title: Jagannath

text: The Jagannath triad are usually worshipped in the sanctum of the temple, but once during the month of Asadha (rainy season of Odisha, usually falling on the month of June or July), they are brought out onto the Bada Danda (Puri's main high street) and travel 3 km to the Shri Gundicha Temple, in huge chariots, allowing the public to have Darshan (i.e., holy view). This festival is known as Ratha Yatra, meaning the festival ("yatra") of the chariots ("ratha"). The "rathas" are huge wheeled wooden structures, which are built anew every year and are pulled by the devotees. The chariot for Jagannath is approximately high and and takes about 2 months to construct. The artists and painters of Puri decorate the cars and paint flower petals etc. on the wheels, the wood-carved charioteer and horses, and the inverted lotuses on the wall behind the throne. The huge chariot of Jagannath pulled during Ratha Yatra is the etymological origin of the English word "juggernaut". The Ratha Yatra is also termed as the Shri Gundicha Yatra.


title: Jagannath

text: The most significant ritual associated with the Ratha Yatra is the "chhera pahara". During the festival, the Gajapati king wears the outfit of a sweeper and sweeps all around the deities and chariots in the "Chera Pahara" (Sweeping with water) ritual. The Gajapati king cleanses the road before the chariots with a gold-handled broom and sprinkles sandalwood water and powder with utmost devotion. As per the custom, although the Gajapati king has been considered the most exalted person in the Kalingan kingdom, still he renders the menial service to Jagannath. This ritual signified that under the lordship of Jagannath, there is no distinction between the powerful sovereign, the Gajapati king, and the most humble devotee.


title: Jagannath

text: "Chera pahara" is held on two days, on the first day of the Ratha Yatra, when the deities are taken to the garden house at Mausi Maa Temple and again on the last day of the festival, when the deities are ceremoniously brought back to the Shri Mandir.


title: Jagannath

text: As per another ritual, when the deities are taken out from the Shri Mandir to the chariots in "Pahandi vijay", disgruntled devotees hold a right to offer kicks, slaps and make derogatory remarks to the images, and Jagannath behaves like a commoner.


title: Jagannath

text: In the Ratha Yatra, the three deities are taken from the Jagannath Temple in the chariots to the Gundicha Temple, where they stay for seven days. Thereafter, the deities again ride the chariots back to Shri Mandir in "bahuda yatra". On the way back, the three chariots stop at the Mausi Maa Temple and the deities are offered "poda pitha", a kind of baked cake which are generally consumed by the poor sections only.


title: Jagannath

text: The observance of the Ratha Yatra of Jagannath dates back to the period of the Puranas. Vivid descriptions of this festival are found in Brahma Purana, Padma Purana and Skanda Purana. Kapila Samhita also refers to Ratha Yatra. During the Moghul period, King Ramsingh of Jaipur, Rajasthan, has also been described as organizing the Ratha Yatra in the 18th century. In Odisha, kings of Mayurbhanj and Parlakhemundi also organized the Ratha Yatra, though the most grand festival in terms of scale and popularity takes place at Puri.


title: Jagannath

text: In fact, Starza notes that the ruling Ganga dynasty instituted the Ratha Yatra at the completion of the great temple around 1150. This festival was one of those Hindu festivals that was reported to the Western world very early. Friar Odoric of Pordenone visited India in 1316–1318, some 20 years after Marco Polo had dictated the account of his travels while in a Genovese prison. In his own account of 1321, Odoric reported how the people put the "idols" on chariots, and the king and queen and all the people drew them from the "church" with song and music.


title: Jagannath

text: "Besides the only temple described below, there are many temples in India, three more in Bangladesh and one in Nepal."


title: Jagannath

text: The Temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the major Hindu temples in India. The temple is built in the Kalinga style of architecture, with the Pancharatha (Five chariots) type consisting of two anurathas, two konakas and one ratha. Jagannath temple is a pancharatha with well-developed pagas. 'Gajasimhas' (elephant lions) carved in recesses of the pagas, the 'Jhampasimhas' (Jumping lions) are also placed properly. The perfect pancharatha temple developed into a Nagara-rekha temple with unique Oriya style of subdivisions like the Pada, Kumbha, Pata, Kani and Vasanta. The Vimana or the apsidal structure consists of several sections superimposed one over other, tapering to the top where the Amalakashila and Kalasa are placed.


title: Jagannath

text: The temple is built on an elevated platform, as compared to Lingaraja temple and other temples belonging to this type. This is the first temple in the history of Kalingaan temple architecture where all the chambers like Jagamohana, Bhogamandapa and Natyamandapa were built along with the main temple. There are miniature shrines on the three outer sides of the main temple.


title: Jagannath

text: The Deula consists of a tall shikhara (dome) housing the sanctum sanctorum (garbhagriha). A pillar made of fossilized wood is used for placing lamps as offering. The Lion Gate (Singhadwara) is the main gate to the temple, guarded by two guardian deities Jaya and Vijaya. A 16-sided, granite monolithic columnar pillar known as the Aruna Stambha (Solar Pillar) bearing Aruna, the charioteer of Surya, faces the Lion Gate. This column was brought here from the Sun temple of Konark.


title: Jagannath

text: There is a temple situated in Mahesh, Serampore in West Bengal, which is famous for Rathayatra of Mahesh.


title: Jagannath

text: The temple's historical records Madala panji maintains that the temple was originally built by King Yayati of the Somavamsi dynasty on the site of the present shrine. However, the historians question the veracity and historicity of the Madala Panji. As per historians, the Deula and the Mukhashala were built in the 12th century by Ganga King Anangabheemadeva, the grandson of Anantavarman Chodaganga and the Natamandapa and Bhogamandapa were constructed subsequently during the reign of Gajapati Purushottama Deva (1462–1491) and Prataprudra Deva (1495–1532) respectively. According to Madala Panji, the outer prakara was built by Gajapati Kapilendradeva (1435–1497). The inner "prakara" called the Kurma bedha (Tortoise encompassment) was built by Purushottama Deva.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Mario Gómez García (; born 10 July 1985) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented the Germany national team over a period of 11 years between 2007 and 2018.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez began his professional career with VfB Stuttgart. When the team won the Bundesliga in 2006–07, Gómez contributed 14 goals and 7 assists and was selected as German Footballer of the Year. In 2009, he signed for Bayern Munich for an estimated €30–35 million, a league record at the time. With Bayern, Gómez was the Bundesliga top scorer in 2011 and helped the team win seven trophies, including the UEFA Champions League in 2013. He left for Serie A team Fiorentina in 2013 and was affected by injury during his time in Italy. Gómez was loaned to Turkey's Beşiktaş in 2015 and was top scorer as the club won the Süper Lig. He subsequently returned to Germany by joining Bundesliga side VfL Wolfsburg for the 2016–17 season, helping them avoid relegation. He rejoined Stuttgart the season after, helping them achieve promotion to the Bundesliga after the 2019–20 campaign.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez made his international debut for Germany in February 2007 and was included in their squads for three UEFA European Championships and two FIFA World Cups, finishing as top scorer at UEFA Euro 2012. He retired from international football in 2018.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez played for VfB Stuttgart II in the Regionalliga Süd in the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons. He scored six goals in 19 appearances during the 2003–04 season and 15 goals in 24 appearances in the 2004–05 season.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 9 March 2004, Gómez played ten minutes for Stuttgart in the Champions League first knock-out round against Chelsea and made his debut in the Bundesliga on 8 May, coming on for Imre Szabics in a 2–1 loss to Hamburger SV. These were his only two appearances for the first team during the 2003–04 season. He would go on to make eight league appearances, one DFB-Pokal appearance, and one UEFA Cup appearance.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In the 2005–06 season, Gómez joined the first team permanently. He played 30 times in the Bundesliga, scoring six times at this level. His first goal came on 17 September 2005, the winner in a 2–1 defeat of Mainz 05. Gómez also played five times in the UEFA Cup, scoring twice, and played three times in both the DFB-Pokal, and DFL-Ligapokal.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In the 2006–07 season, Gómez established himself as one of the top scorers in the Bundesliga. However, he broke his hand on 10 March 2007 and suffered a torn ligament in his left knee. He made his comeback on 12 May 2007 and immediately scored after coming on from the bench. In that match, Stuttgart defeated VfL Bochum (3–2) and went two points clear heading into the Bundesliga's final weekend, where they won at home against Energie Cottbus, thus becoming German champions. Further, Stuttgart also reached final of the DFB-Pokal, where Gómez participated, but Stuttgart lost to 1. FC Nürnberg. He finished the season with 14 goals in 25 league appearances and two goals in five DFB-Pokal appearances. After the season, he was named German Footballer of the Year for 2007 and extended his contract at Stuttgart until 2012.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In the 2007–08 season, while the rest of his team did not keep performing at their 2006–07 season standards, Gómez scored 19 goals in 25 appearances, elevating him to second in the Bundesliga's top scorer list, just behind Bayern Munich's Luca Toni, who scored 24 times. In the DFB-Pokal, Gómez was the top scorer with six goals. Because of his development, many clubs became interested in the then-23-year-old forward. Gómez gained the nickname "Mr. Zuverlässig" ("Mr. Reliable"), as seen in his second of three goals against Bundesliga rival Werder Bremen (final score 6–3), where he managed to net in a virtually unreachable pass by teammate Yıldıray Baştürk. On 9 May 2009, Gómez hit four goals to inspire Stuttgart to a 4–1 victory over Bundesliga champions VfL Wolfsburg. He also had six goals in three DFB-Pokal appearances and three goals in four UEFA Champions League appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: The 2008–09 season proved to be his last in a Stuttgart uniform, as he transferred to Bayern Munich after the season. During the season, he scored 24 goals in 32 league appearances, three goals in two DFB-Pokal appearances, eight goals in ten UEFA Cup appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 26 May 2009, Gómez transferred to Bayern Munich for a Bundesliga record transfer fee, signing a four-year contract. The reported amount of the transfer fee varies from €30–35 million, depending on different sources. Gómez's scoring levels were lower than past seasons in his first season for Bayern, with ten league goals and one Champions League goal netted. He provided less assists than he had in the past as well. In the DFB-Pokal, however, Gómez was more prolific, with three goals in just four matches.


title: Mario Gómez

text: After an erratic first season at Bayern with 10 goals in 29 league appearances, Gómez established himself as a starter during the 2010–11 season (to an extent at the expense of Miroslav Klose and due to an injury sustained by Ivica Olić) and finished as top goalscorer in the Bundesliga with 28 goals. He scored his 100th Bundesliga goal with his third strike in a 1–8 away victory over FC St. Pauli on 7 May 2011; the hat-trick was his fifth in the Bundesliga in the 2010–11 season, and his sixth overall, adding in his hat-trick against CFR Cluj in the Champions League. Gómez scored 13 hat-tricks in his Bundesliga career, three with VfB Stuttgart and ten with Bayern. Gómez also netted eight times in the Champions League and finished in second place in the season's top scorers, tied with Samuel Eto'o, although Bayern was eliminated in the round of 16 by Inter Milan. Gómez scored 39 goals in all competitions in his second season with the Bavarian club.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored his first league goal of the 2011–12 season on 20 August 2011 in Bayern's win over Hamburger SV. Seven days later, Gómez scored a hat-trick away against 1. FC Kaiserslautern. On 10 September, Gómez scored four goals as Bayern beat SC Freiburg 7–0, sealing four straight wins for the Bavarians and a return to the top of the Bundesliga table. Gómez' two first-half goals on 27 September helped Bayern defeat Manchester City 2–0 in the group stage of the Champions League.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored his second brace of the Bundesliga campaign against Hertha BSC when Bayern won 4–0, followed by another brace on 29 October when Bayern defeated 1. FC Nürnberg 4–0. On 11 December 2011, he scored his third brace of the season and sealed Bayern's 2–1 win over southern rivals VfB Stuttgart, his former club. On 2 November 2011, he scored a hat-trick in a Champions League group stage match against Napoli. Bayern went on to win the game 3–2. In the DFB-Pokal, Gómez contributed two goals. Gómez's 40th goal of the calendar year of 2011 came on 16 December 2011 against 1. FC Köln.<ref name="Mario Gomez Steckbrief 2010/11"></ref><ref name="Mario Gomez Steckbrief 2011/12"></ref>


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 10 January, when FC Bayern Munich visited India to play in a farewell match for Indian footballer Baichung Bhutia, Gomez scored the opening goal for Bayern as Bayern Munich won 4–0 over the India national football team.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 13 March 2012, during the second leg of their Champions League tie against Basel, Bayern Munich overturned their 0–1 away loss as Gómez netted four of Bayern's seven goals, firing the Bavarians through to the quarter-finals 7–1 on aggregate. In the quarter-finals, Bayern faced French Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille; in the first leg on 28 March, Gómez fired in his 11th Champions League goal of the campaign in a 2–0 win for the Bavarians.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 4 April, Gómez signed a new contract with Bayern Munich, keeping him at the club until the summer of 2016. Gómez scored the winning goal in Bayern's 2–1 victory over Real Madrid in the first leg of their semi-final clash. Bayern went on to win the tie 3–1 on penalties after the teams were deadlocked 3–3 on aggregate. On 19 May 2012, Gómez played in the Champions League final against Chelsea. He failed to find the net in regular time in the game but scored in the penalty shoot-out as Bayern fell at the final hurdle, losing 4–3 on penalties after a 1–1 finish. Gómez finished the 2011–12 season with 26 goals in 33 league appearances, two goals in five DFB-Pokal appearances, and 13 goals in 14 Champions League appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez came back late to the squad after having ankle surgery post UEFA Euro 2012. Because of his injury and the signing of Croatian striker Mario Mandžukić from VfL Wolfsburg, Gómez was relegated to the bench as Mandžukić hit a run of form that made him the Bundesliga's top scorer.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez returned to action on 20 November 2012 in the club's 1–1 draw with Valencia in the group stage of the Champions League, coming on as a 79th minute substitute for winger Franck Ribéry. The striker scored his first goal within a minute of his Bundesliga season debut, capping off a 5–0 victory over Hannover 96 on 24 November. On 5 December, Gómez opened the scoring for the hosts in their final group game of the Champions League, a 4–1 defeat of BATE Borisov, which secured the Bavarians top spot in the group over Valencia.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Following the winter break, Gómez pushed for a first-team berth, scoring two goals and setting up another as Bayern cruised past Werder Bremen 6–1 on 23 February 2013. The game was his manager Jupp Heynckes' 1,000th game as a player and coach in the Bundesliga. The striker was a used substitute against Eintracht Frankfurt on 6 April, as a lone Bastian Schweinsteiger strike confirmed an 11th successive victory and a 23rd national title for the club. It was Gómez's second title win with Bayern, and his third overall.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 16 April, in the DFB-Pokal semi-final against VfL Wolfsburg, Gómez scored a six-minute hat-trick after being substituted on in the 77th minute, rounding off a comfortable 6–1 victory and securing a spot in the final against southern rivals and former club Stuttgart. In the club's next league match, on 20 April, Bayern managed another 6–1 victory and Gómez recorded a second brace in four days to lift Bayern to a 26th league victory of the campaign, a new Bundesliga record. Gómez led the line in the absence of Mario Mandžukić in the semi-finals of the Champions League on 23 April, poking home Bayern's second goal in their 4–0 first-leg defeat of Barcelona.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Despite missing the better half of the first three months of the campaign, Gómez still managed 11 Bundesliga strikes, placing him as third top-scorer in the league for the club. He made an appearance as a late substitute in Bayern's 2–1 Champions League final victory over German rivals Borussia Dortmund on 25 May at Wembley Stadium in London. He scored a second-half brace in the DFB-Pokal final on 1 June as Bayern defeated Gómez's former club Stuttgart 3–2 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. The win secured a 16th DFB-Pokal trophy and an unprecedented league, cup and European cup treble for the Bavarians. Gómez finished the 2012–13 season with 11 goals in 21 league appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 6 June 2013, Gómez's consultant Uli Ferber announced that it "is quite clear that he will separate from Bayern" as he had fallen behind Mario Mandžukić in the pecking order for starting striker.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 8 July 2013, Gómez signed a four-year deal for Serie A side Fiorentina for a fee believed to be around €20 million. He was officially unveiled as a Fiorentina player on 15 July to a crowd of 20,000 people.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored his first two goals for "la Viola" in a 5–2 defeat of Genoa on 1 September. In the following match, a 1–1 draw with Cagliari, Gómez sustained an injury which kept him out of the team until Fiorentina's match against Internazionale on 15 February 2014.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 13 March, Gómez scored his first European goal for Fiorentina in a 1–1 draw against Juventus in the first leg of a UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie. Three days later, he scored his first goal at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in a 3–1 win against Chievo.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez damaged the ligaments in his left knee on 23 March in a 1–0 win at Napoli and was later ruled out for the remainder of the season by Fiorentina manager Vincenzo Montella. During the 2013–14 season, he scored three goals in nine league appearances and one goal in six Europa League appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored twice in Fiorentina's 3–1 win over Atalanta in the last 16 of the Coppa Italia on 21 January 2015, and followed this up with another brace 13 days later in a 2–0 quarter-final win away against Roma. He finished the 2014–15 season with 4 goals in 20 league appearances, four goals in four Coppa Italia appearances and two goals in eight Europa League appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 30 July 2015, Gómez joined Beşiktaş on a season long loan contract from Fiorentina for 2015–16 Süper Lig, with a buy option. The contract consisted of €3.50 million of seasonal wages. He successfully completed a medical test on 31 July 2015. Gómez officially signed for the club along with 4 other new players, including his compatriot Andreas Beck, at a press conference held on 7 August 2015. He chose number 33 for his shirt.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez made his Süper Lig debut on 16 August 2015 against Mersin İdman Yurdu at Mersin Arena, when he was substituted on for Oğuzhan Özyakup in the 73rd minute. The game ended 5–2 in favour of Beşiktaş. Gómez scored both goals as Beşiktaş beat Medipol Başakşehir 2–0 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium on 13 September 2015 in gameweek 4. On 21 September 2015, during the week 5 game against Gençlerbirliği, Gómez reportedly narrowly escaped a red card for an alleged deliberate elbow on Icelandic midfielder Ólafur Ingi Skúlason during the 55th minute. On 27 September 2015, Gómez scored two goals during the derby game against Fenerbahçe. Beşiktaş won 3–2 and went to the top of the Süper Lig standings.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored twice during the week 7 game against Eskişehirspor at New Eskişehir Stadium, which ended 2–1. By end of week 7 of the Süper Lig, Gómez had scored six goals with a shooting accuracy of 50%, with six successful shots out of twelve. Gómez scored the equaliser during week 3 of Beşiktaş' Group H game against Lokomotiv Moscow, which ended 1–1 at Lokomotiv Stadium, Moscow, on 22 October 2015. Gómez scored the third goal in Beşiktaş' week nine game against Antalyaspor, helping secure a 5–1 win.


