Beijing: China on Sunday launched the spaceship Shenzhou-14 with three astronauts to its new Tiangong space station where they will work and live for six months as construction enters advanced stages.A Long March-2F Y14 carrier rocket carrying the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft was launched at 10:44 am from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Northwest China's Gansu Province, Global times reported.The three Shenzhou 14 crewmembers -- commander Chen Dong, Liu Yang, and Cai Xuzhe -- were officially revealed as the crew earlier on Saturday. Shenzhou-14 is creating history as it is the first crewed spaceflight mission to Tianhe at the China Space Station in-orbit assembly stage and this is the first mission without an older age line.The Wentian and Mengtian space station lab modules, the Tianzhou-5 cargo spacecraft, and the Shenzhou-15 manned spacecraft are expected to be launched during the Shenzhou-14 crew's six-month stay in orbit, reported Global Times.Chen Dong, a veteran of the 2016 Shenzhou 11 mission, has started his second mission and first as commander. Another crew, Liu Yang, became China's first woman in space after she went to space in 2012, in the Shenzhou-9 mission, while Cai Xuzhe, will be making his maiden voyage during the upcoming mission."For this day, I have prepared 12 years. I feel honored and proud to have this chance to go into space for my country," Xuzhe said as quoted by Global Times.Referring to the younger lineup, a Beijing-based senior space expert said that the new Shenzhou taikonaut trio must have shown outstanding performance during training, and the younger crew members have mastered new knowledge and new skills for the mission.The trio is slated to carry out the verification of big and small robotic arms, spacewalks, and the construction of payload outside the cabin, the Global Times learned from the Shenzhou spacecraft developer with the state-owned aerospace contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC.)Another highlight of the Shenzhou-14 mission is the installation of a small robotic arm on the Wentian module. The previous mission, the Shenzhou-13 mission safely returned back to Earth on April 16 after concluding the technology verification stage of China's space station, reported Global Times. —ANI

China on Sunday launched the spaceship Shenzhou-14 with three astronauts to its new Tiangong space station where they will work and live for six months as construction enters advanced stages.

China Launches Shenzhou-14 Spacecraft To Complete Space Station Construction

Washington: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured the Moon passing in front of the Sun.The SDO recorded the 35-minute partial solar eclipse on Wednesday, SpaceWeather.com reported."At the peak of the eclipse, the Moon covered 67 per cent of the sun, and lunar mountains were backlit by solar fire," the report said.The high-resolution images captured by the SDO, will help scientists better understand the telescope.The images "reveal how light diffracts around SDO's optics and filter support grids. Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen images of the Sun even more than before", the report said.Since its launch in 2010, NASA's SDO has studied how the Sun creates solar activity and drives space weather -- the dynamic conditions in space that impact the entire solar system, including Earth.SDO's measurements of the Sun -- from the interior to the atmosphere, magnetic field, and energy output -- have greatly contributed to our understanding of our closest star.The spacecraft's observations start in the interior of the Sun with the solar dynamo -- the churning of the Sun's interior that creates its magnetic field and drives space weather. The SDO then observes the solar surface to directly measure the magnetic field and the solar atmosphere to understand how magnetic energy is linked to the interior and converted to space weather-causing events.It also measures the extreme ultraviolet irradiance of the Sun that is a key driver to the structure and composition of the Earth's upper atmosphere. —IANS

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured the Moon passing in front of the Sun.  The SDO recorded the 35-minute partial solar eclipse on Wednesday, SpaceWeather.com reported.

NASA's Sun Gazing Spacecraft Captures Solar Eclipse In Space

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has captured the Moon passing in front of the Sun.

The SDO recorded the 35-minute partial solar eclipse on Wednesday, SpaceWeather.com reported.

Beijing: China has launched a classified reusable vehicle on a secret mission to low-Earth orbit, media reports said.A Long March 2F rocket carrying a "test spacecraft" lifted off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert on Friday, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported. "The test spacecraft will be in orbit for a period of time before returning to the scheduled landing site in China, during which reusable and in-orbit service technology verification will be carried out as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space," Xinhua news agency reported.The craft's test includes "technical verification of reusable and on-orbit services as planned to provide technical support for the peaceful use of space".According to a SpaceNews report, the mystery vehicle is thought to be a robotic space plane, perhaps one roughly the same size as the US Space Force's X-37B, based on the Long March 2F's considerable payload capacity.In September 2020, China had launched a reusable test spacecraft in a similar manner. It stayed aloft for two days and released a small payload in orbit before coming down for a landing in China, SpaceNews noted.A "white paper" released by China's State Council Information Office in January this year stated that the country would, "continue to strengthen research into key technologies for reusable space transport systems, and conduct test flights accordingly." —IANS

China has launched a classified reusable vehicle on a secret mission to low-Earth orbit, media reports said.

