title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Arnold, Kishor, and Roy, in their 2002 paper, too hypothesize that modern fetal sex screening techniques have skewed child sex ratios in India. Ganatra et al., in their 2000 paper, use a small survey sample to estimate that of reported abortions followed a sex determination test.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The Indian government and various advocacy groups have continued the debate and discussion about ways to prevent sex selection. The immorality of prenatal sex selection has been questioned, with some arguments in favor of prenatal discrimination as more humane than postnatal discrimination by a family that does not want a female child. Others question whether the morality of sex selective abortion is any different over morality of abortion when there is no risk to the mother nor to the fetus, and abortion is used as a means to end an unwanted pregnancy.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: India passed its first abortion-related law, the so-called Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1971, making abortion legal in most states, but specified legally acceptable reasons for abortion such as medical risk to mother and rape. The law also established physicians who can legally provide the procedure and the facilities where abortions can be performed, but did not anticipate sex selective abortion based on technology advances.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: With increasing availability of sex screening technologies in India through the 1980s in urban India, and claims of its misuse, the Government of India passed the Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT) in 1994. This law was further amended into the Pre-Conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) (PCPNDT) Act in 2004 to deter and punish prenatal sex screening and sex selective abortion. The impact of the law and its enforcement is unclear. However, research shows that there was about a 0.7%-1% increase in female births after the PNDT Act was passed in 1994. Unfortunately, this data was not significant. United Nations Population Fund and India's National Human Rights Commission, in 2009, asked the Government of India to assess the impact of the law. The Public Health Foundation of India, an activist NGO in its 2010 report, claimed a lack of awareness about the Act in parts of India, inactive role of the Appropriate Authorities, ambiguity among some clinics that offer prenatal care services, and the role of a few medical practitioners in disregarding the law. At the start of passing this act, women were still able to travel across borders to continue having sex-selective abortions. This was until the national PNDT was passed in 1996.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India has targeted education and media advertisements to reach clinics and medical professionals to increase awareness. The Indian Medical Association has undertaken efforts to prevent prenatal sex selection by giving its members "Beti Bachao" (save the daughter) badges during its meetings and conferences.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In November 2007, MacPherson estimated that 100,000 abortions every year continue to be performed in India solely because the fetus is female.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: For Pakistan, the United Nations Population Fund, in its 2012 report estimates the Pakistan birth sex ratio to be 110. In the urban regions, particularly its densely populated region of Punjab, report a sex ratio above 112 (less than 900 females per 1000 males). Hudson and Den Boer estimate the resulting deficit to be about 6 million missing girls in Pakistan than what would normally be expected. Three different research studies, according to Klausen and Wink, note that Pakistan had the world's highest percentage of missing girls, relative to its total pre-adult female population.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In 2017, two Pakistani organisations discovered large cases of infanticide in Pakistani cities. This was led by the Edhi Foundation and Chhipa Welfare Foundation. The infanticide was mainly almost all were female infants. The reason given by the local authorities were poverty and local customs, where boys are preferred to girls. However, the large discovery in Karachi shows that many of the female infants were killed because of the local Islamic clerics, who ordered out of wedlock babies should be disregarded. As, babies born out of wedlock in Islam is considered a sin.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Sex-selective abortion gained popularity in the mid-1980s to early 1990s in South Korea, where selective female abortions were commonplace as male children were preferred. Historically, much of Korea's values and traditions were based on Confucianism that dictated the patriarchal system, motivating the heavy preference for sons. Additionally, even though the abortion ban existed, the combination of son preference and availability of sex-selective technology led to an increasing number of sex-selective abortions and boys born. As a result, South Korea experienced drastically high sex ratios around mid-1980s to early 1990s. However, in recent years, with the changes in family policies and modernization, attitudes towards son preference have changed, normalizing the sex ratio and lowering the number of sex-selective abortions. With that being said, there has been no explicit data on the number of induced sex selective abortions reportedly performed due to the abortion ban and controversy surrounding the topic. Therefore, scholars have been continuously analyzing and generating connections among sex-selection, abortion policies, gender discrimination, and other cultural factors.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Other countries with large populations but high sex ratios include Vietnam. The United Nations Population Fund, in its 2012 report, claims the birth sex ratio of Vietnam at 111 with its densely populated Red River Delta region at 116.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Taiwan has reported a sex ratio at birth between 1.07 and 1.11 every year, across 4 million births, over the 20-year period from 1991 to 2011, with the highest birth sex ratios in the 2000s. Sex-selective abortion is reported to be common in South Korea too, but its incidence has declined in recent years. As of 2015, South Korea's sex ratio at birth was 1.07 male/female. In 2015, Hong Kong had a sex ratio at birth of 1.12 male/female. A 2001 study on births in the late 1990s concluded that "sex selection or sex-selective abortion might be practiced among Hong Kong Chinese women".


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Recently, a rise in the sex ratio at birth has been noted in some parts of Nepal, most notably in the Kathmandu Valley, but also in districts such as Kaski. High sex ratios at birth are most notable amongst richer, more educated sections of the population in urban areas.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Abnormal sex ratios at birth, possibly explained by growing incidence of sex-selective abortion, have also been noted in some other countries outside South and East Asia. According to CIA, the most imbalanced birth sex ratios in Europe (2017) are in Liechtenstein, Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Kosovo and Macedonia; with Liechtenstein having the most imbalanced sex ratio in the world.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The Caucasus has been named a "male-dominated region", and as families have become smaller in recent years, the pressures to have sons has increased. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the birth sex ratio in Caucasus countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia was in the 105 to 108 range. After the collapse, the birth sex ratios sharply climbed and have remained high for the last 20 years. Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan have seen strongly imbalanced birth sex ratios in the first decade of the 21st century. In Georgia, the birth sex ratio for the years 2005–2009 was cited by "The Economist" to be about 120, a trend "The Economist" claims suggests that the practice of sex-selective abortion in the Caucasus has been similar to those in East Asia and South Asia in recent decades.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: According to an article in "The Economist" the sex ratio in Armenia is seen to be a function of birth order. The article claimed that among first born children, there are 138 boys for every 100 girls. Overall, the birth sex ratio in Armenia exceeded 115 in some years, far higher than India's which was cited at 108. While these high birth sex ratios suggest sex-selective abortion, there is no direct evidence of observed large-scale sex-selective abortions in Caucasus.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: According to latest CIA data, the 2017 sex ratio in the region is 112 for Armenia, 109 for Azerbaijan, and 107 for Georgia.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: An imbalanced birth sex ratio has been present in the 21st century in the Western Balkans, in countries such as Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro. Scholars claim this suggests that sex-selective abortions are common in southeast Europe. As of 2017, according to CIA estimates, Albania's birth sex ratio is 109. According to Eurostat and birth record data over 2008–11, the birth sex ratios of Albania and Montenegro for that period were 112 and 110 respectively. In recent years, Montenegrin health authorities have expressed concern with regard to the significant imbalance between the number of male and female births. However the data from CIA in 2017 cites the birth ratio for Montenegro within the normal range, at 106. In recent years, the birth registration data for Macedonia and Kosovo indicate unbalanced birth sex ratios, including a birth rate in 2010 of 112 for Kosovo. As 2017, CIA cited both Macedonia and Kosovo at 108.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Like in other countries, sex-selective abortion is difficult to track in the United States because of lack of data.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: While some parents in United States do not practice sex-selective abortion, there is certainly a trend toward male preference. According to a 2011 Gallup poll, if they were only allowed to have one child, 40% of respondents said they would prefer a boy, while only 28% preferred a girl. When told about prenatal sex selection techniques such as sperm sorting and in vitro fertilization embryo selection, 40% of Americans surveyed thought that picking embryos by sex was an acceptable manifestation of reproductive rights. These selecting techniques are available at about half of American fertility clinics, as of 2006. However, other studies show a larger preference for females. According to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, 80% of American couples who wanted to get gender selection wanted girls over boys.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: However, it is notable that minority groups that immigrate into the United States bring their cultural views and mindsets into the country with them. A study carried out at a Massachusetts infertility clinic shows that the majority of couples using these techniques, such as Preimplantation genetic diagnosis came from a Chinese or Asian background. This is thought to branch from the social importance of giving birth to male children in China and other Asian countries.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: A study of the 2000 United States Census suggests possible male bias in families of Chinese, Korean and Indian immigrants, which was getting increasingly stronger in families where the first one or two children were female. In those families where the first two children were girls, the birth sex ratio of the third child was 1.51:1.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Because of this movement toward sex preference and selection, many bans on sex-selective abortion have been proposed at the state and federal level. In 2010 and 2011, sex-selective abortions were banned in Oklahoma and Arizona, respectively. Legislators in Georgia, West Virginia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York have also tried to pass acts banning the procedure.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: A 2013 study by John Bongaarts based on surveys in 61 major countries calculates the sex ratios that would result if parents had the number of sons and daughters they want. In 35 countries, claims Bongaarts, the desired birth sex ratio in respective countries would be more than 110 boys for every 100 girls if parents in these countries had a child matching their preferred gender (higher than India's, which The Economist claims is 108).


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Estimates of implied missing girls, considering the "normal" birth sex ratio to be the 103–107 range, vary considerably between researchers and underlying assumptions for expected post-birth mortality rates for men and women. For example, a 2005 study estimated that over 90 million females were "missing" from the expected population in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan, South Korea and Taiwan alone, and suggested that sex-selective abortion plays a role in this deficit. For early 1990s, Sen estimated 107 million missing women, Coale estimated 60 million as missing, while Klasen estimated 89 million missing women in China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, West Asia and Egypt. Guilmoto, in his 2010 report, uses recent data (except for Pakistan), and estimates a much lower number of missing girls, but notes that the higher sex ratios in numerous countries have created a gender gap – shortage of girls – in the 0–19 age group.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Although there is significant evidence of the prevalence of sex-selective abortions in many nations (especially India and China), there is also evidence to suggest that some of the variation in global sex ratios is due to disparate access to resources. As MacPherson (2007) notes, there can be significant differences in gender violence and access to food, healthcare, immunizations between male and female children. This leads to high infant and childhood mortality among girls, which causes changes in sex ratio.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Disparate, gendered access to resources appears to be strongly linked to socioeconomic status. Specifically, poorer families are sometimes forced to ration food, with daughters typically receiving less priority than sons. However, Klasen's 2001 study revealed that this practice is less common in the poorest families, but rises dramatically in the slightly less poor families. Klasen and Wink's 2003 study suggests that this is "related to greater female economic independence and fewer cultural strictures among the poorest sections of the population". In other words, the poorest families are typically less bound by cultural expectations and norms, and women tend to have more freedom to become family breadwinners out of necessity.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Increased sex ratios can be caused by disparities in aspects of life other than vital resources. According to Sen (1990), differences in wages and job advancement also have a dramatic effect on sex ratios. This is why high sex ratios are sometimes seen in nations with little sex-selective abortion. Additionally, high female education rates are correlated with lower sex ratios (World Bank 2011).


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Lopez and Ruzikah (1983) found that, when given the same resources, women tend to outlive men at all stages of life after infancy. However, globally, resources are not always allocated equitably. Thus, some scholars argue that disparities in access to resources such as healthcare, education, and nutrition play at least a small role in the high sex ratios seen in some parts of the world. For example, Alderman and Gerter (1997) found that unequal access to healthcare is a primary cause of female death in developing nations, especially in Southeast Asia. Moreover, in India, lack of equal access to healthcare has led to increased disease and higher rates of female mortality in every age group until the late thirties (Sen 1990). This is particularly noteworthy because, in regions of the world where women receive equal resources, women tend to outlive men (Sen 1990). Women outlive men in all but 2 countries.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Economic disadvantage alone may not always lead to increased sex ratio, claimed Sen in 1990. For example, in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the most economically disadvantaged regions of the world, there is an excess of women. So, if economic disadvantage is uncorrelated with sex ratio in Africa, some other factor(s) may be at play. More detailed analysis of African demographics, in 2002, suggests that Africa too has wide variation in birth sex ratios (from 1.01 in Bantu populations of East Africa to 1.08 in Nigeria and Ethiopia). Thus economic disadvantage remains a possible unresolved hypothesis for Africa as well.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Various theories have been proposed as possible reasons for sex-selective abortion. Culture rather than economic conditions is favored by some researchers because such deviations in sex ratios do not exist in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Other hypotheses include disparate gender-biased access to resources, and attempts to control population growth such as using one child policy.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Some demographers question whether sex-selective abortion or infanticide claims are accurate, because underreporting of female births may also explain high sex ratios. Natural reasons may also explain some of the abnormal sex ratios. In contrast to these possible causes of abnormal sex ratio, Klasen and Wink suggest India and China's high sex ratios are primarily the result of sex-selective abortion.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The reason for intensifying sex-selection abortion in China and India can be seen through history and cultural background. Generally, before the information era, male babies were preferred because they provided manual labor and continuation of the family lineage. Labor is still important in developing nations as China and India, but when it comes to family lineage, it is of great importance.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The selective abortion of female fetuses is most common in areas where cultural norms value male children over female children for a variety of social and economic reasons. A son is often preferred as an "asset" since he can earn and support the family; a daughter is a "liability" since she will be married off to another family, and so will not contribute financially to her parents. Sex selective female abortion is a continuation, in a different form, of a practice of female infanticide or withholding of postnatal health care for girls in certain households. Furthermore, in some cultures sons are expected to take care of their parents in their old age. These factors are complicated by the effect of diseases on child sex ratio, where communicable and noncommunicable diseases affect males and females differently. In parts of India and Pakistan, there are social norms such as purdah, which stipulate that female seclusion and confinement to the home is necessary. Such practices are prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. When females interact with men, or are believed to do so, the "family honor" is tarnished.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Historically, in many South Asian populations, women were allocated a very low status, evidenced through practices such as sati, an ancient funeral custom where a widow immolated herself on her husband's pyre or committed suicide in another fashion shortly after her husband's death. Such societies, in placing almost no value on females, encouraged parents to commit infanticide of girls or to abandon them. The modern practice of sex-selective abortion is therefore a continuation of other historical practices. During the 19th century, in the Northwest British India, one-fourth of the population preserved only half the daughters, while other 3/4th of the population had balanced sex ratio. There were 118 males per 100 females. This is comparable to the contemporary sex ratio in the area, now divided between India and Pakistan.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Chinese culture is deeply patriarchal. Pre-modern Chinese society was predominantly patriarchal and patrilineal from at least the 11th century BC onwards. There has long been a son preference in China, leading to high rates of female infanticide, as well as a strong tradition of restricting the freedom of movement of women, particularly upper-class women, manifested through the practice of foot binding. Although the legal and social standing of women have greatly improved in the 20th century, son preference remains still strong, and the situation was aggravated by the one child policy.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Interpretations of Confucianism have been argued to contribute to the low status of women. The gender roles prescribed in the Three Obediences and Four Virtues became a cornerstone of the family, and thus, societal stability. Starting from the Han period, Confucians began to teach that a virtuous woman was supposed to follow the males in her family: the father before her marriage, the husband after she marries, and her sons in widowhood. In the later dynasties, more emphasis was placed on the virtue of chastity. The Song dynasty Confucian Cheng Yi stated that: "To starve to death is a small matter, but to lose one's chastity is a great matter." The "cult of chastity" accordingly, condemned many widows to poverty and loneliness by placing a social stigma on remarriage.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In modern East Asia, a large part of the pattern of preferences leading to this practice can be condensed simply as a desire to have a male heir. Monica Das Gupta (2005) observes, from 1989 birth data for China, there was no evidence of selective abortion of female fetuses among firstborn children. However, there was a strong preference for a boy if the first born was a girl.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Dowry is the property that parents of a female transfer at her marriage. Dowry is an ancient practice, that has been common in many cultures around the world, and which is today prevalent especially in South Asia. The custom of dowry is most common in cultures that are strongly patrilineal and that expect women to reside with or near their husband's family (patrilocality).


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Kirti Singh states that dowry is widely considered to be both a cause and a consequence of son preference, and this may lead to girls being unwanted, sex selective abortion, female infanticide or abuse of female children.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The dowry system in India is a major part of Indian culture and refers to the durable goods, cash, and real or movable property that the bride's family gives to the bridegroom, his parents, or his relatives as a condition of the marriage. Dowry consists of a payment in cash or some kind of gifts given to the bridegroom's family along with the bride and includes cash, jewelry, electrical appliances, furniture, bedding, crockery, utensils and other household items that help the newlyweds set up their home. Disputes regarding dowry sometimes lead to dowry deaths.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Following the 1949 creation of the People's Republic of China, the issue of population control came into the national spotlight. In the early years of the Republic, leaders believed that telling citizens to reduce their fertility was enough, repealing laws banning contraception and instead promoting its use. However, the contraceptives were not widely available, both because of lack of supply and because of cultural taboo against discussing sex. Efforts were slowed following the famine of 1959–61 but were resumed shortly thereafter with virtually the same results. Then, in 1964, the Family Planning Office was established to enforce stricter guidelines regarding fertility and it was moderately successful.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In 1979, the government adopted the One-Child Policy, which limited many families to one child, unless specified by provincial regulations. It was instituted as an attempt to boost the Chinese economy. Under it, families who break rules regarding the number of children they are allowed are given various punishments (primarily monetary), dependent upon the province in which they live.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: As stated above, the sex ratios of a province are largely determined by the type of restriction placed upon the family, pointing to the conclusion that much of the imbalance in sex ratio in China can be attributed to the policy. Research by Junhong (2001) found that many parents are willing to pay to ensure that their child is male (especially if their first child is female), but will not do the same to ensure their child is female. Likely, fear of the harsh monetary punishments of the One-Child Policy make ensuring a son's birth a smart investment. Therefore, son's cultural and economic importance to families and the large expenses associated with multiple children are primary factors leading to China's disparate sex ratio.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In 2013, China announced plans to formally change the One-Child policy, making it less stringent. The National People's Congress has changed the policy to allow couples to have two children, so long as one of the partners is an only child. This change was not sparked by sex ratios, but rather by an aging population that is causing the workforce to become increasingly smaller. It is estimated that this new law will lead to two million more births per year and could cause a baby boom in China. In 2015, China officially relaxed its one child law. Unfortunately, many of China's social problems are based on overpopulation. So, it is unclear if this new law will actually lead to women being more valued in Chinese society as the number of citizens increases.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The Trivers–Willard hypothesis argues that resource availability affects male reproductive success more than female and that, consequently, parents should prefer males when resources are plentiful and females when resources are scarce. This has been applied to resource differences between individuals in a society and also to resource differences between societies. Empirical evidence is mixed, with higher support in better studies, according to Cronk in a 2007 review. One example: in a 1997 study of a group with a preference for females was Romani in Hungary, a low-status group. They "had a female-biased sex ratio at birth, were more likely to abort a fetus after having had one or more daughters, nursed their daughters longer, and sent their daughters to school for longer."


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The idea of “missing women” was first suggested by Amartya Sen, one of the first scholars to study high sex ratios and their causes globally, in 1990. In order to illustrate the gravity of the situation, he calculated the number of women that were not alive because of sex-selective abortion or discriminatory practices. He found that there were 11 percent fewer women than there “should” have been, if China had the natural sex ratio. This figure, when combined with statistics from around the world, led to a finding of over 100 million missing women. In other words, by the early 1990s, the number of missing women was “larger than the combined casualties of all famines in the twentieth century” (Sen 1990).


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: This has led to particular concern due to a critical shortage of wives. In some rural areas, there is already a shortage of women, which is tied to migration into urban areas (Park and Cho 1995). In South Korea and Taiwan, high male sex ratios and declining birth rates over several decades have led to cross-cultural marriage between local men and foreign women from countries such as mainland China, Vietnam and the Philippines. However, sex-selective abortion is not the only cause of this phenomenon; it is also related to migration and declining fertility.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Some scholars argue that as the proportion of women to men decreases globally, there will be an increase in trafficking and sex work (both forced and self-elected), as many men will be willing to do more to obtain a sexual partner (Junhong 2001). Already, there are reports of women from Vietnam, Myanmar, and North Korea systematically trafficked to mainland China and Taiwan and sold into forced marriages. Moreover, Ullman and Fidell (1989) suggested that pornography and sex-related crimes of violence (i.e., rape and molestation) would also increase with an increasing sex ratio.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: As Park and Cho (1995) note, families in areas with high sex ratios that have mostly sons tend to be smaller than those with mostly daughters (because the families with mostly sons appear to have used sex-selective techniques to achieve their “ideal” composition). Particularly in poor areas, large families tend to have more problems with resource allocation, with daughters often receiving fewer resources than sons. Blake (1989) is credited for noting the relationship between family size and childhood “quality.” Therefore, if families with daughters continue to be predominantly large, it is likely that the social gap between genders will widen due to traditional cultural discrimination and lack of resource availability.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Guttentag and Secord (1983) hypothesized that when the proportion of males throughout the world is greater, there is likely to be more violence and war.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Some scholars believe that when sex ratios are high, women actually become valued more because of their relative shortage. Park and Cho (1995) suggest that as women become more scarce, they may have “increased value for conjugal and reproductive functions” (75). Eventually, this could lead to better social conditions, followed by the birth of more women and sex ratios moving back to natural levels. This claim is supported by the work of demographer Nathan Keifitz. Keifitz (1983) wrote that as women become fewer, their relative position in society will increase. However, to date, no data has supported this claim.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: It has been suggested by Belanger (2002) that sex-selective abortion may have positive effects on the mother choosing to abort the female fetus. This is related to the historical duty of mothers to produce a son in order to carry on the family name. As previously mentioned, women gain status in society when they have a male child, but not when they have a female child. Oftentimes, bearing of a son leads to greater legitimacy and agency for the mother. In some regions of the world where son preference is especially strong, sonless women are treated as outcasts. In this way, sex-selective abortion is a way for women to select for male fetuses, helping secure greater family status.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Goodkind (1999) argues that sex-selective abortion should not be banned purely because of its discriminatory nature. Instead, he argues, we must consider the overall lifetime possibilities of discrimination. In fact, it is possible that sex-selective abortion takes away much of the discrimination women would face later in life. Since families have the option of selecting for the fetal sex they desire, if they choose not to abort a female fetus, she is more likely to be valued later in life. In this way, sex-selective abortion may be a more humane alternative to infanticide, abandonment, or neglect. Goodkind (1999) poses an essential philosophical question, “if a ban were enacted against prenatal sex testing (or the use of abortion for sex-selective purposes), how many excess postnatal deaths would a society be willing to tolerate in lieu of whatever sex-selective abortions were avoided?”


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: There are many controversies surrounding sex-selective abortion. Just like the practice of sex-selective abortion has been criticized, the solutions proposed or enacted by governments have also been criticized. Eklund & Purewal argued that the response to a patriarchal practice (sex selection) should not be another patriarchal practice (restricting women's reproductive rights), as such a situation creates a cycle: women's social status is lowered, which in turn leads to more sex-selective abortions. The association of public discourse on sex-selective abortion with the anti-abortion movement also complicates the situation. Furthermore, access to safe abortion is seen by some as important from a public health perspective; in India, although the abortion law is relatively liberal, most efforts are put into preventing sex-selective abortion, rather than adequate access to safe abortion, as a result nearly 78% of all abortions in India take place outside of health facilities, with such unsafe abortions representing the third largest cause of maternal death in India. Another controversy in that of population planning campaigns such as the one child policy in China, and efforts from the governments of several Asian countries, including India and South Korea, from the 1970s onward to limit the number of children a family could have, which have intensified the desire to quickly have a son. An article by Al Jazeera titled ""How Western family planners helped curb the birth of girls in developing countries, the effects of which are felt today"" claimed that it was such population policies (which included forced sterilization), which were fully supported, even pushed by the West, that contributed to unbalanced sex ratios.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: MacPherson estimates that 100,000 sex-selective abortions every year continue to be performed in India. For a contrasting perspective, in the United States with a population th of India, over 1.2 million abortions every year were performed between 1990 and 2007. In England and Wales with a population th of India, over 189,000 abortions were performed in 2011, or a yearly rate of 17.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44. The average for the European Union was 30 abortions per year per 1,000 women.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Many scholars have noted the difficulty in reconciling the discriminatory nature of sex-selective abortion with the right of women to have control over their own bodies. This conflict manifests itself primarily when discussing laws about sex-selective abortion. Weiss (1995:205) writes: "The most obvious challenge sex-selective abortion represents for pro-choice feminists is the difficulty of reconciling a pro-choice position with moral objections one might have to sex selective abortion (especially since it has been used primarily on female fetuses), much less the advocacy of a law banning sex-selective abortion."


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: As a result, arguments both for and against sex-selective abortion are typically highly reflective of one's own personal beliefs about abortion in general. Warren (1985:104) argues that there is a difference between acting within one's rights and acting upon the most morally sound choice, implying that sex-selective abortion might be within rights but not morally sound. Warren also notes that, if we are to ever reverse the trend of sex-selective abortion and high sex ratios, we must work to change the patriarchy-based society which breeds the strong son preference.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Laws against sex-selective abortion, especially those that exist in some U.S. states, are controversial, because it is not clear how they can be enforced, and pro-choice activists argue that such laws are brought by anti-abortion movement forces who are using this as a pretext to restrict women's access to safe and legal abortion and to harass doctors who perform abortions: NARAL states that "For many years, anti-choice lawmakers have tried to ban abortion using every possible reason and excuse –including, now, on the grounds of purported concern about race or sex selection." There is concern that such bans may put women who seek sex-selective abortions in danger because they may seek unsafe abortions, and that these bans do not address the root cause of sex-selective abortion, including the pregnant women's fear that they or their future daughters will suffer abuse, violence and stigmatization.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The practice of prenatal sex selection has been condemned internationally. It is often seen as a result of discriminatory social views which consider females inferior to males. In 1994 over 180 states signed the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development, agreeing to "eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child". In 2011 the resolution of PACE's Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men condemned the practice of prenatal sex selection.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Many nations have attempted to address sex-selective abortion rates through a combination of media campaigns and policy initiatives.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In Canada, a group of MPs led by Mark Warawa are working on having the Parliament pass a resolution condemning sex-selective pregnancy termination.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The United States Congress has debated legislation that would outlaw the practice. The legislation ultimately failed to pass in the House of Representatives.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: On the state level, laws against sex-selective abortions have been passed in a number of U.S. states; the law passed in Arizona in 2011 prohibits both sex-selective and race-selective abortion.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The law on sex-selective abortion is unresolved in the United Kingdom. In order for an abortion to be legal, doctors need to show that continuing the pregnancy could threaten the physical or mental health of the mother. In a recent case, two doctors were caught on camera offering a sex-selective abortion but the Director of Public Prosecution deemed it not in the public interest to proceed with the prosecution. Following this incidence, MPs voted 181 to 1 for a Bill put forward by Tessa Munt and 11 other MPs aiming to end confusion about the legality of this practice. Organisations such as BPAS and Abortion Rights have been lobbying for the decriminalisation of sex-selective abortions.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: China's government has increasingly recognized its role in a reduction of the national sex ratio. As a result, since 2005, it has sponsored a “boys and girls are equal campaign.” For example, in 2000, the Chinese government began the “Care for Girls” Initiative. Furthermore, several levels of government have been modified to protect the “political, economic, cultural, and social” rights of women. Finally, the Chinese government has enacted policies and interventions to help reduce the sex ratio at birth. In 2005, sex-selective abortion was made illegal in China. This came in response to the ever-increasing sex ratio and a desire to try to detract from it and reach a more normal ratio. The sex ratio among firstborn children in urban areas from 2000 to 2005 didn't rise at all, so there is hope that this movement is taking hold across the nation.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: UNICEF and UNFPA have partnered with the Chinese government and grassroots-level women's groups such as All China Women's Federation to promote gender equality in policy and practice, as well engage various social campaigns to help lower birth sex ratio and to reduce excess female child mortality rates.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: In India, according to a 2007 study by MacPherson, Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT Act) was highly publicized by NGOs and the government. Many of the ads used depicted abortion as violent, creating fear of abortion itself within the population. The ads focused on the religious and moral shame associated with abortion. MacPherson claims this media campaign was not effective because some perceived this as an attack on their character, leading to many becoming closed off, rather than opening a dialogue about the issue. This emphasis on morality, claims MacPherson, increased fear and shame associated with all abortions, leading to an increase in unsafe abortions in India.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: The government of India, in a 2011 report, has begun better educating all stakeholders about its MTP and PCPNDT laws. In its communication campaigns, it is clearing up public misconceptions by emphasizing that sex determination is illegal, but abortion is legal for certain medical conditions in India. The government is also supporting implementation of programs and initiatives that seek to reduce gender discrimination, including media campaign to address the underlying social causes of sex selection.


