this is bbc news. the headlines. iranian state television says the country's supreme leader has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including many who took part in recent anti—government demonstrations. some human rights groups believe 20,000 people have been detained over the protests since mid—september. the former uk prime minister, liz truss, blames what she calls a "powerful economic establishment" for the failure of her tax—cutting agenda. the country's shortest serving prime minister says she wasn't given a �*realistic chance�* to implement her plans. the united states is trying to find the wreckage of a chinese surveillance balloon, which it shot down over the atlantic on saturday. beijing has accused the us of an over—reaction.

the former president of pakistan, pervez musharraf, has died in hospital at the age of 79. general musharraf took power in a coup in 1999, and served as president for seven years from 2001. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for the new space race. 50 years ago, astronauts would regularly go to the moon. back then, many thought it wouldn't be long before people lived there. now, finally, that could be happening. we're notjust settling for doing the same old, same old. we want to push further. and rocket launches are now commonplace, sending up spacecraft for the benefit of life on earth. space is an integral part of society.

0ur way of working only functions with satellites for telecom, for navigation, for earth observation, for weather forecasting, for many things. so, we need the satellites for our daily life. the country that first sent a person into space is crashing back to earth, because of its war in ukraine. if russia doesn't partner up with another nation l or field its own space station, which given the current - circumstances and sanctions is quite unlikely, it might not have any- crewed space flight. what became a story of collaboration is now once again one of competition and conflict. china has its own space station. india wants one. and private companies are getting in on the act, too, sending up their own rockets. i'm pallab ghosh, the bbc�*s science correspondent.

come with me on a journey into the future of human exploration, and the new space race. archive: long before man had mastered the earth, i he lifted up his eyes and began to dream of conquering space. | through the centuries, he nursed the dream. i until today, the dream has substance. - man has crossed the threshold. the first great frontier of the universe. - man has entered space. that man was yuri gagarin of the soviet union. he was the first person in space... ..an achievement that stunned the world and was a huge triumph for the soviets. thousands turned out

to moscow's red square to meet their new hero. it's obviously a moment of huge pride. a huge amount of national pride, as we can see the crowds here on red square, and obviously yuri gagarin�*s story also lent itself to this. he was almost the perfect hero. juliana suess is an expert from the think—tank rusi, the royal united services institute. she looks at how international relations shapes space policy. it was a huge moment, of course. yuri gagarin became the most known person on the planet almost instantly when he completed that flight, when he returned safely down to earth, especially since the us was actually very close to launching their own first human into space just shortly afterwards. so, there was a bit of a race for sure. it was a huge moment in the sense

that it was a tremendous achievement that had barely been dreamed aboutjust years beforehand. obviously, we saw the launch of sputnik, the first artificial satellite into space, in 1957. so, only four years after, there was a tremendous quick development into launching a satellite to actually launching a human and returning him safely back down to earth. all eyes were now on a world that laid beyond earth. the soviet union and the united states each wanted to show that they could get to the moon first. it became known as the space race. russia had put the first person in space. american prestige was taking a beating. and on the ground, us presidentjohn f kennedy was losing the so—called cuban missile crisis.

he had threatened the soviets with nuclear war if they went ahead and built a military base right on america's doorstep. in september 1962, president kennedy delivered a speech in houston, texas, designed to rouse spirits and change the dynamic. we choose to go to the moon... we choose to go to the moon. we choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. but it wasn't an easy journey. space exploration is expensive and dangerous. there were many setbacks on the way. in just a few years, in 1969, the world watched in awe as us astronaut neil armstrong set foot on the moon, uttering the immortal words. that's one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind. i they've got the flag up now, and you can see the stars and stripes... for that brief moment, the entire world was as one... beautiful, just beautiful! ..but it was an american flag that was planted on the lunar surface. the underlying tensions were still there. that competition was broken in 1975, when spacecraft from both sides docked high above the earth, a technical and diplomatic triumph. the hatch opened. there was an historic handshake between a russian cosmonaut and a us astronaut and a new understanding in space that many hoped would change things on the ground.

