his problems before the accident. Viewegh said that when he thinks about the fact that 90% of people with a ruptured aorta do not survive, he does not worry about criticism, the tabloids, or politics anymore.

He has lived most of his life in Sázava, a village in central Bohemia.

Works
Viewegh’s first book was the novella Názory na vraždu (Opinions on a Murder), published in 1990. His first full-length novel was Báječná léta pod psa (The Wonderful Years that Sucked), a semi-autobiographical novel which portrayed Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring in 1968 and the fall of communism in 1989. In 1997, it was adapted into a very successful film, directed by Petr Nikolaev.

Viewegh has published novels almost every spring since the late 1990s. He sells around 50,000 copies per book and has sold over a million books total, making him the most published Czech author of all time. His works have been translated into 23 languages. His most famous works include Báječná léta pod psa, Výchova dívek v Čechách (Bringing Up Girls in Bohemia, 1994), and Román pro ženy (A Novel for Women, 2001).

In addition to novels, which make up the majority of his work, Viewegh has also published several other genres of literature. Nápady laskavého čtenáře (Thoughts of a Loving Reader, 1993) and Nové nápady laskavého čtenáře (New Thoughts of a Loving Reader, 2000) are both examples of literary parody, in which Viewegh parodies famous Czech and world authors.

Viewegh has also published collections of short stories. Additionally, he has published several autobiographical works, each capturing a small portion of his life in diary format. Můj život po životě (My Life After Life), published in 2013, details his recovery from his ruptured aorta.

Since the ruptured aorta, Viewegh has been much less prolific and successful as a writer. He still suffers from short-term memory loss, lack of directional awareness, and depression. He publishes at a much slower rate than before the injury. The general consensus is that the quality of his writing has also declined; however, some argue that his works are less successful due to poor promotion from his publisher.

Relationship with tabloid newspapers
For years, Viewegh has fought Czech tabloids in the court system, and criticized them publicly, accusing the tabloids of invading his privacy and of publishing false information about him. In 2009, Viewegh and actor Marek Vašut started a petition Vzkaz bulváru a výzva kolegům (A Message to the Tabloids and an Appeal to Colleagues) criticizing Czech tabloid tactics. Many influential artists, including actress Jiřina Bohdalová, signed the petition.

Political Views
Viewegh’s 1992 novel Báječná léta pod psa uses humor to criticize conditions in Czechoslovakia under communism.

Viewegh was unhappy as a writer under communism, but likes the liberties of post-communist Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic. Viewegh has said that "in the eighties I wrote two novels and neither of them were published. They were banned from being printed for the normal ideological reasons. After the revolution came absolute freedom. I was able to write just how I wanted, and to publish whatever I wanted."

Viewegh is also opposed to right-wing former Czech president Václav Klaus. This attitude is most notably displayed in his 2002 novel Báječná léta s Klausem (The Wonderful Years with Klaus), which is a loose continuation of Báječná léta pod psa.

Scandals
In his column for Lidové noviny (Czech newspaper and online news site) published on 1 October 2018, Viewegh criticised Christine Blasey Ford's allegations of sexual assault against Brett Kavanaugh on the grounds that "putting her in an empty room, groping her, covering her mouth while trying to undress her" was an "innocent high-school petting" and that he thanks God that he, as a pubescent, was free to grope his female schoolmates without endangering his future career, without any "North-American cow" complaining about it. He has been criticised in turn by criminologist Pavel Houdek in a published open letter, that his views are what makes victims of sexual abuse keep it to themselves.

Works online in English

 * Hooter(short story), with a photo and brief biography
 * The Blissful Years of Lousy Living - translated excerpt from Báječná léta pod psa
 * Another Mournful Joke - parody of Milan Kundera

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Michal Viewegh


text:
User:Blarg~enwiki

blarg's user page..

Just started as a registered user (July 2004)..

move along.. nothing much to see here.. yet..

title: User:Blarg~enwiki


text:
Thaliacea

Thaliacea is a class of marine animals within the subphylum Tunicata, comprising the salps, pyrosomes and doliolids. Unlike their benthic relatives the ascidians, from which they are believed to have emerged, thaliaceans are free-floating (pelagic) for their entire lifespan. The group includes species with complex life cycles, with both solitary and colonial forms.

Anatomy
The three orders of thaliaceans are filter feeders. Pyrosomes are colonial animals, with multiple tiny ascidian-like zooids arranged in a cylinder closed at one end. All of the atrial siphons point inwards, emptying into a single, common cloaca in the centre of the cylinder. As the water exhaled by the zooids exits through a common opening, the water movement slowly propels the pyrosome through the sea. Salps and doliolids have a transparent barrel-shaped body through which they pump water, propelling them through the sea, and from which they extract food. The bulk of the body consists of the large pharynx. Water enters the pharynx through the large buccal siphon at the front end of the animal, and is forced through a number of slits in the pharyngeal wall into an atrium lying just behind it. From here, the water is expelled through an atrial siphon at the posterior end. The pharynx is both a respiratory organ and a digestive one, filtering food from the water with the aid of a net of mucus slowly pulled across the slits by cilia.