title: Mario Gómez

text: During Beşiktaş' week 12 game against Sivasspor, Gómez scored the first goal of the game via a 44th minute penalty kick; the game ended 2–0.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 5 December 2016, Gómez scored against Kayserispor in a 2–1 win for Beşiktaş. On 10 December 2015, Gómez scored Beşiktaş' only goal against Sporting in the Europa League Group Stage as the game ended 3–1 for the Portuguese side. Beşiktaş were eventually eliminated from the competition. On 14 December 2015, Gómez scored Beşiktaş' first goal with a diving header in the derby game against Galatasaray that ended 2–1 for Beşiktaş. During week 16, Gómez opened the scoring tally for Beşiktaş while they were 2–0 down against Osmanlıspor; the game ended 3–2 in favour of Beşiktaş. On 28 December 2015, Gómez scored the 2nd goal of the week 17 encounter against Konyaspor, which ended in a 4–0 win. Gómez, along with Samuel Eto'o, was the top scorer of the first half of the Super Lig, with 13 goals; Gómez completed the first half of the season with highest shooting accuracy, with 29 shots on target. He also scored two goals in the UEFA Europa League by the end of 2015.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In the Süper Lig week 20 game against Gaziantepspor, Gómez scored twice as Beşiktaş achieved a comfortable 4–0 win. Gómez added another goal to his tally in the 64th minute in Beşiktaş' week 22 game against Gençlerbirliği and secured a 1–0 win. Gómez scored twice against Eskişehirspor during the game on 7 March 2016, which ended 3–1 for Beşiktaş. His tally of 19 Süper Lig goals equalised the club record for "most scoring foreign player in single Süper Lig season", along with Pascal Nouma and Demba Ba.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor faced each other in a rescheduled week 19 game on 14 March 2016. Gómez scored the first goal in a 2–0 win. Gómez scored the first goal ever scored in Beşiktaş' newly built Vodafone Park in the 22nd minute of the encounter against Bursaspor during the 2015–16 season. The game ended 3–2 as Beşiktaş recorded their first win in this stadium. This was Gómez's 21st goal of the 2015–16 season.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez continued to produce goals in May 2016. He scored once more in the Istanbul derby versus Galatasaray in the 76th minute, which sealed a final score of 1–0 for Beşiktaş in week 32. Gómez scored again in the week 33 game against Osmanlıspor. It was the fifth consecutive Süper Lig game in which he had scored and his last league goal for Beşiktaş as the game ended 3–1. This goal, his 28th in all competitions, made Gómez the "most scoring foreign player across all competitions in single season", beating the previous record of Demba Ba with 27 goals scored in the 2014–15 season.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez became the season Süper Lig top scorer with 26 goals, ahead of Samuel Eto'o and Hugo Rodallega. He completed the season with 28 goals in 41 games played in all competitions. On 20 July 2016, Gómez announced his farewell message via his Facebook account, stating that he would not continue to play for Beşiktaş. He described it as a "difficult decision" on a political basis, which was perceived as a reference to 2016 coup d'état attempt in Turkey.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In 2016, Gómez expressed his satisfaction with his spell at Beşiktaş in an interview with German newspaper Die Welt, stating: "[My time at] Beşiktaş was a pure dream for me. It was wonderful. I had a consistent season there. It was my biggest success after 2013 Champions League title".


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 17 August 2016, Gómez returned to the Bundesliga by signing for VfL Wolfsburg. He scored his first goal for the club on 22 October, netting in a 3–1 defeat to Darmstadt 98. His goal was the 1,000th scored by Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. On 2 April 2017, Gómez scored his first hat-trick for the club, netting three times in seven minutes as Wolfsburg came from 2–0 down to draw 3–3 with Bayer Leverkusen. His third goal on the night was his 150th goal scored in the Bundesliga. He ultimately scored 16 league goals during the 2016–17 season as Wolfsburg narrowly avoided relegation via the relegation play-offs. Gómez finished the 2016–17 season with 18 goals in 37 appearances in all competitions.


title: Mario Gómez

text: After keeping his team in the top flight, Gómez signed a new contract in June 2017. In August, manager Andries Jonker named him as captain, succeeding Diego Benaglio. Gómez scored only once in his last 15 appearances at the Volkswagen Arena.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 22 December 2017, it was announced that Gómez would return to VfB Stuttgart on 1 January 2018 for an undisclosed fee. He signed a contract until June 2020. He finished the 2017–18 season with eight goals in 16 appearances.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez was Stuttgart's top scorer with seven goals in 2018–19. In the first leg of the play-off defeat to 1. FC Union Berlin that caused Stuttgart's relegation, Gómez scored an additional goal, becoming the first player to score for two teams in Bundesliga relegation play-offs.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 28 June 2020, Stuttgart announced that Gómez had ended his professional career, after scoring in his final match for the club and helping them secure promotion back to the Bundesliga.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez has both German and Spanish citizenship, but played for all German youth national teams from age 14. He made his debut for the Germany senior team against Switzerland on 7 February 2007 in Düsseldorf. Germany won the match 3–1, with Gómez scoring Germany's second goal. Gómez gained his second cap for Germany by coming on as a substitute for Kevin Kurányi in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against San Marino. He scored twice as the game ended in a 6–0 victory.


title: Mario Gómez

text: After Gómez impressed in pre-tournament friendlies, Germany head coach Joachim Löw called him up to the German squad for Euro 2008. Löw broke up the strike partnership of Lukas Podolski and Miroslav Klose, with Podolski moving out to the left wing at the expense of talismanic midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and Gómez partnering Klose up front. Unfortunately, Gómez was not able to reproduce his club form and missed several chances, including one in the last group match against Austria, a performance for which he was criticized by the German media and many fans of the national team. Germany eventually won courtesy of a Michael Ballack free-kick to seal a place in the knockout stages, but Löw dropped Gómez to the bench and reverted to the Podolski–Klose partnership. Gómez was an unused substitute in the quarter-final and semi-final and later came off the bench in the final of Euro 2008 for Klose, but could not prevent Germany from losing 1–0 to Spain on 29 June.


title: Mario Gómez

text: In a friendly match against the United Arab Emirates played on 2 June 2009, Gómez scored four goals in Germany's 7–2 victory, ending his 15-game goal drought for the national team.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez was named as one of the six forwards in Joachim Löw's 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. He featured in four out of seven German matches at the World Cup, all from the substitutes' bench; he played against Australia, replacing Mesut Özil in the 73rd minute; Serbia, coming on for left back Holger Badstuber in the 77th minute; England, coming on for Miroslav Klose in the 72nd minute; and Spain, replacing defensive midfielder Sami Khedira in the 80th minute. However, Gómez again did not score a goal at a major tournament.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Despite being second choice, behind Miroslav Klose, for centre-forward during Germany's qualification for Euro 2012, Gómez played regularly and contributed goals against every opponent of that campaign: Kazakhstan, Austria, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Belgium. This included two goals against Austria in Germany's 2–1 away win in the Ernst-Happel-Stadion, scoring into the very same goal in which he had been unable to score four years earlier during Euro 2008. In a gesture of relief, he kissed the goalpost after he scored the first goal.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Prior to Euro 2012, Gómez captained Germany for the first time in a 3–3 draw against Ukraine in the first match at the renovated Olympic Stadion of Kiev. It was his 50th international cap, and aged 26, he was Germany's oldest player in the starting lineup.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez scored the only goal against Portugal in their first group match at Euro 2012, securing a 1–0 win for Germany. He then scored twice against the Netherlands in Germany's second Group B match, making it three goals in two matches. Gómez finished as second-best scorer of the tournament, behind Spain's Fernando Torres. Both had three goals and one assist; however, Torres became top scorer of the tournament because he had played fewer minutes than Gómez.


title: Mario Gómez

text: After missing the majority of the 2013–14 season with a knee injury, Gómez was not included in Joachim Löw's squad for the 2014 World Cup.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez was excluded from the national team for UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying Group D encounters against Ireland and Georgia. His performance in the first half of the 2015–16 Süper Lig led Gómez to be recalled to the national team for the first time since the international friendly against Argentina on 4 September 2014. He was included the Germany squad for friendlies against France and the Netherlands in November 2015. Gómez scored his first international goal in four years in a 2–3 loss to England in Berlin on 26 March 2016.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 21 June 2016, Gómez was selected to start in Germany's final Euro 2016 group match against Northern Ireland; he scored the winning goal in the 30th minute. On 26 June 2016, Gómez scored in the 43rd minute in Germany's Round of 16 3–0 win against Slovakia, becoming Germany's all-time leading scorer at the UEFA European Championship with five goals.


title: Mario Gómez

text: On 4 June 2018, Gómez was selected in Joachim Löw's 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He made an appearance during Germany's opening match against Mexico, coming on for Marvin Plattenhardt in the 79th minute, but the game ended in a 1–0 loss for Germany. On 24 June, Gómez provided an assist to Marco Reus' equalizing goal with his first touch during Germany's second group stage match against Sweden; the game ended in a 2–1 victory. On 5 August, he announced his retirement from international football.


title: Mario Gómez

text: During his prime, Gómez was considered one of the best strikers in world football. Throughout his career, Gómez was known for his ability to shoot with both feet and was considered an aerial threat. Additionally, his ability to anticipate crosses and passes and position himself to shoot were considered to be some of his best attributes. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger described him as "a great finisher who is often in the right place to finish off moves". Gómez's body balance and ability to hold up the ball often created trouble for defenders. During his time at Bayern, his ability to appear "at the right place at the right time" proved to be one of Bayern's most lethal attacking weapons, as Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben could often outrun defenders and provide a cross for Gómez. However, despite his goal-scoring abilities, Gómez was often accused of having limited skills and a poor work ethic.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez was born in Riedlingen, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. He was brought up in nearby Unlingen, an Upper Swabian village in Baden-Württemberg, about south of Stuttgart and west of Munich. Gómez is of German-Spanish descent. His father, José "Pepe" Gómez García, is a Spaniard from Albuñán, Granada, and his mother, Christel Roth, is German. He has dual citizenship and opted to play for Germany.


title: Mario Gómez

text: Gómez ended his nine-year relationship with Silvia Meichel on 2 October 2012. Gómez began dating German model Carina Wanzung in December 2012. They married on 22 July 2016.


title: Phil Harris

text: Wonga Philip Harris (June 24, 1904 – August 11, 1995) was an American actor, comedian, musician and songwriter. He was an orchestra leader and a pioneer in radio situation comedy, first with "The Jack Benny Program", then in "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show" in which he co-starred with his wife, singer-actress Alice Faye, for eight years. Harris is also noted for his voice acting in animated films. As a voice actor, he played Baloo in "The Jungle Book" (1967), Thomas O'Malley in "The Aristocats" (1970), Little John in "Robin Hood" (1973), and Patou in "Rock-a-Doodle" (1991). As a singer, he recorded a #1 novelty hit record, "The Thing" (1950).