title: Sex-selective abortion

text: Other recent policy initiatives adopted by numerous states of India, claims Guilmoto, attempt to address the assumed economic disadvantage of girls by offering support to girls and their parents. These policies provide conditional cash transfer and scholarships only available to girls, where payments to a girl and her parents are linked to each stage of her life, such as when she is born, completion of her childhood immunization, her joining school at grade 1, her completing school grades 6, 9 and 12, her marriage past age 21. Some states are offering higher pension benefits to parents who raise one or two girls. Different states of India have been experimenting with various innovations in their girl-driven welfare policies. For example, the state of Delhi adopted a pro-girl policy initiative (locally called "Laadli scheme"), which initial data suggests may be lowering the birth sex ratio in the state.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: United Launch Alliance (ULA), legally United Launch Alliance, LLC, is an American spacecraft launch service provider that manufactures and operates a number of rocket vehicles that are capable of launching spacecraft into orbits around Earth, and to other bodies in the Solar System and beyond. The company, which is a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security, was formed in December 2006. Launch customers of the United Launch Alliance include the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and other organizations.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA provides launch services using expendable launch systems Delta IV Heavy and Atlas V, and until 2018 the medium-lift Delta II. The Atlas, Delta IV Heavy and the recently retired Delta IV launch systems have launched payloads including weather, telecommunications, and national security satellites, scientific probes and orbiters. ULA also launches commercial satellites.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: , the company is developing the Vulcan Centaur, a successor to the Atlas V that includes some Delta IV technology. The maiden flight is planned to take place in 2023, launching Astrobotic Technology's "Peregrine" lunar lander.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Boeing and Lockheed Martin announced their intent to form a 50-50 joint venture on 2 May 2005 aiming to consolidate the manufacture and deployment of US government expendable launch vehicles and launch services. The United Launch Alliance name was announced at the same time. Prior to the creation of the United Launch Alliance and contrary to expectations of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a strong, competitive commercial launch market did not materialize within the United States. Estimated prices for future contracts and program costs increased, resulting in a Nunn-McCurdy cost breach. There was also considerable turmoil within the United States Air Force (USAF) space community and between the two EELV launch service providers due to competition in the shrinking space launch market, cost increases, and the growing need for reliable access to space. This turmoil culminated in civil and criminal fraud accusations being brought against Boeing relating to the improper use of competitors' information and racketeering.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: As a result, the United States Department of Defense changed its acquisition strategy to one which would maintain assured access to space. Under the "Buy III" program, all fixed costs were covered by the US government, which brought about a deal between the two major EELV contractors to combine their efforts into a single company. Annual savings were estimated to be US$100-150 million. SpaceX challenged the legality of the launch services monopoly on 23 October 2005 on anti-trust grounds, creating competition with reusable launch systems. The Federal Trade Commission gave ULA anti-trust clearance on 3 October 2006.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: It was the FTC's opinion that due to the challenge of entering the government medium-to-heavy launch services market, the entry of SpaceX was unlikely to reverse the anti-competitive effects resulting from the formation of ULA, but, it approved the joint venture on the basis that the benefits of assured access to space for national security outweighed anti-competitive harm.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The commission required ULA to "cooperate on equivalent terms with all providers of government space vehicles ... provide equal consideration and support to all launch service providers when seeking any U.S. government delivery in orbit contract ... and to safeguard competitively sensitive information obtained from other providers of space vehicles and launch services".


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA merged the production and operation of the two companies' government space launch services into one central plant in Decatur, Alabama, and merged all engineering into another central facility in Littleton, Colorado. The parent companies retained responsibility for marketing and sales of the Delta and Atlas rockets.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA had a peak of seven space launch facilities between 2005 and 2011, including three Delta II launchpads, which were decommissioned starting in 2011. Two years after its formation, in late 2008, ULA announced it would lay off 350 of its 4200 workers in early 2009. In the event, ULA had approximately 3900 employees by August 2009. ULA joined the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) in June 2010 as an executive member. ULA's CEO Michael Gass described the company's membership as a "natural fit for us, and we are proud to do so". By May 2014, ULA's membership of the CSF had lapsed.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: With the introduction of competition from lower-cost launch providers and the annually increasing costs of ULA launches, increased attention has been paid to the amounts ULA has received for U.S. government launch contracts and for its annual government funding of $1 billion for launch capability and readiness. This readiness requirement included the maintenance of five launch pads and a number of variants of the Delta II, Delta IV, Delta IV Heavy, and Atlas V rockets. As a result of increasing costs by ULA, in April 2012, the EELV program triggered a critical Nunn-McCurdy cost breach and a reassessment of the program, of which ULA was the sole participant.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: An uncontested USAF block-purchase of 36 rocket cores for up to 28 launches, which was valued at US$11 billion, was awarded in December 2013 and drew protest from SpaceX, which said the cost of ULA's launches were approximately US$460 million each and proposed a price of US$90 million to provide similar launches. In response, ULA's CEO Michael Gass said its average launch price was US$225 million, with future launches as low as US$100 million.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Michael Gass stepped down as ULA's CEO in August 2014 and was replaced by Tory Bruno, former vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Strategic and Missile Defense Systems. ULA entered into a partnership with Blue Origin in September 2014 to develop the BE-4 LOX / methane engine to replace the RD-180 on a new, lower cost first-stage booster rocket. At the time, the engine was in its third year of development by Blue Origin. ULA said it expected the new stage and engine to start flying no earlier than 2019 on a successor to the Atlas V. A month later, ULA announced a major restructuring of processes and workforce to halve launch costs, partly due to competition from SpaceX. The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) calculated the average cost of each ULA rocket launch for the U.S. government had risen to approximately US$420 million in 2014.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA had less success securing deals for Earth observation, commercial communication, and privately owned satellites than it had with launching U.S. military payloads. In November 2014, Tory Bruno stated the structuring was intended to "lead to improvements in how ULA interacts with its customers, both governmental and commercial", shorten launch cycles, and halve launch costs again. Part of that program involved the development of a new rocket, the Vulcan, initially with private funds, to tackle "skyrocketing launch costs". Bruno believed the new, lower-cost launcher could be competitive in the commercial satellite sector. ULA intended to have preliminary design ideas in place for a blending of the Atlas V and Delta IV technology by the end of 2014 but the high-level design was not announced until April 2015.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In February 2016, it was announced the development of the Vulcan rocket would be funded via a public–private partnership with the U.S. government. By early 2016, the USAF had committed $201 million of funding for Vulcan development. ULA had not "put a firm price on the cost of Vulcan development" but according to Mike Gross of SpaceNews, Bruno "said new rockets typically cost US$2 billion, including US$1 billion for the main engine". In 2016, ULA had asked the U.S. government to provide a minimum of $1.2 billion by 2020 to assist the development of the new U.S. launch vehicle. It was unclear how the change in development funding mechanisms would change ULA plans for pricing market-driven launch services. Since Vulcan development began in October 2014, the privately generated funding for Vulcan development has been approved only on a short-term basis. The ULA board of directors, which was composed of executives from Boeing and Lockheed Martin, would approve development funding on a quarterly basis. ULA planned to reduce its number of launchpads from five in 2015 to two.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA released contract values to the public and new CEO Tory Bruno testified before Congress in March 2015 that while ULA receives government subsidies "to conduct national security launches", the same is true of SpaceX, which received funding "to develop new capabilities and the use of low-cost or no-cost leases of previously developed launch infrastructure". It is difficult to directly compare launch costs because they are not necessarily calculated using the same cost-model assumptions.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA announced in February 2015 it was considering undertaking domestic production of the Russian RD-180 rocket engine at the Decatur, Alabama, rocket stage manufacturing facility. The U.S.-manufactured engines would be used for government civil (NASA) or commercial launches, and would not be used for U.S. military launches. This idea was abandoned following the passage of legislation permitting the continued purchase of the RD-180 from Russia.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In May 2015, ULA stated it would go out of business unless it won commercial and civil satellite launch orders to offset an expected slump in U.S. military and spy launches. The same month, ULA announced it would lay off 12 of its executives, a reduction of 30%, in December 2015. The management layoffs were the "beginning of a major reorganization and redesign" as ULA endeavors to "slash costs and hunt out new customers to ensure continued growth despite the rise of SpaceX".


title: United Launch Alliance

text: A controversy arose in March 2016 following public remarks by ULA VP of Engineering, Brett Tobey, whose comments were, according to Peter de Selding of SpaceNews, "resentful of SpaceX" and dismissive of one of the two competitors (Aerojet Rocketdyne) for the new engine that will power the Vulcan launch vehicle, which was under development. Tobey resigned on 16 March 2016 and Bruno disavowed the remarks. Senator John McCain asked the DoD to investigate the comments that implied it may have shown "favoritism to a major defense contractor or that efforts have been made to silence members of Congress". The Secretary of Defense asked the DoD's Inspector General to investigate.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2016, ULA released the Cislunar 1000 Vision with an aim of creating an economy on the Moon and in Earth orbit with 1,000 people living and working in space. Core to this aim was that the production of fuel in space would allow for dramatically cheaper space travel. ULA made clear it was willing to become a customer for in-space refueling. It previously announced a willingness to pay US$3,000 per kilogram for fuel delivered in low Earth orbit, US$500 per kilogram on the lunar surface, and US$1,000 per kilogram at L1. ULA believes it will need off-Earth propellant supplies sometime in the 2020s. In December 2016, ULA created an online pricing tool called "Rocket Builder", which allowed potential customers and the public to estimate launch costs of the Atlas V rocket with configurable orbits, payloads and launch services. Purchase-price estimates were removed from the tool in 2018 because it potentially provided commercially sensitive information to ULA's competitors. Despite ULA's cost-cutting and restructuring, the cheapest ULA space launch in early 2018 remained the Atlas V 401 at a price of approximately US$109 million.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Following the failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying AMOS-6, incorrect reports about potential corporate espionage by ULA circulated. These reports were proved to be false and on 2 January 2017 SpaceX released an official statement saying the cause of the failure was a buckled liner in several of the COPV tanks.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In July 2017 the company was awarded US$191 million single-launch contract to launch the STP-3 mission aboard the heavy-lift Atlas V 551.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In January 2018, ULA took over marketing and sales responsibilities for Atlas V launches. Dan Collins, ULA's inaugural Chief operating officer, retired in April 2018 and was replaced by John Elbon, former vice president and program manager at Boeing Defense, Space & Security.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: During the 2019–2020 COVID-19 pandemic, some aspects of ULA's launch related outreach were scaled back but the company said it would maintain its launch schedule.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: On 7 August 2020, the U.S. Space Force awarded contracts for the second phase of its long-term launch services program for national security launches through 2020. United Launch Alliance, along with SpaceX, was chosen over Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman. The decision was driven primarily by past launch performance. As ULA has had 100% success record in about two decades of operation, it was awarded 60% of the contract.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In late 2020, ULA won a contract to launch and provide in-flight refueling for the Dynetics lunar lander. Initially, refueling would be provided by launching additional rockets to carry fuel. Each lunar mission would include two other Vulcan Centaur launches. The propellant from the upper stages of these rockets would be transferred to the Dynetics lander. ULA would significantly increase its launch pace of refueling rockets to minimize the boil-off of cryogenic fuel. The in-space refueling capability would have been tested in low Earth orbit before any lunar missions take place. However, in April 2021, NASA announced that SpaceX would instead be the prime contractor for the crewed lunar lander, having ranked the Dynetics bid low in readiness by 2024.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In September 2020, Tory Bruno announced that it had found a vendor in its supply chain that has partial Chinese ownership. The vendor designed software tools for use in development of the Vulcan Centaur rocket. Bruno said the vendor did not acquire any sensitive information. The company in question is KUKA Robotics. The Chinese interest in the vendor was discovered by a private investigator hired by ULA to monitor the security of its supply chain. The case was referred to the FBI. Bruno called on the federal government to cooperate more closely with the private sector to deal with Chinese corporate espionage.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: By authority of Tory Bruno, United Launch Alliance implemented a vaccination requirement for its employees on 1 September 2021. ULA employees were required to receive a first dose by 30 September and any required second dose by 31 October 2021.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: As of 2020, ULA operates the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, which were developed under the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program by Lockheed Martin and Boeing respectively, both launching in 2002. The Delta IV Medium was retired on 22 August 2019, but Delta IV Heavy rockets will continue to be used to launch heavy payloads. As of 2020, ULA is developing Vulcan, a heavy-lift launch vehicle that will replace its existing fleet. Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lander will be launched on the first Vulcan certification flight, which is expected to occur in 2021 from SLC-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Atlas V is the fifth major version in the Atlas rocket family. It is an expendable launch system that was originally designed by Lockheed Martin. Each Atlas V rocket consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a Russian RD-180 engine, which is manufactured by RD Amross, and burns kerosene and liquid oxygen. Each RD-180 engine costs about US$10 million which is considerably cheaper than any competing rocket with the ability to launch a satellite to geostationary orbit. It has a flawless record of launching American satellites over many years of service.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Atlas V has been modified for human spaceflight. Human-rating required new computers to monitor performance and trigger an abort when necessary, data links between the rocket and spacecraft, and other changes. Crewed flights will include a mechanism to allow astronauts to manually abort. The Atlas V has already carried the Boeing CST-100 Starliner on its first unmanned spaceflight. The Atlas V that carried the Starliner was equipped with two SRBs from Aerojet Rocketdyne. This was the only Atlas V ever to fly without a payload fairing. With the Starliner on top, the rocket is 172 feet tall.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2017, Sierra Nevada selected the Atlas V to launch the first two missions of the Dream Chaser cargo capsule to the International Space Station. These launches are part of NASA's Cargo Resupply Services 2 contract. At the time of signing its agreement with ULA, Sierra Nevada expected the missions to take place in 2020 and 2021.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: An Atlas V rocket was selected for the NROL-101 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. The rocket was launched successfully on 13 November 2020. The variant of the Atlas V selected for this mission used of three new GEM-63 solid rocket booster made by Northrop Grumman. A larger version of this booster, the GEM 63XL, is being developed for the Vulcan Centaur.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Amazon has selected the Atlas V to launch satellites for Project Kuiper. Project Kuiper will offer a high-speed satellite internet service. The contract signed with Amazon is for nine launches. Project Kuiper aims to put thousands of satellites into orbit. ULA is Amazon's first launch provider.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Centaur is a family of rocket-propelled upper stages currently with one main active version and one version under development. The 3.05-meter diameter Common Centaur/Centaur III flies as the upper stage of the Atlas V launch vehicle, while the 5.4-meter diameter Centaur V is being developed as the upper stage of ULA's new Vulcan rocket. A lengthened version of the Centaur V will be used on the Vulcan Centaur Heavy.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Centaur upper stage is powered by one or two RL10 engines, which are manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, and burn liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The Centaur is the first rocket stage to use these fuels. On the Atlas V ULA typically only uses the one RL10 version of the Centaur upper stage. However, Aerojet Rocketdyne supplies two RL10A-4-2 engines for each Starliner mission flown by the Atlas V. The dual-engine Centaur configuration is used on human-rated launches for safety reasons. This configuration allows the rocket to fly on a shallower path to orbit, meaning horizontal velocity is emphasized over vertical velocity. This in turn reduces the maximum G-forces endured by the crew and allows for a safe abort at any time during the launch. The standard payload fairings are 4 or 5 meters (13 or 16 ft) in diameter with varying lengths. The dual-engine variant of the Centaur has flown more than 100 times on Atlas variant rockets. 166 of the Centaur's flights have used dual-engine variants. As of late 2019, Centaurs of all kinds had flown 251 times.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Centaur upper stage for the Atlas V also has an Aft Bulkhead Carrier capacity. The capacity was developed initially for the National Reconnaissance Office to take advantage of the extra capacity Atlas V has.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Delta IV is a group of five expendable launch systems in the Delta rocket family, which was introduced in the early 2000s. The Delta IV was originally designed by Boeing's Defense, Space & Security division for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, and became a ULA product in 2006. The Delta IV is mostly used for launching United States Air Force military payloads but has also been used to launch a number of U.S. government non-military payloads and one commercial satellite.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Delta IV originally had two main versions, which allowed the family to accommodate a range of payload sizes and masses; models include the retired Medium, which had four configurations, and the Heavy. As of 2019, only the Heavy remains active; payloads that would previously fly on Medium moved to either the existing Atlas V or the forthcoming Vulcan Centaur. Retirement of the Delta IV family as a whole is anticipated in 2024.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA designed and builds the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage for the Space Launch System (SLS) in Decatur, Alabama and by Boeing in Huntsville, Alabama. It is a variant of a stage used for the Delta rocket family. The ICPS was the first the first component of the SLS to arrive at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ICPS will be located high on the SLS stack, just below the Orion capsule.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Delta IV Heavy combines a diameter DCSS and payload fairing with two additional CBCs. These are strap-on boosters which are separated earlier in the flight than the center CBC. As of 2007, a longer 5 meter diameter composite fairing was standard on the Delta IV Heavy, with an aluminum isogrid fairing also available. The aluminum trisector (three-part) fairing was built by Boeing and derived from a Titan IV fairing. The trisector fairing was first used on the DSP-23 flight.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) is a family of cryogenic rocket stages used on the Delta III and Delta IV rockets, and which is planned to be used on the Space Launch System Block 1. DCSS consists of a cylindrical liquid hydrogen tank structurally separated from an oblate spheroid liquid oxygen tank. The liquid hydrogen tank cylinder carries payload launch loads, while the liquid oxygen tank and engine are suspended below within the rocket's interstage. The stage is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney RL10B-2 engine, which features an extendable carbon-carbon nozzle to improve specific impulse.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Vulcan is a heavy-lift launch vehicle that ULA is developing to meet the demands of the NSSL competition and launch program. The rocket is ULA's first launch vehicle design, which is adapting and evolving technologies that were developed for the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. Vulcan is intended to undergo the human-rating certification process to allow the launch of crew in a vehicle such as the Boeing Starliner or a crewed version of the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser. Vulcan will have a maximum liftoff thrust of and carry to low Earth orbit, to a geo-transfer orbit, and to geostationary orbit with a heavier payload than any currently available single-core rocket.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The first-stage propellant tanks share the diameter of the Delta IV Common Booster Core but will contain liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants rather than the Delta IV's liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Blue Origin's BE-4 engine was selected to power Vulcan's first stage in September 2018 after a competition with the Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1. ULA may use the Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology (SMART) which seeks to capture and re-use the BE-4 engines. ULA is working on the 'Sensible Modular Autonomous Return Technology' (SMART) reuse concept. The booster engines, avionics, and thrust structure would be detached as a module from the propellant tanks after booster engine cutoff, with the module descending through the atmosphere under an inflatable heat shield. After parachute deployment, the module would be captured by a helicopter in mid-air. ULA estimated that this would reduce the cost of the first stage propulsion by 90%, and 65% of the total first stage cost. The BE-4 burns liquified natural gas.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Vulcan's upper stage will be the Centaur V, an upgraded variant of the Common Centaur/Centaur III that is currently used on the Atlas V. A lengthened version of the Centaur V will be used on the Vulcan Centaur Heavy. ULA planned to eventually upgrade the Centaur V with Integrated Vehicle Fluids technology to become the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES). Those plans were dropped in 2020 with efforts focusing on improving the capabilities of the existing Centaur V upper stage. ULA had plans for tanker called XEUS, developed in partnership with Masten Space Systems, that would have been able to land on the moon to be stocked with fuel and then fly to a gravitationally stable libration point in the Earth-Moon system known as L1. XEUS planned to utilize the now abandoned ACES upper stage but this concept has been paused until there a clear commercial need.