i was a teenager at the time. and, yes, for me, that was the herald of all things that were going to create world peace. absolutely. and astronauts and cosmonauts, we've always had this connection and really worked closely. and the scientists will be the same. when you work really closely with a group of people, whatever their nationality, you do learn to trust. i still trust some of those russian people with my life. helen sharman was the uk's first astronaut. she flew with the soviet cosmonauts. the handshake in orbit led to her mission on the space station mir in 1991. seven years later, the soviets launched the first stage of the international space station. an american module — called unity — docked onto it, paving the way for a golden era of cooperation between the two superpowers.

it was a symbol of what humanity could achieve if nations put aside their differences and work together. the world and space were changing. demand for better communications, environmental monitoring and technology was driving a renewed interest in sending satellites into orbit. space, we're so dependent on it without even noticing it. everyday bank transactions, you know, the gps that you use to check when the next bus is running — those kind of things that we perhaps don't even notice, but it's there. and lift—off. there's lots of money to be made in space now. it's becoming very busy. in 2021, around 5,000 satellites were launched. 20 years ago, it was just 800.

more than 70 countries now have space programmes of their own. china has built its own space station, and others like india, south korea, japan and the uae are well advanced in launching rockets of their own. how do you see it developing? josef aschbacher is head of the european space agency and is determined to keep europe in the new space race. he's had a £2 billion increase in funding, despite the financial squeeze facing governments. space is an integral part of society. 0ur way of working only functions with satellites for telecom, for navigation, for earth observation, for weather forecasting, for many things. so, we need the satellites for our daily life. but on the other side, there's also an economic growth sector which is extremely large. and space is one of those which is expanding, as you, as everyone knows, very fast and,

actually, much faster now than in the last two decades. so, yes, we cannot lose out. and therefore, we need to really participate strongly in this sector because i want to create opportunities for our companies in our member states to really participate in this, and also find new business opportunities, create new services, new information, new technology, which we are developing. and, yes, this is money very well invested. the international space station has been part of that growth in activity. it's a partnership of 15 countries and is seen as a beacon of international collaboration. but the war in ukraine has damaged that relationship. western nations have stopped working with russia. conflict on earth has led once again to conflict in space.

here, at an exhibition in paris — where countries and companies are selling their experience and hardware — space is big business. they all want to be part of the next big push. they're concerned about how sanctions against russia might affect them. before the ukraine war, it looked as if there was going to be a new era of collaboration with russia. since then, joint missions have been put on hold or scrapped altogether, but many think that this is just a blip and that the great space—faring nations will once again come back together. but that blip is significant. planned moon missions between the european space agency and russia, involving a series of orbiters and landers, has gone, as has a joint mars rover project to search for signs of life on the red planet. is it your hope that collaboration

can resume once hostilities end? one should never say never, as you would say in the uk. at the moment, it's unthinkable, and this is crystal clear. of course, a lot depends on what happens in the war in ukraine — how it ends, under which conditions, what is the leadership in russia, whether or not european leaders will re—engage with a new russia. the international space station is now the focal point for this renewed tension. the west has no choice but to continue to collaborate with russia here because the iss is not owned by any one nation. each depends on the other for it to operate. it was a symbol of peace 20 years ago when its construction began, with the us and the soviet union

leading the way. but when it was cut out of space projects with the west, the russians threatened to pull out of the space station but chose not to go through with it in the end. helen sharman believes that if the ambitious missions to other worlds are to succeed, space agencies will have to come together once again. ultimately, i can see us absolutely collaborating again, very openly and fully internationally is my hope. to go to mars. i mean, that's the dream. in the shorter term future, there are other possibilities too, but i think we're going to have to learn to trust again. so i think there's a lot of ground work that needs to be rebuilt with the russians. but keeping together with the russians on iss, it provides us with at least a starting point. in fact, since war broke out, a us rocket sent up a russian cosmonaut to the space station...