Doliolids and salps alternate between asexual and sexual life stages. Salp colonies can be several meters in length. Doliolids and salps rely on muscular action to propel themselves through surrounding seawater.

Thaliaceans have complex lifecycles. Doliolid eggs hatch into swimming tadpole larvae, which are the common larval stage for other urochordates. Pyrosomes are ovoviviparous, meaning the eggs develop inside the "mother" without the tadpole stage. Salps are viviparous, meaning the embryos are linked to the "mother" by a placenta. This then develops into an oozoid, which reproduces asexually by budding to produce a number of blastozoids, which form long chains (see image). The individual blastozoids then reproduce sexually to produce the eggs and the next generation of oozoids.

The dorsal, hollow nerve cord and notochord found in Chordata has been lost, except for a rudimentary one in some doliolid larvae.

The jell pump and the carbon cycle
Thaliaceans play an important role in the ecology of the sea. Their dense faecal pellets sink to the bottom of the oceans, and this may be a major part of the worldwide carbon cycle.

Taxonomy
The class is a relatively small one, and is divided into three orders:

Class Thaliacea
 * Order Pyrosomida Jones 1848
 * Family Pyrosomatidae Garstang 1929
 * Subfamily Pyrostremmatinae van Soest 1979
 * Genus Pyrostremma Garstang 1929 [Propyrosoma Ivanova-Kazas 1962 ]
 * Subfamily Pyrosomatinae
 * Genus Pyrosoma Péron 1804 [Dipleurosoma Brooks 1906 ]
 * Genus Pyrosomella van Soest 1979
 * Order Salpida [Hemimyaria; Desmomyaria Uljanin 1884]
 * Family Salpidae Franstedt 1885
 * Subfamily Cyclosalpinae Yount 1954
 * Genus Cyclosalpa Blainville 1827 [Orthocoela Macdonald 1864 ; Pyrosomopsis Macdonald 1864 ]
 * Genus Helicosalpa Todaro 1902
 * Subfamily Salpinae Lahille 1888
 * Genus Brooksia (tunicate) Metcalf 1918
 * Genus Iasis (tunicate) Savigny 1816 [Weelia Yount 1954 ; Salpa (Iasis) Savigny 1816 ]
 * Genus Ihlea Metcalf 1919 non Metcalf 1918 [Apsteinia Metcalf 1918 non Schmeil 1894]
 * Genus Metcalfina Ihle & Ihle-Landenberg 1933
 * Genus Pegea Savigny 1816
 * Genus Ritteriella Metcalf 1919 [Ritteria Metcalf 1918 non Kramer 1877]
 * Genus Salpa Forskål 1775 [Biphora Bruguière 1789; Bifora Agassiz 1846; Dagysa Banks & Solander 1773]
 * Genus Soestia [Holothurium sensu Pallas 1774]
 * Genus Thetys Tilesius 1802 [Salpa (Thetys) Tilesius 1802]
 * Genus Thalia Blumenbach 1798 [Dubreuillia Lesson 1832; Edusa Gistl 1848]
 * Genus Traustedtia Metcalf 1918 [Salpa (Traustedtia) Metcalf 1918]
 * Order Doliolida [Cyclomyaria Uljanin 1884 ]
 * Suborder Doliolidina
 * Family Doliolidae Bronn 1862
 * Genus Dolioletta Borgert 1894
 * Genus Doliolina Garstang 1933
 * Genus Dolioloides Garstang 1933
 * Genus Doliolum Quoy & Gaimard 1834
 * Family Doliopsoididae Godeaux 1996
 * Genus Doliopsoides Krüger 1939
 * Suborder Doliopsidina
 * Family Doliolunidae Robison, Raskoff & Sherlock 2005
 * Genus Pseudusa Robison, Raskoff & Sherlock 2005
 * Family Doliopsidae Godeaux 1996
 * Genus Doliolula Robison, Raskoff & Sherlock 2005
 * Genus Doliopsis Vogt 1854
 * Family Paradoliopsidae Godeaux 1996
 * Genus Paradoliopsis Godeaux 1996

title: Thaliacea


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Inborn

Inborn was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

From Cleanup: Inborn dict. def. (moved from Cleanup by SimonP) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Dicdef, badly mangled by the creator. Wikipedia is not a dictionary.  Delete.  --Ardonik 19:50, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: dictdef (might as well have listed "see: innate, inherent, essential, natural"). Geogre 20:28, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete dicdef. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:15, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Inborn


