India Plans to send astronauts to Space

A manned space flight is proposed before 2015, at a budget of Rs 12.4 billion ($242 million), using a fully autonomous orbital vehicle carrying two or three crew members to 400km (250 miles) low Earth orbit for up to 7 days and back. Development of fully autonomous orbital vehicle to carry a two-member crew into a low Earth orbit has already began. ISRO will set up full-fledged training facility in Bangalore for training astronauts. ISRO is also planning to build third launch pad at Sriharkota for manned mission with extra facilities like entry into the crew capsule and an escape chute.

A 100 acre astronaut training is planned to be completed on the outskirts of Bangalore by 2012 by ISRO in collaboration with IAM Bangalore at a cost of Rs 10 billion.


India and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Joint Activities in the Field of Human Spaceflight Program during the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to India in December 2008.

As per the agreement, an Indian astronaut will first go on a space mission on a Russian spacecraft (Soyuz, 2013). This will be followed by an Indian manned mission to space in 2015.

The spacecraft is being designed for a seven day mission on completion of which it will splash down either in the Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal.

Jugnu - India's lightest Satellite to be launched

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur has come in to agreement with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to launch a nano satellite. It will be the country's lightest and the institute's first satellite to be launched in the orbit from Sriharikoita.

Sanjay Govind Dhande, Director, IIT Kanpur said that regular review sessions are being carried out by ISRO to check the progress.

A team of 40 students and around 12 professors, led by Professor Nalinaksh S.Vyas are working out since December, 2008 on the project. The project is expected to be completed within a budget of 2-3 crores.

The Spacecraft weighs around 3.5 kgs and would be 34 cm long and 10 cm wide. Equipped with the micro imaging and micro electronic system, it will transfer the images to the IIT Kanpur campus. The high resolution pictures obtained will be used for different applications like drought monitoring, wasteland management, urban planning and flood risk management.

"Although the stipulated life time of the satellite is six months, we are optimistic that it will complete at least 12 months in the orbit," said Dhandhe.

Hundreds of Black Holes may roam in Milky Way, swallowing anything that gets its way

New calculations at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics suggest that hundreds of massive black holes, left over from the galaxy-building days of the early universe, may wander the Milky Way and will start swallowing what ever comes in their way. Fortunately Earth is safe. The closest rogue black hole should reside thousands of light-years away. Astronomers are eager to locate them, though, for the clues they will provide to the formation of the Milky Way.

Hundreds of rogue black holes should be traveling the Milky Way's outskirts, each containing the mass of 1,000 to 100,000 suns. They would be difficult to spot on their own because a black hole is visible only when it is swallowing, or accreting, matter.

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Space debris around is increasing

The space around Earth is becoming more cluttered by the day with orbital junk that, if left unchecked, will pose an ever-increasing threat to current and future spacecraft, a panel of experts says.

The Department of Defense's Space Surveillance Network, which relies on a global network of monitoring stations, is currently tracking more than 19,000 objects in Earth orbit larger than four inches (10 cm), but there are an estimated 300,000 total objects bigger than a half-inch (1 cm) in size circling Earth. In 1980, the network was tracking just 4,700 objects, about 2,600 of which were space trash.

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Corpse's Face transplanted to a woman

The first face transplantation surgery was carried out in USA. This surgery was carried out at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio in USA by Dr. Maria Siemionow. He worked with a dozen specialists to rebuild the face of a woman who was missing her right eye, nose and upper jaw.

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Smiling Sky

Astronomers and stargazers have been watching a rare astronomical phenomenon.

Jupiter and Venus are in conjunction and lie just two degrees apart, so lucky skygazers will be able to see the two planets getting closer.

At the same time, the crescent Moon will eclipse Venus and, if you watch the Moon at sunset through binoculars, you will see an occultation of Venus by the Moon. The planet will seem to disappear as the dark limb of the Moon passes over it.

Photo: Carlos Bacigalupo

Carlos Bacigalupo took this beautiful shot from his home in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

Indian Probe landed on Moon on 14th Nov, 2008

An Indian probe landed on the moon on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation announced, in a milestone for the country's 45-year-old space programme.

The probe touched down on the moon at 8:34pm (1504 GMT), 25 minutes after it was ejected from an unmanned spacecraft orbiting the moon.

During its descent from Chandrayaan-1 an onboard video camera transmitted lunar pictures to the ISRO command centre.

Scientists monitoring the probe cheered as ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair announced the success of the country's first lunar mission, which began on October 22 when a rocket transported Chandrayaan-1 into space.

The probe, carrying three instruments and with the Indian flag painted on its outer panes, settled in a crater in the moon's south pole.

Nair said the landing was perfect.

"We have now successfully put our national flag on the lunar surface," he told a news conference.

"The moon has been very favourable to us and this is a very productive and fruitful mission," he said, and added: "We have also emerged as a low-cost travel agency to space," referring to the mission's 80-million dollar tag.

Chandrayaan-1 is on a two-year orbital mission to provide a detailed map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon's surface.

Buoyed by its success, ISRO plans to send a second unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2012 and separately launch satellites to study Mars and Venus.

India started its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies.