Japanese startup ispace vowed its upcoming second unmanned Moon mission will be a success, saying Thursday that it learned from its failed attempt nearly two years ago.In April 2023, the firm’s first spacecraft made an unsalvageable “hard landing”, dashing its ambitions to be the first private company to touch down on the Moon.The Houston-based Intuitive Machines accomplished that feat last year with an uncrewed craft that landed at the wrong angle but was able to complete tests and send photos.With another mission scheduled to launch next week, ispace wants to win its place in space history at a booming time for missions to the Moon from both governments and private companies.”We at ispace were disappointed in the failure of Mission 1,” ispace founder and CEO Takeshi Hakamada told reporters.”But that’s why we hope to send a message to people across Japan that it’s important to challenge ourselves again, after enduring the failure and learning from it.””We will make this Mission 2 a success,” he said.Its new lander, called Resilience, will blast off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on January 15, along with another lunar lander built by US company Firefly Aerospace.If Resilience lands successfully, it will deploy a micro rover and five other payloads from corporate partners.These include an experiment by Takasago Thermal Engineering, which wants to split water into oxygen and hydrogen gas with a view to using hydrogen as satellite and spacecraft fuel.- Rideshare -Firefly’s Blue Ghost lander will arrive at the Moon after travelling 45 days, followed by ispace’s Resilience, which the Japanese company hopes will land on the Earth’s satellite at the end of May, or in June.For the programme, officially named Hakuto-R Mission 2, ispace chose to cut down on costs by arranging the first private-sector rocket rideshare, Hakamada said.Only five nations have soft-landed spacecraft on the Moon: the Soviet Union, the United States, China, India and, most recently, Japan.Many companies are vying to offer cheaper and more frequent space exploration opportunities than governments.Space One, another Japanese startup, is trying to become Japan’s first company to put a satellite into orbit — with some difficulty so far.Last month, Space One’s solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from a private launchpad in western Japan but was later seen spiralling downwards in the distance.That was the second launch attempt by Space One after an initial try in March last year ended in a mid-air explosion.Meanwhile Toyota, the world’s top-selling carmaker, announced this week it would invest seven billion yen ($44 million) in Japanese rocket startup Interstellar Technologies. “The global demand for small satellite launches has surged nearly 20-fold, from 141 launches in 2016 to 2,860 in 2023,” driven by private space businesses, national security concerns and technological development, Interstellar said.

In a vast Bangladeshi factory hall thrumming with sewing machines, garment workers churn out seemingly endless pairs of mountain hiking trousers for customers in Europe and North America.Bangladesh’s key clothing manufacturing industry supplying global brands was crippled by a revolution that toppled the government last year, in which garment sector protesters played an important role.While owners say business has bounced back, frustrated workers say hard-won concessions have done little to change their circumstances, and life remains as hard as ever.”It is the same kind of exploitation,” said garment worker Khatun, 24, asking that only her first name be used as speaking out would jeopardise her job.Production in the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer was repeatedly stalled by the months-long violence, before protesters forced long-time autocrat Sheikh Hasina to flee in August.An interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, took over.Protests, however, continued in a string of garment factoriesfor better conditions and more pay, with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) warning in October of $400 million in losses.Scores of factories closed and tens of thousands lost their jobs.But after a five percent wage hike was agreed in September, the industry rebounded.- ‘Operating at full swing’ -“We are doing well,” said garment producer factory owner S.M. Khaled, who heads the Snowtex company, employing 22,000 workers.The South Asian nation produces garments for global brands — ranging from France’s Carrefour, Canada’s Tire, Japan’s Uniqlo, Ireland’s Primark, Sweden’s H&M and Spain’s Zara.The apparel industry accounts for about 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports, earning $36 billion last year, dropping little despite the unrest from the $38 billion exported the previous year.”I am working with at least 15 international brands, and our products will be available in 50 countries,” Khaled said.”Almost all garment factories are operating at full swing after waves of unrest. We are on the growth side.”Despite challenges with a cooling of demand, Anwar Hossain, the government-appointed administrator of BGMEA, said the industry was returning to strength.”The largest contributor to exports was the apparel sector,” Hossain said.The garment industry recorded a 13 percent increase from July-December 2024 — the period after the revolution — compared to the same period the year before, he said.