China Launches Secret Reusable Spacecraft To Low-Earth Orbit

Washington: A NASA spacecraft was set to smash into an asteroid early on Tuesday, in a bid to test a technology to defend Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards in the future.
NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a first such mission, was set to impact its target asteroid -- which poses no threat to Earth -- at 7.14 p.m. on Monday (4.44 a.m. on Tuesday IST).
"This test will show a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a target asteroid and intentionally collide with it to change the asteroid's motion in a way that can be measured using ground-based telescopes," the US space agency said in an update.
DART's target is the binary, near-Earth asteroid system Didymos, composed of the roughly 780-metre diameter "Didymos" and the smaller, approximately 160-metre size "Dimorphos", which orbits Didymos.
DART will impact Dimorphos to change its orbit within the binary system, and the DART Investigation Team will compare the results of DART's kinetic impact with the asteroid to highly detailed computer simulations of kinetic impacts on asteroids, according to NASA.
"Doing so will evaluate the effectiveness of this mitigation approach and assess how best to apply it to future planetary defense scenarios, as well as how accurate the computer simulations are and how well they reflect the behaviour of a real asteroid," the space agency added.
DART will provide important data to help better prepare for an asteroid that might pose an impact hazard to Earth, should one ever be discovered.&nbsp;
—IANS

A NASA spacecraft was set to smash into an asteroid early on Tuesday, in a bid to test a technology to defend Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards in the future.

 NASA set to crash spacecraft into asteroid to protect Earth in future

Washington: A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, will skim the earth's atmosphere, passing a mere 350 kms above the surface on October 16, to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.
The Trojan asteroids are trapped in orbits around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, either far ahead of or behind the giant planet.
Lucy is currently one year into a 12-year voyage and this gravity assist will place it on a new trajectory for a two-year orbit, at which time it will return to Earth for a second gravity assist,NASA said in a statement.
This second assist will give Lucy the energy it needs to cross the main asteroid belt, where it will observe asteroid 'Donaldjohanson', and then travel into the leading Trojan asteroid swarm.
There, Lucy will fly past six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates and its satellite Queta, Polymele and its yet unnamed satellite, Leucus, and Orus.
Lucy will then return to Earth for a third gravity assist in 2030 to re-target the spacecraft for a rendezvous with the Patroclus-Menoetius binary asteroid pair in the trailing Trojan asteroid swarm, according to the space agency.
Lucy's trajectory will bring the spacecraft very close to Earth, lower even than the International Space Station, which means that Lucy will pass through a region full of earth-orbiting satellites and debris.
To ensure the safety of the spacecraft,NASA developed procedures to anticipate any potential hazard and, if needed, to execute a small manoeuvre to avoid a collision.
"The Lucy team has prepared two different manoeuvres. If the team detects that Lucy is at risk of colliding with a satellite or piece of debris, then, 12 hours before the closest approach to Earth, the spacecraft will execute one of these, altering the time of closest approach by either two or four seconds," said Coralie Adam, Lucy deputy navigation team chief from KinetX Aerospace in Simi Valley, California.
This is a small correction, but it is enough to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision, Adam added.
Lucy will be passing the Earth at such a low altitude that the team had to include the effect of atmospheric drag when designing this flyby.
"In the original plan, Lucy was actually going to pass about 30 miles closer to the Earth," said Rich Burns, Lucy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Lucy will then rapidly recede from the Earth's vicinity, passing by the Moon and taking a few more calibration images before continuing out into interplanetary space.&nbsp;
—IANS

A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, will skim the earth's atmosphere, passing a mere 350 kms above the surface on October 16, to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.

