ISRO to Launch Rocket PSLV-C53, Carrying Three Singapore Satellites
In its second successful mission within a week, ISRO launched three foreign satellites in precise orbit.
PSLV-C53 is the second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO. It had on June 23 launched GSAT-24 in its first "demand-driven" communication satellite mission post space sector reforms, leasing the entire capacity on board to Direct-to-Home (DTH) service provider Tata Play.
Jun 30, 2022
Chinese Spacecraft Acquires Images of Entire Planet of Mars
An uncrewed Chinese spacecraft has acquired imagery data covering all of Mars, including visuals of its South Pole, after circling the planet more than 1,300 times since early 2021.
China's Tianwen-1 successfully reached the Red Planet in February 2021 on the country's inaugural mission there. A robotic rover has since been deployed on the surface as an orbiter surveyed the planet from space.
Among the images taken from space were China's first photographs of the Martian South Pole, where almost all of the planet's water resources are locked.
Jun 28, 2022
Bengaluru's Digantara, Hyderabad Start-up Dhruva Become First to Get IN-SPACe Authorisation
The Indian Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) authorised two Indian private firms, marking the beginning of private space sector launches in the country.
Hyderabad's Dhruva Space Pvt Ltd and Bengaluru's Digantara research & technologies Pvt Ltd were authorised by IN-SPACe to launch their payloads.
Dhruva Space's Dhruva Space Satellite Orbital Deployer – (DSOD 1U), a technology demonstration payload, and Digantara's ROBust Integrating Proton Fluence Meter (ROBI), a Proton dosimeter payload, were authorised, an IN-SPACe statement.
The payloads would fly onboard PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) of PSLV-C53 scheduled to be launched on June 30.
"The first two launch authorisations issued by IN-SPACe is an important milestone and marks the beginning of private space sector launches in India.
NASA Delays Launch of CAPSTONE Mission to Moon
US space agency NASA delayed the scheduled launch of the CAPSTONE mission to the Moon over systems checks.
The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) is a microwave oven-sized CubeSat weighing just 55 pounds. It will serve as the first spacecraft to test a unique, elliptical lunar orbit.
CAPSTONE will fly in cislunar space - the orbital space near and around the Moon. The mission will demonstrate an innovative spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation solution at the Moon from a near rectilinear halo orbit slated for Artemis' Gateway.
Once released from Rocket Lab's Photon satellite bus, CAPSTONE will use its propulsion system to travel for approximately three months before entering into orbit around the Moon.
After arrival at the Moon, CAPSTONE will begin its 6-month-long primary mission.
Jun 27, 2022
NASA Asteroid Mission on Hold
NASA put an asteroid mission on hold, blaming the late delivery of its own navigation software.
The Psyche mission to a strange metal asteroid of the same name was supposed to launch in September or October 2022. But the agency's Jet Propulsion Lab was several months late delivering its software for navigation, guidance and control—a crucial part of any spacecraft. Engineers "just ran out of time" to test it.
According to NASA planetary sciences chief Lori Glaze, now the space agency is going to step back, and an independent review will look at what went wrong, when the spacecraft could launch again and even if it should go ahead.
China Launches Three New Yagon-35 Remote Sensing Satellites
Three new remote sensing satellites were successfully launched by China from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the Sichuan Province in southwest China. The satellites were launched by a Long March-2D carrier rocket as part of the Yaogan-35 family and successfully entered the intended orbit.
The satellites will primarily be utilised for scientific research, land resource assessments, agricultural production estimation, and disaster prevention and mitigation. The Long March series carrier rockets' 424th mission was this one.
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation's Long March carrier rocket family, which accounts for around 96.4%.
Jun 26, 2022
Scientists Discover the Largest Bacteria Ever Seen
In a Caribbean mangrove forest, scientists have discovered a species of bacteria that grows to the size and shape of a human eyelash.
These cells are the largest bacteria ever observed, thousands of times bigger than more familiar bacteria such as Escherichia coli.
Scientists once thought bacteria were too simple to produce big cells. But Thiomargarita magnifica turns out to be remarkably complex. With most of the bacterial world yet to be explored, it is entirely possible that even bigger, even more complex bacteria are waiting to be discovered.