title: GPT-3

text: Sixty percent of the weighted pre-training dataset for GPT-3 comes from a filtered version of Common Crawl consisting of 410 billion byte-pair-encoded tokens. Other sources are 19 billion tokens from WebText2 representing 22% of the weighted total, 12 billion tokens from Books1 representing 8%, 55 billion tokens from Books2 representing 8%, and 3 billion tokens from Wikipedia representing 3%. GPT-3 was trained on hundreds of billions of words and is also capable of coding in CSS, JSX, and Python, among others.


title: GPT-3

text: Since GPT-3's training data was all-encompassing, it does not require further training for distinct language tasks. The training data contains occasional toxic language and GPT-3 occasionally generates toxic language as a result of mimicking its training data. A study from the University of Washington found that GPT-3 produced toxic language at a toxicity level comparable to the similar natural language processing models of GPT-2 and CTRL. GPT-3 produced less toxic language compared to its predecessor model, GPT-1, although it produced both more generations and a higher toxicity of toxic language compared to CTRL Wiki, a language model trained entirely on Wikipedia data.


title: GPT-3

text: On June 11, 2020, OpenAI announced that users could request access to its user-friendly GPT-3 API—a "machine learning toolset"—to help OpenAI "explore the strengths and limits" of this new technology. The invitation described how this API had a general-purpose "text in, text out" interface that can complete almost "any English language task", instead of the usual single use-case. According to one user, who had access to a private early release of the OpenAI GPT-3 API, GPT-3 was "eerily good" at writing "amazingly coherent text" with only a few simple prompts. In an initial experiment 80 US subjects were asked to judge if short ~200 word articles were written by humans or GPT-3. The participants judged correctly 52% of the time, doing only slightly better than random guessing.


title: GPT-3

text: On November 18, 2021, OpenAI announced that enough safeguards had been implemented that access to its API would be unrestricted. OpenAI provided developers with a content moderation tool that helps them abide by OpenAI's content policy. On January 27, 2022, OpenAI announced that its newest GPT-3 language models, collectively referred to as InstructGPT, was now the default language model used on their API. According to OpenAI, InstructGPT produced content that was better aligned to user intentions by following instructions better, generating fewer made-up facts, and producing somewhat less toxic content.


title: GPT-3

text: Because GPT-3 can "generate news articles which human evaluators have difficulty distinguishing from articles written by humans," GPT-3 has the "potential to advance both the beneficial and harmful applications of language models." In their May 28, 2020 paper, the researchers described in detail the potential "harmful effects of GPT-3" which include "misinformation, spam, phishing, abuse of legal and governmental processes, fraudulent academic essay writing and social engineering pretexting". The authors draw attention to these dangers to call for research on risk mitigation.


title: GPT-3

text: In June 2022, Almira Osmanovic Thunström wrote that GPT-3 was the primary author on an article on itself, that they had submitted it for publication, and that it had been pre-published while waiting for completion of its review.


title: GPT-3

text: OpenAI's Sam Altman himself criticized what he called "GPT-3 hype", acknowledging GPT-3 "has serious weakness and sometimes makes very silly mistakes... AI is going to change the world, but GPT-3 is just a very early glimpse."


title: GPT-3

text: GPT-3's builder, OpenAI, was initially founded as a non-profit in 2015. In 2019, OpenAI did not publicly release GPT-3's precursor model, breaking from OpenAI's previous open-source practices, citing concerns that the model would perpetuate fake news. OpenAI eventually released a version of GPT-2 that was 8% of the original model's size. In the same year, OpenAI restructured to be a for-profit company. In 2020, Microsoft announced the company had exclusive licensing of GPT-3 for Microsoft's products and services following a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI. The agreement permits OpenAI to offer a public-facing API such that users can send text to GPT-3 to receive the model's output, but only Microsoft will have access to GPT-3's source code.


title: GPT-3

text: Large language models, such as GPT-3, have come under criticism from Google's AI ethics researchers for the environmental impact of training and storing the models, detailed in a paper co-authored by Timnit Gebru and Emily M. Bender in 2021.


title: GPT-3

text: The growing use of automated writing technologies based on GPT-3 and other language generators, has raised concerns regarding academic integrity and raised the stakes of how universities and schools will gauge what constitutes academic misconduct such as plagiarism.


title: GPT-3

text: In its response to the Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Protection for Artificial Intelligence Innovation from the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO"), OpenAI acknowledges that "copyright protection arises automatically when an author creates an original work and fixes it in a tangible medium, see 17 U.S.C. § 102, the vast majority of content posted online is protected by U.S. copyright laws. GPT was built with data from the Common Crawl dataset, a conglomerate of copyrighted articles, internet posts, web pages, and books scraped from 60 million domains over a period of 12 years. TechCrunch reports this training data includes copyrighted material from BBC, The New York Times, Reddit, the full text of online books, and more.


title: GPT-3

text: GPT appears to have been used to fabricate research papers. In April 2021, a group of computer scientists used a tool that identifies text generated by GPT in an effort to isolate the reason for strange phrases appearing in scientific papers. Cabanac and colleagues ran a selection of abstracts from the journal Microprocessors and Microsystems through this tool and discovered "critical flaws", such as nonsensical text and plagiarized text and images.


title: Kapoor family

text: The Kapoor family is a prominent Indian show business family with at least 4 generations of the family over years in the Hindi film industry. Numerous members of the family, both biological including those who married into the family, have had prolific careers as actors, film directors and producers. "The Pioneer" founder of the dynasty was "The Patriarch", Prithviraj Kapoor, who was the first member of family to begin acting in movies with his 1928 debut film "Do Dhari Talwar". He was a pioneer of Indian theatre and the founding member of Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA). His son Raj Kapoor was the most influential actor and director in Hindi cinema. The genesis generation or the earliest linear generation of the Kapoor family tree to ever act in the films was Prithviraj Kapoor's father, Basheshwarnath Kapoor, who debuted as actor in 1951 film "Awaara", which was produced, directed and starred in lead role by his grandson Raj Kapoor.


title: Kapoor family

text: Due to their decades old participation in the Hindi film industry, the family is often called "The First Family of Bollywood".


title: Kapoor family

text: Prominent personalities related to the Kapoor family through marriage include Jennifer Kendal, Geeta Bali, Neetu Singh, Babita, Saif Ali Khan, Shweta Bachchan Nanda and Alia Bhatt.


title: Kapoor family

text: Prithviraj Kapoor was the first from the family to pursue a career in films. He was born in Samundri, Lyallpur District, Punjab Province of British India. His father, Basheshwarnath Kapoor, served as a police officer in the Imperial Police in the city of Peshawar; while his grandfather, Keshavmal Kapoor, was a Tehsildar in Samundri. His younger brother, Trilok Kapoor also became an actor, his first role was in the film "Char Darvesh" in 1933, Trilok emerged as one of the most commercially successful actors of his era.


title: Kapoor family

text: The family eventually migrated to Mumbai. Three of Prithviraj Kapoor's sons, Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor and Shashi Kapoor made careers in the Hindi film industry. Raj Kapoor, also known as "the greatest showman of Indian cinema", became a noted Indian film actor, producer and director of Hindi cinema.


title: Kapoor family

text: Raj Kapoor married Krishna Malhotra in 1946. She was the sister of actors Prem Nath, Rajendra Nath, and Narendra Nath, as well as Uma Chopra, the wife of Prem Chopra. They have 3 sons Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, and Rajiv Kapoor and 2 daughters Ritu Nanda and Rima Jain.


title: Kapoor family

text: Shammi Kapoor married actress Geeta Bali in 1955 and had 2 children with her, Aditya Raj Kapoor and Kanchan Kapoor. Geeta Bali died in 1965 due to smallpox. Shammi then married Neela Devi Gohil of the Gohil dynasty of the erstwhile Bhavnagar State in Gujarat in 1969


title: Kapoor family

text: Shashi Kapoor married Jennifer Kendal in 1958. They have two sons, Kunal Kapoor, Karan Kapoor and a daughter Sanjana Kapoor. Jennifer died in 1984 due to Cancer.


title: Kapoor family

text: Raj Kapoor's sons, Randhir Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor, went on to become well-known actors; his youngest son, Rajiv Kapoor, was not as successful as his brothers. Shashi Kapoor's children were unsuccessful in acting because of their European looks. His daughter, Sanjana Kapoor, currently runs the Prithvi Theatre, his first son, Kunal Kapoor, runs an add company, Shashi's youngest child, Karan Kapoor, currently runs a photography company in London. Shammi Kapoor's son, Aditya Raj Kapoor, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and retired businessman.


title: Kapoor family

text: Randhir Kapoor is married to Babita. They have two daughters Karisma Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor, both of whom have found success in the film industry. Rishi Kapoor was married to actress Neetu Singh, their son, Ranbir Kapoor, has established himself as a leading Bollywood actor, and their daughter, Riddhima Kapoor Sahani, is a designer.


title: Kapoor family

text: Nikhil Nanda, son of Ritu Kapoor, Raj Kapoor's daughter and Rajan Nanda, is married to Shweta Bachchan, daughter of the actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan.


title: Kapoor family

text: Prithviraj Kapoor's cousin was Surinder Kapoor. Surinder Kapoor left Peshawar and came to Mumbai with help from Prithviraj Kapoor. Surinder Kapoor was married to Nirmal Kapoor. His oldest son is Boney Kapoor who was married to Mona Shourie and Sridevi and is the father of Arjun, Anshula, Janhvi, and Khushi Kapoor. His middle son is Anil Kapoor who is married to Sunita Kapoor and is the father of Sonam (married to Anand Ahuja), Rhea (married to Karan Boolani) and Harshvardhan Kapoor. His youngest son is Sanjay Kapoor who is married to Maheep Sandhu and is the father of Shanaya and Jahaan Kapoor. His daughter is Reena Kapoor Marwah who is married to Sandeep Marwah of Marwah Films and Video Studios and is the mother of Mohit (married to Antara Motiwala) and Akshay Marwah (married to Aashita Relan).


