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Language-learning platform on Tuesday announced the launch of its new feature called Babbel Speak, which is designed to help first-time learners go from silence to speech. Introduced to the Babbel app via a new tab on the home screen, the AI-powered, voice-led trainer solves one of the most common barriers in language learning: not knowing how to begin speaking.
Newly appointed Babbel CEO Tim Allen, who took over the role in June, discusses his expectations for the enhanced features as well as competition from the likes of Duolingo, and wearable translation aides from Apple and Alphabet. Tim speaks with Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
Material deep inside Earth — thousands of kilometres down, near the planet’s core — has undergone a mysterious shift.
Is Earth’s core leaking? Volcanic rocks provide strongest evidence yet
Although the change occurred nearly two decades ago, between 2006 and 2008, scientists discovered it only recently, while analysing data from a pair of satellites that once measured variations in Earth’s gravity. The team thinks it might have happened when the structure of some of the rocks near the boundary between Earth’s core and mantle transformed, becoming denser.
The discovery — possible because the geological shift altered the planet’s gravitational field — is an astonishing testament to Earth-orbiting satellites. “It’s a really new observation,” says Isabelle Panet, a geophysicist at the University Gustave Eiffel in Paris. Along with lead author Charlotte Gaugne Gouranton at Paris City University and other colleagues, Panet reported the findings last month in Geophysical Research Letters1.
The work will help scientists to better understand the connections between Earth’s various layers, from its brittle crust to its solid mantle to its partially liquid core, Panet says. Connections between these layers affect where large earthquakes originate, how the planet maintains a magnetic field that protects it from solar storms and more.
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Panet’s team made the discovery using data from a pair of US–German satellites known as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), which orbited Earth between 2002 and 2017. The satellites flew one in front of the other, separated by a set distance.
Strange blobs in Earth’s mantle are relics of a massive collision
When they encountered a gravitational tug from, for example, the hulking mass of a mountain range, the lead satellite would pull temporarily away from the trailing satellite — a change that could be measured and correlated with the gravitational shift. Researchers have most often used changes in the distance between the GRACE satellites to measure the displacement of masses of water on Earth, such as when groundwater disappears beneath croplands or when glaciers melt.
But, as it turns out, GRACE was also able to spot much deeper changes in Earth’s mass. Panet had already used it to look for mass changes happening hundreds of kilometres below the surface ahead of large earthquakes2,3. Then she realized she could probe even farther down, to a depth of nearly 2,900 kilometres, to the complex boundary between the core and mantle.
Panet and her colleagues spotted a strange signal in the GRACE data that peaked around 2007 and was centred off Africa’s Atlantic coast. They were unable to attribute it to water shifting around on Earth’s surface, however. “So at least partially, there has to be an origin within the solid Earth,” Panet says. “It has to come from very deep.”
The Albanese government will invest $1.1bn to drive local production of low-carbon liquid fuels under a new push to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors that threaten its climate goals.
The government will on Wednesday announce a 10-year grants program to encourage private sector investment in on-shore production of lower-emissions fuels, such as so-called renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels.
The petrol alternatives – which are made from feedstock such as canola, sorghum and sugar – have long been touted as the solution to cut emissions in hard-to-abate sectors including aviation, cargo shipping and heavy road freight.
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The announcement comes ahead of the anticipated release of the federal government’s 2035 emissions reduction target and detailed pathways to decarbonise six sectors of the economy, including transport and agriculture.
It follows the release on Monday of the landmark national climate risk assessment report, which outlines the severe and far-reaching social and economic consequences of the climate crisis for Australia.
Liquid fuels account for roughly 32% of Australia’s total emissions, making the transition to a cleaner alternative critical to hitting net zero.
Landmark climate report shows ‘every Australian has a lot at stake’, minister says – video
The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the climate change minister, Chris Bowen, will detail the new $1.1bn program at the Ampol refinery in Brisbane, promoting low-carbon liquid fuels as both a climate action and economic opportunity for Australia.
A July report from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation found Australia could develop a $36bn liquid fuels industry with the potential to reduce emissions by 230m tonnes by 2050.
