Page 7 - Space

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

Nasa planning to destroy city-killer asteroid, 2024 YR4? Know more

The latest Nasa study revealed that the city killer asteroid, 2024 YR4, has 1.5 per cent chance of hitting the earth. Space agencies across the world unite to track and deflect YR4

IN-SPACe starts Rs 500 cr tech adoption fund to boost India's space sector

The TAF will support the transition of innovative ideas from the drawing board to a market-ready stage

'I assume he wants to do business in India': Trump on Modi-Musk meeting

PM Modi US visit: Following his discussion with Elon Musk, PM Modi shared a post on social media platform X, describing the meeting as 'very good'

Isro develops 10-tonne 'Vertical Planetary Mixer' for solid motors

ISRO on Friday said it has developed and realised the ten-tonne propellant mixer for solid motors. Solid propulsion plays a crucial role in Indian Space Transportation Systems and vertical mixer is one of the critical equipment in solid motor production, ISRO said in a statement. "Solid propellants are the backbone of rocket motors, and their production requires precise mixing of highly sensitive and hazardous ingredients," the statement read. The space agency said that towards increasing the production scale of solid motor segments, Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in collaboration with Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI), Bengaluru has successfully designed and developed 10-tonne Vertical Planetary Mixers for processing the solid propellants. ISRO has termed it a significant technological marvel. It added that the 10-tonne vertical mixer is the world's largest solid propellant mixing equipment. The development involves collaboration with academia and ...

Asteroid threat grows: 300-foot rock has higher chance of impact in 2032

The risk assessment of the newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 has increased from a chance of 1.2% impact over the last week to 2.1% due to new observations

Stranded in space: Updates on Sunita Williams, Butch Wilmore's Earth return

Nasa recently confirmed the news that astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore who are stranded in space for nine months are likely to return to Earth in mid-March

Could China's Spacesail dethrone Elon Musk's Starlink? All you need to know

Spacesail recently partnered with Malaysia's Measat and Brazilian state telecom Telebras. The Chinese internet service provider might fill the gap that Musk's starlink couldn't

Hunting for life in alien atmospheres: Nasa probe Pandora to launch soon

Nasa's new space telescope Pandora is set to study at least 20 unknown exoplanets to analyse their atmospheres for haze, clouds, and water

Falling Starlink satellites worry scientists, 120 fell from space in Jan

As the cases of SpaceX's Starlink satellite falling from space rise, scientists are concerned over its environmental impact which could potentially harm the ozone layer

Hubble telescope locates gargantuan galaxy with nine mysterious rings

Hubble Telescope previously discovered eight rings of the gargantuan structure, but astronomers confirmed the ninth ring with the help of Hawaii's WM Keck Observatory

Sunita Williams sets record for total spacewalking time by woman astronaut

Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams has broken the record for total spacewalking time by a woman by logging 62 hours and 6 minutes of spacewalk. Williams and her colleague Butch Wilmore, who have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) since June 2024, conducted a spacewalk on Thursday. The duo ventured outside the ISS to remove degraded radio communications hardware and collect samples that may show whether microorganisms exist on the exterior of the orbiting laboratory. The spacewalk began at 7:43 am Eastern Time (ET) and concluded at 1:09 pm ET, lasting 5 hours and 26 minutes. It was the ninth spacewalk for Williams and the fifth for Wilmore. "NASA astronaut Suni WIlliams just surpassed former astronaut Peggy Whitson's total spacewalking time of 60 hours and 21 minutes," NASA said in a post on X. She surpassed Whitson's record for total spacewalking time by a female astronaut. Williams now has 62 hours and 6 minutes of total spacewalk time, fourth on NASA's

Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore scheduled to conduct spacewalk today

NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore will go on a spacewalk. The live coverage of the spacewalk will take place at 17:00 hours IST