title: Kapoor family

text: Noted actor Kamal Kapoor who was famous for playing the role ‘Narrang’ in the 1978 blockbuster movie "Don" was also a cousin of Prithviraj Kapoor (their mothers were sisters) and so were his brothers Nandkishore Kapoor and Ravindra Kapoor. Through Kamal Kapoor's grandson Goldie Behl, who is married to actress Sonali Bendre, the Behl family of Hindi films is also related to the Kapoor family.


title: Kapoor family

text: Veteran character actor Subbiraj was the son of Kailash Kakkar, the sister of Prithviraj Kapoor and thus a cousin of Raj Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor & Shashi Kapoor.


title: Kapoor family

text: Raj's, Shashi's, and Shammi's maternal cousin, Juggal Kishore Mehra, was a singer, whose step-granddaughter was Salma Agha who became an actress and singer in Pakistan.


title: Kapoor family

text: Kapoor family remains to be the only family in India to have four generations of film artists (c. 2009).


title: Kapoor family

text: The first generation of the family was led by Prithviraj Kapoor. In 1928, Prithviraj Kapoor made his acting debut as an extra in his first film, "Do Dhari Talwar".


title: Kapoor family

text: The second generation of the Kapoor family was led by three main Kapoor actors, Raj, and his younger brothers Shammi and Shashi. Among Kapoors of all generations, Raj Kapoor has been the most distinguished and prolific contributor as an actor, producer, director and in terms of his impact in enhancing Bollywood's international reach, India's soft power and diplomacy across the USSR, the Middle East, Africa and Palestine.


title: Kapoor family

text: Rishi Kapoor, son of Raj Kapoor, led this generation and his two actor brothers Randhir and Rajeev remained in the shadow of his success. Rishi was best known as a romantic hero, his charm and charisma quickly made him one of Bollywood's leading men of the 1970s and ’80s, he later took on more supporting roles and character parts.


title: Kapoor family

text: Samadhi (memorial) of Raj Kapoor, also housing memorial of his mother and father Prithviraj Kapoor, is at their family farm ""Rajbaugh"", which means the ""king of gardens"". Located inside the MIT ADT University (MIT WPU), Rajbaugh lies off the NH65 on the banks of Mula-Mutha River in Loni Kalbhor village 30 km east of Pune in Maharshtra. Kapoor family sold a part of 125 acres Rajbaugh to MIT WPU which built a memorial for the Kapoor family on its campus. Memorial was unveiled in 2014 in the presence of Lata Mangeshkar and Kapoor clan. Kapoor family memorial has 7 pagodas showing elements of Raj Kapoor's movies, a museum or viewing gallery which shows family photographs and moments from his movie making from 1945 to 1990. Raj Kapoor shot many of his films at this farm, including Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Mera Naam Joker, Bobby, Prem Rog and more. Kapoor's family banglow inside the farm has been preserved, the popular song ""Hum Tum Ek Kamre Mei Band Ho"" was shot inside this banglow.


title: Artemis 1

text: Artemis 1, officially Artemis I and formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Moon-orbiting mission. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis 1 marked the return of the agency to lunar exploration originally begun as the Apollo program decades earlier. It was the first integrated flight test of the Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Its main objective was to test the Orion spacecraft, especially its heat shield, in preparation for subsequent Artemis missions. These missions seek to reestablish a human presence on the Moon and demonstrate technologies and business approaches needed for future scientific studies, including exploration of Mars.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Orion spacecraft for Artemis 1 was stacked on October 20, 2021, marking the first time a super-heavy-lift vehicle has been stacked inside NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) since the final Saturn V in 1973. On August 17, 2022, the fully stacked vehicle was rolled out for launch after a series of delays caused by difficulties in pre-flight testing. The first two launch attempts were canceled due to a faulty engine temperature reading on August 29, 2022, and a hydrogen leak during fueling on September 3, 2022. Artemis 1 was successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center on November 16, 2022, at 06:47:44 UTC (01:47:44 EST).


title: Artemis 1

text: The SLS rocket launched from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center with the Orion spacecraft aboard for a planned 25-day space mission. After quickly reaching Earth orbit, the upper stage separated and performed a trans-lunar injection (burn to the Moon) before deploying ten CubeSat satellites. The Orion spacecraft completed one flyby of the Moon on November 21, entered a distant retrograde orbit for six days and completed a second flyby of the Moon on November 25.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Orion spacecraft then returned and reentered the Earth's atmosphere with the protection of its heat shield, successfully splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on December 11. The mission aims to certify Orion and the Space Launch System for crewed flights beginning with Artemis 2, which is scheduled to perform a crewed lunar flyby in 2024. After Artemis 2, Artemis 3 will involve a crewed lunar landing five decades after the Apollo 17, the last crewed lunar mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: Artemis 1 was launched on the Block 1 variant of the Space Launch System. The Block 1 vehicle consists of a core stage, two five-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs) and an upper stage. The core stage uses four RS-25D engines, all of which have previously flown on Space Shuttle missions. The core and boosters together produce , or about 4,000 metric tons of thrust at liftoff. The upper stage, known as the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS), is based on the Delta Cryogenic Second Stage and is powered by a single RL10B-2 engine on the Artemis 1 mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: Once in orbit, the ICPS fired its engine to perform a trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn, which placed the Orion spacecraft and ten CubeSats on a trajectory to the Moon. Orion then separated from the ICPS and continued its coast into lunar space. Following Orion separation, the ICPS Stage Adapter deployed ten CubeSats for conducting scientific research and performing technology demonstrations.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Orion spacecraft spent approximately three weeks in space, including six days in a distant retrograde orbit (DRO) around the Moon. It came within approximately of the lunar surface (closest approach) and achieved a maximum distance from Earth of .


title: Artemis 1

text: Artemis 1 was outlined by NASA as Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) in 2012, at which point it was set to launch in 2017 as the first planned flight of the Space Launch System and the second uncrewed test flight of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. The initial plans for EM-1 called for a circumlunar trajectory during a seven-day mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: In January 2013, it was announced that the Orion spacecraft's service module was to be built by the European Space Agency and named the European Service Module. In mid-November 2014, construction of the SLS core stage began at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF). In January 2015, NASA and Lockheed Martin announced that the primary structure in the Orion spacecraft used on Artemis 1 would be up to 25% lighter compared to the previous one (EFT-1). This would be achieved by reducing the number of cone panels from six (EFT-1) to three (EM-1), reducing the total number of welds from 19 to 7 and saving the additional mass of the weld material. Other savings would be due to revising its various components and wiring. For Artemis 1, the Orion spacecraft was to be outfitted with a complete life support system and crew seats but would be left uncrewed.


title: Artemis 1

text: In February 2017, NASA began investigating the feasibility of a crewed launch as the first SLS flight. It would have had a crew of two astronauts and the flight time would have been shorter than the uncrewed version. However, after a months-long feasibility study, NASA rejected the proposal, citing cost as the primary issue, and continued with the plan to fly the first SLS mission uncrewed.


title: Artemis 1

text: In March 2019, then-NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine proposed moving the Orion spacecraft from SLS to commercial rockets, either the Falcon Heavy or Delta IV Heavy, to comply with the schedule. The mission would require two launches: one to place the Orion spacecraft into orbit around the Earth, and a second carrying an upper stage. The two would then dock while in Earth orbit, and the upper stage would ignite to send Orion to the Moon. The idea was eventually scrapped. One challenge with this option would be carrying out that docking, as Orion is not planned to carry a docking mechanism until Artemis 3. The concept was shelved in mid-2019, due to another study's conclusion that it would further delay the mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: The core stage for Artemis 1, built at Michoud Assembly Facility by Boeing, had all four engines attached in November 2019 and was declared finished one month later. The core stage left the facility to undergo the Green Run test series at Stennis Space Center, consisting of eight tests of increasing complexity:


title: Artemis 1

text: The first test was performed in January 2020, and subsequent Green Run tests proceeded without issue. On January 16, 2021, a year later, the eighth and final test was performed, but the engines shut down after running for one minute. This was caused by pressure in the hydraulic system used for the engines' thrust vector control system dropping below the limits set for the test. However, the limits were conservative – if such an anomaly occurred in launch, the rocket would still fly normally. The static fire test was performed again on March 18, 2021, this time achieving a full-duration eight-minute burn. The core subsequently departed the Stennis Space Center on April 24, 2021, on route to the Kennedy Space Center.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage was the first part of the SLS to be delivered to the Kennedy Space Center in July 2017. Three years later, all of the SLS's solid rocket booster segments were shipped by train to the Kennedy Space Center on June 12, 2020, and the SLS launch vehicle stage adapter (LVSA) was delivered by barge one month later on July 29, 2020. The assembly of the SLS took place at the Vehicle Assembly Building's High Bay 3, beginning with the placement of the two bottom solid rocket booster segments on November 23, 2020. Assembly of the boosters was temporarily paused due to the core stage Green Run test delays before being resumed on January 7, 2021, and the boosters' stacking was completed by March 2, 2021.


title: Artemis 1

text: The SLS core stage for the mission, CS-1, arrived at the launch site on the Pegasus barge on April 27, 2021, after the successful conclusion of Green Run tests. It was moved to the VAB low bay for refurbishment and stacking preparations on April 29, 2021. The stage was then stacked with its boosters on June 12, 2021. The stage adapter was stacked on the Core Stage on June 22, 2021. The ICPS upper stage was stacked on July 6, 2021. Following the completion of umbilical retract testing and integrated modal testing, the Orion stage adapter with ten secondary payloads was stacked atop the upper stage on October 8, 2021.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Artemis 1 Orion spacecraft began fueling and pre-launch servicing in the Multi-Payload Processing Facility on January 16, 2021, following a handover to NASA Exploration Ground Systems (EGS). On October 20, 2021, the Orion spacecraft, encapsulated under the launch abort system and aerodynamic cover, was rolled over to the VAB and stacked atop the SLS rocket, finishing the stacking of the Artemis 1 vehicle in High Bay 3. During a period of extensive integrated testing and checkouts, one of the four RS-25 engine controllers failed, requiring a replacement and delaying the first rollout of the rocket.


title: Artemis 1

text: On March 17, 2022, Artemis 1 rolled out of High Bay 3 from the Vehicle Assembly Building for the first time to perform a pre-launch wet dress rehearsal (WDR). The initial WDR attempt, on April 3, was scrubbed due to a mobile launcher pressurization problem. A second attempt to complete the test was scrubbed on April 4, after problems with supplying gaseous nitrogen to the launch complex, liquid oxygen temperatures, and a vent valve stuck in a closed position.


title: Artemis 1

text: During preparations for a third attempt, a helium check valve on the ICPS upper stage was kept in a semi-open position by a small piece of rubber originating from one of the mobile launcher's umbilical arms, forcing test conductors to delay fueling the stage until the valve could be replaced in the VAB. The third attempt to finish the test did not include fueling the upper stage. The rocket's liquid oxygen tank started loading successfully. However, during the loading of liquid hydrogen on the core stage, a leak was discovered on the tail service mast umbilical plate, located on the mobile launcher at the base of the rocket, forcing another early end to the test.


title: Artemis 1

text: NASA elected to roll the vehicle back to the VAB to repair the hydrogen leak and the ICPS helium check valve while upgrading the nitrogen supply at LC-39B after prolonged outages on the three previous wet dress rehearsals. Artemis 1 was rolled back to the VAB on April 26. After the repairs and upgrades were complete the Artemis 1 vehicle rolled out to LC-39B for a second time on June 6 to complete the test.


title: Artemis 1

text: During the fourth wet dress rehearsal attempt on June 20, the rocket was fully loaded with propellant on both stages. Still, due to a hydrogen leak on the quick-disconnect connection of the tail service mast umbilical, the countdown could not reach the planned T-9.3 seconds mark and was stopped automatically at T-29 seconds. NASA mission managers soon determined they had completed almost all planned test objectives and declared the WDR campaign complete.


title: Artemis 1

text: On July 2, the Artemis 1 stack was rolled back to the VAB for final launch preparations and to fix the hydrogen leak on the quick disconnect ahead of a launch targeted in two launch windows: August 29 and September 5. The SLS passed flight readiness review on August 23, checking out five days before the first launch opportunity.


title: Artemis 1

text: Fueling was scheduled to commence just after midnight on August 29, 2022, but was delayed an hour due to offshore storms, only beginning at 1:13 am EDT. Before the planned launch at 8:33 am, Engine 3 of the rocket's four engines was observed to be above the maximum allowable temperature limit for launch. Other technical difficulties involved an eleven-minute communications delay between the spacecraft and ground control, a fuel leak, and a crack on the insulating foam of the connection joints between the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen tanks. NASA scrubbed the launch after an unplanned hold and the two-hour launch window expired. An investigation revealed that a sensor not used to determine launch readiness was faulty, and displayed an erroneously high temperature for Engine 3.


title: Artemis 1

text: Following the first attempt, a second launch attempt was scheduled for the afternoon of September 3. The launch window would have opened at 2:17 pm EDT (18:17 UTC), and lasted for two hours. The launch was scrubbed at 11:17 am EDT due to a fuel supply line leak in a service arm connecting to the engine section. The cause of the leak was uncertain. Mission operators investigated whether an overpressurization of the liquid hydrogen line of the quick-disconnect interface during the launch attempt may have damaged a seal, allowing hydrogen to escape.


title: Artemis 1

text: Launch operators decided on the date for the next launch attempt; the earliest possible opportunity was September 19 until mission managers declared that September 27, and then September 30, would be the absolute earliest date, NASA having successfully repaired the leak. A launch in September would have required that the Eastern Range of the United States Space Force agree to an extension on certification of the rocket's flight termination system, which destroys the rocket should it move off-course and towards a populated area; this was carried out on September 22. However, unfavorable forecasts of the trajectory of then-Tropical Storm Ian led launch managers to call off the September 27 launch attempt and begin preparations for the stack's rollback to the VAB. On the morning of September 26, the decision was made to roll back later that evening.


title: Artemis 1

text: On November 12, following another delay due to Hurricane Nicole, NASA launch managers decided to request launch opportunities for November 16 and 19. They initially requested an opportunity for the 14th but were prevented by then-Tropical Storm Nicole. As the storm approached, NASA decided to leave the rocket at the launch pad, citing a low probability that wind speeds would exceed the rocket's design limits. Wind speeds were expected to reach , with gusts up to . Nicole made landfall as a category one hurricane on November 9, with sustained wind speeds at Kennedy Space Center reaching , and gusts up to , exceeding the rocket's design specifications. After the storm cleared, NASA inspected the rocket for physical damage and conducted electronic health checks. On November 15, the mission management team gave a "go" to begin fully preparing for launch, and the main tanking procedures began at 3:30 pm EST (20:30 UTC).


title: Artemis 1

text: At 6:47:44 UTC (1:47:44 am EST) on November 16, 2022, Artemis 1 successfully launched from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. Artemis 1 was the first launch from LC-39B since Ares I-X. The Orion spacecraft and ICPS were both placed into a nominal orbit after separating from the Space Launch System, achieving orbit approximately 8 minutes after launch.


title: Artemis 1

text: Eighty-nine minutes after liftoff, the ICPS fired for approximately eighteen minutes in a trans-lunar injection (TLI) maneuver. Orion then separated from the expended stage and fired its auxiliary thrusters to move safely away as it started its journey to the Moon. The 10 CubeSat secondary payloads were then deployed from the Orion Stage Adapter, attached to the ICPS. The ICPS conducted a final maneuver at three and a half hours after launch to dispose itself into a heliocentric orbit.


title: Artemis 1

text: On November 20, 2022, at 19:09 UTC, the Orion spacecraft entered the lunar sphere of influence, where the influence of the Moon's gravity on the spacecraft is greater than that of Earth.


title: Artemis 1

text: On November 21, 2022, Orion lost communication with NASA as it passed behind the Moon from 12:25 through 12:59 UTC. There, during an automatically controlled maneuver, the first of several trajectory-altering burns, called an "outbound powered flyby burn", to transition Orion to a distant retrograde orbit began at 12:44 UTC. The orbital maneuvering system engine fired for two minutes and thirty seconds. While operating autonomously, Orion made its closest lunar approach of approximately above the surface at 12:57 UTC. The spacecraft performed another burn on November 25, firing the orbital maneuvering system (OMS) for one minute and twenty-eight seconds, changing Orion's velocity by finally entering orbit. On November 26, at 13:42 UTC, Orion broke the record for the farthest distance from Earth traveled by an Earth-returning human-rated spacecraft. The record was formerly held by the Apollo 13 mission at .


title: Artemis 1

text: On November 28, 2022, Orion reached a distance of from Earth, the maximum distance achieved during the mission. On November 30, 2022, the Orion spacecraft performed a maintenance burn to maintain its trajectory and decrease its velocity for a planned burn on December 1, at 21:53 UTC, to depart its distant retrograde orbit around the Moon, beginning its journey back to Earth.


title: Artemis 1

text: On December 5, 2022, at 16:43 UTC the spacecraft reached from the lunar surface at its closest approach right before an earthbound burn, the "powered return flyby burn", to leave the zone of lunar gravitational influence. The spacecraft once again passed behind the Moon, losing communications with mission control for about half an hour. Shortly before the flyby, Orion experienced an electrical anomaly, which was soon resolved.


title: Artemis 1

text: On December 6, 2022, at 7:29 UTC, Orion exited the lunar sphere of influence. It then conducted a minor course correction burn and an inspection of the crew module's thermal protection system and the ESM. Over the next few days the mission control team continued to conduct system checks and prepared for reentry and splashdown. On December 10, 2022 mission planners announced that the final landing site would be near Guadalupe Island off the Baja peninsula in Mexico. The final trajectory correction burn of six total trajectory burns throughout the mission took place the next day five hours before reentry.


title: Artemis 1

text: The spacecraft separated from its service module at around 17:00 UTC on December 11, 2022 and then reentered Earth's atmosphere at 17:20 UTC travelling near . It was the first United States use of a "skip entry", a form of non-ballistic atmospheric entry into the atmosphere, pioneered by Zond 7, in which two phases of deceleration would expose human occupants to relatively less intense G-forces than would be experienced during an Apollo-style reentry. Splashdown of the Orion capsule occurred at 17:40 UTC (9:40 am PST) west of Baja California near Guadalupe Island. Following splashdown, NASA personnel and the crew of recovered the spacecraft after planned ocean testing of the capsule. The recovery team spent about two hours performing tests in open water and imaging the craft, namely to investigate signs of atmospheric re-entry, then used a winch and several tending lines to pull the craft into a securing assembly in the well dock of the USS "Portland". The recovery team included personnel from the US Navy, Space Force, Kennedy Space Center, Johnson Space Center, and Lockheed Martin Space. On December 13, the Orion capsule arrived at the Port of San Diego.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Orion spacecraft carried three astronaut-like mannequins equipped with sensors to provide data on what crew members may experience during a trip to the Moon. The first mannequin, called "Captain Moonikin Campos" (named after Arturo Campos, a NASA engineer during the Apollo program), occupied the commander's seat inside Orion and is equipped with two radiation sensors in his Orion Crew Survival System suit, which astronauts will wear during launch, entry, and other dynamic phases of their missions. The commander's seat also has sensors to record acceleration and vibration data during the mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: Alongside Moonikin are two phantom torsos: Helga and Zohar, who took part in the Matroshka AstroRad Radiation Experiment (MARE), in which NASA, together with the German Aerospace Center and the Israel Space Agency, measured the radiation exposure during the mission. Zohar was shielded with the Astrorad radiation vest and equipped with sensors to determine radiation risks. Helga did not wear a vest. The phantoms measured the radiation exposure of body location, with both passive and active dosimeters distributed at sensitive and high stem cell-concentration tissues. The test provided data on radiation levels during missions to the Moon while testing the effectiveness of the vest. In addition to the three mannequins, Orion carried a plush doll of NASA's Snoopy and a Shaun the Sheep toy representing the ESA's European Service Module contribution to the mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: Besides these functional payloads, Artemis 1 also carried commemorative stickers, patches, seeds, and flags from contractors and space agencies worldwide. A technology demonstration called Callisto, named after the mythical figure associated with Artemis, developed by Lockheed Martin in collaboration with Amazon and Cisco, was also in flight aboard Orion on Artemis 1. Callisto used video conferencing software to transmit audio and video from mission control and used the Alexa virtual assistant to respond to the audio messages. In addition, the public could submit messages to be displayed on Callisto during the Artemis 1 mission.