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris was born in Linton, Indiana, but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and identified himself as a Southerner. His hallmark song was "That's What I Like About the South." He had a trace of a Southern accent and in later years made self-deprecating jokes over the air about his heritage. His parents were circus performers. His father, a tent bandleader, gave him his first job as a drummer with the circus' band.


title: Phil Harris

text: His unusual first name "Wonga," is said to derive from a Cherokee word meaning "messenger of fleet" or, perhaps more accurately translated, "fast messenger."


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris began his music career as a drummer in San Francisco, in the mid-1920s playing drums in the Henry Halstead Big Band Orchestra. He formed an orchestra with Carol Lofner in the latter 1920s and started a long engagement at the St. Francis Hotel. In the 1930s, Lofner-Harris recorded swing music for Victor, Columbia, Decca, and Vocalion. The partnership ended by 1932, and Harris led a band in Los Angeles for which he was the singer and bandleader.


title: Phil Harris

text: In 1933, he made a short film for RKO called "So This Is Harris!", which won an Academy Award for best live action short subject. He followed with a feature-length film, "Melody Cruise". Both films were created by the same team that produced "Flying Down to Rio", which started the careers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. He also starred in "I Love a Bandleader" (1945) with Leslie Brooks. Here he played a house painter who gets amnesia, then starts to lead a band. He recorded "Woodman, Spare That Tree" (by George Pope Morris and Henry Russell) in 1947. His nickname was "Old Curly." In 1950, Harris recorded a hit novelty song entitled "The Thing," which did hit number 1 on the charts. Additionally, he appeared in "The Wild Blue Yonder" a.k.a. "Thunder Across the Pacific" (1951), alongside Forrest Tucker and Walter Brennan. He made a cameo appearance in the Warner Bros. musical, "Starlift", with Janice Rule and Dick Wesson, and was featured in "The High and the Mighty" with John Wayne in 1954.


title: Phil Harris

text: In 1936, Harris became musical director of "The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny" singing and leading his band, with Mahlon Merrick writing much of the show's music. When Harris exhibited a knack for snappy one-liners, he joined the cast, portraying himself as a hip, hard-drinking Southerner whose good nature superseded his ego. He gave the others nicknames, such as "Jackson" for Jack Benny. (Addressing a man as "Jackson" or sometimes "Mr. Jackson" became popular slang in the early 1940s.) His signature song was "That's What I Like About the South." Many of his vocal recordings were comic novelty "talking blues," similar to the songs of Bert Williams, which are sometimes considered a precursor to rap.


title: Phil Harris

text: In 1946, Harris and wife Alice Faye began co-hosting "The Fitch Bandwagon", a comedy-variety program that followed the Jack Benny show on Sunday nights. On "The Fitch Bandwagon" and its later incarnation as "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show", Harris played a vain, stumbling husband, while Faye played his sarcastic but loving wife. Gerald Nachman has written that Harris was a soft-spoken, modest man off the air. In "On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio" John Dunning wrote that Harris's character made the show popular. "The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show" appeared until 1954. Harris continued to appear on Jack Benny's show from 1948 to 1952.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris was recording songs as early as 1931. Songs by Harris include the early 1950s novelty song, "The Thing". The song describes the hapless finder of a box with a mysterious secret and his efforts to rid himself of it.


title: Phil Harris

text: In 1956, Harris appeared in the film "Good-bye, My Lady". He made numerous guest appearances on 1960s and 1970s television series, including "The Steve Allen Show", the "Kraft Music Hall", "Burke's Law", "F Troop", "The Dean Martin Show", "The Hollywood Palace", and other musical variety programs. He appeared on "The American Sportsman" which took celebrities on hunting and fishing trips around the world.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris worked as a voice actor for animated films, providing the voice of Baloo the bear in "The Jungle Book" (1967), Thomas O'Malley in "The Aristocats" (1970), and Little John in "Robin Hood" (1973). In 1989, he reprised his role as Baloo for the cartoon series "TaleSpin", but after a few recording sessions he was replaced by Ed Gilbert. Harris's final film role was in "Rock-a-Doodle" (1991).


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris spent time in the 1970s and early 1980s leading a band that appeared often in Las Vegas, often on the same bill with bandleader Harry James.


title: Phil Harris

text: On September 2, 1927, he married actress Marcia Ralston (then known as Mascotte Ralston) in Melbourne, Australia, where his band had a long engagement. The couple adopted a son, Phil Harris Jr. (born 1935). Harris and Marcia divorced in September 1940.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris and Alice Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both (Faye had been married briefly to singer-actor Tony Martin) and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic relationship.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris was a lifelong friend of singer and actor Bing Crosby. He appeared on telecasts of Bing's Pro-Am Golf Tournament from Pebble Beach, California, and appeared in an episode of ABC's short-lived sitcom "The Bing Crosby Show". After Crosby died in 1977, Harris replaced him as commentator for the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris was a resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, and was active in many local civic organizations.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris died of a heart attack at age 91 in his Rancho Mirage home in the night of August 11, 1995. He is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Cathedral City, California.


title: Phil Harris

text: Harris was a benefactor of his birthplace of Linton, Indiana, establishing scholarships in his honor for promising high school students, performing at the high school, and hosting a celebrity golf tournament in his honor every year. Harris and Faye donated most of their show business memorabilia and papers to Linton's public library. Harris was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic‘s maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS "Unity" spaceship. Branson had originally hoped to see a maiden spaceflight by 2010, but the date was delayed for several years, primarily due to the October 2014 crash of VSS "Enterprise".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The company did the early work on the satellite launch development of LauncherOne before this was hived off to a separate company, Virgin Orbit, in 2017. The company also has aspirations for suborbital transport and in 2017, Branson has said that Virgin Galactic was "in the best position in the world" to provide rocket-powered, point-to-point air travel.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 13 December 2018, VSS "Unity" achieved the project's first suborbital space flight, VSS "Unity" VP-03, with two pilots, reaching an altitude of , and officially entering outer space by U.S. standards. In February 2019, the project carried three people, including a passenger, on VSS Unity VF-01, with a member of the team floating within the cabin during a spaceflight that reached .


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 11 July 2021, the company founder Richard Branson and three other employees rode on a flight as passengers, marking the first time a spaceflight company founder has travelled on his own ship into outer space (according to the NASA definition of outer space beginning at 50 miles above the Earth).


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In February 2022, Virgin Galactic announced that it opens ticket sales to the public. The price of a reservation is $450,000. The company had sold tickets before February 2022 to clients that had paid deposits earlier or otherwise "were on a list"; as of November 2021 the company had about 700 customers (tickets sold). The company aims to have about 3 launches per month sometime in 2023.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who had previously founded the Virgin Group and the Virgin Atlantic airline, and who had a long personal history of balloon and surface record-breaking activities.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: As part of Branson's promotion of the firm, he has added a variation of the Virgin Galactic livery to his personal business jet, the Dassault Falcon 900EX "Galactic girl" (G-GALX).


