Since its inaugural manned flight in 2003, China has aggressively expanded its space program, consistently marking significant achievements in human spaceflight. The upcoming Shenzhou-18 mission, led by veteran astronaut Ye Guangfu, who at 43 is set to command his first spaceflight, underscores China’s aspirations to become a major spacefaring nation. The mission is scheduled to dock with China’s self-developed space station, Tiangong, which translates to “Celestial Palace.” Tiangong, launched in segments beginning in 2021, represents China’s ambition to maintain a long-term human presence in space, serving as a testament to the country’s technological prowess and strategic foresight in aerospace. The…
Author: Team Interstellar
NASA is actively pursuing a more cost-effective and streamlined method to bring back valuable Martian soil samples to Earth, facing financial constraints, officials from the US space agency revealed. The agency plans to issue a formal request for proposals to NASA centers, laboratories, and aerospace companies. This initiative seeks innovative solutions to revamp a Mars sample return program that has been beset by technical difficulties, escalating costs, and budget limitations, as shared by NASA executives during a press briefing. NASA officials anticipate reviewing alternative proposals this coming fall or early winter. Associate Administrator Nicky Fox emphasized that the revamp would…
South Korea’s KSTAR has once again demonstrated significant progress in nuclear fusion technology as the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) reactor set a new global record by sustaining a plasma loop at a temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius for 48 seconds. This achievement surpasses KSTAR’s own previous record of 31 seconds set in 2021 and marks an incremental advance in the quest for unlimited clean energy. Nuclear fusion, the process that powers stars, involves the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium under extreme conditions, releasing vast amounts of energy without the byproducts of greenhouse gases or long-lasting radioactive…
China has achieved a significant milestone in its lunar exploration programme with the successful launch of the Queqiao-2 satellite, hailed as a “complete success” by the China National Space Administration (CNSA). This development marks a critical step in enhancing communication for China’s future lunar probe missions, according to reports from state media. Launched on March 20, the Queqiao-2 satellite, named after a mythical magpie bridge, is designed to act as a communication bridge between Earth and the far side of the Moon. This side of the Moon, permanently out of direct sight from Earth due to its synchronous rotation, cannot…
In a significant advancement for Indian space enthusiasts, pilot Gopichand Thotakura is poised to become the first Indian space tourist, joining the elite crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepard-25 (NS-25) mission. This voyage will see him travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere alongside five other crew members, crossing the Karman line that demarcates the boundary between our planet’s atmosphere and outer space. Gopichand Thotakura is not just an entrepreneur but also a seasoned pilot with a rich history of aviation that spans various types of aircraft, including bush planes, aerobatic planes, seaplanes, gliders, and hot air balloons. A graduate of Embry-Riddle…
India’s private space sector has successfully launched its first military-grade geospatial satellite, which is expected to achieve full functionality in the coming months. The TSAT-1A was built by Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (TASL) at its Vemagal facility in Karnataka. It was onboard the Bandwagon-1 mission launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. This news was confirmed by TASL in a statement on 8th April made jointly with Satellogic Inc., specialising in Earth-observation satellites, which has extensive experience in sub-metre resolution Earth Observation data collection. We have liftoff! 🚀 TSAT-1A is safely aboard the…
Russia’s recent offer to help India in the thermonuclear domain underscores the global effort underway to develop fusion energy technology, says Dr Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. Speaking exclusively to Interstellar, he said India too has been researching fusion reactors for some time at the Institute for Plasma Research in Gandhinagar where two small tokamaks (machines for controlling nuclear fusion) are functioning. Research in such areas, he said, is collaborative, but fusion energy is still certainly well beyond the “net zero target” of climate science, which is an immediate existential crisis. So addressing that existential crisis…
In a significant development in the field of satellite launch services, M/s NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a Government of India (GoI) company under the Department of Space (DoS) and the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the renowned French satellite launch company, M/s Arianespace. This collaborative effort aims to establish a robust and long-term partnership between the two companies to effectively meet the burgeoning demands of the global commercial satellite launch service market. Space: – MoU between @NSIL_India and @Arianespace for a long-term partnership on satellite launch missions…
India’s first X-ray polarimetric mission, XPoSat, has marked a significant milestone by capturing its first light from the Cassiopeia A (Cas A) supernova remnant. Launched on January 1, 2024, XPoSat is equipped with two co-aligned instruments – the POLarimeter Instrument in X-rays (POLIX) and the X-ray SPECtroscopy and Timing (XSPECT). The primary objective of these instruments is to unravel the mysteries surrounding cosmic X-ray sources. While POLIX focuses on investigating X-ray polarization in medium-energy X-rays, XSPECT engages in continuous and long-term spectral and temporal studies of X-ray sources in the soft X-ray band. During its performance verification phase, XSPECT was…
In a groundbreaking feat for Indian space exploration, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully executed the Halo-Orbit Insertion (HOI) maneuver for its solar observatory spacecraft, Aditya-L1. This historic event unfolded on January 6, 2024, at approximately 16:00 Hrs (IST), marking a pivotal phase in the mission’s objective to continuously observe and comprehend the chromospheric and coronal dynamics of the Sun. Aditya-L1 now orbits in a periodic Halo trajectory located approximately 1.5 million km from Earth along the Sun-Earth line, boasting a unique three-dimensional periodic orbit at Lagrangian point L1. The chosen Halo orbit, characterized by semi-axes Ax: 209200…
