Category: Tech

On Thursday, Bharti Group-backed Satcom company OneWeb inks a pact with ISRO’s commercial arm New Space India Limited (NSIL) to boost satellite-based internet service.

The launch is aimed to build a global network to provide high-speed, low-latency connectivity to “everyone, everywhere”. As a result of the subsequent launches, OneWeb will now have 428 satellites orbiting in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) which is 66% of the planned fleet.

The pact was signed to complete its satellite launch programme to provide global internet connectivity. The first launch with NSIL is scheduled this year from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, executive chairman of OneWeb said, “This is yet another historic day for collaboration in space, thanks to the shared ambition and vision of New Space India and OneWeb. This most recent agreement on launch plans adds considerable momentum to the development of OneWeb’s network, as we work together across the space industry towards our common goal of connecting communities globally”.

As per OneWeb, they are remaining on track for developing their satellite constellation network and delivering industry-grade secure connectivity. The company had earlier decided to suspend all launches from Russia-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan scheduled in March.

NASA will launch the Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) no earlier than April 23. It released a statement, “NASA and SpaceX now are targeting no earlier than 5:26 a.m. EDT [9:26 a.m. GMT] Saturday, April 23, for the launch of the agency’s Crew-4 mission to the International Space Station from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida”.

The crew will consist of NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti. It will head to the ISS on the Falcon 9 rocket bearing the Crew Dragon capsule.

According to the released statement, the date will give agencies time to complete the final preparation before of prelaunch for the Crew-4 mission post-launch of the Axiom Mission 1 to the ISS on April 8.

On Friday, NASA will conduct a review on flight readiness that will focus on the preparation of SpaceX’s crew transportation system, the ISS and its international partners supporting the flight.

In case the launch is delayed, the crew can avail of the option to launch on April 24 and April 25 as well.

The International Space Station (ISS) will be busier than usual this week when four new crew from Houston-based startup Axiom Space take to the skies. They will be the first all-private astronaut team to visit the orbiting outpost.

A spokesperson for Axiom said on Monday that SpaceX would have more time to complete prelaunch processing work after the launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday.

Several industry players are hailing the launch as a turning point in the latest expansion of commercial space ventures known collectively as the low-Earth orbit economy, or LEO economy for short.

On Friday, if weather permits, Axion’s four-man team will lift off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will be riding atop a Falcon 9 rocket created by Elon Mush’s commercial space launch venture SpaceX.

As SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule docks at the International Space Station some 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, the group led by retired astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria will arrive at the space station about 28 hours later.

Alegria is set to be joined by Larry Connor, a real estate and technology entrepreneur and aerobatics aviator. He is a designated mission pilot from Ohio.

On Thursday, in Kennedy space centre, Florida, the massive 322-foot-tall (98 meters) stack along with NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rolled out for its debut.

The Artemis I mission moves a step closer to its lunar launch which officially began at 5:47 p.m. On Thursday afternoon, a mobile launcher carrying the integrated stack began a slow climb to launch position.

It took almost 11 hours to cover the 4 miles (6.4 kilometres) from the assembly building to the launchpad on one of the giant NASA crawlers of the Apollo era. On Friday, the stack reached the pad at 4:15 a.m. local time.

Kennedy Space Center director, Janet Petro said, “Every single vehicle that has carried humans beyond the bounds of the low-Earth orbit has undergone integration and testing in that Vehicle Assembly Building, crawled down this roadway and launched right here from the Kennedy Space Center”.

As the stack emerged from the building, it became the first lunar rocket to leave since Apollo 17 in 1972, or 50 years ago and the last time anyone set foot on the moon.

On Saturday, a new batch of 53 Starlink satellites was launched into space by SpaceX. The company expanded its constellation of low Earth orbit satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.

A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 7:19 am EST and deployed the satellites 16 minutes after launch. SpaceX has been building Starlink for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world. Starlink is a satellite-based global internet system whose internet proposal was announced in January 2015.

CEO Elon Musk said that its company had registered documents with the international regulators to establish nearly 4,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and eventually hopes to have 42,000 satellites in the so-called mega-constellation.

Its size and scope frighten astronomers, who fear that bright, orbiting objects will interfere with observations of the universe, as well as spaceflight safety experts who now consider Starlink the number one collision danger in Earth’s orbit.

The rocket’s reusable first stage was successfully returned to the Atlantic Ocean on the “Just Read the Instructions” drone ship after it had been used for multiple launches, including the first crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.

On Tuesday, the United States of America’s newest extreme weather satellite was launched to improve wildfire and flood forecasting across the western half of the country. From Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, the satellite blasted into orbit on an Atlas V rocket at 21:38 GMT.