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The Spaceship Company (TSC) was founded by Richard Branson through Virgin Group (which owned 70%), and Burt Rutan through Scaled Composites (which owned 30%), to build commercial spaceships and launch aircraft for space travel. From the time of TSC's formation in 2005, the launch customer was Virgin Galactic, which contracted to purchase five SpaceShipTwos and two WhiteKnightTwos Scaled Composites was contracted to develop and build the initial prototypes of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, and then TSC began production of the follow-on vehicles beginning in 2008. In 2012 after Northrop Grumman acquired Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic acquired the remaining 30% of The Spaceship Company.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: After a claimed investment by Virgin Group of , in 2010 the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, Aabar Investments group, acquired a 31.8% stake in Virgin Galactic for , receiving exclusive regional rights to launch tourism and scientific research space flights from the United Arab Emirates capital. In July 2011, Aabar invested a further to develop a program to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit, raising their equity share to 37.8%. Virgin announced in June 2014 that they were in talks with Google about the injection of capital to fund both development and operations. The New Mexico government has invested approaching $200m (£121m) in the Spaceport America facility, for which Virgin Galactic is the anchor tenant; other commercial space companies also use the site.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On Monday 28 October 2019, Virgin Galactic listed into the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the ticker symbol 'SPCE', the first publicly traded space tourism company (i.e. company whose primary business is space tourism). The company raised $450 million through a SPAC merger listing, and company’s market value after listing was more than $2.4 billion. At the time, the company claimed to have over 600 customer reservations representing approximately $80 million in total collected deposits, and more than $120 million in “potential revenue”.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: After its listing, SPCE became a popular stock for many retail investors and was often mentioned on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The spacecraft initially called SpaceShipTwo is planned to achieve a suborbital journey with a short period of weightlessness. Carried to about 16 kilometers, or 52,000 ft, underneath a carrier aircraft, White Knight II, after separation the vehicle would continue to over 100 km (the Kármán line, a common definition of where "space" begins). The time from liftoff of the White Knight booster carrying SpaceShipTwo until the touchdown of the spacecraft after the suborbital flight would be about 2.5 hours. The suborbital flight itself would be only a small fraction of that time, with weightlessness lasting approximately 6 minutes. Passengers will be able to release themselves from their seats during these six minutes and float around the cabin.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In July 2007, three Scaled Composite employees were killed and three critically injured at the Mojave spaceport while testing components of the rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo. An explosion occurred during a cold fire test, which involved nitrous oxide flowing through fuel injectors. The procedure had been expected to be safe.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Just a year later, in July 2008, Richard Branson predicted the maiden space voyage would take place within 18 months. In October 2009, Virgin Galactic announced that initial flights would take place from Spaceport America "within two years." Later that year, Scaled Composite announced that White Knight Two's first SpaceShipTwo captive flights would be in early 2010.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Both aircraft did fly together in March 2010. The credibility of the earlier promises of launch dates by Virgin Galactic were brought into question in October 2014 by its chief executive, George Whitesides, when he told "The Guardian": "We’ve changed dramatically as a company. When I joined in 2010 we were mostly a marketing organisation. Right now we can design, build, test and fly a rocket motor all by ourselves and all in Mojave, which I don’t think is done anywhere else on the planet".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 7 December 2009, SpaceShipTwo was unveiled at the Mojave Spaceport. Branson told the 300 people attending, each of whom had booked rides at $200,000 each, that flights would begin "in 2011". However, in April 2011, Branson announced further delays, saying "I hope 18 months from now, we’ll be sitting in our spaceship and heading off into space". By February 2012, SpaceShipTwo had completed 15 test flights attached to White Knight Two, and an additional 16 glide tests, the last of which took place in September 2011. A rocket-powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place on 29 April 2013, with an engine burn of 16 seconds duration. The brief flight began at an altitude of 47,000 feet, and reached a maximum altitude of 55,000 feet. While the SS2 achieved a speed of Mach 1.2 (920 mph), this was less than half the 2,000 mph speed predicted by Richard Branson. SpaceShipTwo's second supersonic flight achieved a speed of 1,100 mph for 20 seconds; while this was an improvement, it fell far short of the 2,500 mph for 70 seconds required to carry six passengers into space. However, Branson still announced his spaceship would be capable of "launching 100 satellites every day".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In addition to the suborbital passenger business, Virgin Galactic intended to market SpaceShipTwo for suborbital space science missions and market White Knight Two for "small satellite" launch services. It had planned to initiate RFPs for the satellite business in early 2010, but flights had not materialized as of 2014.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 14 May 2013, Richard Branson stated on Virgin Radio Dubai's "Kris Fade Morning Show" that he would be aboard the first public flight of SpaceShipTwo, which had again been rescheduled, this time to December 25, 2013. "Maybe I’ll dress up as Father Christmas", Branson said. The third rocket-powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo took place on 10 January 2014 and successfully tested the spaceship's Reaction Control System (RCS) and the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle's tail booms. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said "We are progressively closer to our target of starting commercial service in 2014". Interviewed by "The Observer" at the time of her 90th birthday in July 2014, Branson's mother, Eve, told reporter Elizabeth Day of her intention of going to space herself. Asked when that might be, she replied: "I think it’s the end of the year", adding after a pause, "It’s always 'the end of the year' ".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In February 2014, cracks in WhiteKnightTwo, where the spars connect with the fuselage, were discovered during an inspection conducted after Virgin Galactic took possession of the aircraft from builder Scaled Composites.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In September 2014, Richard Branson described the intended date for the first commercial flight as February or March 2015; by the time of this announcement, a new plastic-based fuel had yet to be ignited in-flight. By September 2014, the three test flights of the SS2 had only reached an altitude of around 71,000 ft, approximately 13 miles; in order to receive a Federal Aviation Administration licence to carry passengers, the craft needs to complete test missions at full speed and 62-mile height. Following the announcement of further delays, UK newspaper "The Sunday Times" reported that Branson faced a backlash from those who had booked flights with Virgin Galactic, with the company having received $80 million in fares and deposits. Tom Bower, author of "Branson: The Man behind the Mask", told the "Sunday Times": "They spent 10 years trying to perfect one engine and failed. They are now trying to use a different engine and get into space in six months. It's just not feasible." BBC science editor David Shukman commented in October 2014, that "[Branson's] enthusiasm and determination [are] undoubted. But his most recent promises of launching the first passenger trip by the end of this year had already started to look unrealistic some months ago."


title: Virgin Galactic

text: At 10:51 PST 31 October 2014, the fourth rocket-powered test flight of the company's first SpaceShipTwo craft, VSS "Enterprise", ended in disaster, as it broke apart in mid-air, with the debris falling into the Mojave desert in California, shortly after being released from the mothership. Initial reports attributed the loss to an unidentified "in-flight anomaly". The flight was the first test of SpaceShipTwo with new plastic-based fuel, replacing the original—a rubber-based solid fuel that had not met expectations. 39-year-old co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed and 43-year-old pilot Peter Siebold was seriously injured.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Initial investigations found that the engine and propellant tanks were intact, showing that there had not been a fuel explosion. Telemetry data and cockpit video showed that instead, the air braking system appeared to have deployed incorrectly and too early, for unknown reasons, and that the craft had violently broken apart in mid-air seconds later.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart said on 2 November 2014 that investigators had determined SpaceShipTwo's tail system was supposed to have been released for deployment as the craft was traveling about 1.4 times the speed of sound; instead, the tail section began pivoting when the vehicle was flying at Mach 1. "I'm not stating that this is the cause of the mishap. We have months and months of investigation to determine what the cause was." Asked if pilot error was a possible factor, Hart said: "We are looking at all of these issues to determine what was the root cause of this mishap." He noted that it was also unclear how the tail mechanism began to rotate once it was unlocked, since that maneuver requires a separate pilot command that was never given, and whether the craft's position in the air and its speed somehow enabled the tail section to swing free on its own.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In November 2014, Branson and Virgin Galactic came under criticism for their attempts to distance the company from the disaster by referring to the test pilots as Scaled Composites employees. Virgin Galactic's official statement on 31 October 2014 said: “Virgin Galactic’s partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. [...] Local authorities have confirmed that one of the two Scaled Composites pilots died during the accident”. This was in strong contrast to public communications previously released concerning the group's successful flights, which had routinely presented pilots, craft, and projects within the same organizational structures, as being "Virgin Galactic" flights or activities of "the Galactic team". The BBC's David Shukman commented that: “Even as details emerge of what went wrong, this is clearly a massive setback to a company hoping to pioneer a new industry of space tourism. Confidence is everything and this will not encourage the long list of celebrity and millionaire customers waiting for their first flight".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: At a hearing in Washington D.C. on 28 July 2015, and a press release on the same day the NTSB cited inadequate design safeguards, poor pilot training, lack of rigorous FAA oversight and a potentially anxious co-pilot without recent flight experience as important factors in the 2014 crash. They determined that the co-pilot, who died in the accident, prematurely unlocked a movable tail section some ten seconds after SpaceShip Two fired its rocket engine and was breaking the sound barrier, resulting in the craft's breaking apart. But the Board also found that the Scaled Composites unit of Northrop Grumman, which designed and flew the prototype space tourism vehicle, did not properly prepare for potential human slip-ups by providing a fail-safe system that could have guarded against such premature deployment. “A single-point human failure has to be anticipated,” board member Robert Sumwalt said. Instead, Scaled Composites “put all their eggs in the basket of the pilots doing it correctly.”