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: During the first several years of its development, the ULA board of directors made quarterly funding commitments to Vulcan Centaur development. , the U.S. government had committed approximately US$1.2 billion in a public–private partnership to Vulcan Centaur development, with future funding being dependent on ULA securing an NSSL contract. By March 2016, the U.S. Air Force had committed up to US$202 million of funding for Vulcan development. At that time, ULA had not yet estimated the total cost of Vulcan development, but CEO Tory Bruno noted that "new rockets typically cost US$2 billion, including US$1 billion for the main engine". In April 2016, ULA Board of Directors member and President of Boeing's Network and Space Systems (N&SS) division Craig Cooning expressed confidence in the possibility of further USAF funding of Vulcan development.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In March 2018, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said that Vulcan-Centaur had been "75% privately funded" up to that time. In October 2018 and following a request for proposals and technical evaluation, ULA was awarded US$967 million to develop a prototype Vulcan launch system as a part of the National Security Space Launch program. Two other providers, Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, were awarded US$500 million and US$792 million in development funding, with detailed proposals and a competitive selection process to follow in 2019. The USAF's goal with the next generation of Launch Service Agreements is to get out of the business of "buying rockets" and move to acquire launch services from launch service providers, but U.S. government funding of launch vehicle development continues. The Vulcan rocket, directly and indirectly, provides about 22,000 jobs spread over 46 states.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In August 2020, the U.S. Space Force awarded ULA a firm, fixed-price indefinite-delivery contract to launch 60% of National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 missions over a 5-year procurement with the next-generation Vulcan Centaur rocket, the other 40% were won by SpaceX. In September 2020, ULA announced that ULA is carefully studying a "Vulcan Heavy" variant with three booster cores. Speculation about a new variant had been rampant for months after an image of a model of that version popped on social media. Tory Bruno later tweeted a clearer image of the model and said it was the subject of ongoing study.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In early 2021, NASA added the Vulcan Centaur to the Launch Services II contract (NLS II). This makes the Vulcan Centaur part of the Launch Services Program and subjects it the "on-ramp" provisions in NLS II. The on-ramp provisions allow existing launch providers to introduce new vehicles that NASA has not yet requested.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Delta II was an expendable launch system that was originally designed and built by McDonnell Douglas, and was later built by Boeing prior to the formation of ULA. Delta II was part of the Delta rocket family and entered service in 1989. Delta II vehicles included the Delta 6000 and the two later Delta 7000 variants ("Light" and "Heavy"). The rocket flew its final mission ICESat-2 on 15 September 2018. A nearly-complete Delta II, made from flight-qualified spare parts, is displayed in its 7320-10 configuration in the rocket garden at Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The first launch conducted by ULA was a Delta II from Vandenberg Air Force Base on 14 December 2006, carrying the satellite USA-193 for the National Reconnaissance Office. The satellite failed shortly after launch and was intentionally destroyed on 21 February 2008, by an SM-3 missile that was fired from the . ULA's first Atlas V launch was in March 2007; it was an Atlas V variant 401 launching six military research satellites for Space Test Program (STP) 1. This mission also performed three burns of the Centaur upper stage; it was the first three-burn mission for Atlas V.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA's first commercial mission COSMO-SkyMed was launched on behalf of Italy's Ministry of Defense three months later using a Delta II rocket. On June 15, 2007, the engine in the Centaur upper stage of a ULA-launched Atlas V shut down early, leaving its payload – a pair of NROL-30 ocean surveillance satellites – in a lower than intended orbit. The NRO declared the launch a success.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: 2007 also saw ULA's first two interplanetary spacecraft launches using the Delta II; the "Phoenix" probe was launched to Mars in August 2007 and the "Dawn" satellite to was launched to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres in September 2007. Using a Delta II, the "WorldView-1" satellite was also launched into a low Earth orbit on behalf of DigitalGlobe. The company's first launch to geostationary transfer orbit using an Atlas V 421 variant carrying the USA-195 (or WGS-1) communications satellite also occurred that year. ULA's tenth mission was launching satellite GPS IIR-17 into medium Earth orbit on a Delta II. The company completed its first Delta IV launch using the Delta IV Heavy rocket to place a payload into geosynchronous orbit in November 2007, which was followed by three more launches in December 2007.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: 2008 saw seven launches, including Atlas V's from Vandenberg's Space Launch Complex 3E and five others using the Delta II. The Atlas launch carried NROL-28 in March 2008 and in September 2008 the "GeoEye-1" satellite was orbited by a Delta II rocket. ULA completed eight Delta II, five Atlas V, and three Delta IV launches in 2009. The Delta II launches carried three Space Tracking and Surveillance System satellites over two launches, two Global Positioning System satellites, and the NOAA-19 and "WorldView-2" satellites, as well as the "Kepler" and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescopes.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Atlas launches carried the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS mission as part of the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program, which was later intentionally crashed into the Moon and found the existence of water; other 2009 Atlas V launches in included Intelsat 14, WGS-2, PAN, and a weather satellite as part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP). The Delta IV rockets carried the NROL-26, GOES 14, and WGS-3 satellites.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2010, Atlas V launches deployed the Solar Dynamics Observatory, the first Boeing X-37B, the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite, and the NROL-41. The Delta II system placed the last COSMO-SkyMed and Delta IV launches deployed the GOES 15, GPS Block IIF, and USA-223 satellites. ULA completed eleven launches in 2011, including five by Atlas, three by Delta II, and three by Delta IV. The Atlas system orbited another Boeing X-37, two NROL-34 signals intelligence satellites, a Space-Based Infrared System (SBIS) satellite, the "Juno" spacecraft and "Curiosity" rover. The Delta II launches placed the SAC-D and Suomi NPP satellites into orbit, as well as two spacecraft associated with NASA's GRAIL lunar mission. Delta IV launches carried the NROL-49, NROL-27, and another GPS satellite.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA's 2012 launches included six Atlas Vs and four Delta IVs. The Atlas system carried Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) and AEHF satellites, another Boeing X-37, the Intruder and Quasar satellites, and the Van Allen Probes. Delta IVs deployed GPS and WGS satellites USA-233, as well as NROL-25 and NROL-15 on behalf of the National Reconnaissance Office.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2013, the Atlas flew eight times. The system launched the TDRS-11, Landsat 8, AEHF-3, and NROL-39 satellites, as well as SBIS, GPS, and MUOS satellites, as well as NASA's MAVEN space probe to Mars. Delta IV launches orbited the fifth and sixth Wideband Global SATCOM satellites WGS-5 and WGS-6, as well as NROL-65.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2014, ULA's Atlas V orbited the TDRS-12 communications satellite in January, the "WorldView-3" commercial satellite in August 2014, and the CLIO communications satellite during September and October 2014. Atlas rockets also carried the satellites DMSP-5D-3/F19, NROL-67, NROL-33, and NROL-35. Delta IV rockets orbited GPS satellites and two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites, and in July 2014, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 was carried by a Delta II. Orion's first test flight was launched by a Delta IV Heavy rocket in December 2014, as part of Exploration Flight Test-1.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: A Delta II rocket orbited a Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite in January 2015. In March 2015, an Atlas V rocket carried NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission spacecraft, and a Delta IV rocket orbited the GPS IIF-9 satellite on behalf of the U.S. Air Force. The U.S. Air Force's X-37B spaceplane was carried by an Atlas V rocket in May 2015, and a Delta IV orbited the WGS-7 satellite in July 2015. The fourth MUOS satellite was orbited by an Atlas V in September 2015. ULA's 100th consecutive successful liftoff was completed on 2 October 2015, when an Atlas V rocket orbited a Mexican Satellite System communications satellite on behalf of the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation. The classified NROL-55 satellite was launched by an Atlas V rocket several days later. Atlas V rockets launched GPS Block IIF satellites and the "Cygnus" cargo spacecraft in November 2015 and December 2015, respectively.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2016, Delta IV rockets carried the NROL-45 satellite and Air Force Space Command 6 mission in February 2016 and August 2016, respectively. During a launch of the Atlas V rocket on 22 March 2016, a minor first-stage anomaly led to shutdown of the first-stage engine approximately five seconds before anticipated. The Centaur upper stage was able to compensate by firing for approximately one minute longer than planned using its reserved fuel margin. Atlas V rockets carried MUOS-5 in June 2016, NROL-61 satellites in July 2016, and the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft in September 2016.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA launched multiple satellites in late 2016. The weather satellite Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R) was carried in November 2016, as was the "WorldView-4" imaging satellite. In December 2016, the Wideband Global SATCOM's eighth satellite WGS-8 was launched on a Delta IV Medium rocket, and an Atlas V carried the EchoStar XIX communications satellite on behalf of Hughes Communications. In March 2017, WGS-9 was orbited by a Delta IV. Atlas V rockets carried NRO satellites, TDRS-M, and a "Cygnus" cargo capsule in 2017. The weather satellite NOAA-20 (JPSS-1) was launched by a Delta II rocket in November 2017.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: An Atlas V carried the SBIRS-GEO 4 military satellite in January 2018. The Atlas V's launch of NASA's InSight to Mars in 2018 was the first interplanetary probe to depart from the U.S. West Coast. In August 2018, a Delta IV Heavy launched Parker Solar Probe, NASA's solar space probe that will visit and study the sun's outer corona in August 2018. It was also the Delta IV Heavy with a Star-48BV kick stage, and the highest-ever spacecraft velocity. The company launched the final Delta II rocket, carrying ICESat-2 from Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-2 on 15 September 2018. This marks the last launch of a Delta family rocket based on the original Thor IRBM. On 22 August 2019, ULA launched its last Delta IV Medium rocket for the GPS III Magellan project. An Atlas V carried Boeing's Starliner Orbital Flight Test (OFT) mission for NASA in December 2019.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2020, an Atlas V carried the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, an international collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to provide a new global view of the Sun. In March 2020, an Atlas V also launched Advanced Extremely High Frequency 6 (AEHF-6), the first U.S. Space Force National Security Mission. In May 2020, ULA launched an Atlas V rocket carrying the USSF-7 mission with the X-37B spaceplane for the U.S Space Force and the mission honors victims of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as first responders, health professionals, military personnel, and other essentialworkers. On 30 July 2020, Atlas V in the 541 configuration successfully launched Perseverance and Ingenuity as part of Mars 2020 towards Mars. In November 2020, ULA launched NROL-101, a top secret spy satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, on board their Atlas V in a 531 configuration. This launch was notable because it was the first flight of the GEM-63 solid rocket boosters, a version of which will be used on their Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Lucy spaceflight began on 16 October 2021 upon launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket into a stable parking orbit. During the next hour, the second stage reignited to place Lucy on an interplanetary trajectory in a heliocentric orbit on a twelve-year mission to two groups of Sun-Jupiter Lagrange point Trojan asteroids as well as a close flyby of a mainbelt asteroid during one of three planned passes through the asteroid belt. If the spacecraft remains operational during the 12-year planned duration, it is likely the controlled flight will be continued and directed at additional asteroid targets.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA operates orbital launch sites at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Vandenberg Space Force Base near Lompoc, California. In Florida, ULA has used Space Launch Complex 41 for Atlas V launches since its maiden flight in August 2002, and Launch Complex 37 for Delta IV launches since the rocket's maiden flight in November 2002. Aging infrastructure and low flight cadence from LC-37 contributed to a number of delays in the launch of NROL-44. ULA is looking to mitigate this with improvement to their operations readiness process. The company has two launch pads at Vandenberg as of November 2020. These include Space Launch Complex 3 for Atlas launches and Space Launch Complex 6 for Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy launches. Space Launch Complex 2 is no longer in active use by ULA since the retirement of the Delta II in September 2018.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: Launches from Cape Canaveral typically head east to give satellites extra momentum from the rotation of the Earth as they head to other planets or into an equatorial orbit. Vandenberg Space Force Base is the primary U.S. launch site from which satellites are sent into polar orbits. Commercial and military spacecraft like imaging and weather satellites need to be launched southward on a path to reach a polar orbit to cover the entire globe. ULA's Atlas V rocket launched NASA's InSight mission to Mars from the West Coast in 2018, the first interplanetary mission to do so.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: In 2015, as part of the company's transition from the Atlas V and Delta IV launch vehicles to the Vulcan Centaur, ULA announced plans to reduce the number of launch pads in use from five to two by the early 2020s.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: ULA's headquarters in Centennial, Colorado, are responsible for program management, rocket engineering, testing, and launch support functions. ULA's largest factory is and located in Decatur, Alabama. A factory in Harlingen, Texas, fabricates and assembles components for the Atlas V rocket. In 2015, the company announced the opening of an engineering and propulsion test center in Pueblo, Colorado.