..anna kikina, seen here in the middle with long flowing hair. she was greeted by others on board during a recent crew change. international collaboration continues among the astronauts and cosmonauts. and that cooperation is still continuing on the ground, in the very heart of moscow, at russian space h0. it was here at star city that britain's second astronaut, tim peake — on the left — trained for his 2016 mission to the space station. star city is a sort of international hub for space flight. it's where a lot of the astronauts go for training. and it really is the place that brings it all together. this would still be happening. so astronauts and cosmonauts in training haven't been recalled despite the war. russia's soyuz rocket is a reliable workhorse of the space age. it was a taxi service that took

astronauts to the iss when safety concerns grounded america's shuttle. but the russian technology is old and now is of less use to its former international partners. so once a space station is decommissioned, could russia — the first nation into space — be the first one out? if the russians haven't figured out an alternative by then, and obviously we know that especially european and american space agencies are looking towards the potential of commercial space stations, if russia doesn't partner up with another nation or field its own space station, which, given the current circumstances and sanctions, is quite unlikely, it might not have any crewed space flight. and there's no shortage of others to fill russia's place. china's space programme is advancing and pretty much to schedule too. in the last ten years,

it's launched more than 200 rockets. like the west, china's satellites are both vital for everyday communications and military purposes. its technical achievements bring with it much sought after international prestige. its new space station, called tiangong, is now occupied. china has invited other nations on board and made a call for proposals for scientific experiments mirroring and rivalling the west's international space station. and its ambitions don't end there. like america, china also has plans to put an astronaut on the moon. so, is this the new space race? i think the context is slightly different this time around. 0n the back of the cold war, we saw the space race, because, in essence, this was about the missiles attached and the rockets attached to the space flight programmes,

so every single space launch was also a show of power. and obviously we still see power playing out in space and space stations play a huge part in that too. three, two, one boosters and ignition... _ ..and liftoff of artemis i! we rise together back. to the moon and beyond. currently, america's space spending still dwarfs china's. nasa's latest mission, artemis, has begun and is ambitious. it's a long—term commitment. the eventual aim is to have a human outpost on the moon by 2030. and it comes at a colossal price — $93 billion — with the american taxpayer footing the bill. the budget of nasa is increasing every year by 6%, 7%, 8%. if i take china, the missions to the moon, the missions to mars, the human space flight capability, the satellites in earth, observation and telecommunication and navigation, it's enormous.

and i'm pretty sure that the growth rates of the chinese space budget is much higher than that of nasa or esa. so as china grows as a space power, could russia work with them? it almost seems the natural step that after the iss cooperation will end, which it definitely will after 2030, because the space station will be decommissioned, that russia would turn to china because it's already working with china on a couple of other missions. that being said, i don't think china would be the preferred partner and i think vice versa. i'm not sure russia would be the preferred partner for china either. china has already launched tiangong, its current space station. it's currently building it, it's currently fully developing it, in which case russia would join this partnership on a new space station as a junior partner. whereas, as part of the iss, russia was very much an equal partner to nasa, to jaxa — the japanese space agency — and esa. but with china, that wouldn't happen.

it's an expensive business. no one country can do it alone. new partnerships are being forged... ..notably with the new brash billionaires on the block. elon musk and his company, spacex, is already taking passengers into orbit, and now his sights are set on building rockets to go to mars. and not to be outdone, amazon'sjeff bezos wants to build a commercial orbiting station. he even paid for the actor who played star trek�*s captain kirk to boldly go where he's always wanted to go before. what you have given me is the most profound experience i can have. i'm so filled with emotion about what just happened. i just...

it's extraordinary. it's going to be that commercialisation and it's going to be that that brings companies together worldwide. and then we really won't care where those companies are registered. what matters is that we're doing stuff together and we're doing stuff for the benefit of the rest of the world. space is opening up, a place for everyone. the europeans and americans are choosing their future astronauts from all walks of life — more women and diverse ethnic backgrounds and those with disabilities. with so many satellites in orbit, space is now a much more crowded place. these days, it's as much about business as it is exploration. yet the set of international laws governing all this hasn't been updated for more than 50 years, signed during those

early days of conflict. archive: the foreign minister presided at the signing - of the treaty banning nuclear weapons from outer space. i he pledged britain's. wholehearted support. without such a treaty, life on earth would be| under continual threat, a nightmare existence. so far, 31 nations have joined in the treaty. i between west and east, this is the | best cooperation for a long time. i there currently isn't, really, a functioning rule set for how to behave in space. the outer space treaty from 1967 is still the main rule book about how to behave in space. it doesn't talk about companies, it doesn't talk about billionaires. space is entirely different to what it was like in 1967. the moon and other worlds could be mined for valuable resources, so a new set of rules were proposed by the un in 1979 to regulate commercial exploitation.

