India placed its first order for indigenous air to air missiles worth Rs. 2,971 crore. The move was taken to cut the dependency on Russia by giving its fighter jets a fighting edge that lacked during the Balakot air engagements with Pakistan. The order was signed with Bharat Dynamics Limited for ASTRA MK-I Beyond Visual Range (BVR) and Air to Air Missile (AAM) for an undisclosed number of missiles. They will be fitted in the Su 20 MKI fighter jets of the Indian Air Force and the naval MiG 29/KUB carrier-borne combat aircraft. The Astra MK1 developed by the Defence Research and Developme
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured images of two spiral galaxies. IC 563 and IC 564, collectively known as Arp 303, are more than 275 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sextans. An image was created using data from two separate Hubble observations of Arp 303. The first observation used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to study the pair's star-forming regions in infrared light. Galaxy clusters such as IC 563 and IC 564 are very bright at infrared wavelengths and show many bright star-forming regions. Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) was used
India and China are to collaborate soon in space after a joint commission on space cooperation for the Brics bloc was formed at a meeting of the leading space agencies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, on Wednesday, as reported by official Chinese media. The BRICS remote sensing constellation will include six existing satellites chipped in by the space agencies of Brics countries including the CBERS-4, a combined development by Brazil and China, Russia’s Kanopus-V-type, and China’s Gaofen-6 and Ziyuan III 02. The Indian satellites Resourcesat-2 and 2A will be part of the “virtual
US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met on Monday in Tokyo and put forward their plans of working together to help a Japanese astronaut, accompanied by a US cosmonaut, to set foot on the lunar surface. The long-term allies aim to strengthen their partnership to combat China, which asserts to become a space power soon. The two countries released a joint statement stating to work together on human and robotic missions on the Moon including a cumulative desire to see a Japanese astronaut on the surface of the moon in the near future and sign a contract for the sam
On Friday, May 20, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft docked at the International Space Station’s Harmony module for the first time at 8:28 p.m. EDT (5:28 p.m. (PDT). A day before, On May 19, the spacecraft was launched on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on a flight test at 6:45 pm to the International Space Station from Space Launch Complex-42 at Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. NASA schedules a teleconference to update Starliner’s progress that will be streamed on NASA’s official website. The hatch opening will be done on Saturday and coverage will air live
On Tuesday, a two-seater flying trainer aircraft HANSA-NG successfully completed an in-flight engine relight test. Designed and developed by CSIR-NAL the aircraft was ferried to DRDO’s Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) facility at Challakere on May 16 after DGCA’s approval. The flight test was carried out by Aircraft and System Testing Establishment’s (ASTE) test pilots Wg Cdr K V Prakash and Wg Cdr NDS Reddy which was monitored by Abbani Rinku, Project Director of HANSA along with the design team of CSIR-NAL and ASTE crew- Wg Cdr Senthil Kumar, Flight Test Director, Sq Ldr Sahil Sarin,
On Friday, four astronauts were brought home by SpaceX with a midnight splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The crew consisted of three U.S. astronauts and one German. Within 24 hours of leaving the International Space Station, they were bogging off the coast of Florida near Tampa. NASA demanded them back in Houston later in the morning. Before saying their goodbyes to the seven astronauts remaining aboard the station, NASA's Raja Chari, NASA's Tom Marshburn, NASA's Kayla Barron and ESA's Matthias Maurer embraced each other. Mr Maurer said, “It’s the end of a six-month mission, but I t
On Monday, the US government allocated more than $3 billion in infrastructure funding to finance electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing. The US Department of Energy will allocate these funds from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill that was signed by President Biden last year. By 2030, Biden wants half of all new vehicles to be electronic, with an aim to boost unionized manufacturing jobs in important election battleground states, fend off Chinese competition in a fast-growing market, and cut climate-changing carbon emissions. Moreover, the administration is positioning the measures a
On Friday, a Singaporean Research scientist Wang Weimin wins a $100 k prize in a challenge to develop the best artificial intelligence (AI) model for detecting Deepfakes or digitally altered video clips. Deepfake technology uses artificial intelligence to simulate the likeness and voice of another person by generating highly realistic images and audio. In addition to creating entertainment content and Internet memes, it has also been used to disseminate misinformation. In a five-month challenge, Wang's model was 98.53 per cent accurate and beat 469 other teams around the world. The mode
Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute developed a novel silver-based coating for implants that can reduce infection caused in patients sometimes. The silver coating can be applied to devices like stents or catheters and is described as a “silver bullet”. The term is used to address the problem of bacteria caused for patients with medical device implants that often complicate conditions. Professor at UBC’s Department of Pathology and laboratory medicine, Dr Kizhakkedathu said, “This is a highly effective coat