title: Artemis 1

text: Ten low-cost CubeSats, all in six-unit configurations, flew as secondary payloads. They were carried within the Stage Adapter above the second stage. Two were selected through NASA's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships, three through the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, two through the Science Mission Directorate, and three from submissions by NASA's international partners. These CubeSats are:


title: Artemis 1

text: Another three CubeSats were originally planned to launch on Artemis 1 but missed the integration deadline, and will have to find alternative flights to the Moon. The stage adapter contains thirteen CubeSat deployers in total.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Artemis 1 mission patch was created by NASA designers of the SLS, Orion spacecraft and Exploration Ground Systems teams. The silver border represents the color of the Orion spacecraft; at the center, the SLS and Orion are depicted. Three lightning towers surrounding the rocket symbolize Launch Complex 39B, from which Artemis 1 will launch. The red and blue mission trajectories encompassing the white full Moon represent Americans and people in the European Space Agency who work on Artemis 1.


title: Artemis 1

text: The Artemis 1 flight is frequently marketed as the beginning of Artemis's "Moon to Mars" program, though there is no concrete plan for a crewed mission to Mars within NASA as of 2022. To raise public awareness, NASA made a website for the public to get a digital boarding pass of the mission. The names submitted were written to a flash drive stored inside the Orion spacecraft. Also aboard the capsule is a digital copy of the 14,000 entries for the Moon Pod Essay Contest hosted by Future Engineers for NASA.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". The current geographical location of Central Asia was formerly part of the historic region of Turkistan, also known as Turan.


title: Central Asia

text: In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tatars, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs; Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area, with the exception of Tajikistan and areas where Tajik is spoken.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia was historically closely tied to the Silk Road trade routes, acting as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe and the Far East.


title: Central Asia

text: From the mid-19th century until almost the end of the 20th century, Central Asia was colonised by the Russians, and incorporated into the Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union, which led to Russians and other Slavs emigrating into the area. Modern-day Central Asia is home to a large population of European settlers, who mostly live in Kazakhstan; 7 million Russians, 500,000 Ukrainians, and about 170,000 Germans. Stalinist-era forced deportation policies also mean that over 300,000 Koreans live there.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia (2019) has a population of about 72 million people, in five countries: Kazakhstan (pop. /1e6 round 0 million), Kyrgyzstan (/1e6 round 0 million), Tajikistan (/1e6 round 0 million), Turkmenistan (/1e6 round 0 million), and Uzbekistan (35 million).


title: Central Asia

text: One of the first geographers who mentioned Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions. Historically, political geography and culture have been two significant parameters widely used in scholarly definitions of Central Asia. Humboldt's definition composed of every country between 5° North and 5° South of the latitude 44.5°N. Humboldt mentions some geographic features of this region, which include the Caspian Sea in the west, the Altai mountains in the north and the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains in the South. He did not give an eastern border for the region. His legacy is still seen: Humboldt University of Berlin, named after him, offers a course in Central Asian Studies. The Russian geographer Nikolaĭ Khanykov questioned the latitudinal definition of Central Asia and preferred a physical one of all countries located in the region landlocked from water, including Afghanistan, Khorasan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uyghuristan (Xinjiang), and Uzbekistan.


title: Central Asia

text: Russian culture has two distinct terms: "Средняя Азия" ("Srednyaya Aziya" or "Middle Asia", the narrower definition, which includes only those traditionally non-Slavic, Central Asian lands that were incorporated within those borders of historical Russia) and "Центральная Азия" ("Tsentralnaya Aziya" or "Central Asia", the wider definition, which includes Central Asian lands that have never been part of historical Russia). The latter definition includes Afghanistan and 'East Turkestan'.


title: Central Asia

text: The most limited definition was the official one of the Soviet Union, which defined Middle Asia as consisting solely of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, omitting Kazakhstan. Soon after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the leaders of the four former Soviet Central Asian Republics met in Tashkent and declared that the definition of Central Asia should include Kazakhstan as well as the original four included by the Soviets. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia.


title: Central Asia

text: The UNESCO "History of the Civilizations of Central Asia", published in 1992, defines the region as "Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, northern and central Pakistan, northern India, western China, Mongolia and the former Soviet Central Asian republics".


title: Central Asia

text: An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity, and in particular, areas populated by Eastern Turkic, Eastern Iranian, or Mongolian peoples. These areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan and the Kashmir Valley of India may also be included. The Tibetans and Ladakhis are also included. Most of the mentioned peoples are considered the "indigenous" peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia is a region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (Tian Shan), vast deserts (Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan), and especially treeless, grassy steppes. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a homogeneous geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe.


title: Central Asia

text: Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming. The Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan (Da Hinggan) Mountains, 116°–118° E.


title: Central Asia

text: A majority of the people earn a living by herding livestock. Industrial activity centers in the region's cities.


title: Central Asia

text: Major rivers of the region include the Amu Darya, the Syr Darya, Irtysh, the Hari River and the Murghab River. Major bodies of water include the Aral Sea and Lake Balkhash, both of which are part of the huge west-central Asian endorheic basin that also includes the Caspian Sea.


title: Central Asia

text: Both of these bodies of water have shrunk significantly in recent decades due to the diversion of water from rivers that feed them for irrigation and industrial purposes. Water is an extremely valuable resource in arid Central Asia and can lead to rather significant international disputes.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia is bounded on the north by the forests of Siberia. The northern half of Central Asia (Kazakhstan) is the middle part of the Eurasian steppe. Westward the Kazakh steppe merges into the Russian-Ukrainian steppe and eastward into the steppes and deserts of Dzungaria and Mongolia. Southward the land becomes increasingly dry and the nomadic population increasingly thin. The south supports areas of dense population and cities wherever irrigation is possible. The main irrigated areas are along the eastern mountains, along the Oxus and Jaxartes Rivers and along the north flank of the Kopet Dagh near the Persian border. East of the Kopet Dagh is the important oasis of Merv and then a few places in Afghanistan like Herat and Balkh. Two projections of the Tian Shan create three "bays" along the eastern mountains. The largest, in the north, is eastern Kazakhstan, traditionally called Jetysu or Semirechye which contains Lake Balkhash. In the center is the small but densely-populated Ferghana valley. In the south is Bactria, later called Tocharistan, which is bounded on the south by the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan. The Syr Darya (Jaxartes) rises in the Ferghana valley and the Amu Darya (Oxus) rises in Bactria. Both flow northwest into the Aral Sea. Where the Oxus meets the Aral Sea it forms a large delta called Khwarazm and later the Khanate of Khiva. North of the Oxus is the less-famous but equally important Zarafshan River which waters the great trading cities of Bokhara and Samarkand. The other great commercial city was Tashkent northwest of the mouth of the Ferghana valley. The land immediately north of the Oxus was called Transoxiana and also Sogdia, especially when referring to the Sogdian merchants who dominated the silk road trade.


title: Central Asia

text: To the east, Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin were united into the Manchu-Chinese province of Xinjiang (Sinkiang; Hsin-kiang) about 1759. Caravans from China usually went along the north or south side of the Tarim basin and joined at Kashgar before crossing the mountains northwest to Ferghana or southwest to Bactria. A minor branch of the silk road went north of the Tian Shan through Dzungaria and Zhetysu before turning southwest near Tashkent. Nomadic migrations usually moved from Mongolia through Dzungaria before turning southwest to conquer the settled lands or continuing west toward Europe.


title: Central Asia

text: The Kyzyl Kum Desert or semi-desert is between the Oxus and Jaxartes, and the Karakum Desert is between the Oxus and Kopet Dagh in Turkmenistan. Khorasan meant approximately northeast Persia and northern Afghanistan. Margiana was the region around Merv. The Ustyurt Plateau is between the Aral and Caspian Seas.


title: Central Asia

text: To the southwest, across the Kopet Dagh, lies Persia. From here Persian and Islamic civilisation penetrated Central Asia and dominated its high culture until the Russian conquest. In the southeast is the route to India. In early times Buddhism spread north and throughout much of history warrior kings and tribes would move southeast to establish their rule in northern India. Most nomadic conquerors entered from the northeast. After 1800 western civilisation in its Russian and Soviet form penetrated from the northwest.


