Indian-born NASA astronaut Sunita Williamsholds the records

Indian-born NASA astronaut Sunita Williamsholds the records for most spacewalk time by a woman with 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the International Space Station (ISS). She was the second American astronaut of Indian heritage to go into space after Kalpana Chawla.

The astronaut is now helping privately-held companies like Space X and Boeing in developing their new spacecraft systems, which will eventually provide round-trip crew transportation services to the ISS.

After completing two missions to the orbiting laboratory, Sunita William is continuing her career in space on Earth as a member of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap), npr.org reported on Sunday.

In 2015, NASA announced Sunita as one of the four astronauts who have been selected by NASA for commercial space flights that will return American launches to US soil and further open up low-Earth orbit transportation to the private sector.

Since the discontinuation of NASA's Space Shuttle programme in 2011, US astronauts have had to rely on Russian shuttles to get into orbit.

The goal of the commercial crew programme is safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the US through a public-private approach.

NASA, Boeing and SpaceX have significant testing underway, which will ultimately lead to test missions when the systems are ready and meet safety requirements.

Boeing's Starliner will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 and SpaceX's Crew Dragon will launch on the company's Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A, according to NASA.

After completion of each company's uncrewed and crewed flight tests, NASA will review the flight data to verify the systems meet the requirements for certification.

Upon NASA certification, the companies are each slated to fly six crew missions to the ISS beginning in 2019 and continuing through 2024, NASA said in January this year.

Williams, 52, has spent 50 hours and 40 minutes outside the ISS and part of her new job is to verify that the companies' spacecraft can launch, manoeuvre in orbit and dock to stationary spacecraft like the ISS, according to the npr.org report.

"This is really different from my old job, you know," Williams was quoted as saying.

"She is currently assigned to the cadre of astronauts training to fly the initial test flights for America's first commercially built spacecraft the Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Dragon," according to the biography of the astronaut at the NASA website.

Williams was launched to the space station on December, 2006 with STS-116, aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, where she served as a flight engineer for Expeditions 14 and 15.

She was born on September 19, 1965, in Euclid, Ohio, US to Indian American neuroanatomist Deepak Pandya and Slovene American Ursuline Bonnie Pandya.

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flight of Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) 

The 27-hour count down for the flight of Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) carrying communication satellite GSAT-6A on March 29 would start at 1.56 p.m on Wednesday, said the Indian space agency. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) on Tuesday cleared the 27-hour count down. The 415.6 ton GSLV rocket measuring 49.1 metre tall is scheduled to blast off at 4.56 p.m. from the second launch pad from at Indian rocket port in Sriharikota, 105 km from here. The GSAT-6A satellite will be put into orbit around 17 minutes after the rocket’s lift off.

According to ISRO, two improvements-induction of high thrust Vikas engine and electromechanical actuation system – have been made in the rocket’s second stage this time around. The ISRO said that the GSAT-6A was similar to the GSAT-6. The satellite will provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6m S-Band Unfurlable Antenna, handheld ground terminals and network management techniques. These are useful in satellite-based mobile communication applications.

ISRO Chairman K.Sivan had earlier told IANS that the GSAT-6A would be followed by the launch of navigation satellite which will be in the next fiscal. In the union budget for 2018-19, the Department of Space has been tasked with three earth observation space crafts ready for launch; four Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flights; one each of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkII and Mk III.

The 27-hour count down for the flight of Indian rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) carrying communication satellite GSAT-6A on March 29 would start at 1.56 p.m on Wednesday, said the Indian space agency. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) on Tuesday cleared the 27-hour count down. The 415.6 ton GSLV rocket measuring 49.1 metre tall is scheduled to blast off at 4.56 p.m. from the second launch pad from at Indian rocket port in Sriharikota, 105 km from here. The GSAT-6A satellite will be put into orbit around 17 minutes after the rocket’s lift off.

According to ISRO, two improvements-induction of high thrust Vikas engine and electromechanical actuation system – have been made in the rocket’s second stage this time around. The ISRO said that the GSAT-6A was similar to the GSAT-6. The satellite will provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6m S-Band Unfurlable Antenna, handheld ground terminals and network management techniques. These are useful in satellite-based mobile communication applications.

ISRO Chairman K.Sivan had earlier told IANS that the GSAT-6A would be followed by the launch of navigation satellite which will be in the next fiscal. In the union budget for 2018-19, the Department of Space has been tasked with three earth observation space crafts ready for launch; four Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) flights; one each of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MkII and Mk III.

