Space

Saturn's rings just vanished: The mysterious reason behind this rare event

On 23 March 2025, Saturn's rings seemed to vanish from sight due to a rare event known as a ring plane crossing. This phenomenon happens every 15 years when the rings align edge-on with Earth

European startup Isar Aerospace to launch orbital rocket on 1st test flight

A private European aerospace company is set to make the first test flight of its orbital launch vehicle from Norway on Monday. The launch window for its Spectrum rocket from the island of Andoya in northern Norway is 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm local time, said Isar Aerospace, which is headquartered in Munich. The launch is subject to weather, safety and range infrastructure, and the company said it also could conduct the test flight later in the week. The 28-meter- (91-foot-) Spectrum is a two-stage launch vehicle designed for small and medium-sized satellites. The company largely rules out the possibility of the rocket reaching orbit on its first complete flight, saying it would consider a 30-second flight a success. Isar Aerospace aims to collect as much data and experience as possible on the first integrated test of all the systems on its in-house-developed launch vehicle. The startup, which says it has raised more than 400 million euros ($435 million) in capital, hopes to build up to

Sidbi VC to manage Rs 1,000 crore venture capital fund for space sector

SIDBI Venture Capital Limited has been selected as the fund manager for Rs 1,000 crore venture capital fund announced by the government to support private sector firms in the space technology domain. The Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) made the announcement in this regard on Friday. "M/s SIDBI Venture Capital Limited is selected as the Fund Manager / Investment Manager for the Rs 1,000 crore Venture Capital Fund for the Indian Space Sector," the IN-SPACe said in a statement. The fund will deploy the amount earmarked for it over a period of five years, with a planned deployment of Rs 150 crore in the 2025-26 financial year followed by Rs 250 crore each in the next three financial years and Rs 100 crore in 202930. "The indicative range of investment is proposed to be Rs 10 crore-Rs 60 crore, contingent upon the stage of the company, its growth trajectory and its potential impact on national space capabilities," the government said in an ...

How space travel reshapes the body: From muscles to mental health

In the absence of gravity, muscle mass disappears because the resistance training stops. When the astronaut returns to normal gravity, the heart may have weakened and may not function properly

Private sector in Indian space tech: Progress, challenges, and future

Sunita Williams' return in a SpaceX capsule has put the focus back on the role of private sector in space journeys

Sunita Williams' homecoming: How do astronauts survive a fiery re-entry?

With Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore set to return to Earth after nearly nine months in space, let's look at how the astronauts' return takes place

Dizziness, baby feet: Challenges astronauts face upon return to earth

It may be fun to watch astronauts float around inside the International Space Station, but the absence of gravity has its effects on long-duration space travellers, who experience dizziness, nausea and an unstable gait when they return to earth. NASA astronauts Sunita Willams and Butch Wilmore, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov are scheduled to return to Earth on Wednesday onboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft. For Williams and Wilmore, test pilots for Boeing's new Starliner capsule, the eight-day mission stretched to more than nine months as a series of helium leaks and thruster failures deemed their spacecraft unsafe and had to return empty in September. Astronauts who have travelled on space missions earlier have reported facing difficulty in walking, having bad eyesight, dizziness, and a condition called baby feet where space travellers lose the thick part of the skin on the soles that become soft like a baby's. "Once the astronaut returns to Earth, they are immediately for

Nasa's stuck astronauts welcome newly arrived replacements to space station

Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASA's two stuck astronauts. The four newcomers representing the US, Japan and Russia will spend the next few days learning the station's ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Indian-American Sunita Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June. Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeing's first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month. The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift. Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements' brand new capsule needed extens

60-plus LVM-3 rockets to be built with private sector's help: INSPACe chief

INSPACe has the mandate for promotion of the private space industry and also to authorise activities of non-government entities in the sector

Nasa's newest space telescope blasts off to map sky like never before

NASA's newest space telescope rocketed toward orbit Tuesday to map the entire sky like never before a sweeping look at hundreds of millions of galaxies and their shared cosmic glow since the beginning of time. SpaceX launched the Spherex observatory from California, putting it on course to fly over Earth's poles. Tagging along were four suitcase-size satellites to study the sun. The USD 488 million Spherex mission aims to explain how galaxies formed and evolved over billions of years, and how the universe expanded so fast in its first moments. Closer to home in our own Milky Way galaxy, Spherex will hunt for water and other ingredients of life in the icy clouds between stars where new solar systems emerge. The cone-shaped Spherex at 1,110 pounds (500 kilograms) or the heft of a grand piano will take six months to map the entire sky with its infrared eyes and wide field of view. Four full-sky surveys are planned over two years, as the telescope circles the globe from pole to pole

