“SpaceShipOne was a suborbital air-launched spaceplane that completed the first manned private spaceflight in 2004. That same year, it won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service. Its mothership was named “White Knight”. Both craft were developed and flown by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which was a joint venture between Paul Allen and Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan's aviation company. Allen provided the funding of approximately US$25 million”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A chase plane follows SpaceShipOne after it reached a height of 62 miles in the first non-governmental flight to leave the Earth's atmosphere on June 21, 2004 in Mojave, California. SpaceShipOne spacecraft was carried to a height of 50,000 by the twin-turbojet high-altitude research aircraft, “White Knight”, where it was launched for its final climb. The space effort was funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and headed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. (Photo by Jim Campbell-Pool/Getty Images)

Students stand on the roof of a wooden boat as haze blankets the Musi River while they travel to school in Palembang, on Indonesia's Sumatra island, September 10, 2015. Indonesia is investigating 10 firms over worsening forest fires that have created a blanket of smog over Southeast Asia, threatening them with sanctions if they are found responsible, a government minister said on Tuesday. The thick haze from Indonesia's Sumatra and Kalimantan islands has forced the repeated cancellation of flights in the area and pushed air quality to unhealthy levels in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)

A young Chinese girl kicks during a kung-fu class at Ritan Park on June 11, 2016 in Beijing, China. Ritan, meaning “sun altar”, is among the oldest parks in Beijing, built in the early 1500s during the Ming dynasty for the emperor to make sacrifices to the sun. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

An anti-Gaddafi fighter tests an anti-aircraft gun southwest of Sirte, Libya one of Muammar Gaddafi's last remaining strongholds, September 16, 2011. A timeline of images dating from 2010 from Sirte, Libya, the home town of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Libyan forces battling Islamic State in the city of Sirte say they have defeated the militant group after months of street to street fighting backed by U.S. air strikes. Islamic State took control of the city more than a year ago and set up its main base outside Syria and Iraq. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Chelsea pensioner Mike Smith in the rear of one of two Spitfires flying over Sussex during a surprise flight organised by the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans on Tuesday, September 12, 2023. (Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)

Renowned aerobatic pilots Sean D. Tucker, flying the Oracle Challenger III, and Jeff Boerboon, flying the Jack Link's Screamin' Sasquatch, take to the skies over EAA's 2015 AirVenture Oshkosh, on Monday, July 20, 2015 in Oshkosh, Wis. (Photo by Matt Ludtke/AP Images for Jack Link's)

In the spring of 1965, within weeks of 3,500 American Marines arriving in Vietnam, a 39-year-old Briton named Larry Burrows began work on a feature for LIFE magazine, chronicling the day-to-day experience of U.S. troops on the ground – and in the air – in the midst of the rapidly widening war. The photographs in this gallery focus on a calamitous March 31, 1965, helicopter mission; Burrows’ “report from Da Nang”, featuring his pictures and his personal account of the harrowing operation, was published two weeks later as a now-famous cover story in the April 16, 1965, issue of LIFE.

Photo: Man your battle stations: The crew chief of helicopter Yankee Papa 13, lance corporal James C. Farley, mans an M-60 machine gun during a mission near Da Nang, Vietnam on March 31, 1965. (Photo by Larry Burrows/Time & Life Pictures)

“Sektor gaza” (Russian: Сектор газа) was a Russian rock band formed on 5 December 1987 in the city of Voronezh, Russia. Despite only semi-officially existing (due to obscene lyrics), the group remains popular in Russia today. The group name was taken from an eponymous industrial district of Voronezh (itself named for high levels of environmental contamination). Their music style could be defined as Russian punk, integrated with elements of different musical genres such as rock, rap, and Russian folk. On 4 July 2000, group leader Yuri “Hoy” Klinskih complained of strong pains in his stomach and the left side of his chest. He suffered heart failure shortly thereafter. Klinskikh died in Voronezh (Russia)at the age of 35. He is buried in the Levoberezhniy Cemetery. The group ceased to exist.

About the music video: The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996. After the initial campaign of 1994 – 1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen guerrilla warfare and raids on the flatlands in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and air support...