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ISRO top news ...

ISRO top news

सरकारी कंपनी भारत हेवी इलेक्ट्रिकल्स लिमिटेड (बीएचईएल) ने प्रौद्योगिकी हस्तांतरण के तहत भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन (इसरो) के लिए स्पेस ग्रेड लिथियम आयन (ली-आयन) कोशिकाएं की हैं।
यह एक बयान में कहा गया है, "हमने अंतरिक्ष ग्रेड ली-आयन कोशिकाओं को बनाने के लिए भेल के साथ एक प्रौद्योगिकी हस्तांतरण समझौते में प्रवेश किया है।"
गुरुवार को इस समझौते पर आईएसओ के अध्यक्ष के। सिवन और भेल के प्रबंध निदेशक अतुल सोबती की मौजूदगी में अंतरिक्ष एजेंसी मुख्यालय में हस्ताक्षर किए गए।
बयान में कहा गया है, "ली-आयन बैटरियों का प्रयोग हमारे उपग्रह के लिए ऊर्जा स्रोतों और प्रक्षेपण वाहन के अनुप्रयोगों के रूप में किया जाता है क्योंकि उनके उच्च ऊर्जा घनत्व, विश्वसनीयता और लंबे चक्र जीवन के कारण होता है"।
केरोल के थिरुवनंतपुरम में इसरो के विक्रम साराभाई अंतरिक्ष केंद्र ने अंतरिक्ष ग्रेड ली-आयन कोशिकाओं का निर्माण करने के लिए प्रौद्योगिकी विकसित की है, परीक्षण परिस्थितियों में इसके प्रदर्शन का प्रदर्शन किया और त्वरित मोड में अपनी जीवन चक्र को स्थापित किया।
विभिन्न उपग्रहों और प्रक्षेपण वाहन अनुप्रयोगों के लिए कोशिकाओं का उपयोग किया जा रहा है।
प्रौद्योगिकी हस्तांतरण से देश की अंतरिक्ष कार्यक्रम आवश्यकताओं को पूरा करने के लिए भेल को अंतरिक्ष ग्रेड ली-आयन कोशिकाओं का उत्पादन करने में सक्षम होगा।
बयान में कहा गया है, "अन्य राष्ट्रीय जरूरतों के लिए ली-आयन सेल की आवश्यकता को पूरा करने के लिए भी तकनीक को अपनाया जा सकता है।"

Veteran Crew Launches to the Space Station Today: Watch It Live

Veteran Crew Launches to the Space Station Today: Watch It Live



T This afternoon, a new crew of three astronauts will embark on a flight to the International Space Station, bringing the total number of crew on the orbiting lab to its standard size of six. Two US astronauts, Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel, and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev will be making the voyage, taking off in a Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in the first crewed flight of 2018. All three are spaceflight veterans and will be staying on board the ISS for about five months.



The trio is scheduled to take off today at 1:44PM ET. Once in space, they’ll spend about two days in orbit, slowly approaching the space station and then docking at around 3:41PM ET on Friday. There, they’ll be greeted by the three crew members already on board the ISS: NASA’s Scott Tingle, Norishige Kanai from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who is the current station commander.

That means the US will continue to have four crew members on board (Kanai is one of NASA’s international partner astronauts), up from the typical three. NASA has been maintaining a larger crew than usual since Russia has recently reduced the number of cosmonauts it sends to the ISS to two.

NASA’s coverage of the launch is set to begin at 12:45PM ET. Check back then to watch liftoff live.

Gsat 6a

GSAT-6A, similar to GSAT-6 is a high power S-band communication satellite configured around I-2K bus with a lift-off mass of 2140 kg. The mission life of spacecraft is planned for 10 years. The satellite will also provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6 m S-Band Unfurlable Antenna, handheld ground terminals and network management techniques that could be useful in future satellite based mobile communication applications. GSAT-6A is planned to be launched by GSLV-F08.

Longevity of satellites

The ISRO would launch the GSLV GSAT 6A in the last week of March. The ISRO had lined up a number of programmes to make India stronger in various aspects of development and services to the people. To a question, Mr. Sivan said the ISRO was working on improving the longevity of satellites.