 Lucy spacecraft set to swing by Earth to reach Jupiter asteroids

Washington: A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, will skim the earth's atmosphere, passing a mere 350 kms above the surface on October 16, to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.
The Trojan asteroids are trapped in orbits around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, either far ahead of or behind the giant planet.
Lucy is currently one year into a 12-year voyage and this gravity assist will place it on a new trajectory for a two-year orbit, at which time it will return to Earth for a second gravity assist, NASA said in a statement.
This second assist will give Lucy the energy it needs to cross the main asteroid belt, where it will observe asteroid 'Donaldjohanson', and then travel into the leading Trojan asteroid swarm.
There, Lucy will fly past six Trojan asteroids: Eurybates and its satellite Queta, Polymele and its yet unnamed satellite, Leucus, and Orus.
Lucy will then return to Earth for a third gravity assist in 2030 to re-target the spacecraft for a rendezvous with the Patroclus-Menoetius binary asteroid pair in the trailing Trojan asteroid swarm, according to the space agency. Lucy's trajectory will bring the spacecraft very close to Earth, lower even than the International Space Station, which means that Lucy will pass through a region full of earth-orbiting satellites and debris.
To ensure the safety of the spacecraft, NASA developed procedures to anticipate any potential hazard and, if needed, to execute a small manoeuvre to avoid a collision.
"The Lucy team has prepared two different manoeuvres. If the team detects that Lucy is at risk of colliding with a satellite or piece of debris, then, 12 hours before the closest approach to Earth, the spacecraft will execute one of these, altering the time of closest approach by either two or four seconds," said Coralie Adam, Lucy deputy navigation team chief from KinetX Aerospace in Simi Valley, California.
This is a small correction, but it is enough to avoid a potentially catastrophic collision, Adam added.
Lucy will be passing the Earth at such a low altitude that the team had to include the effect of atmospheric drag when designing this flyby.
"In the original plan, Lucy was actually going to pass about 30 miles closer to the Earth," said Rich Burns, Lucy project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Lucy will then rapidly recede from the Earth's vicinity, passing by the Moon and taking a few more calibration images before continuing out into interplanetary space. —IANS

 A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, will skim the earth's atmosphere, passing a mere 350 kms above the surface on October 16, to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.

Lucy Spacecraft Set To Swing By Earth To Reach Jupiter Asteroids

Washington: A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, has captured an stunning image of Earth, along with a photo of the Earth and the Moon, as part of gravity assist to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.
NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured the image of Earth at a distance of 620,000 kms. The upper left of the image includes a view of Hadar, Ethiopia, home to the 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor fossil for which the spacecraft was named, the US space agency said in a statement. Lucy is the first mission to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, an ancient population of asteroid "fossils" that orbit around the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter.
To reach these distant asteroids, the Lucy spacecraft's trajectory includes three Earth gravity assists to boost it on its journey to these enigmatic asteroids.
The image was taken with Lucy's Terminal Tracking Camera (T2CAM) system, a pair of identical cameras that are responsible for tracking the asteroids during Lucy's high-speed encounters.
The T2CAM system was designed, built and tested by Malin Space Science Systems; Lockheed Martin Integrated the T2CAMs onto the Lucy spacecraft and operates them.
Lucy spacecraft also captured an image of the Earth and the Moon from a distance of 1.4 million km.
These Earth flybys provide Lucy with the speed required to reach the Trojan asteroids - small bodies that orbit the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter.
On its 12-year journey, Lucy will fly by a record breaking number of asteroids and survey their diversity, looking for clues to better understand the formation of the solar system. —IANS

A NASA spacecraft named Lucy, the first mission to the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, has captured an stunning image of Earth, along with a photo of the Earth and the Moon, as part of gravity assist to gain some of the orbital energy it needs to travel to this never-before-visited population of asteroids.

NASA's Lucy Spacecraft Captures Images Of Earth, Moon Ahead Of Gravity Assist

Washington: NASA's Orion spacecraft has successfully performed its first Moon flyby as part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, to pass within 130 kms of the lunar surface.
According to NASA, on its sixth day into the Artemis I mission, Orion successfully completed its fourth orbital trajectory correction burn using the auxiliary engines ahead the first of two manoeuvres required to enter a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon.
The Orion spacecraft performed the Moon's closest flyby on November 21, the US space agency said in a statement late on Tuesday.
"The mission continues to proceed as we had planned, and the ground systems, our operations teams, and the Orion spacecraft continue to exceed expectations, and we continue to learn along the way about this new, deep-space spacecraft," said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager.
Orion will enter distant retrograde orbit beyond the Moon on Friday with the second manoeuvre, called the distant retrograde orbit insertion burn.
This orbit provides a highly stable orbit where little fuel is required to stay for an extended trip in deep space to put Orion's systems to the test in an extreme environment far from Earth.
Orion will travel about 57,287 miles beyond the Moon at its farthest point from the Moon on November 25, passing the record set by Apollo 13.
Orion has travelled 216,842 miles from Earth and was 13,444 miles from the Moon, cruising at 3,489 miles per hour.
Artemis I is the first integrated flight test of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, an uncrewed Orion spacecraft.
In 2025, NASA plans to launch the first crewed Moon landings since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. That will include the first woman and the first person of colour to walk on the Moon.
Artemis I will provide a foundation for human exploration in deep space and demonstrate NASA's commitment and capability to extend human existence to the Moon and beyond. --IANS&nbsp;

NASA's Orion spacecraft has successfully performed its first Moon flyby as part of the uncrewed Artemis I mission, to pass within 130 kms of the lunar surface.