title: United Launch Alliance

text: The Spaceflight Processing Operations Center (SPOC), located near SLC-40 and SLC-41, is used to construct the mobile launcher platform for the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle. It also serve as a storage room for the Atlas Mobile launcher platform (MLP). On 6 August 2019, the first two parts of Vulcan's MLP were transported to the SPOC. SPOC was formerly known as the Solid Motor Assembly and Readiness Facility (SMARF) during its support of the Titan IVB launch vehicle; it was renamed during Vulcan Centaur's topping ceremony in October 2019.


title: Boudoir

text: A boudoir (; ) is a woman's private sitting room or salon in a furnished residence, usually between the dining room and the bedroom, but can also refer to a woman's private bedroom. The term derives from the French verb "bouder" (to sulk or pout) or adjective "boudeur" (sulking)—the room was originally a space for sulking in, or one to put away or withdraw to.


title: Boudoir

text: A cognate of the English "bower", historically, the boudoir formed part of the private suite of rooms of a "lady" or upper-class woman, for bathing and dressing, adjacent to her bedchamber, being the female equivalent of the male cabinet. In later periods, the boudoir was used as a private drawing room, and was used for other activities, such as embroidery or spending time with one's romantic partner.


title: Boudoir

text: English-language usage varies between countries, and is now largely historical. In the United Kingdom, in the period when the term was most often used (Victorian era and early 20th century), a boudoir was a lady's evening sitting room, and was separate from her morning room, and her dressing room. As this multiplicity of rooms with overlapping functions suggests, boudoirs were generally found only in grand houses. In the United States, in the same era, boudoir was an alternative term for dressing room, favored by those who felt that French terms conferred more prestige.


title: Boudoir

text: In Caribbean English, a boudoir is the front room of the house where women entertain family and friends.


title: Boudoir

text: Recently, the term boudoir has come to denote a style of furnishing for the bedroom that is traditionally described as ornate or busy. The plethora of links available on the Internet to furnishing sites using the term boudoir tend to focus on Renaissance and French inspired bedroom styles. In recent times, they have also been used to describe the 'country cottage' style with whitewashed-style walls, large and heavy bed furniture, and deep bedding.


title: FBI–King suicide letter

text: The FBI–King suicide letter or blackmail package was an anonymous 1964 letter and package by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) meant to blackmail Martin Luther King Jr. The suicide letter was part of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation against King.


title: FBI–King suicide letter

text: On November 21, 1964, a package that contained the letter and a tape recording allegedly of King's sexual indiscretions was delivered to Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr., and later to King Jr. himself. Although the letter was anonymously written, Martin Luther King Jr. correctly suspected the FBI sent the package. Coretta Scott King described the tapes by saying, "I couldn't make much out of it, it was just a lot of mumbo jumbo." The letter does not specify precisely what action it is urging King to undertake; King understood the letter as advocating that he commit suicide, although some have suggested that it was merely urging him to decline the Nobel Peace Prize (which he won in 1964) or step out of leadership.