title: Central Asia

text: Because Central Asia is land-locked and not buffered by a large body of water, temperature fluctuations are often severe, excluding the hot, sunny summer months. In most areas the climate is dry and continental, with hot summers and cool to cold winters, with occasional snowfall. Outside high-elevation areas, the climate is mostly semi-arid to arid. In lower elevations, summers are hot with blazing sunshine. Winters feature occasional rain and/or snow from low-pressure systems that cross the area from the Mediterranean Sea. Average monthly precipitation is very low from July to September, rises in autumn (October and November) and is highest in March or April, followed by swift drying in May and June. Winds can be strong, producing dust storms sometimes, especially toward the end of the summer in September and October. Specific cities that exemplify Central Asian climate patterns include Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The last of these represents one of the wettest climates in Central Asia, with an average annual precipitation of over .


title: Central Asia

text: Biogeographically, Central Asia is part of the Palearctic realm. The largest biome in Central Asia is the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome. Central Asia also contains the montane grasslands and shrublands, deserts and xeric shrublands and temperate coniferous forests biomes.


title: Central Asia

text: As of 2022, Central Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to global climate change in the world and the region´s temperature is growing faster than the global average.


title: Central Asia

text: Although, during the golden age of Orientalism the place of Central Asia in the world history was marginalised, contemporary historiography has rediscovered the "centrality" of the Central Asia. The history of Central Asia is defined by the area's climate and geography. The aridness of the region made agriculture difficult, and its distance from the sea cut it off from much trade. Thus, few major cities developed in the region; instead, the area was for millennia dominated by the nomadic horse peoples of the steppe.


title: Central Asia

text: Relations between the steppe nomads and the settled people in and around Central Asia were long marked by conflict. The nomadic lifestyle was well suited to warfare, and the steppe horse riders became some of the most militarily potent people in the world, limited only by their lack of internal unity. Any internal unity that was achieved was most probably due to the influence of the Silk Road, which traveled along Central Asia. Periodically, great leaders or changing conditions would organise several tribes into one force and create an almost unstoppable power. These included the Hun invasion of Europe, the Five Barbarians rebellions in China and most notably the Mongol conquest of much of Eurasia.


title: Central Asia

text: During pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by speakers of Iranian languages. Among the ancient sedentary Iranian peoples, the Sogdians and Chorasmians played an important role, while Iranian peoples such as Scythians and the later on Alans lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.


title: Central Asia

text: The main migration of Turkic peoples occurred between the 6th and 11th centuries, when they spread across most of Central Asia. The Eurasian Steppe slowly transitioned from Indo European and Iranian-speaking groups with dominant West-Eurasian ancestry to a more heterogeneous region with increasing East Asian ancestry through Turkic and Mongolian groups in the past thousands years, including extensive Turkic and later Mongol migrations out of Mongolia and slow assimilation of local populations. In the 8th century AD, the Islamic expansion reached the region but had no significant demographic impact. In the 13th century AD, the Mongolian invasion of Central Asia brought most of the region under Mongolian influence, which had "enormous demographic success", but did not impact the cultural or linguistic landscape.


title: Central Asia

text: Once populated by Iranian tribes and other Indo-European people, Central Asia experienced numerous invasions emanating out of Southern Siberia and Mongolia that would drastically affect the region. Genetic data shows that the different Central Asian Turkic-speaking peoples have between ~22% to ~70% East Asian ancestry (samplified by "Baikal hunter-gatherer ancestry" shared with other Northeast Asians and Eastern Siberians), in contrast to Iranian-speaking Central Asians, specifically Tajiks, which display genetic continuity to Indo-Iranians of the Iron Age. Certain Turkic ethnic groups, specifically the Kazakhs, display even higher East Asian ancestry. This is explained by substantial Mongolian influence on the Kazakh genome, through significant admixture between the blue eyes, blonde hair medieval Kipchaks of Central Asia with the invading medieval Mongolians. The data suggests that the Mongol invasion of Central Asia had lasting impacts onto the genetic makeup of Kazakhs. According to recent genetic genealogy testing, the genetic admixture of the Uzbeks clusters somewhere between the Iranian peoples and the Mongols. Another study shows that the Uzbeks are closely related to other Turkic peoples of Central Asia and rather distant from Iranian people. The study also analysed the maternal and paternal DNA haplogroups and shows that Turkic speaking groups are more homogenous than Iranian speaking groups. Genetic studies analyzing the full genome of Uzbeks and other Central Asian populations found that about ~27-60% of the Uzbek ancestry is derived from East Asian sources, with the remainder ancestry (~40–73%) being made up by European and Middle Eastern components. According to a recent study, the Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Turkmens share more of their gene pool with various East Asian and Siberian populations than with West Asian or European populations. The study further suggests that both migration and linguistic assimilation helped to spread the Turkic languages in Eurasia.


title: Central Asia

text: The Tang dynasty of China expanded westwards and controlled large parts of Central Asia, directly and indirectly through their Turkic vassals. Tang China actively supported the Turkification of Central Asia, while extending its cultural influence. The Tang Chinese were defeated by the Abbasid Caliphate at the Battle of Talas in 751, marking the end of the Tang dynasty's western expansion and the 150 years of Chinese influence. The Tibetan Empire would take the chance to rule portions of Central Asia and South Asia. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Mongols conquered and ruled the largest contiguous empire in recorded history. Most of Central Asia fell under the control of the Chagatai Khanate.


title: Central Asia

text: The dominance of the nomads ended in the 16th century, as firearms allowed settled peoples to gain control of the region. Russia, China, and other powers expanded into the region and had captured the bulk of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. After the Russian Revolution, the western Central Asian regions were incorporated into the Soviet Union. The eastern part of Central Asia, known as Xinjiang, was incorporated into the People's Republic of China, having been previously ruled by the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China. Mongolia gained its independence from China and has remained independent but became a Soviet satellite state until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Afghanistan remained relatively independent of major influence by the Soviet Union until the Saur Revolution of 1978.


title: Central Asia

text: The Soviet areas of Central Asia saw much industrialisation and construction of infrastructure, but also the suppression of local cultures, hundreds of thousands of deaths from failed collectivisation programmes, and a lasting legacy of ethnic tensions and environmental problems. Soviet authorities deported millions of people, including entire nationalities, from western areas of the Soviet Union to Central Asia and Siberia. According to Touraj Atabaki and Sanjyot Mehendale, "From 1959 to 1970, about two million people from various parts of the Soviet Union migrated to Central Asia, of which about one million moved to Kazakhstan."


title: Central Asia

text: With the collapse of the Soviet Union, five countries gained independence. In nearly all the new states, former Communist Party officials retained power as local strongmen. None of the new republics could be considered functional democracies in the early days of independence, although in recent years Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia have made further progress towards more open societies, unlike Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which have maintained many Soviet-style repressive tactics.


title: Central Asia

text: At the crossroads of Asia, shamanistic practices live alongside Buddhism. Thus, Yama, Lord of Death, was revered in Tibet as a spiritual guardian and judge. Mongolian Buddhism, in particular, was influenced by Tibetan Buddhism. The Qianlong Emperor of Qing China in the 18th century was Tibetan Buddhist and would sometimes travel from Beijing to other cities for personal religious worship.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia also has an indigenous form of improvisational oral poetry that is over 1000 years old. It is principally practiced in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan by "akyns", lyrical improvisationalists. They engage in lyrical battles, the "aitysh" or the "alym sabak". The tradition arose out of early bardic oral historians. They are usually accompanied by a stringed instrument—in Kyrgyzstan, a three-stringed komuz, and in Kazakhstan, a similar two-stringed instrument, the dombra.


title: Central Asia

text: Photography in Central Asia began to develop after 1882, when a Russian Mennonite photographer named Wilhelm Penner moved to the Khanate of Khiva during the Mennonite migration to Central Asia led by Claas Epp, Jr. Upon his arrival to Khanate of Khiva, Penner shared his photography skills with a local student Khudaybergen Divanov, who later became the founder of Uzbek photography.


title: Central Asia

text: Some also learn to sing the "Manas", Kyrgyzstan's epic poem (those who learn the "Manas" exclusively but do not improvise are called "manaschis"). During Soviet rule, "akyn" performance was co-opted by the authorities and subsequently declined in popularity. With the fall of the Soviet Union, it has enjoyed a resurgence, although "akyns" still do use their art to campaign for political candidates. A 2005 "The Washington Post" article proposed a similarity between the improvisational art of "akyns" and modern freestyle rap performed in the West.


title: Central Asia

text: As a consequence of Russian colonisation, European fine arts – painting, sculpture and graphics – have developed in Central Asia. The first years of the Soviet regime saw the appearance of modernism, which took inspiration from the Russian avant-garde movement. Until the 1980s, Central Asian arts had developed along with general tendencies of Soviet arts. In the 90s, arts of the region underwent some significant changes. Institutionally speaking, some fields of arts were regulated by the birth of the art market, some stayed as representatives of official views, while many were sponsored by international organisations. The years of 1990–2000 were times for the establishment of contemporary arts. In the region, many important international exhibitions are taking place, Central Asian art is represented in European and American museums, and the Central Asian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale has been organised since 2005.


title: Central Asia

text: Equestrian sports are traditional in Central Asia, with disciplines like endurance riding, buzkashi, dzhigit and kyz kuu.


title: Central Asia

text: The traditional game of Buzkashi is played throughout the Central Asian region, the countries sometimes organise Buzkashi competition amongst each other. The First regional competition among the Central Asian countries, Russia, Chinese Xinjiang and Turkey was held in 2013. The first world title competition was played in 2017 and won by Kazakhstan.


title: Central Asia

text: Association football is popular across Central Asia. Most countries are members of the Central Asian Football Association, a region of the Asian Football Confederation. However, Kazakhstan is a member of the UEFA.


title: Central Asia

text: Wrestling is popular across Central Asia, with Kazakhstan having claimed 14 Olympic medals, Uzbekistan seven, and Kyrgyzstan three. As former Soviet states, Central Asian countries have been successful in gymnastics.