NASA Orion Spacecraft Makes Closest Flyby Of Moon At 130 KMs Distance

Washington: NASA's Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST on Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.
Splashdown is the final milestone of the Artemis I mission that began with a successful liftoff of NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on November 16, from Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Over the course of 25.5 days, NASA tested Orion in the harsh environment of deep space before flying astronauts on Artemis II.
"The splashdown of the Orion spacecraft - which occurred 50 years to the day of the Apollo 17 Moon landing - is the crowning achievement of Artemis I. From the launch of the world's most powerful rocket to the exceptional journey around the Moon and back to Earth, this flight test is a major step forward in the Artemis Generation of lunar exploration," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "It wouldn't be possible without the incredible NASA team. For years, thousands of individuals have poured themselves into this mission, which is inspiring the world to work together to reach untouched cosmic shores. Today is a huge win for NASA, the United States, our international partners, and all of humanity."
During the mission, Orion performed two lunar flybys, coming within 80 miles of the lunar surface. At its farthest distance during the mission, Orion traveled nearly 270,000 miles from our home planet, more than 1,000 times farther than where the International Space Station orbits Earth, to intentionally stress systems before flying crew.
"With Orion safely returned to Earth we can begin to see our next mission on the horizon which will fly crew to the Moon for the first time as a part of the next era of exploration," said Jim Free, NASA associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate. "This begins our path to a regular cadence of missions and a sustained human presence at the Moon for scientific discovery and to prepare for human missions to Mars."
Prior to entering the Earth's atmosphere, the crew module separated from its service module, which is the propulsive powerhouse provided by ESA (European Space Agency). During re-entry, Orion endured temperatures about half as hot as the surface of the Sun at about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Within about 20 minutes, Orion slowed from nearly 25,000 mph to about 20 mph for its parachute-assisted splashdown. During the flight test, Orion stayed in space longer than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has done without docking to a space station. While in a distant lunar orbit, Orion surpassed the record for distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, previously set during Apollo 13.
"Orion has returned from the Moon and is safely back on planet Earth," said Mike Sarafin, Artemis I mission manager. "With splashdown, we have successfully operated Orion in the deep space environment, where it exceeded our expectations, and demonstrated that Orion can withstand the extreme conditions of returning through Earth's atmosphere from lunar velocities."
Recovery teams are now working to secure Orion for the journey home. NASA leads the interagency landing and recovery team on the USS Portland, which consists of personnel and assets from the U.S. Department of Defense, including Navy amphibious specialists, Space Force weather specialists, and Air Force specialists, as well as engineers and technicians from NASA Kennedy, the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, and Lockheed Martin Space Operations.
In the coming days, Orion will return to shore where technicians will offload the spacecraft and transfer it by truck back to Kennedy. Once at Kennedy, teams will open the hatch and unload several payloads, including Commander Moonikin Campos, the space biology experiments, Snoopy, and the official flight kit. Next, the capsule and its heat shield will undergo testing and analysis over the course of several months. Artemis I was the first integrated test of NASA's deep space exploration systems - the Orion spacecraft, SLS rocket, and the supporting ground systems - and was supported by thousands of people around the world, from contractors who built the spacecraft and rocket, and the ground infrastructure needed to launch them, to international and university partners, to small businesses supplying subsystems and components.
Through Artemis missions, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the surface of the Moon, paving the way for a long-term lunar presence and serving as a stepping stone for astronauts on the way to Mars. —ANI

NASA's Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, west of Baja California, at 9:40 a.m. PST on Sunday after a record-breaking mission, traveling more than 1.4 million miles on a path around the Moon and returning safely to Earth, completing the Artemis I flight test.

NASA's Orion Spacecraft Returns To Earth After Historic Moon Mission

Chennai: Indian space agency on Thursday said it had successfully completed the tests to check Chandrayaan-3 -- moon spacecraft -- to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would face during its launch. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the tests were conducted during the first week of March 2023 at the test facilities located at the UR Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru. These tests are an essential part of the qualification and acceptance process for any spacecraft.
These tests were particularly challenging, considering the fact that the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is a composite of three modules viz. Propulsion Module, Lander Module and the Rover module. The vibration and acoustic tests carried out on the integrated spacecraft have provided sufficient confidence on the structural integrity and survivability in the launch environment, ISRO said.
—IANS

 Indian space agency on Thursday said it had successfully completed the tests to check Chandrayaan-3 -- moon spacecraft -- to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would face during its launch. 