That is equivalent to 2.3 times Australia’s annual transport emissions, according to the government.
“Becoming a world-leading producer of low-carbon liquid fuels is a really big chance for Australia to be part of a really important, growing global supply chain,” Chalmers said.
Bowen said low-carbon fuels offer a path to cut emissions in sectors that are “hardest to clean up”.
“Across the nation we have 2bn litres’ worth of projects in the pipeline, many of which are ready to scale up production. A new thriving domestic industry with more jobs in our regions, from farmers growing the inputs to workers refining the fuels of the future is within our reach,” he said.
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The $1.1bn funding will be provided under a competitive grants system, with eligibility details to be thrashed out later this financial year.
The announcement has been welcomed by the Low Carbon Fuels Alliance of Australia and New Zealand, a group of more than 300 stakeholders involved in the sector.
“For industry, this is more than a funding announcement – it is a turning point. It gives companies the confidence to invest, innovate and build here in Australia, using our enormous feedstock potential to build a clean energy future,” said Shahana McKenzie, the founder of the alliance and the chief executive of Bioenergy Australia.
“With demand for low-carbon liquid fuels rising both at home and abroad, this investment positions Australia to play a leading role in meeting that need.”
The National Farmers Federation’s interim chief executive, Su McCluskey, praised the “significant” investment.
“This isn’t just about cleaner fuels. It’s about creating jobs, diversifying farm businesses and ensuring our regions remain at the forefront of Australia’s transition to net zero,” she said.
New research from the Buck Institute reveals that immune cells in the gut can migrate along the brain-gut axis in Alzheimer’s disease, potentially opening the door to new treatments. Credit: Shutterstock
Feeding the animals a high fiber diet reduced Alzheimer ’s-related frailty, including tremors.
The gut houses the body’s largest population of immune cells. A new study from the Buck Institute has revealed that in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), some of these immune cells can migrate along the brain-gut axis, pointing to a possible new therapeutic strategy for the disorder. Published in the journal Cell Reports, the research also shows that providing the mice with a high fiber diet lessened AD-related frailty, including tremors.
“This paper brings the gut immune system to the forefront of neurodegenerative disease pathology,” says Buck associate professor Daniel Winer, MD, an immunologist and co-senior author of the work. “Given its size and the cells’ ability to travel, it makes sense that those immune cells would have the ability to influence larger physiology.”
Daniel Winer, MD. Credit: Buck Institute
Buck professor Julie Andersen, PhD, a neuroscientist and co-senior author adds, “As far as we know, this is the deepest investigation of the gut immune system in a model of neurodegenerative disease. We look forward to studying its impact in other diseases including Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.”
Migrating immune cells linked to AD
The study was led by postdoctoral fellow Priya Makhijani, PhD, an immunologist with joint appointments in the Winer and Andersen laboratories. She discovered that certain antibody-producing B cells—normally essential for maintaining balance between the microbiome and the gut immune system—were reduced in mice genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Further analysis revealed that these B cells carry a migratory signature. The researchers detected gut-specific B cells and their migration receptors not only in the brain but also in its border region, the meningeal dura mater.
“Remarkably, we found that these immune cells in the brain border which recognize bacteria living in the intestines were accumulating in the AD brain,” Makhijani says.
Julie Andersen, PhD. Credit: Buck Institute
To explore why immune cells were being depleted from the gut, Makhijani and her colleagues identified the role of a receptor’s binding partner, a chemokine well known for its role in cell migration. This chemokine was produced at higher levels in glial cells, the inflammatory cells of the AD brain. The team also confirmed the migratory signature in human AD brains by analyzing previously published datasets. In collaboration with the University Health Network at the University of Toronto, they carried out blocking experiments using a small molecule drug, pointing to the existence of a new long-range signaling mechanism along the gut-brain axis.
The benefits of a high fiber diet
Makhijani and team found that feeding the animals the anti-inflammatory prebiotic fiber inulin restored balance in the gut of the AD mice. “We found these migrating cells were replenished in the gut and that AD-related frailty, including the tremor trait, was reduced in the animals.” Noting that inulin makes short chain fatty acids and other metabolites that concentrate in the gut and can also circulate systemically, she says the diet improved gut health and reduced chemokine signaling in the brain. “Again, this involved a bi-directional axis,” she says.