title: Central Asia

text: Mixed Martial Arts is one of more common sports in Central Asia, Kyrgyz athlete Valentina Shevchenko holding the UFC Flyweight Champion title.


title: Central Asia

text: Cricket is the most popular sport in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan national cricket team, first formed in 2001, has claimed wins over Bangladesh, West Indies and Zimbabwe.


title: Central Asia

text: Notable Kazakh competitors include cyclists Alexander Vinokourov and Andrey Kashechkin, boxer Vassiliy Jirov and Gennady Golovkin, runner Olga Shishigina, decathlete Dmitriy Karpov, gymnast Aliya Yussupova, judoka Askhat Zhitkeyev and Maxim Rakov, skier Vladimir Smirnov, weightlifter Ilya Ilyin, and figure skaters Denis Ten and Elizabet Tursynbaeva.


title: Central Asia

text: Notable Uzbekistani competitors include cyclist Djamolidine Abdoujaparov, boxer Ruslan Chagaev, canoer Michael Kolganov, gymnast Oksana Chusovitina, tennis player Denis Istomin, chess player Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and figure skater Misha Ge.


title: Central Asia

text: Since gaining independence in the early 1990s, the Central Asian republics have gradually been moving from a state-controlled economy to a market economy. The ultimate aim is to emulate the Asian Tigers by becoming the local equivalent, Central Asian snow leopards. However, reform has been deliberately gradual and selective, as governments strive to limit the social cost and ameliorate living standards. All five countries are implementing structural reforms to improve competitiveness. Kazakhstan is the only CIS country to be included in the 2020 and 2019 IWB World Competitiveness rankings. In particular, they have been modernizing the industrial sector and fostering the development of service industries through business-friendly fiscal policies and other measures, to reduce the share of agriculture in GDP. Between 2005 and 2013, the share of agriculture dropped in all but Tajikistan, where it increased while industry decreased. The fastest growth in industry was observed in Turkmenistan, whereas the services sector progressed most in the other four countries.


title: Central Asia

text: Public policies pursued by Central Asian governments focus on buffering the political and economic spheres from external shocks. This includes maintaining a trade balance, minimizing public debt and accumulating national reserves. They cannot totally insulate themselves from negative exterior forces, however, such as the persistently weak recovery of global industrial production and international trade since 2008. Notwithstanding this, they have emerged relatively unscathed from the global financial crisis of 2008–2009. Growth faltered only briefly in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and not at all in Uzbekistan, where the economy grew by more than 7% per year on average between 2008 and 2013. Turkmenistan achieved unusually high 14.7% growth in 2011. Kyrgyzstan's performance has been more erratic but this phenomenon was visible well before 2008.


title: Central Asia

text: The republics which have fared best benefitted from the commodities boom during the first decade of the 2000s. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have abundant oil and natural gas reserves and Uzbekistan's own reserves make it more or less self-sufficient. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan all have gold reserves and Kazakhstan has the world's largest uranium reserves. Fluctuating global demand for cotton, aluminium and other metals (except gold) in recent years has hit Tajikistan hardest, since aluminium and raw cotton are its chief exports − the Tajik Aluminium Company is the country's primary industrial asset. In January 2014, the Minister of Agriculture announced the government's intention to reduce the acreage of land cultivated by cotton to make way for other crops. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are major cotton exporters themselves, ranking fifth and ninth respectively worldwide for volume in 2014.


title: Central Asia

text: Although both exports and imports have grown significantly over the past decade, Central Asian republics countries remain vulnerable to economic shocks, owing to their reliance on exports of raw materials, a restricted circle of trading partners and a negligible manufacturing capacity. Kyrgyzstan has the added disadvantage of being considered resource poor, although it does have ample water. Most of its electricity is generated by hydropower.


title: Central Asia

text: The Kyrgyz economy was shaken by a series of shocks between 2010 and 2012. In April 2010, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was deposed by a popular uprising, with former minister of foreign affairs Roza Otunbayeva assuring the interim presidency until the election of Almazbek Atambayev in November 2011. Food prices rose two years in a row and, in 2012, production at the major Kumtor gold mine fell by 60% after the site was perturbed by geological movements. According to the World Bank, 33.7% of the population was living in absolute poverty in 2010 and 36.8% a year later.


title: Central Asia

text: Despite high rates of economic growth in recent years, GDP per capita in Central Asia was higher than the average for developing countries only in Kazakhstan in 2013 (PPP$23,206) and Turkmenistan (PPP$14 201). It dropped to PPP$5,167 for Uzbekistan, home to 45% of the region's population, and was even lower for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan leads the Central Asian region in terms of foreign direct investments. The Kazakh economy accounts for more than 70% of all the investment attracted in Central Asia.


title: Central Asia

text: In terms of the economic influence of big powers, China is viewed as one of the key economic players in Central Asia, especially after Beijing launched its grand development strategy known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.


title: Central Asia

text: The Central Asian countries attracted $378.2 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) between 2007 and 2019. Kazakhstan accounted for 77.7% of the total FDI directed to the region. Kazakhstan is also the largest country in Central Asia accounting for more than 60 percent of the region's gross domestic product (GDP).


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asian nations fared better economically throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and particularly Turkey was one of just a few countries in the globe to see activity increase in 2020. Many variables are likely to have been at play, but disparities in economic structure, the intensity of the pandemic, and accompanying containment efforts may all be linked to part of the variety in nations' experiences. Central Asian countries are, however, predicted to be hit the worst in the future. Only 4% of permanently closed businesses anticipate to return in the future, with huge differences across sectors, ranging from 3% in lodging and food services to 27% in retail commerce.


title: Central Asia

text: In 2022, experts assessed that global climate change is likely to pose multiple economic risks to Central Asia and may possibly result in many billions of losses unless proper adaptation measures are developed to counter growing temperatures across the region.


title: Central Asia

text: Bolstered by strong economic growth in all but Kyrgyzstan, national development strategies are fostering new high-tech industries, pooling resources and orienting the economy towards export markets. Many national research institutions established during the Soviet era have since become obsolete with the development of new technologies and changing national priorities. This has led countries to reduce the number of national research institutions since 2009 by grouping existing institutions to create research hubs. Several of the Turkmen Academy of Science's institutes were merged in 2014: the Institute of Botany was merged with the Institute of Medicinal Plants to become the Institute of Biology and Medicinal Plants; the Sun Institute was merged with the Institute of Physics and Mathematics to become the Institute of Solar Energy; and the Institute of Seismology merged with the State Service for Seismology to become the Institute of Seismology and Atmospheric Physics. In Uzbekistan, more than 10 institutions of the Academy of Sciences have been reorganised, following the issuance of a decree by the Cabinet of Ministers in February 2012. The aim is to orient academic research towards problem-solving and ensure continuity between basic and applied research. For example, the Mathematics and Information Technology Research Institute has been subsumed under the National University of Uzbekistan and the Institute for Comprehensive Research on Regional Problems of Samarkand has been transformed into a problem-solving laboratory on environmental issues within Samarkand State University. Other research institutions have remained attached to the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, such as the Centre of Genomics and Bioinformatics.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are also building technology parks as part of their drive to modernise infrastructure. In 2011, construction began of a technopark in the village of Bikrova near Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital. It will combine research, education, industrial facilities, business incubators and exhibition centres. The technopark will house research on alternative energy sources (sun, wind) and the assimilation of nanotechnologies. Between 2010 and 2012, technological parks were set up in the east, south and north Kazakhstan oblasts (administrative units) and in the capital, Astana. A Centre for Metallurgy was also established in the east Kazakhstan oblast, as well as a Centre for Oil and Gas Technologies which will be part of the planned Caspian Energy Hub. In addition, the Centre for Technology Commercialisation has been set up in Kazakhstan as part of the Parasat National Scientific and Technological Holding, a joint stock company established in 2008 that is 100% state-owned. The centre supports research projects in technology marketing, intellectual property protection, technology licensing contracts and start-ups. The centre plans to conduct a technology audit in Kazakhstan and to review the legal framework regulating the commercialisation of research results and technology.


title: Central Asia

text: Countries are seeking to augment the efficiency of traditional extractive sectors but also to make greater use of information and communication technologies and other modern technologies, such as solar energy, to develop the business sector, education and research. In March 2013, two research institutes were created by presidential decree to foster the development of alternative energy sources in Uzbekistan, with funding from the Asian Development Bank and other institutions: the SPU Physical−Technical Institute (Physics Sun Institute) and the International Solar Energy Institute. Three universities have been set up since 2011 to foster competence in strategic economic areas: Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan (first intake in 2011), an international research university, Inha University in Uzbekistan (first intake in 2014), specializing in information and communication technologies, and the International Oil and Gas University in Turkmenistan (founded in 2013). Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are both generalizing the teaching of foreign languages at school, in order to facilitate international ties. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have both adopted the three-tier bachelor's, master's and PhD degree system, in 2007 and 2012 respectively, which is gradually replacing the Soviet system of Candidates and Doctors of Science. In 2010, Kazakhstan became the only Central Asian member of the Bologna Process, which seeks to harmonise higher education systems in order to create a European Higher Education Area.


title: Central Asia

text: The Central Asian republics' ambition of developing the business sector, education and research is being hampered by chronic low investment in research and development. Over the decade to 2013, the region's investment in research and development hovered around 0.2–0.3% of GDP. Uzbekistan broke with this trend in 2013 by raising its own research intensity to 0.41% of GDP.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan is the only country where the business enterprise and private non-profit sectors make any significant contribution to research and development – but research intensity overall is low in Kazakhstan: just 0.18% of GDP in 2013. Moreover, few industrial enterprises conduct research in Kazakhstan. Only one in eight (12.5%) of the country's manufacturing firms were active in innovation in 2012, according to a survey by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Enterprises prefer to purchase technological solutions that are already embodied in imported machinery and equipment. Just 4% of firms purchase the license and patents that come with this technology. Nevertheless, there appears to be a growing demand for the products of research, since enterprises spent 4.5 times more on scientific and technological services in 2008 than in 1997.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan count the highest researcher density in Central Asia. The number of researchers per million population is close to the world average (1,083 in 2013) in Kazakhstan (1,046) and higher than the world average in Uzbekistan (1,097).


