Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath on Wednesday said the launch of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, and the first solar mission Aditya L1 will possibly happen by the middle of 2023. He was delivering the inaugural talk on "Indian Capabilities for Space and Planetary Exploration" at the 4th Indian Planetary Science Conference organised at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) here. "The Chandrayaan-3 craft is fully ready. It is fully integrated. Of course, there is some correction work being done, and we are building a lot of confidence in the mission through lots of simulations and tests, etc. And possibly the launch can take place by the middle of this year," Somanath said. He said Aditya-L1, India's first solar mission, is going to be "a very unique solar observation capability for which instruments have already been delivered, and ISRO is in the process of integrating them in the satellite. "I am also eagerly waiting for this (Aditya-L1) launch
PM to inaugurate International Telecom Union's first India office, release 6G vision document today
Bharti Enterprise-backed OneWeb is one step away from completing its constellation of over 600 low earth orbit satellites, paving the way to offer broadband internet services from space to every corner of the world. OneWeb, a company backed by the British government, Bharti Enterprises, Eutelsat, SoftBank, Hughes Networks and Hanwha, has launched internet from space services in countries located above 50 degrees north latitude -- Alaska, Canada, Greenland, UK and Northern Europe. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) is set to launch 36 OneWeb satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on March 26, a move which will add to the United Kingdom-based company's existing constellation of 582 satellites. We are one launch away from achieving global coverage. This last launch with ISRO/NSIL will mark over 600 satellites in space, which is the number needed to go commercially live, a spokesperson of OneWeb told PTI. NewsSpace India
ISRO is all set to launch 36 low earth orbit satellites for UK-based OneWeb later this month that will complete its first-generation constellation for providing internet through space across the world. "Exciting news from India as we confirm the encapsulation of our 36 satellites ahead of OneWebLaunch18; our final launch which will complete our Gen 1 constellation," OneWeb said on Twitter. "Target date is March 26th Go OneWeb," Massimiliano Ladovaz, Chief Technology Officer of OneWeb, tweeted. The private satellite communications company has India's Bharti Enterprises as a major investor and shareholder. The 36 satellites of OneWeb reached India on February 16 from the satellite manufacturing unit in Florida for integration with the Launch Vehicle Mark III. In October last year, the ISRO successfully launched the first batch of 36 satellites by OneWeb from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, marking the entry of LVM-3 into the global commercial launch service ...
Amazon's satellite internet unit, Project Kuiper, will begin mass-producing the satellites later this year, the company said
The satellite will be intentionally crashed into the Earth's atmosphere
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is gearing up for an "extremely challenging" experiment of controlled re-entry of a decommissioned orbiting satellite on Tuesday. The low Earth satellite, Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT1), was launched on October 12, 2011, as a joint satellite venture of ISRO and the French space agency, CNES for tropical weather and climate studies. An uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean between 5S to 14S latitude and 119W to 100W longitude was identified as the targeted re-entry zone for MT1, weighing about 1000 kg. About 125 kg on-board fuel remained unutilised at its end-of-mission that could pose risks for accidental break-up, an ISRO statement noted. This left-over fuel was estimated to be sufficient to achieve a fully controlled atmospheric re-entry to impact the uninhabited location in the Pacific Ocean. Controlled re-entries involve deorbiting to very low altitudes to ensure impact occurs within a targeted safe zone. Usually, large satellites/rocket
Snapdragon Satellite is a satellite-based two-way capable messaging solution for premium smartphones, which was introduced by Qualcomm at Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2023 last month
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AzaadiSAT sends message of 'Namaste World: From the G20 presidency' after reaching orbit
An earth-observation satellite jointly developed by NASA and ISRO that will help study Earth's land and ice surfaces in greater detail is all set to be shipped to India later this month for a possible launch in September. ISRO Chairman S Somanath visited NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in the US state of California on Friday to oversee the final electrical testing of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite before being shipped to India. This mission will be a powerful demonstration of the capability of radar as a science tool and help us study Earth's dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before, Somanath said at the formal send-off ceremony organised at the JPL which was attended by senior scientists from the two space agencies. Later this month, the SUV-size payload will be moved into a special cargo container for a 14,000-kilometer flight to the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. ISRO and NASA joined hands in 2014 to build the 2,80