title: Virgin Galactic

text: NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart emphasized that consideration of human factors, which was not emphasized in the design, safety assessment, and operation of SpaceShipTwo's feather system, is critical to safe human spaceflight to mitigate the potential consequences of human error. “Manned commercial spaceflight is a new frontier, with many unknown risks and hazards. In such an environment, safety margins around known hazards must be rigorously established and, where possible, expanded. For commercial spaceflight to successfully mature, we must meticulously seek out and mitigate known hazards, as a prerequisite to identifying and mitigating new hazards.” In its submission to the NTSB, Virgin Galactic reports that the second SS2, currently nearing completion, has been modified with an automatic mechanical inhibit device to prevent locking or unlocking of the feather during safety-critical phases. An explicit warning about the dangers of premature unlocking has also been added to the checklist and operating handbook, and a formalized crew resource management (CRM) approach, already used by Virgin for its WK2 operations, is being adopted for SS2. However, despite CRM issues being cited as a likely contributing cause, Virgin confirmed that it would not modify the cockpit display system.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: While Virgin has been pursuing the development of a smallsat launch vehicle since 2012, the company began in 2015 to make the smallsat launch business a larger part of Virgin's core business plan, as the Virgin human spaceflight program has experienced multiple delays. This part of the business was spun off into a new company called Virgin Orbit in 2017.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Following the crash of VSS "Enterprise", the replacement SpaceShipTwo named VSS "Unity" was rolled out on 19 February 2016. Test flights were set to begin after ground tests completed in August 2016. VSS "Unity" completed its first flight, a successful glide test, in December 2016. The glide lasted ten minutes. By January 2018, seven glide tests had been completed, and on 5 April 2018 it performed a powered test flight, the first since 2014. By July 2018, "Unity" had gone considerably higher and faster in its testing program than had its predecessor. On 13 December 2018, VSS "Unity" reached a height of 82.7 km (51.4 miles) above the Earth at speeds close to three times the speed of sound. The two pilots, Mark "Forger" Stucky and Frederick "CJ" Sturckow earned commercial astronaut wings from the US government for the accomplishment. Another flight in February 2019 carried third crew member (1 in the passenger cabin) for the first time.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: After transfer to Spaceport America in New Mexico in February 2020, a couple of 15 km altitude test flights were carried out. Due to a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic had to postpone a key test flight of its spacecraft in November 2020, and then in December 2020, a computer connection issue prevented engine ignition. On 22 May 2021, VSS flew its sixth powered test flight reaching an altitude of 89 km [55 mi]. This sub-orbital flight marked the first ever human space flight from New Mexico which was piloted by CJ Sturkow (pilot-in-command) and Dave MacKay. The VSS Unity was carried to 44,000' by the jet powered launch aircraft Mothership Eve, where it was released to reach its sub-orbital altitude over New Mexico. A test flight on 11 July 2021 fully crewed with two pilots Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci and the four passengers were Richard Branson, Beth Moses, Colin Bennett and Sirisha Bandla. The flight was initially claimed to be successful but it was later revealed Unity briefly stepped outside the airspace that had been reserved for it and the FAA were not informed as required. The FAA grounded Virgin Galactic's space planes before allowing a resumption of flights after some changes to procedures including reserving a larger volume of airspace.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 14 October 2021, Virgin Galactic announced that an upgrade program for Unity and Eve would begin, delaying future commercial flights to mid 2022. This followed material analysis that required further analysis.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The first Spaceship III, VSS Imagine, was rolled out on 30 March 2021 and it was indicated there is ground testing to do before glide test flights should commence not earlier than Summer 2021.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In February 2007, Virgin announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to explore the potential for collaboration, but, to date, this has produced only a relatively small contract in 2011 of up to $4.5 million for research flights.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Group in January 2015, announced an investment into the OneWeb satellite constellation providing world Internet access service of WorldVu. Virgin Galactic will take a share of the launch contracts to launch the satellites into their 1200 km orbits. The prospective launches would use the under-design LauncherOne system. In 2017 the LauncherOne business was spun off into Virgin Orbit.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic and the Virgin Group are collaborating with Boom Technology in order to create a new supersonic passenger transporter as a successor to the Concorde. This new supersonic plane would fly at Mach 2.2 (similar to Concorde) for a 3-hour trans-Atlantic flight (half of standard), projected to cost $2,500–10,000 per seat (half of Concorde) for a load of 45 passengers (the Concorde held 100). It is anticipated that with the accumulation of knowledge since the design of Concorde, the new plane would be safer and cheaper with better fuel economy, operating costs, and aerodynamics. Boom would collaborate with Virgin's The Spaceship Company for design, engineering, and flight-test support, and manufacturing.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The initial model would be the Boom Technology "XB-1" "Baby Boom" Supersonic Demonstrator 1/3-size prototype. It would be capable of trans-Pacific flight, LA-to-Sydney in 6.75 hours, traveling at . XB-1 would be equipped with General Electric J85 engines, Honeywell avionics, with composite structures fabricated by Blue Force using TenCate Advanced Composites carbon fibre products. First flight is scheduled for 2021.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 24 January 2019, Virgin Galactic announced a partnership with Under Armour for the fabrication of space suits for passengers and pilots of SpaceShipTwo. Under Armour will also create uniforms for Virgin Galactic employees working at Spaceport America. The full range known as the UA | VG (Under Armour | Virgin Galactic) built with UA's new Intelliknit fabric was revealed later this year, ahead of Richard Branson's inaugural commercial flight. This range includes a base layer, the space suit and footwear. It is said that the base layer will enhance performance and blood flow during the high and zero G portions of flight and the liner of the spacesuit is made up of new fabrics such as Tencel Luxe, SpinIt and Nomex, used for temperature control and moisture management.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: David Mackay, former RAF test pilot, was named chief pilot for Virgin Galactic in 2011 and chief test-pilot. Steve Isakowitz was appointed as Virgin Galactic's president in June 2013. In October 2016, Mike Moses replaced Steve Isakowitz as president; Isakowitz moved to Aerospace Corp. to become president and CEO; Moses was promoted from VP Operations, and was once a NASA flight director and shuttle integration manager.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The White Knight Two is a special aeroplane built as the mother ship and launch-platform for the spacecraft SpaceShipTwo and the uncrewed launch vehicle LauncherOne. The mothership is a large fixed-wing aircraft with two hulls linked together by a central wing. Two aircraft are planned – VMS "Eve" and VMS "Spirit of Steve Fossett". On May 22, 2021 Mothership Eve was used to carry VSS "Unity" to a launch altitude of 44,000 feet.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The LauncherOne system will use a Boeing 747-400 aircraft, renamed "Cosmic Girl", which was acquired from Virgin Atlantic. This was spun off into Virgin Orbit with the LauncherOne business in 2017.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic plans to have generation 2 motherships ready for 2025, for the next-generation Delta-class spaceplanes. It partnered with Boeing's Aurora Flight Sciences to design and build the next generation of mothership.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Richard Branson unveiled the rocket plane on 7 December 2009, announcing that, after testing, the plane would carry fare-paying passengers ticketed for short duration journeys just above the atmosphere. Virgin Group would initially launch from a base in New Mexico before extending operations around the globe. Built from lightweight carbon-composite materials and powered by a hybrid rocket motor, SS2 is based on the Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne concept – a rocket plane that is lifted initially by a carrier aircraft before independent launch. SS1 became the world's first private spaceship with a series of high-altitude flights in 2004.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The programme was delayed after three Scaled Composites employees – Todd Ivens, Eric Blackwell and Charles May – were killed in an accident in Mojave on 26 July 2007, where the detonation of a tank of nitrous oxide destroyed a test stand. They had been observing the test from behind a chain-link fence that offered no protection from the shrapnel and debris when the tank exploded. Three other employees were injured in the blast and the company was fined for breaches of health and safety rules. The cause of the accident has never been made public.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Its successor is twice as large, measuring 18 m (60 ft) in length; whereas SpaceShipOne could carry a single pilot and two passengers, SS2 will have a crew of two and room for six passengers. By August 2013, 640 customers had signed up for a flight, initially at a ticket price of $200,000 per person, but raised to $250,000 in May 2013. Tickets are available from more than 140 "space agents" worldwide.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: SpaceShipTwo was designed to fly to a height of 110 km, going beyond the defined boundary of space (100 km) and lengthening the experience of weightlessness for its passengers. The spacecraft would reach a top speed of 4000 km/h (2485 mph). On 23 May 2014, Virgin Galactic announced that they had abandoned use of the Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) nitrous-oxide-rubber motor for SpaceShipTwo; on 24 July 2014, SNC confirmed that they had also abandoned use of this motor for its Dream Chaser space shuttle. Future testing will see SpaceShipTwo powered by a polyamide grain powered motor. As of July 2021 the maximum height reached has been 89.9 km.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In honor of the science-fiction series "Star Trek", the first ship was named after the fictional starship "Enterprise". To reenter the atmosphere, SpaceShipTwo folds its wings up and then returns them to their original position for an unpowered descent flight back onto the runway. The craft has a very limited cross-range capability, and until other planned spaceports are built worldwide, it has to land in the area where it started. Further spaceports are planned in Abu Dhabi and elsewhere, with the intention that the spaceline will have a worldwide availability and commodity in the future.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: There have been a series of delays to the SS2 flight test vehicle becoming operational, amidst repeated assurances from Virgin Galactic marketing that operational flights were only a year or two out. The "Wall Street Journal" reported in November 2014 that there has been "tension between Mr. Branson’s upbeat projections and the persistent hurdles that challenged the company’s hundreds of technical experts." The company has responded that "the company and its contractors 'have internal milestones, such as schedule estimates and goals, but the companies are driven by safety and the completion of the flight test program before moving into commercial service.' Virgin Galactic’s schedules have always been consistent with internal schedules of its contractors and changes have 'never impacted flight safety'."


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic plans to have its third generation spaceship, the Delta class, ready for 2025, along with the next generation of mothership. The Delta class is to be functionally the same as the Space Ship III class, but re-designed for higher production volumes.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In 2008 it was announced that test launches for its fleet of two White Knight Two mother ships and five or more SpaceShipTwo tourist suborbital spacecraft would take place from the Mojave Spaceport, where Scaled Composites was constructing the spacecraft. An international architectural competition for the design of Virgin Galactic's operating base, Spaceport America in New Mexico, saw the contract awarded to URS and Foster + Partners architects. In the same year Virgin Galactic announced that it would eventually operate in Europe out of Spaceport Sweden or even from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: While the original plan called for flight operations to transfer from the California desert to the new spaceport upon completion of the spaceport, Virgin Galactic has yet to complete the development and test program of SpaceShipTwo. In October 2010, the 3,000 m (10,000 ft) runway at Spaceport America was opened, with SpaceShipTwo "VSS Enterprise" shipped to the site carried underneath the fuselage of Virgin Galactic's Mother Ship Eve.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: LauncherOne is an orbital launch vehicle that Virgin Galactic had begun working on by late 2008, with the technical specifications defined in some detail in late 2009.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The LauncherOne configuration was proposed to be an expendable, two-stage, liquid-fueled rocket, envisaged to be air-launched from a White Knight Two. This would make it a similar configuration to that used by Orbital Sciences' Pegasus, or a smaller version of the StratoLaunch.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: LauncherOne was publicly announced in July 2012. It was intended to launch "smallsat" payloads of into Earth orbit. Several commercial customers initially contracted for launches, including GeoOptics, Skybox Imaging, Spaceflight Services, and Planetary Resources. Both Surrey Satellite Technology and Sierra Nevada Space Systems began developing satellite buses "optimized to the design of LauncherOne".