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chinhai

Chinhai was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was transwiki to Wiktionary. As of 16:31, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC), the article is still in the queue to be moved. Rossami (talk) 16:31, 21 Nov 2004 (UTC)

From Cleanup: Chinhai rubbish? (moved from Cleanup by SimonP)
 * delete. Either a joke or obscure slang. There appear to be several places and a type of salamander called Chinhai though. Ianb 18:07, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * If the creator wasn't anonymous, I would have dropped a message encouraging them to contribute to the Wiktionaries. I think that would be an outstanding stub for the English Wiktionary, but its place is not here.  Delete.  --Ardonik 19:48, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * More precisely, transwiki to Wiktionary (let them decide if it merits keeping), but delete from Wikipedia. -- Jmabel 00:29, Jul 17, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete, smells fictional so no transwiki. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:17, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Chinhai


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Stefan Pernar

Stefan Pernar was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

From Cleanup: Stefan Pernar importance? Vanity page (moved from Cleanup by SimonP) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * delete. Not notable in the broader scheme of things. Ianb 18:05, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. German vanity page Vanity page for a German; link number 10 on Google is the Wikipedia cleanup entry for the article.  I can't tell why an anonymous user blanked the article, though.  Maybe they thought it was vanity, too?  --Ardonik 19:43, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete simple vanity. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:22, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/unf

Unf was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

From Cleanup: unf dicdef, but possibly more? Dunc_Harris|☺ (moved from Cleanup by SimonP) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * Does anyone know if UNF is a used acronym for anything? I noticed that that redirects here. FZ 19:25, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * I call BS. It can't see it anywhere, and the Acronym Finder does not agree with the article.  It's probably something used by the article's creator and his/her little circle of friends.  Delete.  (Incidentally, the only time I've ever seen the word "unf" before now was in the Terrible Secret of Space music video that I saw on TechTV.)  --Ardonik 19:38, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: I would need to see massive popularity before I'd be anything but deletionist about this kind of slang dictdef.  Awful. Geogre 20:26, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * If University of North Florida existed, I'd suggest redirecting there. Just delete. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:25, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/unf


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Medders

Medders was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

From Cleanup: Medders etymology of a last name (moved from Cleanup by SimonP)

This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * With all of these first name/family name/etymology articles listed on VfD recently, has anyone given any thought as to which MediaWiki project they should belong to? It's not so clear to me whether they should go in the Wiktionary, Wikipedia, or in some other place.  Surely this has been debated before?  Abstaining, --Ardonik 19:33, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: I don't know that there is one, yet. It seems like a genealogy Wiki would be logical.  At present, Wiktionary is the best target.  I know that paper dictionaries avoid the subject, for obvious reasons, but, if there were a category in Wiktionary that would tag the entries for movement later, it might be a fair fit. (Delete here, though, for dictdef.) Geogre 20:22, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is not a geneaological dictionary. Delete. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:26, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

title: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Medders


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Setupbuilder

Setupbuilder was proposed for deletion. This page is an archive of the discussion about the proposed deletion. This page is no longer live. Further comments should be made on the article's talk page rather than here so that this page is preserved as an historic record. The result of the debate was DELETE

From Cleanup: Setupbuilder ad (moved from Cleanup by SimonP) This page is now preserved as an archive of the debate and, like other '/delete' pages is no longer 'live'. Subsequent comments on the issue, the deletion or on the decision-making process should be placed on the relevant 'live' pages. Please do not edit this page.
 * yet another software ad. Delete. Ianb 18:09, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * There ought to be a "no advertising" policy to discourage this sort of behavior. Maybe something like "Wikipedia is not your billboard."  Delete the stupid thing.  --Ardonik 19:25, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Keep - Fits in with the other software articles we allow on wikipedia. --Buster 19:57, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. We already do have a "no advertising" policy, see what Wikipedia entries are not item 18. But it should be more prominent, and particularly should get a mention in the deletion policy. Andrewa 20:04, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete: Very clearly an ad. "Full solution" to all our needs. Bleck. Geogre 20:18, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Our professional and friendly staff are waiting to fulfill all your deletion needs and much, much more! Oh, please don't get me started. - Lucky 6.9 22:56, 16 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * Delete. Random product, advert. Wile E. Heresiarch 08:45, 18 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * I'm starting to think a bot could handle spotting advertising. Number of exclamation marks would be part of a good metric. Delete ad. -- Cyrius|✎ 19:32, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)


text:
South Wales

South Wales (De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards to include Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people would probably recognise that they lived in both south Wales and west Wales. The Brecon Beacons National Park covers about a third of south Wales, containing Pen y Fan, the highest British mountain south of Cadair Idris in Snowdonia.