but the us, china and russia have all refused to sign it. we are using the same orbits for our satellites, we are using the same moon surface, if china, the us, europe and other countries are going to the moon and putting rovers there, putting astronauts there. it's one moon surface and we need to find a way to work together, to establish rules of engagement, to establish how we work there. this handshake on apollo happened at the time of the cold war, when tensions were extremely high, and the biggest nations at the time were really fighting each other in different ways. and, yes, today, we have huge tension, but i do hope we do find unity and, yeah, peace in space. there is orange soil!

well, don't move it till i see it. it's now 50 years since astronauts were last on the lunar surface. it's all over! orange! hey, it is! i can see it from here. soon, they'll be back in large numbers and from many different countries. big navy salute. this image from the early days of human space flight was seen across a world riven with strife and conflict. it showed that from space, there were no borders, just one beautiful planet. humanity is poised for its next big leap into the cosmos. the question is whether the new space race will be driven by conflict or usher in a new era

of peace and collaboration. hello again. well, for most of us, it's been a glorious afternoon. plenty of sunshine around, and quite a contrast to yesterday's blanket of cloud that was across the whole of the uk. contrast that with today's satellite picture, you can see the extent of the day's sunshine, just really the far north of scotland that's had some thicker cloud to deal with through recent hours. and this is what the sunshine has been looking like in northumberland. bit of high cloud here, making the sunshine hazy, but a fine afternoon nevertheless. however, it has been quite a bit cooler. temperatures yesterday in northern scotland reached 12 degrees celsius in kinloss. today, well, around about four degrees celsius lower. but i think for most of us we'd take that change,

given that there's been a lot more sunshine around. 0vernight tonight, high pressure stays across england and wales, and so that will keep the skies clear. for scotland and northern ireland, some thicker cloud working in here will prevent a frost for many. just a few patches of frost in rural areas for east scotland, but the frost will be extensive across england and wales, i think in the countryside temperatures could get down to as low as minus five or so. so a cold start to the day tomorrow. but again, plenty of sunshine in the forecast across england and wales. scotland and northern ireland do have some thicker cloud and there might be an odd bit of drizzle first thing in the morning, but essentially a lot of dry weather and it will probably try to brighten up. some of the day's highest temperatures tomorrow will be across the north, ten in both belfast and glasgow. fortuesday, again, it's the largely dry day, but i think there's a much greater chance of seeing some extensive and dense patches of mist and fog, some of that lingering into the afternoon across southern parts of england and wales where the weather could be really quite chilly. away from that, though, some brighter weather pushing into western scotland, perhaps a few spots of drizzle crossing northern ireland and moving

into northern england for a time. now, wednesday, the winds start to pick up again. and so that should mean the mist and fog is less extensive and probably will be quicker to clear. there'll be a few bright or sunny spells breaking through, particularly to the east of high ground. temperatures, well, around about average for england, wales, but still mild for scotland and for northern ireland. however, towards the end of the week we get this cold front moving its way southwards. that's going to bring a change to sunnier weather. but with showers across northern areas and those showers in lerwick

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories... iranian state television says the country's supreme leader has pardoned thousands of prisoners, including many who'd taken part in recent anti—government demonstrations. new cctv pictures of missing lancashire woman nicola bulley have been shared by one of her friends. the images show the 45—year—old in the hours before she went missing next to the river wyre, nine days ago. union leaders in the uk urge the prime minister to intervene in a dispute over health care pay. the biggest week of strikes in the history of the national health service is due to start tomorrow. the us continues to search for the wreckage of a chinese balloon —

suspected of spying — which was brought down by an american fighter jet yesterday.