"Today we come one step closer to fulfilling the immense scientific potential NASA and ISRO envisioned for NISAR when we joined forces more than eight years ago," Somanath said
Asteroid 2023 BU whizzed past without incident and back out into space
Japan successfully launched a rocket on Thursday carrying a government intelligence-gathering satellite on a mission to watch movements at military sites in North Korea and improve natural disaster response. The H2A rocket, launched by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., successfully lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the IGS-Radar 7 reconnaissance satellite as part of Tokyo's effort to build up its military capability, citing growing threats in the East Asia. The satellite later successfully entered its planned orbit, Mitsubishi Heavy said. The Intelligence Gathering Satellite can capture images on the ground 24 hours a day and even in severe weather conditions. Japan launched the IGS program after a North Korean missile flyover of Japan in 1988 and aims to set up a network of 10 satellites to spot and provide early warning for possible missile launches. The satellites can be also used for disaster monitoring and response. The government wil
Russia should increase the number of satellites in orbit from about 200 now to at least 1,000 by 2030, said Yury Borisov, Director General of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos
A modified jumbo jet carrying a Virgin Orbit rocket took off from southwestern England Monday, marking the first attempt to launch satellites into orbit from Western Europe. Hundreds gathered for the launch cheered as the repurposed Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747 aircraft, named Cosmic Girl, took off from Cornwall late Monday. Around an hour into the flight, the plane will release the rocket at 35,000 feet (around 10,000 meters) over the Atlantic Ocean to the south of Ireland. The rocket will then take nine small satellites for mixed civil and defense use into orbit, while the plane, piloted by a Royal Air Force pilot, returns to Cornwall. If successful, the mission will mark the first international launch for Virgin Orbit, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson. The company, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, has already completed four similar launches from California. In the past, satellites produced in the U.K. had to be sent to spaceports in other countries to ma
The South Korean science ministry on Monday warned that a retired US satellite could possibly fall on the Korean Peninsula and its vicinity
A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky. NASA said Friday the chance of wreckage falling on anybody is very low. Most of the 5,400-pound (2,450-kilogram) satellite will burn up upon reentry, according to NASA. But some pieces are expected to survive. The space agency put the odds of injury from falling debris at about 1-in-9,400. The science satellite is expected to come down Sunday night, give or take 17 hours, according to the Defense Department. The California-based Aerospace Corp., however is targeting Monday morning, give or take 13 hours, along a track passing over Africa, Asia the Middle East and the westernmost areas of North and South America. The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched in 1984 aboard space shuttle Challenger. Although its expected working lifetime was two years, the satellite kept making ozone and other atmospheric measurements until its retirement in 2005. The satellite studied how Earth absorbed and radi
Qualcomm and global satellite communications company, Iridium, have entered into an agreement to bring the satellite-based connectivity to next-generation premium Android smartphones
France will provide Poland with two observation satellites and a receiving station under a deal sealed Tuesday in Warsaw which Poland says will help its armed forces recognise threats early. Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak, after meeting with his French counterpart Sbastien Lecornu, announced that they approved an agreement between Airbus and the Polish Armament Agency on equipping the Polish army with two reconnaissance satellites. Blaszczak said the agreement represented a good opportunity to strengthen our capacity for the early detection of threats. The Polish Armament Agency put the total value of the deal at 575 million euros ($612 million) and said the launch of the satellites into space would be completed by 2027. The Polish Defence Ministry said that thanks to the satellites, its military will be able to obtain reconnaissance data with an accuracy of 30 centimeters (nearly a foot). Blaszczak called it an early-warning system against both military and civilian ..