- ‘Half my basic wage’Workers tell a different story.Khatun welcomed the wage rise but said factory managers then hiked already onerous demands for “nearly unachievable production targets”.Scraping by in the capital Dhaka’s gritty industrial suburb of Ashulia, she earns $140 a month including overtime and benefits to support a family of four.The wage increase of $8.25 a month seems a miserly addition.Opening her fist, she showed a 500-taka note, just over four dollars, all she had left after paying rent and other expenses.”We have good facilities inside the factory, like toilets, a canteen, and water fountains,” she said. “But we don’t get even a 10-minute break while trying to meet the targets”.Many factory owners were close to the former ruling party.In the immediate days after Hasina was toppled, several factories were damaged in retaliatory attacks.Some owners were arrested and accused of supporting Hasina, who is herself in exile in India skipping an arrest warrant for “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity”.Mostfactories are now back in operation, but employees say some offer conditions far worse than before.”We weren’t receiving salaries on time after the owner was arrested,” said worker Rana, also asking not to be identified.”Now, they’ve offered me half my basic wage, around $60 to $70. I have a six-month-old child, a wife, and elderly parents to support”, he added.Hussain, who lost his job in the unrest, tells a common tale.While he has since found work packing clothes, the new job means he “doesn’t benefit from the increment” deal, while living costs have risen.”House rents have shot up with the news of the pay rise,” he said.- ‘Take more responsibility’ -Taslima Akhter, from the Bangladesh Garment Workers’ Solidarity (BGWS) group, a labour rights organisation, said that “workers are struggling to maintain a minimum standard of living”.Akhter said factory bosses must push back against global purchasers wanting to maximise profits at the expense of a living wage.”Garment (factory) owners need to take more responsibility and learn to negotiate better with international buyers,” she said.”This industry is not new, and problems are not impossible to solve.” Despite the industry’s apparent fiscal success, Abdullah Hil Raquib, a former BGMEA director, warned it was on fragile ground.”The stability in the garment sector we see now is only on the surface,” he said.

Asian markets struggled Thursday after a tepid lead from Wall Street, with investors growing increasingly worried about the outlook for inflation and US interest rates as Donald Trump’s second presidency looms.A report saying the president-elect was considering declaring a national economic emergency to provide legal cover to impose tariffs on all imported goods added to the sense of uncertainty on trading floors.Sentiment was also clouded by data showing that Chinese consumer inflation remained almost non-existent despite a raft of stimulus measures in the final three months of last year.Equities have had an unremarkable start to 2025 after the Federal Reserve in December made a hawkish pivot and indicated it would not cut rates as much as initially expected over the next 12 months owing to sticky inflation and a still-strong labour market.Worries about Trump’s plans to slash taxes, regulate immigration and ramp up tariffs have also led to warnings that prices could reignite.That has sent yield on the 10-year US Treasury note surging and fanned speculation it could top five percent for the first time since October 2023.Friday’s US employment figures are now well in focus for trade, with markets in New York closed Thursday to mourn former US president Jimmy Carter.Forecast-topping data on job openings and prices paid by services firms compounded traders’ concerns, while analysts said there was unease among investors about Trump’s unpredictable governing style, particularly with him not having to face another presidential election.After fluctuating through the day, the Dow and S&P 500 ended slightly higher on Wall Street but the Nasdaq dipped.In early trade, Hong Kong edged up while Shanghai fell as investors assessed data showing Chinese inflation eased in December, and officials face calls to ramp up stimulus to boost consumption.Leaders have unveiled a range of measures to kickstart the world’s number two economy with a focus on getting people to spend and support for the troubled property sector.”Given the various high-level meetings and policy communiques over the past month, it appears a safe bet to expect more aggressive fiscal policy support from China in 2025, as well as continued monetary policy easing,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING.”There is the obvious and extensively discussed angle of a less favourable external environment with a high likelihood of additional tariffs and sanctions from the US once President Trump enters office. “Another less discussed element is that there appears to be a greater consensus building domestically on the need for stronger policy support to shake the economy from its extended period of heightened pessimism.”Tokyo, Sydney, Wellington, Taipei and Manila also dropped, though Seoul and Jakarta rose.On currency markets, the dollar held gains against its major peers after getting a bump from Trump’s reported mulling of an economic emergency declaration, with sterling at its lowest since April last year and the euro around its weakest since November 2022.- Key figures around 0230 GMT -Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.8 percent at 39,678.93 (break)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 19,339.31Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.4 percent at 3,216.11Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0318 from $1.0316 on WednesdayPound/dollar: UP at $1.2362 from $1.2361Dollar/yen: DOWN at 158.06 yen from 158.38 yenEuro/pound: UP at 83.46 pence from 83.44 penceWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 0.5 percent at $72.99 per barrelBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 0.4 percent at $75.86 per barrelNew York – Dow: UP 0.3 percent at 42,635.20 (close)London – FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,251.03 (close)