Reply by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in compliance to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order dated January 21, 2024 in the matter of ‘News item titled “Feeling anxious? Toxic air could be to blame” appearing in Times of India dated 10.10.2023’. NGT had directed CPCB to file a …
ASTRONOMERS are excited about the recent observations made by the satellite ROSATwhich provide the strongest evidence yet that as much as 90 per cent of the matter in the universe is invisiblewhose presence is indicated by its gravitational pull on matter in space. Astronomers have been searching for this invisible …
RUSSIA has offered to trade its cut-price satellite launch potential for a guaranteed number of launches at international prices. Space agency chief Yuri Koptiev said he would accept a quota of three launches a year, one-fifth of the total world market. This would generate US $200 million for the Russians, …
UNION minister of state for science and technology P R Kumaramangalam remains unperturbed about Washington's reported intention to ban permanently the transfer of technology to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The US, which had earlier imposed sanctions when India and Russia announced collaboration on rocket propulsion technology, rumbled even …
CHINA'S cut-rate, space-launch business may not be much of a bargain, especially after its most recent effort resulted in the disappearance into space of a US-built, Australian-owned telecommunications satellite. Launched by the China Great Wall Industry Corp for Optus Communications, the $138 satellite vanished before reaching its scheduled 35,000-km orbit. …
FRENCH willingness to share space research and nuclear power expertise with India is considered a welcome and viable alternative coming as it does in the wake of a US ban on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), following ISRO's decision to buy cryogenic engines from Russia. French minister for research …
EN ROUTE to the sun, the spacecraft Ulysses dropped in on planet Jupiter in February this year. Launched on October 6, 1990, by the space shuttle Discovery, Ulysses -- a joint venture of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European Space Agency -- has sent home valuable information …
REMOTE sensing is slowly changing the contours of planning in India. In time, it could do away with conventional methods of data collection involving laborious field studies and replace dusty files in the large cupboards of officialdom with computer tapes, discs and video monitors. Providing such relatively easy access to …
European Space Agency (ESA) officials are heaving a sigh of relief following a report from the US National Research Council that says probes landing on Mars need not be sterilised if they are not conducting extraterrestrial biological experiments (Nature, Vol 358 No 6389). ESA was worried that stringent planet protection …
In an ambitious Italian-US experiment, the crew of space shuttle Atlantis tried to release an Italian-made satellite tethered by a 20-km copper cord into orbit -- and failed, when the release mechanism jammed repeatedly. The scientists had hoped to learn about new ways to power spacecraft and how to use, …
CHINA came of commercial space age with the launch of the Australian telecommunications satellite, Optus B1. This was their second attempt at launching the satellite. The first, in March, failed as a short circuit cut off fuel flow to the rocket engines. China has for years been trying to break …
EUROPEAN spacecraft Giotto created history mid-July when it swept past the comet, Grigg-Skjellerup, some 240 million km away in space. Giotto flew within 200 km of the comet's nucleus at 14 km a second and collected valuable data, despite being handicapped after its 1986 encounter with Halley's Comet. Fragments from …
The curtain shrouding the Indo-Russian rocket deal seems to be lifting at last with U R Rao, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), reiterating recently that the deal was "very much on". Work on developing the engine jointly is proceeding on schedule and India has "made the initial …
The Indian space programme has come of age with the flawless blast-off of the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) in May 1992, after two successive miscarriages in 1987 and 1988. The rocket successfully placed the 106-kg Stretched Rohini Satellite Series-C (SROSS-C) into a 450-km orbit. For good measure, it also …
AFTER two disappointing failures in 1987 and 1988, the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) was finally launched on May 20 from the Sriharikota range. It successfully placed the 106-kg SROSS (Stretched Rohini -Satellite Series) satellite in an orbit 450 km above the earth. The successful launch came as a, much-needed …
Act 1 (18 April): Yeltsin suspends rocket technology transfer to India following the threat of sanctions by USA. Act 11 (26 April): Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao assures Parliament that the contract has neither been suspended nor cancelled even as U R Rao, chairperson of the Space Commission, returns …