Priya Makhijani, PhD. Credit: Buck Institute
Winer notes that while the high fiber diet did not consistently reduce the levels of plaques in the mice’s brain, it did impact overall well-being. “We did an assay involving 31 metrics of aging in these mice. The diet definitely extended their healthspan, giving the animals a better quality of life,” he says, adding, “This project supports the ‘eat your fruits and vegetables’ advice that is featured in nearly every dietary recommendation.”
The big picture
While the study provides a comprehensive characterization of gut immune system changes in a neurological disease, researchers say more work is needed to see if those changes are a response to brain alterations or whether they drive the disease itself. Winer says one possibility is that age-related insults might trigger AD-causing inflammation in the brain, with chemokines signaling the gut immune system for help in dealing with the insult. “In the beginning, the process is likely protective, but over time the gut becomes compromised, setting the stage for more dangerous types of bacteria to flourish, which fuels inflammation throughout the body.”
Makhijani is eager to explore the potential of understanding and/or altering the gut microbiome in the context of disease. “Maybe there is a microbiome that signals an increased risk of neurological disease. Perhaps we’ll be able to identify specific bacteria that set off immune system inflammation. What if we can inhibit the signaling chemokines early versus late in the disease process? Which would be protective for the whole system? This paper provides so many avenues for further exploration.”
Reference: “Amyloid-β-driven Alzheimer’s disease reshapes the colonic immune system in mice” by Priya Makhijani, Taylor R. Valentino, Max Manwaring-Mueller, Rohini Emani, Wei-Chieh Mu, Carlos Galicia Aguirre, Christopher Ryan Tan, Anand Rane, Kenneth A. Wilson, Alexander Kifle, Nan Chen, Huixun Du, Fei Wu, Jenny Hong Yu Ng, Benjamin D. Ambrose, Prasanna Vadhana Ashok Kumaar, Saad Khan, Shawn Winer, Chao Wang, Arthur Mortha, David Furman, Birgit Schilling, Lisa M. Ellerby, Olga L. Rojas, Julie K. Andersen and Daniel A. Winer, 29 August 2025, Cell Reports. DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116109
The work was funded by NIH grant 3RF! AG062280-01S1, NIA T32 AG000266, AG066591, PO1AG06659.
COI disclosure: Daniel Winer is co-founder of Proprion Inc., a company that studies gut immune and related metabolite interventions for aging and related diseases.
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Designers Henry Zankov and Rachel Scott marked their first runway shows with an intimate, candlelit dinner at Carton House—surrounded by the community that helped build their brands.
A momentous day in fashion unfolded Monday as longtime friends Henry Zankov of Zankov and Rachel Scott of Diotima each presented their first-ever runway shows. The pair met in 2017 while sharing a showroom in the early days of their labels, and since then they’ve built a shared community—leaning on each other as they expanded their worlds. Last night, Zankov and Scott celebrated their milestones with an intimate dinner alongside their village—the one it takes to survive as a designer today.
At Carton House, in a candlelit, navy-lacquered room above 25th Street, guests wore Diotima’s distinct crochet and Zankov’s signature light-catching paillettes while trading mid-fashion-week stories. This was no typical post-show soirée; it was a gathering of friends. “Rachel and I are very close,” Zankov told me. “It’s always felt very natural for us to be doing this together. We want to see each other succeed—all of us do.” Just off the catwalk, the CFDA’s 2024 Designer of the Year spoke to a special camaraderie in the air among this intimate group. Around the table were fellow designers Presley Oldham and Christopher John Rogers—peers and friends of Scott’s and Zankov’s. “We’ve all worked together for a long time,” the designer, also a 2024 CFDA winner, said. “I would be nowhere without my community. I have an independent business, and every person I collaborate with or who champions the brand is integral. I’m not spiritual, but I feel blessed.”