Digantara commissions world's first commercial space surveillance satellite

The world's first commercial space surveillance satellite, capable of tracking objects as small as 5 centimetres orbiting the Earth, was commissioned on Saturday as it captured images over South America, the Bengaluru-based start-up Digantara said. Digantara had launched the space surveillance satellite SCOT (Space Camera for Object Tracking) on January 14 aboard SpaceX's Transporter-12 rocket. The satellite started operations on Saturday. "Space just ran out of hiding spots," the start-up said in a post on X. In a statement, the company said the SCOT satellite achieved first light on Saturday and its inaugural image while passing over South America -- a breathtaking view of Earth's limb, with the city of Buenos Aires glowing against the planet's curvature. "SCOT's first image is more than a technical milestone; it's a symbol of our team's resilience and unwavering commitment to safeguarding Earth's orbits for generations to come," said Digantara CEO Anirudh Sharma. The satellite

Isro's POEM-4 successfully completes one thousand orbits on March 4

ISRO on Friday announced that the fourth edition of the PSLV Orbital platform Experiment Module (POEM-4), the repurposed spent upper stage of the PSLV vehicle used for the space docking experiment mission, has successfully completed 1,000 orbits on March 4. The PSLV-C60 Mission was launched on December 30, 2024, and POEM-4 began its operations subsequent to the successful injection of the SPADEX spacecraft, it stated. In a statement, ISRO said, "POEM-4 was configured as a three-axis stabilised platform that carried 24 payloads including 10 payloads from Non-Governmental Entities (NGEs) and 14 payloads from ISRO. All the payloads including those from NGEs have completed the intended experiments in orbit." According to ISRO, POEM-4 carried out experiments in space robotics, germination of seeds and growth of bacterium in microgravity, green propulsion, laser ignition of pyro thrusters, amateur radio transmission and advanced sensors. A space start-up also tested the uplinking and ...

L&T bets on space exploration as India expands private rocket industry

At its factory in Coimbatore, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, L&T is assembling the country's first privately built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

SpaceX's Starship Flight 8 set to launch today; know when & where to watch

SpaceX aims to repeat history by catching a Super Heavy booster through giant metal arms. The mission is scheduled to take place on March 6, 2025

Nasa powers down two instruments on Voyager spacecraft to save energy

NASA is switching off two science instruments on its long-running twin Voyager spacecraft to save power. The space agency said Wednesday an instrument on Voyager 2 that measures charged particles and cosmic rays will shut off later this month. Last week, NASA powered down an instrument on Voyager 1 designed to study cosmic rays. The energy-saving moves were necessary to extend their missions, Voyager project manager Suzanne Dodd at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. The twin spacecraft launched in 1977 and are currently in interstellar space, or the space between stars. Voyager 1 discovered a thin ring around Jupiter and several of Saturn's moons, and Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to visit Uranus and Neptune. Each spacecraft still has three instruments apiece to study the sun's protective bubble and the swath of space beyond. Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) from Earth and Voyager 2 is over 13 billion miles (20.92 billion ...

Nasa's 2 stranded astronauts nearing return after 9 months in space

NASA's two stuck astronauts are just a few weeks away from finally returning to Earth after nine months in space. Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams have to wait until their replacements arrive at the International Space Station next week before they can check out later this month. They'll be joined on their SpaceX ride home by two astronauts who launched by themselves in September alongside two empty seats. During a news conference Tuesday, Wilmore said that while politics is part of life, it did not play into his and Williams' return, moved up a couple weeks thanks to a change in SpaceX capsules. President Donald Trump and SpaceX's Elon Musk said at the end of January that they wanted to accelerate the astronauts' return, blaming the previous administration. But Williams, in response to a question, did take issue with Musk's recent call to dump the space station in two years, rather than waiting until NASA's projected deorbit in 2031. She noted all the scientific research being ...

Private lander Blue Ghost nails moon landing with special NASA delivery

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbour ahead of astronaut missions. Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon's northeastern edge of the near side. Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away. You all stuck the landing. We're on the moon, Firefly's Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported. An upright and stable landing makes Firefly a startup founded a decade ago the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the US, China, India and Japan. A half hour

Blue Origin's all-women spaceflight: Katy Perry, Lauren Sánchez on board

Pop star Katy Perry, Jeff Bezos's fiance Lauren Sanchez, and journalist Gayle King will head to space with a high-profile 6-person crew set on a Blue Origin rocket. The date has not been decided yet

Private firm launches Athena lander to moon in latest lunar mission rush

A private company launched another lunar lander Wednesday, aiming to get closer to the moon's south pole this time with a drone that will hop into a jet-black crater that never sees the sun. Intuitive Machines' lander, named Athena, caught a lift with SpaceX from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. It's taking a fast track to the moon with a landing on March 6 while hoping to avoid the fate of its predecessor, which tipped over at touchdown. Never before have so many spacecraft angled for the moon's surface all at once. Last month, US and Japanese companies shared a rocket and separately launched landers toward Earth's sidekick. Texas-based Firefly Aerospace should get there first this weekend after a big head start. The two US landers are carrying tens of millions of dollars' worth of experiments for NASA as it prepares to return astronauts to the moon. It's an amazing time. There's so much energy, NASA's science mission chief Nicky Fox told The Associated Press a few hours ahead of th

Planet Parade 2025: Last chance to watch planetary alignment before 2040

Skygazers are eagerly anticipating a rare celestial event set to unfold on February 28. The next time all seven planets align in this formation will be in 2040