Isro Mangalyann mars images

Olympus Mons Water ice Clouds

Mars color camera (MCC) captured a spectacular image of Olympus Mons, the loftiest mountain in the Solar system,  on February 17, 2018 at a spatial resolution of  420 m from an altitude of 8075 km.  The bright (white) patches in the lower left part of the image show the  water ice clouds aligned along NW direction over the Olympus Mons. The volcanic flows spreading outward of the Mons and having large fracture patterns are also seen in the background.



ISRO WOMAN POWER

Meet ISRO’s First Woman Scientist Who’s Returned After Spending Over A Year In Antarctica 



A true embodiment of determination and firm resolution, 56-year-old Mangala Mani is ISRO's first woman scientist to spent over a year, 403 days to be exact, in freezing temperatures of Antarctica.
Speaking to the English daily, Mani said, “The Antarctica mission was really a challenge. The climate there was very harsh. We were very careful while going out of our climate-controlled research station. One had to wear polar clothing. Even 2 or 3 hours out in the severe cold was too much and one had to come back immediately for a warm-up.”
 For 56-year old Mangala Mani, a woman scientist from Indian Space Research Organisation has become the first one to spend over a year in the winter wonderland Antartica, which does not really see habitat. The place covered in snow throughout and where temperatures can slide to -90 degrees, living is unimaginable but this 56-year old did it. She was a part fo the 23-member team which went to the icy continent's India’s research station, Bharati in November 2016. Mangala was the only woman in the all-men team. She is the symbol of the Nari Shakti we are seeking.

GSLV mk 2& gsat 6a

GSAT-6A, similar to GSAT-6 is a high power S-band communication satellite configured around I-2K bus with a lift-off mass of 2140 kg. The mission life of spacecraft is planned for 10 years. The satellite will also provide a platform for developing technologies such as demonstration of 6 m S-Band Unfurlable Antenna, handheld ground terminals and network management techniques that could be useful in future satellite based mobile communication applications. GSAT-6A is planned to be launched by GSLV-F08.

Longevity of satellites

The ISRO would launch the GSLV GSAT 6A in the last week of March. The ISRO had lined up a number of programmes to make India stronger in various aspects of development and services to the people. To a question, Mr. Sivan said the ISRO was working on improving the longevity of satellites.

Isro sun mission

Aditya - L1 First Indian mission to study the Sun

The Aditya-1 mission was conceived as a 400kg class satellite carrying one payload, the Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC) and was planned to launch in a 800 km low earth orbit.  A Satellite placed in the halo orbit around the Lagrangian point 1 (L1) of the Sun-Earth system has the major advantage of continuously viewing the Sun without any occultation/ eclipses.  Therefore, the Aditya-1 mission has now been revised to “Aditya-L1 mission” and will be inserted in a halo orbit around the L1, which is 1.5 million km from the Earth.  The satellite carries additional six payloads with enhanced science scope and objectives.

Image credit: Udaipur Solar Observatory – PRL (Ground-based)

The project is approved and the satellite will be launched during 2019 – 2020 timeframe by PSLV-XL from Sriharikota.

Aditya-1 was meant to observe only the solar corona.  The outer layers of the Sun, extending to thousands of km above the disc (photosphere) is termed as the corona.  It has a temperature of more than a million degree Kelvin which is much higher than the solar disc temperature of around 6000K. How the corona gets heated to such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics. 

 Aditya-L1 with additional experiments can now provide observations of Sun's Photosphere (soft and hard X-ray), Chromosphere (UV) and corona (Visible and NIR).  In addition, particle payloads will study the particle flux emanating from the Sun and reaching the L1 orbit, and the magnetometer payload will measure the variation in magnetic field strength at the halo orbit around L1.   These payloads have to be placed outside the interference from the Earth’s magnetic field and could not have been useful in the low earth orbit.

The main payload continues to be the coronagraph with improved capabilities.  The main optics for this experiment remains the same.  The complete list of payloads, their science objective and lead institute for developing the payload is provided below:

• Visible Emission Line Coronagraph (VELC): To study the diagnostic parameters of solar corona and dynamics and origin of Coronal Mass Ejections (3 visible and 1 Infra-Red channels); magnetic field measurement of solar corona down to tens of Gauss – Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA)
• Solar Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (SUIT): To image the spatially resolved Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere in near Ultraviolet (200-400 nm) and measure solar irradiance variations - Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA)  
• Aditya Solar wind Particle Experiment (ASPEX) : To study the variation of solar wind properties as well as its distribution and spectral characteristics – Physical Research Laboratory (PRL)        
• Plasma Analyser Package for Aditya (PAPA) : To understand the composition of solar wind and its energy distribution – Space Physics Laboratory (SPL), VSSC        
• Solar Low Energy X-ray Spectrometer (SoLEXS) : To monitor the X-ray flares for studying the heating mechanism of the solar corona – ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)
• High Energy L1 Orbiting X-ray Spectrometer (HEL1OS): To observe the dynamic events in the solar corona and provide an estimate of the energy used to accelerate the particles during the eruptive events - ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC)and Udaipur Solar Observatory (USO), PRL
• Magnetometer: To measure the magnitude and nature of the Interplanetary Magnetic Field – Laboratory for Electro-optic Systems (LEOS) and ISAC.