The satellite will be monitoring extreme weather including landslides, dust storms, and hurricanes. The GOES-T spacecraft will also track lighting, coastal fog, and climate change 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and may even be able to detect wildfires before they are recorded on the ground. After months of testing, the satellite will be releasing its first image next year.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has designed this satellite. It’s the third of four weather satellites worth $11.7 billion that are among the most advanced satellite ever created by NOAA.

According to the NOAA program director Pam Sullivan, the satellite will provide continuous coverage of weather and hazardous environmental conditions in the Western Hemisphere. He said, “These observations are even more critical in a time when the US is experiencing a record number of billion-dollar disasters”.

Tanzania unveils a new non-invasive EDE method to detect Covid-19 infection. The EDE technology was launched at the Zanzibar International Airport.

Exponential D examination (EDE) uses the electromagnetic rays that come from the human body. EDE can capture every sign of change that pulls towards the Covid-19 virus which can tell if the person is scanned positive or negative.

The EDE technology was introduced by the local government which is the first scanning method in Africa to detect the virus in the human body. It is a big success for the nation as it will be a huge relief from PCR tests for travelers. Travelers will no longer have to get PCR or arrive 2 hours before their flight.

The president of Zanzibar Hussein Mwinyi said, “When it comes to conducting Covid tests, there have always been a lot of problems, and you know all these tests were really invasive, but this is the first non-invasive test but also the first test of its kind in Africa. So for us, it’s a huge success for Zanzibar”.

The EDE technology was tested on nearly 20,000 people with a 93% accuracy rate before it was launched at the Zanzibar International Airport.

Ethiopia began to produce electricity from its Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) for the first time in history. It is a massive hydropower plant that is built on the River Nile that neighbors Sudan and Egypt.

On Sunday, Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed officially inaugurated the electricity production from the mega-dam which is considered as a milestone in the controversial multibillion-dollar project.

Prime Minister toured the power generation along with his high-ranking officials. He pressed a series of buttons on an electronic screen to initiate the production.

Abiy said, “Ethiopia’s main interest is to bring light to 60% of the population who is suffering in darkness, to save the labor of our mothers who are carrying wood on their backs in order to get energy”.

This project is said to cause severe water shortages downstream to which the prime minister assured them that his country did not want to harm the interests of neighboring countries.

However, Egypt’s foreign ministry accused Ethiopia of “persisting in its violations”. He said that in accordance with the preliminary deal signed between the three nations in 2015. The deal prohibited any of the parties from taking unilateral actions in the use of the water from the river.

India and Germany commit to promoting green growth and cleantech. Embedding economic growth and development with the preservation of the natural assets that provide us with resources and environmental services is considered green growth.

India’s External Affairs Minister Mr. S. Jaishankar said that he held a “constructive meeting” with Svenja Schulze- Germany’s Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development. He tweeted on Sunday regarding their meeting through his Twitter handle. It is worth mentioning that among renewable energy countries, India ranked third in 2021.

On Friday, Mr. Jaishankar arrived in Germany to take part in the Munich Security Conference 2022. He said that they discussed their respective development partnership outlook and share a commitment to promoting green growth and cleantech.

Mr. Jaishankar also held talks with the Foreign and Security Policy Advisor to German Chancellor Jens Ploetner and tweeted that he had a good meeting with him regarding a useful review of global development.

He also met his counterpart for Ireland, Simon Coveney. He tweeted regarding the meet, “COncluded the day meeting with FM @simoncoveney of Ireland. We have worked closely together at UNSC. Ireland can play a greater role in our EU engagement”.

Six African countries, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia are selected to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccine against the COVID-19 infection.

On Friday, the European Union and African Union have chosen these six countries in a summit meeting. These six countries will build their own vaccine in factories as part of a bid The World Health Organization launched last year. The bid replicated what is believed to be the most effective licensed shots against the coronavirus.

WHO’s Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told in the Brussels summit meeting that despite 10 billion vaccine doses having been administered worldwide, billion of people are still unvaccinated.

As per the WHO data, only 11% of the population in Africa is fully vaccinated as compared to the world’s global average of 50%. Only 1% of the vaccine against the virus was produced in Africa.

He called out for an urgent increase in the local production of shots in poor countries. He added that the tragedy is that billions of people are yet to benefit from this life-saving vaccine.

This is the first time WHO has supported efforts to reverse-engineer a commercially-sold vaccine, circumventing a pharmaceutical industry that prioritizes providing drugs to rich states over those living in poverty.