Complete 100% FDI under automatic route is permitted to manufacture components and systems/ sub-systems for satellites, ground segment and user segment. At present, satellite manufacturing and operation, satellite data products and ground and user segment can get a 74% FDI. Beyond this, government route will be applicable. Up to 49% FDI is allowed in the creation of spaceports for launching and receiving spacecraft through automatic routes. Beyond this, government route is applicable on these activities. Elon Musk expected to announce the launch of Star link and investments worth $2-$3 billion. WHAT IS STARLINK ? Starlink has a constellation of 4,000....Read More

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chief S Somnath announced that the upcoming phase of the Chandrayaan project is in progress. India's aspiration of landing an astronaut on the moon by 2040. Chandrayaan-4 is the first step in the direction-to step a craft on the moon and collect sample and bring it back to Earth. It demonstrates the full cycle of going to the moon and coming back to Earth.Read More

Astronomers are looking forward to opening a new window on the universe by posting high-resolution telescopes on the moon, and in orbit around it. There are numerous proposals to do this from astronomers around the world — including one from India called ABOUT PRATUSH TELESCOPE: Probing ReionizATion of the Universe using Signal from Hydrogen (PRATUSH) is a radio telescope to be sited on the moon’s far side. It is being built by the Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bengaluru with active collaboration from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It aims to uncover the Cosmic Dawn of the Universe, answering....Read More

Cartosat-2, the first of ISRO’s second generation of high-resolution imaging satellites primarily used in urban planning, has been deorbited, 17 years after launch. The satellite, launched on January 10, 2007 and weighing 680 kg, operated in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 635 km. It performed 14.78 orbits around Earth in a day. Until 2019, the satellite equipped with over 12,000 coupled charged devices used its “panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras” to generate high-resolution images that were extensively used for urban planning, monitoring of road networks and water distribution, creation of land use maps, among others. ISRO had expected....Read More

The names of four astronauts, part of the country's human space flight mission Gaganyaan, were revealed recently. The PM presented astronaut wings to the four selected for the space flight during an event at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. The four astronaut-designates selected for the Gaganyaan mission are- Group Captain Prasanth Balakrishnan Nair, Group Captain Ajit Krishnan, Group Captain Angad Pratap and Wing Commander Shubhanshu Shukla. The astronauts chosen for the mission have been trained in technical knowledge as well as physical fitness to ensure they stay well during the mission. ABOUT GAGANYAAN MISSION Gaganyaan project envisages demonstration of....Read More

Full moon on February 24 was called as Hunger moon or Snow Moon or Storm Moon. It missed Earth's shadow, because moon's orbit is tilted by five degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit, and therefore Earth won't be directly between the sun and the moon. It has been named by Native American tribes as the 'Snow Moon' or the 'Hunger Moon'. This lunar event carries a history woven with the challenges of midwinter. NASA has explained that heavy snowfall, making hunting difficult, led to it being called the 'Snow Moon'. The added title of the 'Hunger Moon' reflects....Read More

Union Cabinet approved for amendments to the existing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy on space sector. Under the amended FDI policy, 100% FDI is allowed in space sector. Now, the satellite sub-sector has been divided into three different activities with defined limits for FDI in each such sector. DETAILS The amended policy extends the facility of up to 74% FDI under the automatic route for satellite manufacturing and operation, satellite data products and ground/user segment. Beyond 74%, these activities are under government route. Up to 49% FDI under the automatic route will be allowed for launch vehicles and associated systems....Read More

An American moon lander named ‘Odysseus’ touched down on the lunar surface for the first time in over 50 years. This is NASA's first return to the lunar surface since the last Apollo mission in 1972. The uncrewed Odysseus lander, was made by the Houston-based company Intuitive Machines in collaboration with NASA. It is the first commercial spacecraft to ever land on the moon without crashing. Odysseus launched atop a SpaceX rocket on February 14, carrying 12 payloads — six of them belonging to private companies and six of them science experiments for NASA. The spacecraft traveled 620,000 miles to....Read More

Japanese scientists have developed one of the world's most unique spacecraft- a wooden satellite. The LignoSat probe is made of magnolia wood, which has been shown in studies on the International Space Station (ISS) to be highly robust and crack-resistant. Plans are currently being finished for its launch on a US rocket. The satellite is being developed in an effort to test the viability of using biodegradable materials, like wood, as environmentally friendly substitutes for the metals that are currently used to construct all satellites. One of the missions of the satellite is to measure the deformation of the wooden....Read More

In a monumental discovery reshaping our understanding of celestial bodies, scientists have uncovered traces of water on the surface of two asteroids. The study sheds light on the distribution of water molecules throughout the solar system It also offers tantalizing clues about the origins of water on Earth. It utilized data from the retired NASA mission, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The analysis of SOFIA's observations unveiled distinctive spectral signatures indicative of water molecules on the asteroids Iris and Massalia. Both asteroids are more than half a million kilometres away from our planet. With diameters measuring 124 miles....Read More