A point of some discussion is whether the first element of the name should be capitalised: 'south Wales' or 'South Wales'. As the name is a geographical expression rather than a specific area with well-defined borders, style guides such as those of the BBC and The Guardian use the form 'south Wales'. In a more authoritative style guide, the Welsh Government, in their international gateway website, Wales.com, state that it should always be capitalised. It is always capitalised on motorway signs.

History
Between the Statute of Rhuddlan of 1284 and the Laws in Wales Act 1535, crown land in Wales formed the Principality of Wales. This was divided into a Principality of south Wales and a Principality of north Wales. The southern principality was made up of the counties of Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, areas that had previously been part of the Welsh kingdom of Deheubarth ('the southern land'). The legal responsibility for this area lay in the hands of the Justiciar of South Wales based at Carmarthen. Other parts of southern Wales were in the hands of various Marcher Lords.

The Laws in Wales Acts 1542 created the Court of Great Sessions in Wales based on four legal circuits. The Brecon circuit served the counties of Brecknockshire, Radnorshire and Glamorgan while the Carmarthen circuit served Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire. Monmouthshire was attached to the Oxford circuit for judicial purposes. These seven southern counties were thus differentiated from the six counties of north Wales.

The Court of the Great Sessions came to an end in 1830, but the counties survived until the Local Government Act 1972 which came into operation in 1974. The creation of the county of Powys merged one northern county (Montgomeryshire) with two southern ones (Breconshire and Radnorshire).

There are thus different concepts of south Wales. Glamorgan and Monmouthshire are generally accepted by all as being in south Wales. But the status of Breconshire or Carmarthenshire, for instance, is more debatable. In the western extent, from Swansea westwards, local people might feel that they live in both south Wales and west Wales. Areas to the north of the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains are generally considered to be in Mid Wales. The valleys and upland mountain ridges were once a very rural area noted for its river valleys and ancient forests and lauded by romantic poets such as William Wordsworth as well as poets in the Welsh language, although the interests of the latter lay more in society and culture than in the evocation of natural scenery. This natural environment changed to a considerable extent during the early Industrial Revolution when the Glamorgan and Monmouthshire valley areas were exploited for coal and iron. By the 1830s, hundreds of tons of coal were being transported by barge to ports in Cardiff and Newport. In the 1870s, coal was transported by rail transport networks to Newport Docks, at the time the largest coal exporting docks in the world, and by the 1880s coal was being exported from Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.

The Marquess of Bute, who owned much of the land north of Cardiff, built a steam railway system on his land that stretched from Cardiff into many of the South Wales Valleys where the coal was being found. Lord Bute then charged fees per ton of coal that was transported out using his railways. With coal mining and iron smelting being the main trades of south Wales, many thousands of immigrants from the Midlands, Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall and even Italy came and set up homes and put down roots in the region. Very many came from other coal mining areas such as Somerset, the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire and the tin mines of Cornwall such as Geevor Tin Mine, as a large but experienced and willing workforce was required. Whilst some of the migrants left, many settled and established in the south Wales Valleys between Swansea and Abergavenny as English-speaking communities with a unique identity. Industrial workers were housed in cottages and terraced houses close to the mines and foundries in which they worked. The large influx over the years caused overcrowding which led to outbreaks of Cholera, and on the social and cultural side, the near-loss of the Welsh language in the area.

The 1930s inter-war Great Depression in the United Kingdom saw the loss of almost half of the coal pits in the South Wales Coalfield, and their number declined further in the years following World War II. This number is now very low, following the UK miners' strike (1984–85), and the last 'traditional' deep-shaft mine, Tower Colliery, closed in January 2008.

Despite the intense industrialisation of the coal mining valleys, many parts of the landscape of South Wales such as the upper Neath valley, the Vale of Glamorgan and the valleys of the River Usk and River Wye remain distinctly beautiful and unspoilt and have been designated Sites of Special Scientific Interest. In addition, many once heavily industrialised sites have reverted to wilderness, some provided with a series of cycle tracks and other outdoor amenities. Large areas of forestry and open moorland also contribute to the amenity of the landscape.

Industrialised areas in the 19th and 20th centuries
Merthyr Tydfil (Merthyr Tudful) grew around the Dowlais Ironworks which was founded to exploit the locally abundant seams of iron ore, and in time it became the largest iron-producing town in the world. New coal mines were sunk nearby to feed the furnaces and in time produced coal for export. By the 1831 census, the population of Merthyr was 60,000—more at that time than Cardiff, Swansea and Newport combined—and its industries included coal mines, iron works, cable factory, engine sheds and sidings and many others. The town was also the birthplace of Joseph Parry, composer of the song Myfanwy.

The Heads of the Valleys towns, including Rhymney, Tredegar and Ebbw Vale, rose out of the industrial revolution, producing coal, metal ores and later steel.

Aberfan: The Merthyr Vale colliery began to produce coal in 1875. Spoil from the mine workings was piled on the hills close to the village which grew nearby. Tipping went on until the 1960s. Although nationalised, the National Coal Board failed to appreciate the danger they had created. In October 1966, heavy rain made the giant coal tip unstable, resulting in the Aberfan disaster. The recent dumping of small particles of coal and ash known as 'tailings' seems to have been partly responsible. A 30 ft black wave tore downhill across the Glamorganshire Canal and swept away houses on its path towards the village school. 114 children and 28 adults were killed.

The Rhondda Valleys (Rhondda Fach and Rhondda Fawr) housed around 3,000 people in 1860, but by 1910 the population had soared to 160,000. The Rhondda had become the heart of a massive South Wales coal industry. Mining accidents below ground were common, and in 1896 fifty-seven men and boys were killed in a gas explosion at the Tylorstown Colliery. An enquiry found that the pit involved had not been properly inspected over the previous 15 months.

Ebbw Vale, the valley of the Ebbw River which stretches from the town of Ebbw Vale to Newport, includes the mining towns and villages of Newbridge, Risca, Crumlin, Abercarn and Cwmcarn. The Carboniferous Black Vein coal seams in the area lay some 900 feet (275 metres) below the surface and the mining activity associated with it was responsible for many tragic subsurface explosions, roof collapses and mining accidents.

Now the Valleys' heavy industrial past is overprinted with urban regeneration, tourism and multi-national investment. Large factory units, either empty or turned over to retail use, bear witness to the lack of success in replacing older industries.

Language
The native language of the majority of people in South Wales is English, but there are many who also speak Welsh. In western parts of Glamorgan, particularly the Neath and Swansea Valleys, there remain significant Welsh-speaking communities such as Ystradgynlais and Ystalyfera, which share a heritage with other ex-anthracite mining areas in eastern Carmarthenshire, as much as with the Glamorgan valleys.

The local slang, dialect and phrases of the South Wales Valleys communities have been referred to as 'Wenglish', and are often used with comic effect. The dialect is found in such coastal towns as Barry, as featured in the BBC comedy series, Gavin & Stacey.

Welsh is now a compulsory language up to GCSE level for all students who start their education in Wales. Several secondary schools offering Welsh medium education operate in this area, for example Ysgol Gyfun Llanhari in Pontyclun, Ysgol Gyfun Y Cymmer in Porth in the Rhondda, Ysgol Gyfun Rhydywaun in Penywaun in the Cynon Valley, Ysgol Gyfun Gwynllyw in Pontypool, Ysgol Gyfun Cwm Rhymni in Blackwood, Ysgol Gymraeg Plasmawr in Cardiff and Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg in Church Village.

A significant number of people from ethnic minority communities speak another language as their first language, particularly in Cardiff and Newport. Commonly spoken languages in some areas include Punjabi, Bengali, Arabic, Somali and Chinese, and increasingly Central European languages such as Polish.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, there was a vigorous literary and musical culture centred round eisteddfodau. Despite a few timid attempts to emulate this literature in English, it can be argued that few writers seem to connect with either the landscape or the literary tradition. The one exception, to some extent, can be considered to be Dylan Thomas.

Culture

 * Welsh Factor talent competition

Religion
The South Wales landscape is marked by numerous chapels, places of worship (past and present) of the various Christian Nonconformist congregations. The Baptist congregation at Ilston, Gower, moved to Swansea, Massachusetts, but after the restoration of the Anglican worship with the issue of the Book of Common Prayer in 1662, several "gathered" churches survived belonging to the Baptist, Independent and Presbyterian denominations. In the 18th century members of some of these congregations became dissatisfied with the theological innovations of some trained ministers, and created new congregations such as that at Hengoed near Ystrad Mynach. In the same century, churches were sometimes involved in the Methodist movement, especially at Groeswen and Watford near Caerphilly, which both received frequent visits from John Wesley The largest denomination, however, became the Calvinist Methodists (later the Presbyterian Church of Wales), whose distinctive grey stone chapels can be seen in many parts.

These were mainly Welsh-language congregations. Anglicanism in South Wales became autonomous from the Church of England with the Welsh Church Act 1914, but the immediate demise of the denomination feared at that time has not taken place in the Church in Wales. There are a number of Brethren Assemblies in Cardiff and in the Swansea area and Free Presbyterian Churches in Rhiwderin, near Newport and at Merthyr Tydfil. The Roman Catholic community, despite systematic persecution, survived in the 17th to 19th centuries, especially in Brecon and among minor gentry such as the Vaughans of Welsh Bicknor, on the Monmouthshire–Herefordshire border. Among members of foreign origin of later urban Catholic congregations were the Bracchi, Italians in the café and catering trades often from Bardi in the Apennines.

