Science

India will make its second attempt to land on the moon on Wednesday, a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and the country’s standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed. The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will attempt to land on the lunar south pole at

Chandrayaan-3, India’s latest lunar mission, is expected to make a soft landing on the south pole of the moon on August 23. The spacecraft was launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 14. After completing a journey of almost 40 days, the Chandrayaan-3 mission will finally make India the fourth nation to land

India’s space agency is attempting to land a spacecraft on the moon’s south pole, a mission that could advance India’s space ambitions and expand knowledge of lunar water ice, potentially one of the moon’s most valuable resources. Here’s what’s known about the presence of frozen water on the moon – and why space agencies and

If any factor regarding the lander module appears unfavourable, then the landing will be shifted to August 27, said the Space Applications Centre-ISRO about Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.  Nilesh M Desai, director of Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad said that the decision regarding the landing will be taken based on the health of the lander module and

The ISRO on Monday released images of Lunar far side area captured by the Lander Hazard Detection and Avoidance Camera (LHDAC).This camera that assists in locating a safe landing area — without boulders or deep trenches — during the descent is developed by Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a major research and development centre of

US counterintelligence agencies on Friday warned the American space industry to guard against efforts by foreign intelligence entities to steal research and trade secrets as they try to boost their own countries’ space programs.  “We anticipate growing threats to this burgeoning sector of the US economy,” a US counterintelligence official told Reuters, adding that “China

Russia on Friday launched Luna 25, the country’s first lunar mission in 47 years. Luna-25 took off from the Vostochny launch facility in Russia’s Far East, the Russia-based TASS news agency reported. Launched aboard a Soyuz-2 Fregat rocket, Luna 25 took flight at 8:10 am (local time) on Friday, CNN reported. The Fregat booster separated

Satellite operator Telesat has given space tech firm MDA a CAD 2.1 billion (nearly Rs. 12,950 crore) contract to build 198 satellites for its low-earth orbit program. The deal announced on Friday sparked a more than 45 percent surge in both Telesat’s Canadian and US shares, putting them on track for their best day ever.

Russia launched its first lunar mission in the last 47 years, Luna-25, on August 11 aboard a Soyuz 2.1v rocket. The primary goal of this lunar mission is to make a soft landing on the South Pole of the Moon‘s surface. With this, Russia attempts to become the first nation to land on the lunar

Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun, is getting ready for its launch soon, ISRO said on Monday. The satellite realised at U R Rao Satellite Centre here, has arrived at the ISRO’s spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in an update on the mission. “Mostly

India’s ambitious third Moon mission’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Monday underwent another manoeuvre, bringing it even closer to the Lunar surface, ISRO said. The national space agency headquartered here said the spacecraft has now achieved a “near-circular orbit” around the moon. Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5,

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully carried out the final orbit reduction manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, a week ahead of its scheduled landing on the Moon. “Today’s successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar

Achieving a major milestone, ISRO on Thursday announced that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Lander Module has successfully separated from the Propulsion module that was propelling it all these days in space. The Lander Module comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan) is now ready to be lowered into an orbit that takes it closer to

Chandrayaan-3’s Vikram lander is set to undergo a crucial deboosting manoeuvre on Friday after successfully getting separated from the propulsion module a day before. The deboosting manoeuvre is scheduled today at around 1600 IST. Deboosting is the process of slowing down to position itself in an orbit where the orbit’s closest point to the Moon

ISRO on Friday released a set of visuals of the Moon captured by cameras positioned on the Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. The images, captured after the separation of the Lander Module from the Propulsion Module of the spacecraft on Thursday, showed the craters on the Moon’s surface that were marked on the photographs released