Chandrayaan-3 Passes ISRO’s Vibration Tests

San Francisco: SpaceX's Starship is likely to launch on the first orbital flight by April end, CEO Elon Musk said. "Starship launch trending towards near the end of third week of April," Musk wrote in a tweet on Monday. A day ago, he had said that the "Starship is ready for launch. Awaiting regulatory approval". The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is yet to grant licence approval for the orbital test flight. The agency on Monday issued a revised notice that said the launch could now happen on April 17. Another hurdle is federal environmental compliance review. Meanwhile, SpaceX has been long gearing up for the flight. The company has rolled its Ship 24 out to Starbase's orbital launch pad. It has also conducted fueling tests with Booster 7 on the orbital launch mount, with Ship 24 on the ground nearby. Starship is the world's most powerful rocket and will be used to send humans to the Moon and then eventually to Mars. It consists of a giant first-stage booster called Super Heavy and a 50 metres upper-stage spacecraft known as Starship. Both stainless-steel vehicles are designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, and both are powered by SpaceX's next-gen Raptor engine -- 33 for Super Heavy and six for Starship. Moreover, Musk recently said that there is only a 50 per cent chance that the first-ever orbital mission of SpaceX's huge Starship vehicle will be a success. But he also stressed that SpaceX is building multiple Starship vehicles at the South Texas site. These will be launched in relatively quick succession over the coming months, and there's about an 80 per cent chance one of them will reach orbit this year. —IANS

SpaceX's Starship is likely to launch on the first orbital flight by April end, CEO Elon Musk said.

SpaceX's Starship Spacecraft Launch Likely By April End: Elon Musk

Beijing: A reusable uncrewed space vehicle returned to Earth on Monday morning after spending 276 days in orbit, according to a media report. There is not much information about the space vehicle as China's space authorities have not released any pictures or technical data, and experts suspect it could be used to gather intelligence, South China Morning Post reported. The reusable experimental spacecraft, was launched with a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan satellite centre in Inner Mongolia in 2020. Space defence contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the classified mission is a "complete success" and "marks an important breakthrough" in China's research into the technology. The reusable spacecraft "will provide a more convenient and cost-effective way for peaceful use of space", the company was quoted as saying. The spacecraft resembles the US Air Force's Boeing X-37B, Xinhua news agency had reported earlier. The X-37B is an unmanned space plane that operates like a smaller version of the Space Shuttle, which is launched by a rocket and cruises back to earth for a runway landing. It has flown four classified missions to date, carrying secret payloads on long-duration flights in Earth orbit. According to some experts, the Chinese craft could be equipped with advanced imaging and sensing equipment to gather intelligence on potential targets or monitor sensitive areas of interest, the report said. Another potential use is the deployment of small satellites or other payloads into orbit. This could include communications satellites, navigation systems, or other types of sensors that could be used for military or government purposes. —IANS

A reusable uncrewed space vehicle returned to Earth on Monday morning after spending 276 days in orbit, according to a media report.

Chinese Spacecraft Returns To Earth After Spending Over 9 Months In Orbit

Paris: BepiColombo, a joint mission of European Space Agencys (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), has successfully completed the third of its six encounters with Mercury -- about 236 kilometres above the planets surface. The spacecraft, which is on its way to the mysterious innermost planet of the solar system Mercury, aims to enter the planet's orbit in 2025. The third encounter with Mercury was made at 19:34 UT (1:04?am IST) on Tuesday. "Our BepiColombo esaoperations team confirmed all went well with our MercuryFlyby last night! Now we wait and see what images &amp; data our instrument teams collected," the mission officials wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. "#Mercury is in our sights as we speed towards tonight's close #MercuryFlyby!" they wrote while capturing an image from a distance of about 121, 000 km. BepiColombo approached on the night side of the planet, meaning the most interesting views of Mercury's surface will be recorded by the spacecraft's monitoring cameras from about 13 minutes later. "The day-night side on #Mercury is clearly visible and you may just be able to make out the difference between lighter and darker terrain on the planet's surface," the officials wrote on Twitter. While the flyby gives opportunity to snap images and also check science instrument operations at Mercury before the main mission begins, the primary reason for the flyby is to use the planet's gravity to guide BepiColombo's path through the inner Solar System. BepiColombo launched into space on an Ariane 5 from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou in October 2018 and is making use of nine planetary flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury, to help steer into Mercury orbit. After this flyby, the mission will enter a very challenging part of its journey to Mercury, gradually increasing the use of solar electric propulsion through additional propulsion periods called 'thrust arcs' to continually brake against the enormous gravitational pull of the Sun. These thrust arcs can last from a few days up to two months, with the longer arcs interrupted periodically for navigation and manoeuvre optimisation. Mercury is the least explored rocky planet of the Solar System, with one of the main reasons being that getting there is really difficult. As BepiColombo gets closer to the Sun, the powerful gravitational pull of our host star accelerates the spacecraft towards it. Gravity assist flybys are a great way to change course using very little fuel, but they are far from simple. —IANS