Across the table, Oldham—who designed all of the jewelry for Zankov’s runway—echoed the sentiment. For him, the chance to collaborate with peers and revel in each other’s success is the point. “I’m so grateful to work together and to be his friend,” Oldham said. “And I feel that with everyone here in this room. We’re all helping build that world in community with each other.” Rogers agreed: “We’re in a really interesting moment in fashion where we only, in many ways, have our communities. I’m really proud of everyone’s ascent.” The old stereotype of competition for competition’s sake, he added, feels like a relic. “We are a generation that is leading with love and support and friendship. It feels modern and honest to me. Rachel and Henry mean a lot to me.”
Glasses clinked in honor of the two designers and their achievements as guests tucked into chef Peter Callahan’s menu—fig-and-fennel salad, New England lobster rolls, lamb chops, and a passion-fruit pavlova. As fashion-week goers trickled in from evening shows, the room swelled with familiar faces: Saks director of fashion & lifestyle Chloe King, photographer Hunter Abrams, writer Emilia Petrarca, Bergdorf Goodman CMO Yumi Shin, and more industry stalwarts took seats to toast their friends in fashion.
Wyze’s latest home security product locks your home and turns you into the key. The Palm Lock features hand-scanning biometric technology that can read the unique pattern of veins underneath your skin to unlock the door.
The new smart lock mechanism works by having homeowners hover their hand in front of the reader to disengage the Palm Lock. Wyze says this technology will be quicker to use than fingerprint scanners.
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The company’s co-founder and CMO, Dave Crosby, likened the process to creating a “secret handshake with [your] front door.” You must upload separate vein scans if you have multiple people in your house. No two “secret handshakes” are the same. Any biometric data is stored on-device, and Wyze says your palm print isn’t uploaded to the app or the cloud.
If you’re skeptical about locking up using only the veins in your hand, the Palm Lock includes other methods of entry. If it can’t read your palm for whatever reason, you won’t necessarily be locked out of your house.
Users can unlock the Palm Lock through Wi-Fi controls on the Wyze app or the old-fashioned way, with a physical key. Homeowners can also generate limited-time codes that guests can punch on the numbered keypad, giving visitor access a built-in expiration date.
The lock works in tandem with any Wyze video doorbells you already have.
The lock has a built-in gyroscope that automatically locks the door when it detects it being closed, and an alarm will also go off if you leave the door ajar. The Palm Lock interfaces with common voice assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Wyze says its batteries last for up to six months. If the lock’s batteries die, a USB-C charging port will bring the Palm Lock back to life until you can swap them out.
The Wyze Palm Lock is available now on Wyze’s website for $130.
The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the Society of Surgical Oncology (SSO) have issued updated clinical guidelines on postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) for physicians treating patients with breast cancer.
The new document has been published in the journals of the three societies.
The guidance, which was first published in 2001 and most recently updated in 2016, was written by a multidisciplinary panel of academic and community-based radiation, medical, and surgical oncologists, a medical physicist, and a patient representative. The updated recommendations were based on a systematic review of research published between 2005 and 2024.
The guidelines outline when the use of PMRT is appropriate based on advances in diagnostics and clinical practice, and reviews best practices for delivering radiation after breast removal surgery, the organizations said.
The document provides information on appropriate target volumes, dosing, and treatment techniques. In addition, authors review treatment approaches aimed at reducing side effects and improving outcomes, including advances in radiation techniques, less invasive axillary surgery, and tailored systemic therapies.
Some of the important updates include specific recommendations for making treatment decisions for patients with node-positive and node-negative disease, as well as for patients receiving neoadjuvant systemic therapy. Furthermore, the guidance underscores the importance of shared, informed decision-making with all healthcare professionals treating the patient, as well as the patient, in determining the best treatment approach to use.
The guidance is available in ASTRO’s Practical Radiation Oncology, ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology, and the SSO’s Annals of Surgical Oncology.
Arthur Schleifer, Jr., James J. Hill Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School (HBS), passed away on August 28th at the age of 94. A distinguished scholar, a gifted teacher, and a generous mentor, his career spanned more than three decades at the School.