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan is the only Central Asian country where the business enterprise and private non-profit sectors make any significant contribution to research and development. Uzbekistan is in a particularly vulnerable position, with its heavy reliance on higher education: three-quarters of researchers were employed by the university sector in 2013 and just 6% in the business enterprise sector. With most Uzbek university researchers nearing retirement, this imbalance imperils Uzbekistan's research future. Almost all holders of a Candidate of Science, Doctor of Science or PhD are more than 40 years old and half are aged over 60; more than one in three researchers (38.4%) holds a PhD degree, or its equivalent, the remainder holding a bachelor's or master's degree.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have all maintained a share of women researchers above 40% since the fall of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan has even achieved gender parity, with Kazakh women dominating medical and health research and representing some 45–55% of engineering and technology researchers in 2013. In Tajikistan, however, only one in three scientists (34%) was a woman in 2013, down from 40% in 2002. Although policies are in place to give Tajik women equal rights and opportunities, these are underfunded and poorly understood. Turkmenistan has offered a state guarantee of equality for women since a law adopted in 2007 but the lack of available data makes it impossible to draw any conclusions as to the law's impact on research. As for Turkmenistan, it does not make data available on higher education, research expenditure or researchers.


title: Central Asia

text: "Note: PhD graduates in science cover life sciences, physical sciences, mathematics and statistics, and computing; PhDs in engineering also cover manufacturing and construction. For Central Asia, the generic term of PhD also encompasses Candidate of Science and Doctor of Science degrees. Data are unavailable for Turkmenistan."


title: Central Asia

text: The number of scientific papers published in Central Asia grew by almost 50% between 2005 and 2014, driven by Kazakhstan, which overtook Uzbekistan over this period to become the region's most prolific scientific publisher, according to Thomson Reuters' Web of Science (Science Citation Index Expanded). Between 2005 and 2014, Kazakhstan's share of scientific papers from the region grew from 35% to 56%. Although two-thirds of papers from the region have a foreign co-author, the main partners tend to come from beyond Central Asia, namely the Russian Federation, USA, German, United Kingdom and Japan.


title: Central Asia

text: Five Kazakh patents were registered at the US Patent and Trademark Office between 2008 and 2013, compared to three for Uzbek inventors and none at all for the other three Central Asian republics, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan is Central Asia's main trader in high-tech products. Kazakh imports nearly doubled between 2008 and 2013, from US$2.7 billion to US$5.1 billion. There has been a surge in imports of computers, electronics and telecommunications; these products represented an investment of US$744 million in 2008 and US$2.6 billion five years later. The growth in exports was more gradual – from US$2.3 billion to US$3.1 billion – and dominated by chemical products (other than pharmaceuticals), which represented two-thirds of exports in 2008 (US$1.5 billion) and 83% (US$2.6 billion) in 2013.


title: Central Asia

text: The five Central Asian republics belong to several international bodies, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Economic Cooperation Organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. They are also members of the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Programme, which also includes Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Mongolia and Pakistan. In November 2011, the 10 member countries adopted the "CAREC 2020 Strategy", a blueprint for furthering regional co-operation. Over the decade to 2020, US$50 billion is being invested in priority projects in transport, trade and energy to improve members' competitiveness. The landlocked Central Asian republics are conscious of the need to co-operate in order to maintain and develop their transport networks and energy, communication and irrigation systems. Only Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan border the Caspian Sea and none of the republics has direct access to an ocean, complicating the transportation of hydrocarbons, in particular, to world markets.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan is also one of the three founding members of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2014, along with Belarus and the Russian Federation. Armenia and Kyrgyzstan have since joined this body. As co-operation among the member states in science and technology is already considerable and well-codified in legal texts, the Eurasian Economic Union is expected to have a limited additional impact on co-operation among public laboratories or academia but it should encourage business ties and scientific mobility, since it includes provision for the free circulation of labour and unified patent regulations.


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan and Tajikistan participated in the Innovative Biotechnologies Programme (2011–2015) launched by the Eurasian Economic Community, the predecessor of the Eurasian Economic Union, The programme also involved Belarus and the Russian Federation. Within this programme, prizes were awarded at an annual bio-industry exhibition and conference. In 2012, 86 Russian organisations participated, plus three from Belarus, one from Kazakhstan and three from Tajikistan, as well as two scientific research groups from Germany. At the time, Vladimir Debabov, scientific director of the Genetika State Research Institute for Genetics and the Selection of Industrial Micro-organisms in the Russian Federation, stressed the paramount importance of developing bio-industry. "In the world today, there is a strong tendency to switch from petrochemicals to renewable biological sources", he said. "Biotechnology is developing two to three times faster than chemicals."


title: Central Asia

text: Kazakhstan also participated in a second project of the Eurasian Economic Community, the establishment of the Centre for Innovative Technologies on 4 April 2013, with the signing of an agreement between the Russian Venture Company (a government fund of funds), the Kazakh JSC National Agency and the Belarusian Innovative Foundation. Each of the selected projects is entitled to funding of US$3–90 million and is implemented within a public–private partnership. The first few approved projects focused on supercomputers, space technologies, medicine, petroleum recycling, nanotechnologies and the ecological use of natural resources. Once these initial projects have spawned viable commercial products, the venture company plans to reinvest the profits in new projects. This venture company is not a purely economic structure; it has also been designed to promote a common economic space among the three participating countries. Kazakhstan recognises the role civil society initiatives have to address the consequences of the COVID-19 crisis.


title: Central Asia

text: Four of the five Central Asian republics have also been involved in a project launched by the European Union in September 2013, IncoNet CA. The aim of this project is to encourage Central Asian countries to participate in research projects within Horizon 2020, the European Union's eighth research and innovation funding programme. The focus of this research projects is on three societal challenges considered as being of mutual interest to both the European Union and Central Asia, namely: climate change, energy and health. IncoNet CA builds on the experience of earlier projects which involved other regions, such as Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and the Western Balkans. IncoNet CA focuses on twinning research facilities in Central Asia and Europe. It involves a consortium of partner institutions from Austria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Portugal, Tajikistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. In May 2014, the European Union launched a 24-month call for project applications from twinned institutions – universities, companies and research institutes – for funding of up to €10, 000 to enable them to visit one another's facilities to discuss project ideas or prepare joint events like workshops.


title: Central Asia

text: The International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) was established in 1992 by the European Union, Japan, the Russian Federation and the US to engage weapons scientists in civilian research projects and to foster technology transfer. ISTC branches have been set up in the following countries party to the agreement: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The headquarters of ISTC were moved to Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan in June 2014, three years after the Russian Federation announced its withdrawal from the centre.


title: Central Asia

text: Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have been members of the World Trade Organization since 1998, 2013 and 2015 respectively.


title: Central Asia

text: By a broad definition including Mongolia and Afghanistan, more than 90 million people live in Central Asia, about 2% of Asia's total population. Of the regions of Asia, only North Asia has fewer people. It has a population density of 9 people per km, vastly less than the 80.5 people per km of the continent as a whole. Kazakhstan is one of the least densely populated countries in the world.


title: Central Asia

text: Russian, as well as being spoken by around six million ethnic Russians and Ukrainians of Central Asia, is the de facto lingua franca throughout the former Soviet Central Asian Republics. Mandarin Chinese has an equally dominant presence in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and Xinjiang.


title: Central Asia

text: The languages of the majority of the inhabitants of the former Soviet Central Asian Republics belong to the Turkic language group. Turkmen is mainly spoken in Turkmenistan, and as a minority language in Afghanistan, Russia, Iran and Turkey. Kazakh and Kyrgyz are related languages of the Kypchak group of Turkic languages and are spoken throughout Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and as a minority language in Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang. Uzbek and Uyghur are spoken in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Xinjiang.


title: Central Asia

text: The Turkic languages may belong to a larger, but controversial, Altaic language family, which includes Mongolian. Mongolian is spoken throughout Mongolia and into Buryatia, Kalmyk, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang.


title: Central Asia

text: Middle Iranian languages were once spoken throughout Central Asia, such as the once prominent Sogdian, Khwarezmian, Bactrian and Scythian, which are now extinct and belonged to the Eastern Iranian family. The Eastern Iranian Pashto language is still spoken in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. Other minor Eastern Iranian languages such as Shughni, Munji, Ishkashimi, Sarikoli, Wakhi, Yaghnobi and Ossetic are also spoken at various places in Central Asia. Varieties of Persian are also spoken as a major language in the region, locally known as Dari (in Afghanistan), Tajik (in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), and Bukhori (by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia).


title: Central Asia

text: Tocharian, another Indo-European language group, which was once predominant in oases on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang, is now extinct.


title: Central Asia

text: Other language groups include the Tibetic languages, spoken by around six million people across the Tibetan Plateau and into Qinghai, Sichuan (Szechwan), Ladakh and Baltistan, and the Nuristani languages of northeastern Afghanistan. Korean is spoken by the Koryo-saram minority, mainly in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.


title: Central Asia

text: Islam is the religion most common in the Central Asian Republics, Afghanistan, Xinjiang, and the peripheral western regions, such as Bashkortostan. Most Central Asian Muslims are Sunni, although there are sizable Shia minorities in Afghanistan and Tajikistan.


title: Central Asia

text: Buddhism and Zoroastrianism were the major faiths in Central Asia before the arrival of Islam. Zoroastrian influence is still felt today in such celebrations as Nowruz, held in all five of the Central Asian states. The transmission of Buddhism along the Silk Road eventually brought the religion to China. Amongst the Turkic peoples, Tengrism was the leading religion before Islam. Tibetan Buddhism is most common in Tibet, Mongolia, Ladakh, and the southern Russian regions of Siberia.