BepiColombo, a joint mission of European Space Agencys (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

BepiColombo Spacecraft Completes Third Closest Flyby Of Mercury

Washington: NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission has acquired stunning views of Mars in two ultraviolet images taken at different points along the Red Planet's orbit around the Sun. By viewing the planet in ultraviolet wavelengths, scientists can gain insight into the Martian atmosphere and view surface features in remarkable ways. The images were taken using MAVEN's Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS) instrument in 2022 and 2023 when the planet was near opposite ends of its elliptical orbit. The IUVS instrument measures wavelengths between 110 and 340 nanometres, outside the visible spectrum. To make these wavelengths visible to the human eye and easier to interpret, the images are rendered in false colour, with the varying brightness levels of three ultraviolet wavelength ranges represented as red, green, and blue. In this colour scheme, atmospheric ozone appears purple, while clouds and hazes appear white or blue. The surface can appear tan or green, depending on how the images have been optimised to increase contrast and show detail. The first image was taken in July 2022 during the southern hemisphere's summer season, which occurs when Mars passes closet to the Sun. The summer season is caused by the tilt of the planet's rotational axis, similar to seasons on Earth. Argyre Basin, one of Mars' deepest craters, appears in the image filled with atmospheric haze, while the deep canyons of Valles Marineris appear with clouds. The southern polar ice cap is also visible, shrinking from the relative warmth of summer. The second image is of Mars' northern hemisphere and was taken in January 2023 after Mars had passed the farthest point in its orbit from the Sun. The rapidly changing seasons in the north polar region cause an abundance of white clouds. The image shows deep canyons of Valles Marineris as well as many craters. MAVEN launched in November 2013 and entered Mars' orbit in September 2014. The mission's goal is to explore the planet's upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind to explore the loss of the Martian atmosphere to space. Understanding atmospheric loss gives scientists insight into the history of Mars' atmosphere and climate, liquid water, and planetary habitability. —IANS

NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) mission has acquired stunning views of Mars 

NASA's MAVEN Spacecraft Captures Ultraviolet Image Of Mars

Chennai: India on Wednesday took another step towards its third moon mission by mating the encapsulated assembly holding the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. “Today (Wednesday) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. The LVM3 is India’s heaviest rocket that will carry the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft with a lander and a rover. It will put the spacecraft or orbiter in a designated orbit, and from there, the spacecraft will start its long journey of about 3.84 lakh km towards the moon. The spacecraft carries a lander called Vikram. The lander, in turn, carries a rover called Pragyan. The total weight of the spacecraft is 3,900 kg or 3.9 ton which is a tad lower than the total carrying capacity of the LVM3 rocket. The orbiter or the propulsion module as ISRO named it weighs 2,148 kg, and the lander 1,752 kg, including the rover. Incidentally, the Chandrayaan-2 payload weighed about 3.8 ton with the orbiter weighing 2,379 kg, the Vikram lander 1,471 kg including the Pragyan rover 27 kg. India’s mission to the moon is tentatively slated for July 13 while the launch window is open between July 12 and July 19. “We have the launch window between July 12 and July 19. The exact date has not been finalised,” a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official, not wanting to be named, told IANS. The main purpose of Chandrayaan-3 is to safely land the lander on the moon soil. Following that, the rover will roll out to do the experiments. As regards the changes made in the lander this time as compared to the one that crash landed on the moon during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, the official said the lander will have four motors instead of five. The space agency has also carried out some changes in the software. According to ISRO, the propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. The lander payloads are: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations. A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies. On the other hand, the rover will carry: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site, the ISRO said. —IANS

India on Wednesday took another step towards its third moon mission by mating the encapsulated assembly 

Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft Mated At Top Of India’s Heavy Lift Rocket LVM3

New Delhi (The Hawk): Chandrayaan-3, scheduled to be launched from Sriharikota this week, will make India the fourth country to land its Spacecraft on the surface of the Moon.  Stating this here today in an exclusive interview to a news agency, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, MoS PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent USA visit was marked by significant Space related agreements indicating that the countries which had started their Space journey long before India are today looking up to India as an equal collaborator.  After such a quantum rise in our Space expertise under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's regime, India can no longer wait to be left behind in its march to the Moon, the Minister said.      Dr Jitendra Singh said that Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission of Chandrayaan-2 and is aimed to demonstrate India’s capability in soft landing and roving on the surface of the Moon or the Lunar surface. The complex mission profile, he said, required for the Spacecraft to enter the Moon’s orbit has been executed very precisely. After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon, the rover, which has six wheels, will come out and is expected to work for 14 days on the Moon. With the support of multiple cameras on the rover, we will be able to receive images, he said.  Giving full credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing an enabling environment for Space workers and taking path-breaking decisions, like unlocking the Space sector for Public Private Partnership (PPP), Dr Jitendra Singh said, based on the current trajectory of growth, India’s space sector could be a 1 Trillion US Dollar economy in the coming years.  Elaborating further, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the primary objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold, a) to demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface b) to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and c) to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.  The Minister recalled that the first in the series of Chandrayaan, namely Chandrayaan-1, is credited for having discovered the presence of water on the surface of the Moon, which was a new revelation for the world and even the most premier Space agencies like the USA’s NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) were fascinated by this discovery and used the inputs for their further experiments. Chandrayyan-3, he said, will be operating at the next level. The Spacecraft will use Launch Vehicle Mark-3 developed by ISRO for its launch, he added.  Dr Jitendra Singh said, there is tremendous excitement across the country about the launch of Chandrayaan-3, particularly because Chandrayaan-2 Mission could not yield the desired results because of a lapse just about 13 minutes after Spacecraft began its descent on September 6, 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was personally present at Sriharikota to witness the event.  The Minister said, as a successor to Chandrayaan-2, Chandrayaan-3 has undergone a few changes to increase the robustness of the Lander. He said, all these modifications have been subject to exhaustive ground tests and simulations through test beds.  The Lander and Rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is also configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on various properties of Lunar Soil and rocks including its chemical and elemental composition, said Dr Jitendra Singh.

Chandrayaan-3, scheduled to be launched from Sriharikota this week, will make India the fourth country to land its Spacecraft 

Chandrayaan-3, scheduled to be launched from Sriharikota this week: Dr Jitendra

Bengaluru: The second orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound apogee firing) of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was completed by the Indian Space Research Organisation with great success.
On Monday, the country's space agency said that the spacecraft had entered an orbit measuring 41603 kilometres by 226 kilometres.
The following firing is scheduled for Tuesday between the hours of 2 and 3. which it said.
On July 14, they sent off the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on a trip to the Moon.—Inputs from Agencies

The second orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound apogee firing) of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was completed by the Indian Space Research Organisation with great success.

ISRO successfully performs second orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft

Bengaluru: An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon on Wednesday in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India's standing as a space power, just days after a similar Russian lander crashed. "This is a victory cry of a new India," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was seen waving the Indian flag as he watched the landing from South Africa, where he is attending the BRICS summit. Scientists and officials clapped, cheered and hugged each other as the spacecraft landed and as the government now looks to spur investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses. "India is on the moon," said S. Somanath, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft landed on the lunar south pole. This was India's second attempt to land a spacecraft on the moon and comes less than a week after Russia's Luna-25 mission failed. People across the country were glued to television screens and said prayers as the spacecraft approached the surface. Chandrayaan means "moon vehicle" in Hindi and Sanskrit. In 2019, ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 mission successfully deployed an orbiter but its lander crashed. The Chandrayaan-3 is expected to remain functional for two weeks, running a series of experiments including a spectrometer analysis of the mineral composition of the lunar surface. Rough terrain makes a south pole landing difficult, and a first landing is historic. The region's ice could supply fuel, oxygen and drinking water for future missions. "Landing on the south pole (of the moon) would actually allow India to explore if there is water ice on the moon. And this is very important for cumulative data and science on the geology of the moon," said Carla Filotico, a partner and managing director at consultancy SpaceTec Partners. Anticipation before the landing was feverish, with banner headlines across Indian newspapers and news channels running countdowns to the landing. Prayers were held at places of worship across the country, and schoolchildren waved the Indian tricolour as they waited for live screenings of the landing. Children gathered on the banks of the Ganga river, considered holy by Hindus, to pray for a safe landing, and mosques in several places offered prayers. At a Sikh temple, known as a gurduwara, in the capital New Delhi, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also offered prayers for Chandrayaan. "Not just economic, but India is achieving scientific and technological progress as well," Puri told reporters. —Reuters