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In 2015, Virgin Galactic established a 150,000-sq.ft. research, development and manufacturing center for LauncherOne at the Long Beach Airport.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: The company reported in March 2015 that they were on schedule to begin test flights of LauncherOne with its Newton 3 engine by the end of 2016. On 25 June 2015, the company signed a contract with OneWeb Ltd. for 39 satellite launches for its satellite constellation with an option for an additional 100 launches.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In March 2017, Virgin Galactic spun off its 200-member LauncherOne team into a new company called Virgin Orbit.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: In 2016 TSC, Virgin Galactic and the Virgin Group began a collaboration with Boom Technology to develop a supersonic trans-oceanic passenger jetliner. A mission concept review of a Mach 3 vehicle design was carried out.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Virgin Galactic is not the only corporation pursuing suborbital spacecraft for tourism. Blue Origin is developing suborbital flights with its New Shepard spacecraft. Although initially more secretive about its plans, Jeff Bezos company has developed a spacecraft that takes off and lands vertically and can carry four people to the edge of space. New Shepard first flew above the Karman line and landed in 2015 and the same vehicle was reflown to above the Karman line again in 2016. On 20 July 2021, they flew the first paying customer.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 16 September 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were awarded contracts as part of NASA's CCtCap program to develop their Crew Dragon and CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, respectively. Both are capsule designs to bring crew to orbit, a different commercial market than that addressed by Virgin Galactic.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: Now-defunct XCOR Aerospace had also worked on rocket-powered aircraft during many of the years that Virgin Galactic had; XCOR's Lynx suborbital vehicle was under development for more than a decade, and its predecessor, the XCOR EZ-Rocket experimental rocket powered airplane did actually take flight, but the company closed its doors in 2017.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: On 11 July 2021 Virgin Galactic became the first spaceflight company to independently launch a founder of the company into space, using the 50 mile high definition of space, having flown founder Richard Branson above the 50 mile mark on flight Unity 22. This sub-orbital flight was accomplished using the twin-fuselage aircraft launch platform VMS Eve, coupled together with VSS Unity, enabling Branson, three other employee passengers and the two pilots to experience approximately three minutes of weightlessness above Earth’s atmosphere. The entire flight lasted approximately one hour, taking off and landing at Spaceport America facility near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.


title: Virgin Galactic

text: This flight had originally been scheduled to occur later in the summer; however, shortly after the announcement of competitor Blue Origin's plans to fly Amazon founder Jeff Bezos into space on 20 July 2021, the Virgin Galactic flight was rescheduled to occur on 11 July 2021. Virgin Galactic has been certified by the FAA to provide commercial spaceflight travel, and its accounts report that over 600 commercial passengers have already signed up. The August 2021 price is US$450,000 per person. Virgin Galactic plans to begin commercial spaceflight service in 2022.


title: Civil society

text: Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. By other authors, "civil society" is used in the sense of


title: Civil society

text: 1) the aggregate of non-governmental organizations and institutions that advance the interests and will of citizens or


title: Civil society

text: Sometimes the term "civil society" is used in the more general sense of "the elements such as freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, etc, that make up a democratic society" ("Collins English Dictionary"). Especially in the discussions among thinkers of Eastern and Central Europe, civil society is seen also as a normative concept of civic values.


title: Civil society

text: The term "civil society" goes back to Aristotle's phrase "koinōnía politikḗ" (κοινωνία πολιτική), occurring in his "Politics", where it refers to a ‘political community’, commensurate with the Greek city-state ("polis") characterized by a shared set of norms and ethos, in which free citizens on an equal footing lived under the rule of law. The "telos" or end of civil society, thus defined, was eudaimonia (τὸ εὖ ζῆν "tò eu zēn") (often translated as human flourishing or common well-being), in as man was defined as a ‘political (social) animal’ (ζῷον πολιτικόν "zōon politikón"). The concept was used by Roman writers, such as Cicero, where it referred to the ancient notion of a republic ("res publica"). It re-entered into Western political discourse following one of the late medieval translations of Aristotle's "Politics" into Latin by Leonardo Bruni who as a first translated "koinōnía politikḗ" into "societas civilis". With the rise of a distinction between monarchical autonomy and public law, the term then gained currency to denote the corporate estates ("Ständestaat") of a feudal elite of land-holders as opposed to the powers exercised by the prince. It had a long history in state theory, and was revived with particular force in recent times, in Eastern Europe, where dissidents such as Václav Havel as late as in the 1990s employed it to denote the sphere of civic associations threatened by the intrusive holistic state-dominated regimes of Communist Eastern Europe. The first post-modern usage of civil society as denoting political opposition stems from writings of Aleksander Smolar in 1978–79. However, the term was not in use by Solidarity labor union in 1980–1981.


title: Civil society

text: The literature on relations between civil society and democratic political society have their roots in classical liberal writings of Adam Ferguson and G.W.F. Hegel from whom they were adapted by Alexis de Tocqueville, Karl Marx, and Ferdinand Tönnies. They were developed in significant ways by 20th century researchers Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, who identified the role of political culture in a democratic order as vital.


title: Civil society

text: They argued that the political element of political organizations facilitates better awareness and a more informed citizenry, who make better voting choices, participate in politics, and hold government more accountable as a result. The statutes of these political organizations have been considered micro-constitutions because they accustom participants to the formalities of democratic decision making.


title: Civil society

text: More recently, Robert D. Putnam has argued that even non-political organizations in civil society are vital for democracy. This is because they build social capital, trust and shared values, which are transferred into the political sphere and help to hold society together, facilitating an understanding of the interconnectedness of society and interests within it.


title: Civil society

text: Others, however, have questioned the link between civil society and robust democracy. Some have noted that the civil society actors have now obtained a remarkable amount of political power without anyone directly electing or appointing them. It has been argued that civil society aided the Nazi Party in coming to power in 1930s Germany. It has also been argued that civil society is biased towards the global north. Partha Chatterjee has argued that, in most of the world, "civil society is demographically limited." Finally, other scholars have argued that, since the concept of civil society is closely related to democracy and representation, it should in turn be linked with ideas of nationality and nationalism.


title: Civil society

text: Constitutional economics is a field of economics and constitutionalism which describes and analyzes the specific interrelationships between constitutional issues and functioning of the economy including budget process. The term "constitutional economics" was used by American economist James M. Buchanan as a name for a new budget planning and the latter's transparency to the civil society, are of the primary guiding importance to the implementation of the rule of law. Also, the availability of an effective court system, to be used by the civil society in situations of unfair government spending and executive impoundment of any previously authorized appropriations, becomes a key element for the success of any influential civil society.


title: Civil society

text: Critics and activists currently often apply the term "civil society" to the domain of social life which needs to be protected against globalization, and to the sources of resistance thereto, because it is seen as acting beyond boundaries and across different territories. However, as civil society can, under many definitions, include and be funded and directed by those businesses and institutions (especially donors linked to European and Northern states) who support globalization, this is a contested use. Rapid development of civil society on the global scale after the fall of the communist system was a part of neo-liberal strategies linked to the Washington Consensus. Some studies have also been published, which deal with unresolved issues regarding the use of the term in connection with the impact and conceptual power of the international aid system (see for example Tvedt 1998).


title: Civil society

text: On the other hand, others see globalization as a social phenomenon expanding the sphere of classical liberal values, which inevitably led to a larger role for civil society at the expense of politically derived state institutions.


title: Civil society

text: The integrated Civil Society Organizations (iCSO) System, developed by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), facilitates interactions between civil society organizations and DESA.


title: Civil society

text: Civil societies also have become involved in the environmental policy making process. These groups impact environmental policies by setting an agenda on fixing the harm done to the environment. They also get the public informed about environmental issues, which increases the public demand for environmental change.


title: Civil society

text: From a historical perspective, the actual meaning of the concept of civil society has changed twice from its original, classical form. The first change occurred after the French Revolution, the second during the fall of communism in Europe.


title: Civil society

text: The concept of civil society in its pre-modern classical republican understanding is usually connected to the early-modern thought of Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. However, it has much older history in the realm of political thought. Generally, civil society has been referred to as a political association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrain citizens from harming one another. In the classical period, the concept was used as a synonym for the good society, and seen as indistinguishable from the state. For instance, Socrates taught that conflicts within society should be resolved through public argument using ‘dialectic’, a form of rational dialogue to uncover truth. According to Socrates, public argument through ‘dialectic’ was imperative to ensure ‘civility’ in the polis and ‘good life’ of the people. For Plato, the ideal state was a just society in which people dedicate themselves to the common good, practice civic virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation and justice, and perform the occupational role to which they were best suited. It was the duty of the ‘philosopher king’ to look after people in civility. Aristotle thought the polis was an ‘association of associations’ that enables citizens to share in the virtuous task of ruling and being ruled. His "koinonia politike" as political community.


title: Civil society

text: The concept of "societas civilis" is Roman and was introduced by Cicero. The political discourse in the classical period, places importance on the idea of a ‘good society’ in ensuring peace and order among the people. The philosophers in the classical period did not make any distinction between the state and society. Rather they held that the state represented the civil form of society and ‘civility’ represented the requirement of good citizenship. Moreover, they held that human beings are inherently rational so that they can collectively shape the nature of the society they belong to. In addition, human beings have the capacity to voluntarily gather for the common cause and maintain peace in society. By holding this view, we can say that classical political thinkers endorsed the genesis of civil society in its original sense.


title: Civil society

text: The Middle Ages saw major changes in the topics discussed by political philosophers. Due to the unique political arrangements of feudalism, the concept of classical civil society practically disappeared from mainstream discussion. Instead conversation was dominated by problems of just war, a preoccupation that would last until the end of Renaissance.


title: Civil society

text: The Thirty Years' War and the subsequent Treaty of Westphalia heralded the birth of the sovereign states system. The Treaty endorsed states as territorially-based political units having sovereignty. As a result, the monarchs were able to exert domestic control by circumventing the feudal lords by raising their own armed troops. Henceforth, monarchs could form national armies and deploy a professional bureaucracy and fiscal departments, which enabled them to maintain direct control and authority over their subjects. In order to meet administrative expenditures, monarchs exerted greater control over the economy. This gave birth to absolutism. Until the mid-eighteenth century, absolutism was the hallmark of Europe.


title: Civil society

text: The absolutist concept of the state was disputed in the Enlightenment period. As a natural consequence of Renaissance, Humanism, and the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment thinkers raised fundamental questions such as "What legitimacy does heredity confer?", "Why are governments instituted?", "Why do some human beings have more basic rights than others?", and so on. These questions led them to make certain assumptions about the nature of the human mind, the sources of political and moral authority, the reasons behind absolutism, and how to move beyond absolutism. The Enlightenment thinkers believed in the power of the human mind to reason. They opposed the alliance between the state and the Church as the enemy of human progress and well-being because the coercive apparatus of the state curbed individual liberty and the Church legitimated monarchs by positing the theory of divine origin. Therefore, both were deemed to be against the will of the people.