title: Central Asia

text: The form of Christianity most practiced in the region in previous centuries was Nestorianism, but now the largest denomination is the Russian Orthodox Church, with many members in Kazakhstan, where about 25% of the population of 19 million identify as Christian, 17% in Uzbekistan and 5% in Kyrgyzstan.


title: Central Asia

text: The Bukharan Jews were once a sizable community in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but nearly all have emigrated since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.


title: Central Asia

text: Contact and migration with Han people from China has brought Confucianism, Daoism, Mahayana Buddhism, and other Chinese folk beliefs into the region.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia has long been a strategic location merely because of its proximity to several great powers on the Eurasian landmass. The region itself never held a dominant stationary population nor was able to make use of natural resources. Thus, it has rarely throughout history become the seat of power for an empire or influential state. Central Asia has been divided, redivided, conquered out of existence, and fragmented time and time again. Central Asia has served more as the battleground for outside powers than as a power in its own right.


title: Central Asia

text: Central Asia had both the advantage and disadvantage of a central location between four historical seats of power. From its central location, it has access to trade routes to and from all the regional powers. On the other hand, it has been continuously vulnerable to attack from all sides throughout its history, resulting in political fragmentation or outright power vacuum, as it is successively dominated.


title: Central Asia

text: In the post–Cold War era, Central Asia is an ethnic cauldron, prone to instability and conflicts, without a sense of national identity, but rather a mess of historical cultural influences, tribal and clan loyalties, and religious fervor. Projecting influence into the area is no longer just Russia, but also Turkey, Iran, China, Pakistan, India and the United States:


title: Central Asia

text: Russian historian Lev Gumilev wrote that Xiongnu, Mongols (Mongol Empire, Zunghar Khanate) and Turkic peoples (First Turkic Khaganate, Uyghur Khaganate) played a role to stop Chinese aggression to the north. The Turkic Khaganate had special policy against Chinese assimilation policy. Another interesting theoretical analysis on the historical-geopolitics of the Central Asia was made through the reinterpretation of Orkhun Inscripts.


title: Central Asia

text: The region, along with Russia, is also part of "the great pivot" as per the Heartland Theory of Halford Mackinder, which says that the power which controls Central Asia—richly endowed with natural resources—shall ultimately be the "empire of the world".


title: Central Asia

text: In the context of the United States' War on Terror, Central Asia has once again become the center of geostrategic calculations. Pakistan's status has been upgraded by the U.S. government to Major non-NATO ally because of its central role in serving as a staging point for the invasion of Afghanistan, providing intelligence on Al-Qaeda operations in the region, and leading the hunt on Osama bin Laden.


title: Central Asia

text: Afghanistan, which had served as a haven and source of support for Al-Qaeda under the protection of Mullah Omar and the Taliban, was the target of a U.S. invasion in 2001 and ongoing reconstruction and drug-eradication efforts. U.S. military bases have also been established in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, causing both Russia and the People's Republic of China to voice their concern over a permanent U.S. military presence in the region.


title: Central Asia

text: Western governments have accused Russia, China and the former Soviet republics of justifying the suppression of separatist movements, and the associated ethnics and religion with the War on Terror.


title: Artemis program

text: The Artemis program is a robotic and human Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with three partner agencies: European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The Artemis program intends to reestablish a human presence on the Moon for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. The major components of the program are the Space Launch System (SLS), Orion spacecraft, Lunar Gateway space station and the commercial Human Landing Systems. The program's long-term goal is to establish a permanent base camp on the Moon and facilitate human missions to Mars.


title: Artemis program

text: The Artemis program is a collaboration of government space agencies and private spaceflight companies, bound together by the Artemis Accords and supporting contracts. As of July 2022, twenty-one countries have signed the accords, including traditional U.S. space partners (such as the European Space Agency as well as agencies from Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and emerging space powers such as Brazil, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.


title: Artemis program

text: The Artemis program was formally established in 2017 during the Trump administration; however, many of its components such as the Orion spacecraft were developed during the previous Constellation program (2005–2010) during the Bush administration, and after its cancellation during the Obama administration. Orion's first launch, and the first use of the Space Launch System, was originally set in 2016, but was rescheduled and launched on 16 November 2022 as the Artemis 1 mission, with robots and mannequins aboard. According to plan, the crewed Artemis 2 launch will take place in 2024, the Artemis 3 crewed lunar landing in 2025, the Artemis 4 docking with the Lunar Gateway in 2027, and future yearly landings on the Moon thereafter. However, some observers note that the program's cost and timeline are likely to be overrun and delayed due to, according to internal and external review, NASA's inadequate management of contractors.


title: Artemis program

text: The Artemis program is organized around a series of Space Launch System (SLS) missions. These space missions will increase in complexity and are scheduled to occur at intervals of a year or more. NASA and its partners have planned Artemis 1 through Artemis 5 missions; later Artemis missions have also been proposed. Each SLS mission centers on the launch of an SLS launch vehicle carrying an Orion spacecraft. Missions after Artemis 2 will depend on support missions launched by other organizations and spacecraft for support functions.


title: Artemis program

text: Artemis 1 (2022) is an uncrewed test of the SLS and Orion, and is the first test flight for both craft. The goal of the Artemis 1 mission is to place Orion into a lunar orbit, and then return it to Earth. The SLS uses the ICPS second stage, which will perform the trans-lunar injection burn to send Orion to lunar space. Orion will brake into a retrograde distant polar lunar orbit and remain for about six days before boosting back toward Earth. The Orion capsule will separate from its service module, re-enter the atmosphere for aerobraking, and splash down under parachutes.


title: Artemis program

text: Artemis 2 (2024) will be the first crewed test flight of SLS and the Orion spacecraft. The four crew members will perform extensive testing in Earth orbit, and Orion will then be boosted into a free-return trajectory around the Moon, which will return Orion back to Earth for re-entry and splashdown. Launch is scheduled no earlier than May 2024.


title: Artemis program

text: Artemis 3 (2025) will be a crewed lunar landing. The mission depends on a support mission to place a Human Landing System (HLS) in place in a near-rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) of the Moon prior to the launch of SLS/Orion. After HLS reaches NRHO, SLS/Orion will send the Orion spacecraft with a crew of four, which is intended to include the first woman and the first person of color to land on the Moon, to rendezvous and dock with HLS. Two astronauts will transfer to HLS, which will descend to the lunar surface and spend about 6.5 days on the surface. The astronauts will perform at least two EVAs on the surface before the HLS ascends to return them to a rendezvous with Orion. Orion will return the four astronauts to Earth. Launch is scheduled no earlier than 2025.


title: Artemis program

text: Artemis 4 (2027) is a crewed mission to the Lunar Gateway station in NRHO, using an SLS Block 1B. A prior support mission will deliver the first two gateway modules to NRHO. The extra power of the Block 1B will allow SLS/Orion to deliver the I-HAB gateway module for connection to the Gateway. Launch is scheduled no earlier than 2027.


title: Artemis program

text: Artemis 5 through Artemis 8 and beyond are proposed to land astronauts on the lunar surface, where they will take advantage of increasing amounts of infrastructure that are to be landed by support missions. These will include habitats, rovers, scientific instruments, and resource extraction equipment.


title: Artemis program

text: Support missions include robotic landers, delivery of Gateway modules, Gateway logistics, delivery of the HLS, and delivery of elements of the Moon base. Most of these missions are executed under NASA contracts to commercial providers.


title: Artemis program

text: Under the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, several robotic landers will deliver scientific instruments and robotic rovers to the lunar surface after Artemis 1. Additional CLPS missions are planned throughout the Artemis program to deliver payloads to the Moon base. These include habitat modules and rovers in support of crewed missions.


title: Artemis program

text: The Human Landing System (HLS) is a spacecraft that can convey crew members from NRHO to the lunar surface, support them on the surface, and return them to NRHO. Each crewed landing needs one HLS, although some or all of the spacecraft may be reusable. Each HLS must be launched from Earth and delivered to NRHO in one or more launches. The initial commercial contract was awarded to SpaceX for two Starship HLS missions, one uncrewed and one crewed as part of Artemis 3. These two missions each require one HLS launch and multiple fueling launches, all on SpaceX Starship launchers. , NASA has also exercised an option under the initial contract to commission an upgraded Starship HLS design and third demonstration lunar mission under new sustainability rules it is drafting. It intends to pursue another HLS design from outside SpaceX in parallel, for redundancy and competition.


title: Artemis program

text: The first two Gateway modules (PPE and HALO) will be delivered to NRHO in a single launch using a Falcon Heavy launcher. Originally planned to be available prior to Artemis 3, as of 2021 it is planned for availability before Artemis 4.


title: Artemis program

text: The Gateway will be resupplied and supported by launches of Dragon XL spacecraft launched by Falcon Heavy. Each Dragon XL will remain attached to Gateway for up to six months. the Dragon XLs will not return to Earth, but will be disposed of, probably by deliberate crashes on the lunar surface.


title: Artemis program

text: The Artemis program incorporates several major components of previously canceled NASA programs and missions, including the Constellation program and the Asteroid Redirect Mission. Originally legislated by the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, Constellation included the development of Ares I, Ares V, and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. The program ran from the early 2000s until 2010.


title: Artemis program

text: In May 2009, President Barack Obama established the Augustine Committee to take into account several objectives including support for the International Space Station, development of missions beyond low Earth orbit (including the Moon, Mars, and near-Earth objects), and utilization of the commercial space industry within defined budget limits. The committee concluded that the Constellation program was massively underfunded and that a 2020 Moon landing was impossible. Constellation was subsequently put on hold.