Post-war diversity has brought mosques, especially in Cardiff and Newport, Sikh gurdwaras, including one on the mountain near Abercynon and a growing number of Evangelical and Pentecostal congregations. These often add a strongly international element into local life, such as the "Pont" twinning project between Pontypridd and Mbale, Uganda, and the creation of "Fairtrade" relationships with primary producers worldwide.

Industry today
The former heavy industries of coal and iron production have disappeared since the economic struggles of the 1970s, with the closures of that decade continuing sharply into the 1980s, and by July 1985 just 31 coal pits remained in the region. Further closures left the region with just one deep mine by the early 1990s, and this finally closed in January 2008, by which time it had transferred to private ownership after being sold off by the National Coal Board.

These industries have since largely been replaced by service sector industries.

The cities along the M4 corridor are home to a number of high-profile blue-chip companies such as Admiral Insurance, Legal & General and the Welsh-based Principality Building Society. A large number of telephone call centres are located in the region and in particular in the Valleys area. Merthyr Tydfil is home to the principal UK call centre for German mobile telephone company, T-Mobile. Many jobs are also provided in small-scale and family businesses.

One site of note on the M4 corridor is Port Talbot Steelworks – the largest steel producer in the UK and one of the biggest in Europe.

The television and film sectors are fast becoming a major industry in South Wales. In 2021, the Welsh screen sector saw a turnover of £575 million. Prominent film studios have been established in Cardiff (Wolf Studios Wales, Seren Stiwdios, Enfys Studios) as well as Bridgend (Dragon Studios) and Swansea (Bay Studios).

Railways
Great Western Railway operate services from Swansea, Cardiff Central and Newport to London Paddington with Class 800s. Most services in South Wales are operated by Transport for Wales Rail on the South Wales Main Line and associated branches such as the Valley Lines.

Media
Radio stations include:

The Welsh national media is based in Cardiff where the BBC and ITV have their main studios and offices.

title: South Wales


text: Category:Geography of Wales

title: Category:Geography of Wales


text:
Lake Poopó

Lake Poopó (Lago Poopó ) was a large saline lake in a shallow depression in the Altiplano in Oruro Department, Bolivia, at an altitude of approximately 3,700 m. Due to the lake's length and width (90 by), it made up the eastern half of Oruro, known as a mining region in southwest Bolivia. The permanent part of the lake body covered approximately 1,000 sqkm and it was the second-largest lake in the country. The lake received most of its water from the Desaguadero River, which flows from Lake Titicaca at the north end of the Altiplano. Since the lake lacked any major outlet and had a mean depth of less than 3 m, the surface area differed greatly seasonally.

In 2002, the lake was designated as a site for conservation under the Ramsar Convention. By December 2015, the lake had completely dried up, leaving only a few marshy areas. Despite the lake rebounding from two previous recorded drying instances, as of 2016, the lake's recovery is considered unlikely. Suggested causes of the decline are the melting of the Andes glaciers and loss of their waters, because of a drought due to climate change, as well as continued diversion of water for mining and agriculture.

Archaeological evidence
Archaeological investigations conducted by the San Andrés University of La Paz, Bolivia, shows the influence of the Wankarani culture in the Poopó area. Complex central urban areas, such as villages and towns, were developed that expanded into the Poopó basin during the Late Formative period, (200 BC – 200 AD), probably in conjunction with changing patterns of agriculture. Herders and the life style of llama caravan merchants coexisted with more sedentary farmers in a harmonious system of exchange of goods and services.

Other investigators examining the following period, the Early Regional Developments (c. 300 – 900 AD), have concluded that the size of the inhabited areas increased. The South Poopó inhabitants developed a unique style of ceramics style with triangular spirals. The east portion of the lake has evidence of an important Tiwanaku enclave, with ceramic styles from the core Titicaca area and surrounding styles, demonstrating the interactions between different peoples in the area.

Lake dynamics
The main inlet of Lake Poopó (roughly 92% of the water) came from the Desaguadero River, which entered the lake at the north end. It flowed south from Lake Titicaca. There were numerous smaller inlets along the eastern shore of the lake, many of which were dry most of the year. At times of very high water levels, Poopó was connected to the salt desert Salar de Coipasa in the west. A minor outlet led to Salar de Uyuni in the far south of the Altiplano, but as the lake lacks any major outlet, it is classified as an endorheic basin.