An Indian spacecraft landed on the moon on Wednesday in a mission seen as crucial to lunar exploration and India's standing as a space power

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lands on moon in 'victory cry' of new India

Washington: US space agency NASA on Friday said that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has imaged a new crater on the Moon's surface that is likely the impact site of Russia's Luna 25 mission. Luna-25, which took off atop a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from the Vostochny launch facility in Russia at 2.10 a.m. Moscow time (4.40 a.m. IST) on August 11, TASS news agency reported. Russia's Luna Lander mission, which launched on August 11 was expected to be on the Moon's South Pole along with India's Chandrayaan-3. However, during its descent, Luna 25 experienced an anomaly that caused it to impact the surface of the Moon on August 19. Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, published an estimate of the impact point on August 21. LRO's most recent "before" image of the area was captured in June 2022; thus, the new crater formed sometime after that date. Since this new crater is close to the Luna 25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor. “The new crater is about 10 metres in diameter and is located at 57.865 degrees south latitude and 61.360 degrees east longitude at an elevation of about minus 360 metres,” NASA said. “The impact point was on the steep (greater than 20-degree grade) inner rim of Pontecoulant G crater, about 400 kilometres short of Luna 25's intended landing point at 69.545 degrees south, 43.544 degrees east,” it added. Russia aimed to return to the Moon with its Luna 25 lander mission after 47 years. Its last lunar mission, Luna-24 was launched in 1976, during the former Soviet Union period. Meanwhile, Roscosmos has planned Luna-26 for 2027 and Luna-27 for 2028, Luna-28 in 2030 or later. The country is also aiming at a manned mission and the construction of a lunar base, along with other countries such as the US, India and China. —IANS

US space agency NASA on Friday said that its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft 

NASA Spacecraft Spots Moon Crater Likely Caused By Russia’s Luna 25

Moscow (Russia): Two Russian cosmonauts and an astronaut from the United States have docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after taking off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan amid raging tensions between Moscow and Washington over the invasion of Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported. Russia’s Roscosmos space agency said cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and US NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara lifted off on Friday onboard the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft. The crew docked at the ISS three hours later, at 18:53 GMT, the Russian space agency said. The trio will join the crew of three Russians, two Americans and one Japanese, along with a representative of the European Space Agency at the orbiting station. The ISS remains a rare venue for cooperation between the US and Russia, whose ties broke down after Moscow unleashed its offensive in Ukraine last year, as per Al Jazeera. Russia’s Kononenko alluded to the strained geopolitical tensions during a pre-flight press conference on Thursday, saying that “unlike on earth” cosmonauts and astronauts took care of each other in space, according to Al Jazeera. He said: “We hear each other there, and we understand each other, and we are very sensitive to our relationships. We always take care of each other.” The US’s O’Hara praised the station’s “legacy” and said it had been bringing the countries together. “The arrival of three new crew members to the existing seven people already on board for Expedition 69 temporarily increases the station’s population to ten,” NASA said after the Soyuz docked with the ISS. Kononenko, 59, and Chub, 39, are scheduled to spend a year on the ISS, while O’Hara, 40, is to spend six months on board. It was the first mission to space for O’Hara and Chub. Kononenko, the mission commander, is on his fifth trip to the orbiting space station. By the end of his yearlong stay, Kononenko will set a new record for the longest time in space, more than a thousand days. Chub said that travelling to space was his “childhood dream” and he had dedicated “all his life” to reaching that goal. Friday’s launch was the first by Russia since last month’s loss of Russia’s Luna-25 module, which crashed on the Moon’s surface after an incident during pre-landing manoeuvres, in a huge embarrassment for Moscow, as per Al Jazeera. The Luna-25 mission was meant to mark Russia’s return to independent Moon exploration in the face of financial troubles and corruption scandals, and its growing isolation from the West amid its war on Ukraine. Moscow last landed a probe on the Moon in 1976, before shifting away from lunar exploration in favour of missions to Venus and building the Mir space station. —ANI

Two Russian cosmonauts and an astronaut from the United States have docked with the International Space Station (ISS) 

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