Born in New York City, Schleifer graduated from Yale University in 1952 with a degree in physics and philosophy. He went on to Harvard Business School, earning his MBA in 1954 and his Doctorate in Business Administration in 1961. After serving as a research assistant to Robert O. Schlaifer, he began his academic career at Dartmouth’s Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. There, he was also appointed a Ford Distinguished Visiting Associate Professor at New York University before returning to HBS in 1965 as an Associate Professor. Promoted to Professor in 1968, he was named to the James J. Hill chair in 1991, a position he held until his retirement in 1998.
Schleifer’s area of expertise was managerial economics, with a particular focus on decision support, decision-making, experimentation, and supply chain management. He developed innovative teaching methods that emphasized the practice of data analysis for solving real-world business problems.
For more than 30 years, he taught and led the Managerial Economics course in the MBA Program, leaving a lasting imprint on generations of students. He was known for his patient and thoughtful style in the classroom, encouraging students to dig deeply into data and consider its implications carefully. “His greatest academic delight was teasing implications from data, and he brought a valuable pragmatism to this approach,” remembers longtime colleague David Bell, the School’s George M. Moffett Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus. “He had a great ability to analyze data, interpret results, and develop conclusions.”
Schleifer’s academic output was substantial. He co-authored a four-volume series with Bell titled Managerial Decision Analysis, which remains a cornerstone in the field. The volumes—Decision Making Under Certainty; Decision Making Under Uncertainty; Data Analysis, Regression, and Forecasting; and Risk Management—reflected his passion for teaching managers how to think critically about data and decisions. He also co-authored Finite Mathematics with Business Applications with John Kemeny, Laurie Snell, and Gerald Thompson, bringing mathematical rigor to business contexts.
A prolific case writer, Schleifer produced dozens of cases, background notes, and teaching materials. Several of his works on causal inference, sampling and statistical inference, relevant costs and revenues, and forecasting with regression analysis remain bestsellers today. His 1992 case study on item forecasting and inventory management at L.L. Bean continues to be widely taught and purchased.
Schleifer was also an early advocate for applying computing power to business education. At a time when computers were not yet ubiquitous, he wrote programs that enabled students to analyze complex data, anticipating the widespread use of software like Excel decades later.
Beyond his research and teaching, Schleifer was a valued mentor and colleague. He advised doctoral students, assisted peers with data analysis, and welcomed new faculty members with warmth and generosity. David Bell recalled that Schleifer often stopped by his office as a new faculty member simply to check in, saying, “He was never too busy for the new guy.” His colleagues frequently described him as the collegial glue of HBS—gentle, patient, and supportive.
In addition to his academic career, Schleifer served as a consultant to companies across industries including computing, retail, tire manufacturing, and telecommunications. He also provided expert testimony for numerous Fortune 100 firms and sat on advisory boards, bringing his analytical expertise to bear on pressing business challenges.
Schleifer leaves behind an extraordinary legacy as a teacher, scholar, and mentor. He helped define the teaching of managerial economics at Harvard Business School and beyond, inspiring countless students to think critically and rigorously about data in decision-making. His colleagues remember him as a brilliant thinker, a kind friend, and a generous mentor whose influence will resonate for decades to come.
“Art and I were in different fields at HBS, but bonded late in our careers,” said Louis T. Wells, Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management, Emeritus. “Our friendship grew closer after we both retired and found ourselves living within a few blocks of each other in Back Bay. We often had dinners in our respective homes. And colleagues, neighbors, and professional friends looked forward to Art’s annual 4th of July party in his beautiful condominium on Beacon Street overlooking the barges from which the fireworks were launched. I will miss our discussions of politics, foreign policy, and science policy.”
Outside academia, Schleifer enjoyed a rich personal life. An avid tennis player, certified scuba diver, and photography enthusiast, he often combined his hobbies by capturing striking underwater images. He also found joy in using technology to enhance his photographs, merging his analytical precision with an artist’s eye.