title: FBI–King suicide letter

text: On March 8, 1971, an activist group called the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI burglarized a local office of the FBI in Media, Pennsylvania, and stole classified documents. Part of those documents revealed a secret FBI operation called COINTELPRO. Those documents were later sent to newspapers and members of the United States Congress. During the Church Committee hearings and investigations in 1975, a copy of the "suicide letter" was discovered in the work files of William C. Sullivan, deputy FBI director. He has been suggested as its author. Once the surveillance tapes of King were publicly revealed, Bernard Lee and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) sought to have tapes gained by wiretaps destroyed in a lawsuit. Their request was denied by United States District Court for the District of Columbia judge John Lewis Smith Jr. He ordered all tapes sealed until the year 2027 and placed into the National Archives and Records Administration.


title: FBI–King suicide letter

text: Since 1977, attempts have been made to release the recordings in the United States Congress. Republican Senator Jesse Helms from North Carolina in 1983 sought to reveal information about King in order to undermine the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection bill, which would designate King government files for "presumption of immediate disclosure", was introduced in Congress by Democratic Representative Cynthia McKinney from Georgia in 2002 and 2005, by Democratic Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts in 2006, and by Democratic Representative John Lewis from Georgia in 2010, but never passed by Congress.


title: FBI–King suicide letter

text: A copy of the letter is known to exist in J. Edgar Hoover's confidential files at the National Archives.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The Ilyushin Il-18 (; NATO reporting name: Coot) is a large turboprop airliner that first flew in 1957 and became one of the best known and most durable Soviet aircraft of its era. The Il-18 was one of the world's principal airliners for several decades and was widely exported. Due to the aircraft's airframe durability, many examples achieved over 45,000 flight hours and the type remains operational in both military and (to a lesser extent) civilian capacities. The Il-18's successor was the long range Il-62 jet airliner.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: Two Soviet aircraft shared the designation Ilyushin Il-18. The first Il-18 was a propeller-driven airliner of 1946 but after a year of test flights that programme was abandoned.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: In the early 1950s with a need to replace older designs and increase the size of the Soviet civil transport fleet, a Soviet Council of Ministers directive was issued on 30 December 1955 to the chief designers Kuznetsov and Ivchenko to develop new turboprop engines and to Ilyushin and Antonov to design an aircraft to use these engines. The two aircraft designs were developed as the Ilyushin Il-18 and the Antonov An-10 and the engine chosen was the Kuznetsov NK-4 rather than the Ivchenko AI-20.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The Il-18 design had started in 1954 before the directive was issued and experience with the piston-engined Il-18 was used although the aircraft was a new design. The design was for a four-engined low-wing monoplane with a circular pressurised fuselage and a conventional tail. The forward retracting tricycle landing gear had four wheels fitted on the main leg bogies, the main legs bogies rotated 90 degrees and retracted into the rear of the inboard engines. A new feature at the time was the fitting of a weather radar in the nose and it was the first Soviet airliner to have an automatic approach system. The aircraft has two entry doors on the port-side before and after the wing and two overwing emergency exits on each side.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The prototype SSSR-L5811 was rolled out in June 1957 and after ground-testing it began taxi test and high-speed runs on 1 July 1957. On 4 July 1957 the prototype first flew from Khodynka. On 10 July 1957 the aircraft was flown to Moscow-Vnukovo Airport to be presented to a Soviet government commission; also present was the prototype Antonov An-10 and the Tupolev Tu-114. The Il-18 type was formally named "Moskva" and this was painted on the fuselage, although the name was not used when the aircraft entered production.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The Moscow Machinery Plant No. 30 located at Khodynka, near where the Ilyushin design office and the prototype had been built, was chosen to manufacture the aircraft. During 1957 the plant began to reduce its production of the Ilyushin Il-14 and prepare to build the production aircraft designated IL-18A. The Il-18A was only different from the prototype in minor details, mainly internal configuration to increase the seating from 75 to 89.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The first production aircraft were powered by the Kuznetsov NK-4 but the engines were plagued with problems so the Council of Ministers decreed in July 1958 that all production from November 1958 would use the Ivchenko AI-20 and earlier production would be re-engined. Only 20 IL-18As were built before production changed to the improved Il-18B, this new variant had a higher gross weight and the nose was re-designed with a larger radome which increased the length by 20 cm. The first Il-18B flew on 30 September 1958 powered by the AI-20; a VIP variant was also built as the IL-18S for the Soviet Air Force. From April 1961 a TG-18 Auxiliary Power Unit was fitted for ground starting rather than the bank of lead-acid batteries. Some aircraft were modified to allow the APU to be run in flight.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: With experience of the earlier aircraft a further improvement was the Il-18V variant. The Il-18V was structurally the same but the interior was re-designed including moving the galley and some minor system changes. The first Il-18V appeared in December 1959 and was to continue into production until 1965 after 334 had been built. Specialised variants of the aircraft also appeared, including aircraft modified for flight calibration and a long-range polar variant. Military variants also appeared including the anti-submarine Ilyushin Il-38.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: The first Il-18, initially equipped with Kuznetsov NK-4 engines, flew on 4 July 1957. On 17 September 1958 the aircraft first flew with the new Ivchenko AI-20 engines. Vladimir Kokkinaki was the test pilot. Between 1958 and 1960 twenty-five world records were set by this aircraft, among them flight range and altitude records with various payloads. In 1958 the aircraft was awarded the Brussels World Fair Grand Prix. In April 1979 a monument was unveiled at Sheremetyevo airport to commemorate the aircraft.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: Seventeen foreign air carriers acquired some 125 Il-18 aircraft, seating 100-120 passengers. Il-18s are still in service in Siberia, North Korea and the Middle East, whilst a number of examples manufactured in the mid-1960s were still in civilian use in Africa and south Asia as at 2014. The type operates in various military capacities, including the Il-22PP electronic warfare and reconnaissance aircraft which entered service in October 2016. A modernized Il-20M with improved radar, radio and optical-electronic reconnaissance equipment entered service in July 2020 to provide secure targeting to Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile system.


title: Ilyushin Il-18

text: An Il-18 (registration DDR-STD) belonging to Interflug and used as a transport by East German leaders, including Erich Honecker, has been converted into a static hotel suite in The Netherlands.


title: Darren Sproles

text: Darren Lee Sproles (born June 20, 1983) is an American football executive and former running back and return specialist who is a personnel consultant for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Kansas State, where he is the all-time leading rusher, and was drafted by the San Diego Chargers in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL Draft. He also played for the New Orleans Saints and the Eagles. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2021.


title: Darren Sproles

text: Sproles was named as a kick returner on the Chargers 50th Anniversary Team. He joined the New Orleans Saints in free agency before the 2011 season, and broke the NFL record for most single-season all-purpose yardage the same year, with 2,696 yards. During that season, he set career highs with 603 yards rushing (6.9 yards per carry) and 710 yards receiving and a combined total of 9 touchdowns. Sproles is the first player in NFL history with 2,200+ all purpose yards in 4 different seasons (2008–2011). Sproles is ranked 5th in career all-purpose yards in NFL history (19,696 yards).


title: Darren Sproles

text: Sproles attended Olathe North High School in Olathe, Kansas. He has been conquering a speech impediment he has had since childhood. Sproles was a star in football, earning the name "Tank", after having been born at . For two consecutive years, he was an All-Sunflower League honoree, All-Metro honoree, and an All-State selection. Additionally, he was twice named "The Kansas City Star" Player of the Year. As a senior, he was named the Kansas Hall of Fame Player of the Year and the "USA Today" Kansas Player of the Year. Throughout his high school career, Sproles rushed for 5,230 yards, averaging nearly 8.4 yards per carry and 79 touchdowns.


title: Darren Sproles

text: Sproles was a high school All-American as selected by Student Sports Magazine. He was also the winner of Thomas A. Simone Trophy, given to the top big-class football player in Kansas City metro area. In 1999, he rushed for 2,031 yards in nine games as a junior. In 2000, during his senior year, Sproles rushed for 2,485 yards, scoring 49 touchdowns. He led his Olathe North Eagles to a 12–0 record and their fourth Kansas 6A state title in five years.


title: Darren Sproles

text: In addition to football, Sproles was a track star at Olathe North. He finished 2nd in the state in the 200 meters as a junior, with a time of 21.6 seconds. He also placed 4th at Class 6A States in 100 meters, with a time of 10.93 seconds, and 3rd in the 200 meters, with a time of 22.04 seconds.


title: Darren Sproles

text: Sproles has achieved personal bests of 10.6 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.6 seconds in the 200 meters.


title: Darren Sproles

text: Sproles played college football at Kansas State University from 2001 to 2004, starting all games in his last two seasons and setting 23 school records. In the 2001 season, he made his collegiate debut against New Mexico State and had four carries for 49 yards and a touchdown. He finished with 28 carries for 210 rushing yards and one touchdown in six games.


title: Darren Sproles

text: In the 2002 season, Sproles's role in the offense expanded. In the season opener against Western Kentucky, he had 135 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. On October 5, in the game at Colorado, he had 121 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. On November 2, against Kansas, he had 110 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He followed that up with 103 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns against Iowa State. In the next game, against Nebraska, he had 159 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns. Overall, in the 2002 season, he finished with 1,465 rushing yards and 17 rushing touchdowns.