title: Civil society

text: Strongly influenced by the atrocities of Thirty Years' War, the political philosophers of the time held that social relations should be ordered in a different way from natural law conditions. Some of their attempts led to the emergence of social contract theory that contested social relations existing in accordance with human nature. They held that human nature can be understood by analyzing objective realities and natural law conditions. Thus they endorsed that the nature of human beings should be encompassed by the contours of state and established positive laws. Thomas Hobbes underlined the need of a powerful state to maintain civility in society. For Hobbes, human beings are motivated by self-interests (Graham 1997:23). Moreover, these self-interests are often contradictory in nature. Therefore, in state of nature, there was a condition of a war of all against all. In such a situation, life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" (Ibid: 25). Upon realizing the danger of anarchy, human beings became aware of the need of a mechanism to protect them. As far as Hobbes was concerned, rationality and self-interests persuaded human beings to combine in agreement, to surrender sovereignty to a common power (Kaviraj 2001:289). Hobbes called this common power, state, Leviathan.


title: Civil society

text: John Locke had a similar concept to Hobbes about the political condition in England. It was the period of the Glorious Revolution, marked by the struggle between the divine right of the Crown and the political rights of Parliament. This influenced Locke to forge a social contract theory of a limited state and a powerful society. In Locke's view, human beings led also an unpeaceful life in the state of nature. However, it could be maintained at the sub-optimal level in the absence of a sufficient system (Brown 2001:73). From that major concern, people gathered together to sign a contract and constituted a common public authority. Nevertheless, Locke held that the consolidation of political power can be turned into autocracy, if it is not brought under reliable restrictions (Kaviraj 2001:291). Therefore, Locke set forth two treaties on government with reciprocal obligations. In the first treaty, people submit themselves to the common public authority. This authority has the power to enact and maintain laws. The second treaty contains the limitations of authority, i. e., the state has no power to threaten the basic rights of human beings. As far as Locke was concerned, the basic rights of human beings are the preservation of life, liberty and property. Moreover, he held that the state must operate within the bounds of civil and natural laws.


title: Civil society

text: Both Hobbes and Locke had set forth a system, in which peaceful coexistence among human beings could be ensured through social pacts or contracts. They considered civil society as a community that maintained civil life, the realm where civic virtues and rights were derived from natural laws. However, they did not hold that civil society was a separate realm from the state. Rather, they underlined the co-existence of the state and civil society. The systematic approaches of Hobbes and Locke (in their analysis of social relations) were largely influenced by the experiences in their period. Their attempts to explain human nature, natural laws, the social contract and the formation of government had challenged the divine right theory. In contrast to divine right, Hobbes and Locke claimed that humans can design their political order. This idea had a great impact on the thinkers in the Enlightenment period.


title: Civil society

text: The Enlightenment thinkers argued that human beings are rational and can shape their destiny. Hence, no need of an absolute authority to control them. Both Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a critic of civil society, and Immanuel Kant argued that people are peace lovers and that wars are the creation of absolute regimes (Burchill 2001:33). As far as Kant was concerned, this system was effective to guard against the domination of a single interest and check the tyranny of the majority (Alagappa 2004:30).


title: Civil society

text: G. W. F. Hegel completely changed the meaning of civil society, giving rise to a modern liberal understanding of it as a form of non-political society as opposed to institutions of modern nation state. While in classical republicanism civil society where synonymous with political society, Hegel distinguished political state and civil society, what was followed by Tocqueville's distinction between civil and political societies and associations, repeated by Marx and Tönnies.


title: Civil society

text: Unlike his predecessors, Hegel considered civil society () as a separate realm, a "system of needs", that is the, "[stage of] difference which intervenes between the family and the state." Civil society is the realm of economic relationships as it exists in the modern industrial capitalist society, for it had emerged at the particular period of capitalism and served its interests: individual rights and private property. Hence, he used the German term "bürgerliche Gesellschaft" to denote civil society as "civilian society" – a sphere regulated by the civil code. This new way of thinking about civil society was followed by Alexis de Tocqueville and Karl Marx as well. For Hegel, civil society manifested contradictory forces. Being the realm of capitalist interests, there is a possibility of conflicts and inequalities within it (ex: mental and physical aptitude, talents and financial circumstances). He argued that these inequalities influence the choices that members are able to make in relation to the type of work they will do. The diverse positions in Civil Society fall into three estates: the substantial estate (agriculture), the formal estate (trade and industry), and the universal estate (civil society). A man is able to choose his estate, though his choice is limited by the aforementioned inequalities. However, Hegel argues that these inequalities enable all estates in Civil Society to be filled, which leads to a more efficient system on the whole.


title: Civil society

text: Karl Marx followed the Hegelian way of using the concept of civil society. For Marx, the emergence of the modern state created a realm of civil society that reduced society to private interests competing against each other. Political society was autonomised into the state, which was in turn ruled by the bourgeois class (consider also that suffrage only belonged, then, to propertied men). Marx, in his early writings, anticipated the abolition of the separation between state and civil society, and looked forward to the reunification of private and public/political realms (Colletti, 1975). Hence, Marx rejected the positive role of state put forth by Hegel. Marx argued that the state cannot be a neutral problem solver. Rather, he depicted the state as the defender of the interests of the bourgeoisie. He considered the state to be the executive arm of the bourgeoisie, which would wither away once the working class took democratic control of society.


title: Civil society

text: The above view about civil society was criticised by Antonio Gramsci (Edwards 2004:10). Departing somewhat from Marx, Gramsci did not consider civil society as a realm of private and alienated relationships. Rather, Gramsci viewed civil society as the vehicle for bourgeois hegemony, when it just represents a particular class. He underlined the crucial role of civil society as the contributor of the cultural and ideological capital required for the survival of the hegemony of capitalism. Rather than posing it as a problem, as in earlier Marxist conceptions, Gramsci viewed civil society as the site for problem-solving. Misunderstanding Gramsci, the New Left assigned civil society a key role in defending people against the state and the market and in asserting the democratic will to influence the state. At the same time, neo-liberal thinkers consider civil society as a site for struggle to subvert Communist and authoritarian regimes. Thus, the term civil society occupies an important place in the political discourses of the New Left and neo-liberals.


title: Civil society

text: It is commonly believed that the post-modern way of understanding civil society was first developed by political opposition in the former Soviet bloc East European countries in the 1980s. However, research shows that communist propaganda had the most important influence on the development and popularization of the idea instead, in an effort to legitimize neoliberal transformation in 1989. According to theory of restructurization of welfare systems, a new way of using the concept of civil society became a neoliberal ideology legitimizing development of the third sector as a substitute for the welfare state. The recent development of the third sector is a result of this welfare systems restructuring, rather than of democratization.


title: Civil society

text: From that time stems a political practice of using the idea of civil society instead of political society. Henceforth, postmodern usage of the idea of civil society became divided into two main ones: as political society and as the third sector – apart from plethora of definitions. The Washington Consensus of the 1990s, which involved conditioned loans by the World Bank and IMF to debt-laden developing states, also created pressures for states in poorer countries to shrink. This in turn led to practical changes for civil society that went on to influence the theoretical debate. Initially the new conditionality led to an even greater emphasis on "civil society" as a panacea, replacing the state's service provision and social care, Hulme and Edwards suggested that it was now seen as "the magic bullet."


title: Civil society

text: By the end of the 1990s civil society was seen less as a panacea amid the growth of the anti-globalization movement and the transition of many countries to democracy; instead, civil society was increasingly called on to justify its legitimacy and democratic credentials. This led to the creation by the UN of a high level panel on civil society. However, in the 1990s with the emergence of the nongovernmental organizations and the new social movements (NSMs) on a global scale, civil society as a third sector became treated as a key terrain of strategic action to construct ‘an alternative social and world order.’ Post-modern civil society theory has now largely returned to a more neutral stance, but with marked differences between the study of the phenomena in richer societies and writing on civil society in developing states.


title: Civil society

text: Jürgen Habermas said that the public sphere encourages rational will-formation; it is a sphere of rational and democratic social interaction. Habermas analyzes civil society as a sphere of "commodity exchange and social labor" and public sphere as a part of political realm. Habermas argues that even though society was representative of capitalist society, there are some institutions that were part of political society. Transformations in economy brought transformations to the public sphere. Though these transformations happen, a civil society develops into political society when it emerges as non-economic and has a populous aspect, and when the state is not represented by just one political party. There needs to be a locus of authority, and this is where society can begin to challenge authority. Jillian Schwedler points out that civil society emerges with the resurrection of the public sphere when individuals and groups begin to challenge boundaries of permissible behaviour – for example, by speaking out against the regime or demanding a government response to social needs – civil society begins to take shape.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1987 TV series)

text: Beauty and the Beast is an American fantasy-drama television series that first aired on CBS from September 25, 1987 to August 4, 1990. Creator Ron Koslow's updated version of the fairy tale has a double focus: the relationship between Vincent (Ron Perlman), a mythic, noble man-beast, and Catherine (Linda Hamilton), a savvy Assistant District Attorney in New York, and a secret utopian community of social outcasts living in a subterranean sanctuary. Through an empathetic bond, Vincent senses Catherine's emotions, and becomes her guardian.


title: Beauty and the Beast (1987 TV series)

text: The series follows the developing relationship between the characters and the division between New York and the hidden world beneath it. In a twist from the original tale, however, this "beast" does not transform into society's idea of beauty after gaining the love of Catherine. Rather, Vincent's inner beauty is allowed to remain the focus of who he is, and it is Catherine's life that transforms from her relationship to Vincent.