With the inclusion of multiple payloads, this project also provides an opportunity to solar scientists from multiple institutions within the country to participate in space based instrumentation and observations.  Thus the enhanced Aditya-L1 project will enable a comprehensive understanding of the dynamical processes of the sun and address some of the outstanding problems in solar physics. 

Isro vs usa

बेंगलूरु. भारतीय अंतरिक्ष अनुसंधान संगठन (इसरो) की वाणिज्यिक इकाई अंतरिक्ष कॉरपोरेशन लिमिटेड ने अपने अमरीकी ग्राहकों को से कहा है कि वह किसी भी उपग्रह को लांचिंग के लिए भारत भेजने से पहले अमरीकी दूर संचार नियामक फेडरल कम्युनिकेशंस कमीशन (एफसीसी) से अनुमति जरूर हासिल करें। अंतरिक्ष कॉरपोरेशन की ओर से यह स्पष्टीकरण इसरो द्वारा छोड़े गए चार नैनो उपग्रहों पर उठे विवाद के बाद आया है।
दरअसल, इसरो ने पिछले 12 जनवरी को पीएसएलवी सी-40 से कार्टोसैट-2 सहित कुल 31 उपग्रहों का प्रक्षेपण किया था जिसमें अमरीकी कंपनी स्वार्म टेक्नोलॉजी के चार उपग्रह स्पेसबी-1,2,3 एवं 4 शामिल थे। हाल ही में इन चारों उपग्रहों को लेकर यह कहा गया कि अमरीकी अमरीकी दूर संचार नियामक एफसीसी ने इन चारों उपग्रहों को लांच करने की अनुमति नहीं दी थी। बिना अनुमति के इन चारों उपग्रहों को छोड़ा गया और इन्हें अवांछित उपग्रह बताया। चूंकि, इन उपग्रहों का आकार बेहद छोटा है इसलिए वह दूसरे उपग्रहों के लिए खतरा हो सकता है। अमरीकी दूर संचार नियामक ने एक महीने पहले ही कंपनी के आवेदन को रद्द कर दिया था। एफसीसी ही वाणिज्यिक उपग्रहों को विनियमित करने के साथ अंतरिक्षीय खतरे पर नजर रखता है। अंतरिक्ष कॉरपोरेशन ने अपनी सफाई में कहा है कि क्यूब सैट स्पेसबी 1,2,3 और 4 अमरीकी स्टार्ट कंपनी का था जिसे स्पेस फ्लाइट अमरीका के साथ हुए वाणिज्यिक करार के तहत पीएसएलवी सी-40 से छोड़ा गया। चूंकि, इन उपग्रहों का आकार 10 सेमी से भी कम है इसलिए अमरीकी अंतरिक्ष निगरानी नेटवर्क द्वारा इन्हें ट्रैक करना मुश्किल हो रहा है। एफसीसी ने इसे लांच के लिए प्राधिकृत नहीं किया था। खबर यह भी है कि एफसीसी ने इसी कंपनी के चार अन्य उपग्रहों को भी प्रतिबंधित किया था जिसे रॉकेट लैब के जरिए न्यूजीलैंड से छोड़ा जाना था। अंतरिक्ष कॉरपोरेशन ने यह भी कहा कि वाणिज्यिक लांच सेवाओं के लिए हुए समझौते के मुताबिक किसी भी अंतरिक्ष मिशन के लिए तमाम आवश्यक मंजूरी हासिल करना ग्राहक की जिम्मेदारी है। चूंकि यह एक अंतरराष्ट्रीय विषय है इसलिए अंतरिक्ष कॉरपोरेशन ने अपने अमरीकी ग्राहकों से कहा है कि किसी भी उपग्रह को लांच करने के लिए भारत भेजने से पहले एफसीसी से अनुमति निश्चित तौर पर लें।