The Mars Orbiter Mission may have sparked a debate on 'space race' between India and China, but former ISRO boss G Madhavan Nair says Beijing has already surged forward and is on course to have an upper hand in the field globally.
India on Monday successfully launched its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 onboard its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport in Sriharikota to explore the unchartered south pole of the celestial body by landing a rover. Following the successful launch, leaders across the political spectrum congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation for its hard work.
The Philae lander on Wednesday separated from the Rosetta orbiter and became the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on a comet.
In a technology that can bring down costs significantly of launching satellites, India will test a reusable launch vehicle in September.
India will test a reusable launch vehicle next month, a technology that will bring down costs of launching satellites significantly, government said on Monday.
China's President Xi Jinping congratulated scientists on the complete success of the Chang'e-5 mission.
Enthused over its successful launch of GSLV D5 with GSAT-14 communication satellite from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Sunday, the Indian Space Research Organisation is planning a series of GSLV launches and an experimental launch of the advanced version GSLV Mark III soon from the spaceport.
'How will someone who has stood on Mars and looked at Earth, only a tiny blue dot in space, then see the idea of nations and religions and all of our divisions?' says Aakar Patel.
The Indian Space Research Organisation has resolved to alight its lander on the lunar surface with Chandrayaan-3 in addition to a maiden solar expedition in 2020.
The six-wheeled solar-powered rover named Zhurong, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trundled off a ramp on the lander to hit the red, sandy soil of Mars, starting its journey to explore the fourth planet from the Sun.
China is all set to send on Thursday the first three crew members to its under-construction space station which is expected to be Beijing's eye in the sky and will rival the ageing International Space Station (ISS).
The rover will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
"We have been able to detect NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and the Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in lunar orbit with ground-based radar," said Marina Brozovic, a radar scientist at JPL and principal investigator for the test project.
Here's a look at the top 10 tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities
Wielding the broom, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the country's biggest-ever cleanliness drive that is expected to cost over Rs 62,000 crore, asserting that the "Swachh Bharat" mission is "beyond politics" and inspired by patriotism.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to send solar-powered airships to explore Venus' atmosphere and to eventually establish a permanent human colony in a floating cloud city above the Earth's nearest planetary neighbour.
Mission Mangal has its heart in place, feels Sukanya Verma.
Chari, 43, will serve as the commander while NASA's Tom Marshburn will be pilot and ESA's Matthias Maurer will serve as a mission specialist for the SpaceX Crew-3 mission to the ISS, which is expected to launched next year.
A quick recap of the Mars Orbiter Mission's major milestones on the way to Mars
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the scientists saying, "with this successful launch, we will determine our own paths powered by our technology".
So here we are, reproducing our own feature from some time back, which was created, now it may seem, in anticipation of the big event.
'InSight will study the interior of Mars and will teach us valuable science as we prepare to send astronauts to the Moon and later to Mars.'
The space agency launched 104 satellites, breaking the previous record of 37 by Russia.
All progress in space should excite us and encourage us to be optimists about a better future for our planet and all of us, asserts Aakar Patel.
ISRO made efforts to re-establish communication with rover Pragyan and lander Vikram after they were put into sleep mode in September following the onset of night on the moon.
'It's vital that over the next 10 years, that India, the US and the Artemis Accords family of nations come together to ensure that we not only return humanity to the moon, but that we build the technology that will allow us stay there permanently.' 'And then go on to Mars.'
Scientists have found the first evidence that briny water may flow on the surface of Mars during the planet's summer months.
The rocket is the first step in Musk's ambitious dream to send humans to Mars and establish a colony on the planet.
'ISRO takes a very cautious approach.' 'After reaching the moon, the orbit has to be brought down from a single elliptical orbit to a circular orbit while simultaneously ensuring the stability of Chandrayaan 3 and the health parameters of the lander and rover.'
Sukanya Verma looks at the handful of occasions when Bollywood believed sky was the limit.
Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, 50, and Chen Dong, 37, were blasted off into space by Shenzhou-11 (heavenly vessel) spacecraft.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday morning addressed over 18,000 Indian Americans at the SAP Centre in San Jose.
Billionaires are not only eyeing a profit as they push mankind out into the stars.
It appears India will be among those nations consigned to being among the watchers and not participants of this crucial phase, observes Aakar Patel.
The total wealth of India's top five billionaires, which stands at a whopping $83.7 billion, is more than the cost of 1,230 Mars Orbiter 'Mangalyaan' Missions and is more than 18 times the cost of hosting the 2016 Rio Olympics
'Ever since this election concluded, aspirations have risen... political stability in itself is a big message. By deciding for stability, the people of India have laid the foundation for development.'
Godrej and some other firms are frustrated at what they say is the slow execution of projects and lack of government support, which are hampering India's efforts to compete with China and Russia as a cheaper option for launching satellites.
From relying on Russia for its first satellite launch, India is fast becoming a global hub to launch satellites, says T E Narasimhan
As India celebrated its success in testing an unmanned space crew module on Thursday, over 1.7 lakh Indians had another reason to be happy as a similar National Aeronautics and Space Administration spacecraft carrying a microchip containing their names was brought back safely to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, on the same day after a space odyssey.
'It is a blessing in disguise that they could find the glitch before the launch.' 'If this was not found, the entire mission would have been lost.'
The entire mission operations of Chandrayaan-3, right from the launch till landing, "happened flawlessly" as per the timeline, the team that led India's third mission to the Moon said on Wednesday.
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