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29 Jul

Chandrayaan-3 likely to be launched in second half of 2022

New Delhi: Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022 assuming normal workflow henceforth, the Parliament was told on Wednesday. "Realisation of Chandrayaan-3 is in progress. The realisation of Chandrayaan-3 involves various process including finalisation of configuration, subsystems realisation, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing and a number of special tests to evaluate the system performance on earth," Science & Technology Minister and Minister of State Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. Noting that the realisation progress was hampered due to Covid-19 pandemic, he said that all works that were…

30 Aug

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft nears destruction

Washington: Launched 20 years ago, NASA's Cassini spacecraft now has less than 20 days for its mission-ending dive into the atmosphere of Saturn. Its fateful plunge on September 15 is a foregone conclusion -- an April 22 a gravitational kick from Saturn's moon Titan placed the two-and-a-half ton vehicle on its path for impending destruction, NASA said. "The Cassini mission has been packed full of scientific firsts, and our unique planetary revelations will continue to the very end of the mission as Cassini becomes Saturn's first planetary probe, sampling Saturn's atmosphere up until the last second," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project…

24 Jul

NASA rockets to create glowing white artificial clouds next week

Washington: A NASA rocket mission to study disturbances in the upper atmosphere that interfere with communication and technology systems will form night-time white artificial clouds during two flights between August 29 and September 9. The artificial clouds will be visible for residents of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, NASA said. The Waves and Instabilities from a Neutral Dynamo, or WINDY, mission will study a phenomenon that occurs in the ionosphere - a layer of charged particles in the upper atmosphere. Known as equatorial spread F, or ESF, these disturbances occur after sunset at latitudes near the equator in part of…

05 Apr

NASA’s Cassini probe set to end 20-year journey

Washington: NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which was launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004, is about to begin the final chapter of its remarkable story this month. On April 26, the spacecraft will make the first in a series of dives through the 2,400-kilometre gap between Saturn and its rings as part of the mission's grand finale, NASA said. "No spacecraft has ever gone through the unique region that we'll attempt to boldly cross 22 times," said Thomas Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "What we learn from Cassini's daring final orbits will further our…