When the water level of Lake Titicaca was below 3810 m, the flow of Desaguadero River was so low it could no longer compensate for the massive water losses due to evaporation from the surface of Lake Poopó. At this point, the lake volume began to decrease. At its maximum in 1986, the lake had an area of 3500 km2. During the years that followed, the surface area steadily decreased until 1994, when the lake disappeared completely. The time period between 1975 and 1992 was the longest period in recent times when the lake had a continuous water body.

Action has been taken in order to make the area ecologically sustainable again, with the help of funding from the European Union. But the efforts have been unable to offset other changes: since 1995 regional temperatures have risen and consequently tripled evaporation rates. In addition, water was drawn off for mining and irrigation, compounding the problems. On 20 January 2016 the area was declared a disaster zone by the Bolivian government.

Salinity and geology
The water of Lake Poopó was highly saline. The salinity was a result of the endorheic nature of the hydrological system on the Altiplano, which allowed all weathered ions to remain in the system. The salinity of Lake Poopó was further increased by the arid climate and the high evaporation from the lake surface.

In the northern end of Lake Poopó, dilution of the salinity occurred due to freshwater flow from the Desaguadero River. The salt gradient of the water increased towards the south.

The salinity varied with water volume. During October and November 2006, the salinity in the north end of the lake varied between brackish and saline (15–30,000 mg/L). In the south end of the lake the water was classified as a brine (105,000–125,000 mg/L). The water type was a 4–2 Na-(Mg)-Cl-(SO4).

Geological sources of sodium chloride (NaCl), such as halite and feldspars, are present in the drainage area. These could also contribute to the salinity of Lake Poopó. The lake body was situated on top of Cenozoic deposits, consisting mainly of unconsolidated material. These sediments are the remains of extensive prehistoric lakes, which covered the Altiplano during at least five glaciation periods.

Mining and heavy metals
There is a long tradition of mining in the Poopó Basin. Extraction of metals was ordered in the 13th century to support the Inca army. After Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the mining operations increased in scale. At this point the region became known as one of the mining centres of Bolivia.

The mining districts are situated at the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental along the eastern border of the Poopó basin. The most important minerals to the economy are silver and tin.

Studies have shown elevated concentrations of heavy metals in surface and ground waters of the Poopó basin. These metals are naturally present in the bedrock, from which they are released through weathering processes. The mining activities in the area further contributes to the heavy metal pollution. Acid leaching from mines and mechanical processing of ore speed up the process.

The major part of the heavy metals transported to Lake Poopó were immobilized in the bottom sediments. But concentrations of arsenic, lead, and cadmium in the lake water exceeded Bolivian and World Health Organization guideline values for drinking water.

Flora and fauna
There were only three fish species in the system: the native pupfish Orestias agassizii and catfish Trichomycterus rivulatus, and the introduced silverside Odontesthes bonariensis. The lake had a relatively large fish population, but by 2017 pollution and the near-complete reduction of water had all but decimated the locally important fishing industry.

The aquatic bird life was very diverse, with a total of 34 species. Most famous are the three species of flamingo (Andean, James's and Chilean), which mainly lived in the shallow lagoons in the northern and eastern parts of the lake. An inventory of the bird population, made in 2000 in cooperation with BirdLife International, identified 6 threatened species and others that are near-threatened. Among these are the Andean flamingo and the Andean condor.

A total of 17 higher plants and 3 species of algae were identified in and around Lake Poopó. Due to the constant drought and flooding, the littoral zone experienced great disturbances. As a result, there was hardly any vegetation to be found on the shores of the lake.

Effects of the loss of the lake
The sparse communities nearby have suffered culturally and financially due to the loss of the lake, as the local economy was dependent on lake fishing. Additionally, many bird species native to Bolivia and internationally have been affected due to loss of food, and an annual migration area.

title: Lake Poopó


text:
United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is the chief oversight committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to the Department of Homeland Security and other homeland security concerns, as well as the functioning of the government itself, including the National Archives, budget and accounting measures other than appropriations, the Census, the federal civil service, the affairs of the District of Columbia and the United States Postal Service. It was called the United States Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs before homeland security was added to its responsibilities in 2004. It serves as the Senate's chief investigative and oversight committee. Its chair is the only Senate committee chair who can issue subpoenas without a committee vote.

History
While elements of the committee can be traced back into the 19th century, its modern origins began with the creation of the Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Departments on April 18, 1921. The Committee on Expenditures in the Executive Department was renamed the Committee on Government Operations in 1952, which was reorganized as the Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1978. After passage of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the committee became the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and added homeland security to its jurisdiction.

Of the five current subcommittees, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is the oldest and most storied, having been created at the same time as the Committee on Government Operations in 1952. The Subcommittee on the Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia was established after the creation of the Committee on Governmental Affairs in 1978. The Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services and International Security was created in 2003.