PARIS—SpaceX is looking to fly the first of a new iteration of its Starship launch system late this year or early next year and still targets the first attempt at in-orbit propellant transfer in 2026, company President Gwynne Shotwell says. The so-called Version 3 of Starship to be used in the…
Robert Wall
Robert Wall is Executive Editor for Defense and Space. Based in London, he directs a team of military and space journalists across the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific.
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The 20th Century had its fair share of ups and significant downs, but an absolute highlight has to be how humanity went from being a largely ground-based species to one that can fly and leave the planet to visit others.
A huge driver of this progress was not just the pursuit of knowledge, or doing things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard”, but to crush the competition in the space race. The US and the Soviet Union raced to send humans into space, around the planet, and to the Moon, slipping ahead of each other at various stages.
In March 1966, the Soviet Union became the first to send a spacecraft around the Moon, with the launch of Luna 10. The satellite, and the Luna 12 which followed, contained spectrometers to study the lunar surface and gamma radiation, and was not crewed. As well as achieving the first orbit of the Moon, it nabbed up another title.
“On 3 April 1966, Luna 10 was put into a selenocentric orbit — becoming the moon’s first man-made satellite,” NASA explains. “It had an apogee of 1015 km, a perigee of 350 km, an inclination to the equatorial plane of 72 degrees. The orbital time was 2 hours 58 minutes. The Luna 12 orbit was: apogee 1740 km, perigee 100 km, inclination 20 degrees, orbital time 3 hours 25 minutes.”
After the mission was over and the satellite powered down, it orbited for an unknown amount of time before crashing down to the lunar surface.
Both the Soviet Union and the USA wanted to go further than this, and return a spacecraft to Earth after sending it around the Moon, as well as landing on it. The Soviet Union had two separate programs attempting to achieve this aim, with the Saturn-V class N1 Moon rocket attempting to place a human on our natural satellite, and the Zond program for attempting to circumnavigate the Moon. By the mid-60s, it wasn’t looking too promising on this second front.
“The Zond was essentially a Soyuz spacecraft with the Orbital Module removed to save weight, replaced with a high-gain antenna and navigation instruments to enable lunar missions,” NASA explains. “Although it used the greater lift capability of the Proton rocket with a new upper stage to send the spacecraft and two cosmonauts on a free-return circumlunar trajectory, that capability was not enough to actually place the Zond into lunar orbit.”
In March 1968, the Soviet Union had a partial success with Zond 4. With this launch, they were able to take the spacecraft out to lunar distances (though not around the Moon) even if navigation system errors meant that a soft-landing back on Earth wasn’t possible.
Later that year, in September, the Soviet Union tried again with Zond 5. This time, the spacecraft included a payload of animals, including two Russian steppe tortoises, and a selection of plants, wine flies, and worms.
“Zond 5 launched successfully on September 15, 1968, from the Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and after a short time in a low Earth parking orbit, the Proton’s upper stage ignited for a second time to send the spacecraft toward the Moon,” NASA explains. “After a 3-day journey, Zond 5 passed 1,950 kilometers above the Moon’s farside and began its trip back toward Earth.”
These animals, which would surely have been a little confused at why the ground no longer stuck to its feet, survived the trip. Unlike the previous missions, Zond 5 was able to make it back to the Earth. Though the guidance systems failed, meaning that the mission did not make a soft landing in Soviet territory, the spacecraft capsule touched down safely in the Indian Ocean and recovered by Soviet sailors.
After being returned to Moscow, scientists found that the tortoises were in good health, though they had lost a little weight whilst in space. They were also completely unaware that they had become the first animals in history to circumnavigate the Moon, and then return to the Earth. Though they were unaware of the significance of this, the USA was not, and it pushed them ever further in the space race.
“The flight of Zond-5 caused concern in the U.S. that the Soviets would place cosmonauts aboard the next Zond and complete the first crewed circumlunar mission,” NASA explains, adding that satellite images of another rocket in the Soviet Union added to fears they would be beaten to the lunar surface. “The apparently successful Zond 5 mission coupled with the photos of the Soviet lunar booster on the launch pad may have contributed to the decision to send Apollo 8 on its circumlunar mission in December 1968, bringing the Moon landing one step closer.”