Two ad hoc subcommittees were established in January 2007 to reflect the committee's expanded homeland security jurisdiction. They were the Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and the Subcommittee on State, Local, and Private Sector Preparedness and Integration. The Subcommittee on Contracting was added in 2009. In 2011, the Disaster and State, Local, and Private Sector subcommittees were merged to form the Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery and Intergovernmental Affairs.

Over the years, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and its predecessors have dealt with a number of important issues, including government accountability, congressional ethics, regulatory affairs, and systems and information security. In 2003, after the Homeland Security Act of 2002 established the Department of Homeland Security, the committee adopted primary oversight of the creation and subsequent policies, operations, and actions of the department.

In the past decade, the committee has focused particularly on the Department of Homeland Security's ability to respond to a major catastrophe, such as Hurricane Katrina; the rise of homegrown terrorism in the United States; and the vulnerabilities of the nation's most critical networks, those operating systems upon which our national defense, economy, and way of life depend, such as the power grid, water treatment facilities, transportation and financial networks, nuclear reactors, and dams.

In February 2014, staff working for committee ranking member Senator Tom Coburn issued a report raising concerns that some passwords protecting highly sensitive government data "wouldn't pass muster for even the most basic civilian email account."

Jurisdiction
In accordance of Rule XXV(k) of the United States Senate, all proposed legislation, messages, petitions, memorials, and other matters relating primarily to the following subjects is referred to the Senate Homeland Security Committee:
 * 1) Archives of the United States;
 * 2) Budget and accounting measures, other than appropriations, except as provided in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974;
 * 3) Census and collection of statistics, including economic and social statistics;
 * 4) Congressional organization, except for any part of the matter that amends the rules or orders of the Senate;
 * 5) Department of Homeland Security, as provided in S.Res.445.
 * 6) Federal Civil Service;
 * 7) Government information;
 * 8) Intergovernmental relations;
 * 9) Municipal affairs of the District of Columbia, except appropriations therefor;
 * 10) Organization and management of United States nuclear export policy;
 * 11) Organization and reorganization of the executive branch of Government;
 * 12) Postal Service; and
 * 13) Status of officers and employees of the United States, including their classification, compensation, and benefits.

The committee also has the duty of:
 * 1) receiving and examining reports of the Comptroller General of the United States and of submitting such recommendations to the Senate as it deems necessary or desirable in connection with the subject matter of such reports;
 * 2) studying the efficiency, economy, and effectiveness of all agencies and departments of the Government;
 * 3) evaluating the effects of laws enacted to reorganize the legislative and executive branches of the Government; and
 * 4) studying the intergovernmental relationships between the United States and the States and municipalities, and between the United States and international organizations of which the United States is a member.

Members, 118th Congress

 * Subcommittees

Committee on Expenditures in Executive Departments, 1921–1952

 * Medill McCormick (R-Ill.) 1921–1925
 * David A. Reed (R-Pa.) 1925–1927
 * Frederic M. Sackett (R-Ky.) 1927–1930
 * Guy D. Goff (R-W.Va.) 1930–1931
 * Frederick Steiwer (R-Ore.) 1931–1933
 * J. Hamilton Lewis (D-Ill.) 1933–1939
 * Frederick Van Nuys (D-Ind.) 1939–1942
 * J. Lister Hill (D-Ala.) 1942–1947
 * George D. Aiken (R-Vt.) 1947–1949
 * John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) 1949–1952

Committee on Government Operations, 1952–1977

 * John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) 1952–1953
 * Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) 1953–1955
 * John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) 1955–1972
 * Samuel J. Ervin Jr. (D-N.C.) 1972–1974
 * Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-Conn.) 1974–1977

Committee on Governmental Affairs, 1977–2005

 * Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-Conn.) 1977–1981
 * William V. Roth, Jr. (R-Del.) 1981–1987
 * John H. Glenn, Jr. (D-Ohio) 1987–1995
 * William V. Roth, Jr. (R-Del.) 1995
 * Theodore F. Stevens (R-Alaska) 1995–1997
 * Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) 1997–2001
 * Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) 2001
 * Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) 2001
 * Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) 2001–2003
 * Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) 2003–2005

Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, 2005–present

 * Susan M. Collins (R-Maine) 2005–2007
 * Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) 2007–2013
 * Tom Carper (D-Del.) 2013–2015
 * Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) 2015–2021
 * Gary Peters (D-Mich.) 2021–present

117th Congress

 * Subcommittees

116th Congress

 * Subcommittees


text:
Prograde

Prograde can refer to:

 * Retrograde and prograde motion, in astronomy, a type of motion of astronomical bodies
 * Metamorphism, in geology, describes mineral changes in rocks under increasing pressure and/or temperature conditions
 * Progradation, in geography / geomorphology, refers to the growth of a river delta

title: Prograde


text:
User talk:Steenies

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title: User talk:Steenies