The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and NASA are set to launch their collaborative Earth observation satellite, NISAR, on Wednesday, at 5:40 p.m. IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The mission, valued at $1.5 billion, aims to revolutionise the way we monitor Earth’s surface, particularly in tracking natural disasters and environmental changes. NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) is a landmark project, marking the first time the Earth will be observed using dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar, NASA’s L-band and ISRO’s S-band. These radars will be operated using NASA’s 12-meter unfurlable mesh reflector antenna, mounted on ISRO’s customized I-3K satellite bus.

Weighing 2,392 kilograms, the satellite will be carried into space aboard India’s GSLV-F16 rocket. The satellite will be inserted into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 740 km, where it will scan the Earth’s landmass and ice-covered surfaces every 12 days with high-resolution imagery over a 242-kilometer swath, utilizing SweepSAR technology for the first time.

“The Earth observation satellite jointly developed by ISRO and NASA will be sent into space on July 30 by the GSLV-F16 rocket made in India,” said ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan. He emphasised the satellite’s role in providing 24×7 imagery regardless of weather or lighting conditions.

Speaking to reporters at the Chennai airport on Sunday night (July 27), Narayanan added, “It can take pictures of the Earth 24 hours a day in all weather conditions and the satellite can detect landslides, aid in disaster management and monitor climate change.”

Earlier on Sunday, the Department of Space said in a press release, “The NISAR mission combines the technological expertise of both agencies. NASA has contributed the L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), a high-rate telecommunication subsystem, GPS receivers, and a deployable 12-meter unfurlable antenna. ISRO, on its part, has provided the S-Band SAR payload, the spacecraft bus to accommodate both payloads, the GSLV-F16 launch vehicle, and all associated launch services.”

-IANS

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Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams, days after landing on Earth following her extended mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), recalled her awe-inspiring experiences of viewing India from space during a press conference.

Having spent 286 days in space, Williams, when asked about how India appeared from above, replied with a simple yet profound, “Amazing, just amazing.” Williams, known for frequently sharing her Indian heritage, was particularly captivated by the breathtaking views of the Himalayas.

She fondly described how, every time the ISS passed over the majestic mountain range, her fellow astronaut, Butch Wilmore, would capture stunning photographs. “Every time we went over the Himalayas, Butch got incredible pictures; it is just amazing,” she said during the press conference, visibly nostalgic about the views. For Williams, who often speaks of her Indian roots, the sight of India from space felt like a personal connection to her heritage. “I have described it before like this ripple that happened when the plates collided, and then, as it flows down into India, it is many-many colours,” she explained.

She also described how, on seeing Gujarat and Mumbai from above, the fishing fleets off the coast became a familiar landmark, offering a sense of homecoming. “It gives you a little bit of a beacon, here we come,” Williams added. Moreover, Williams highlighted the remarkable view of India at night, with a “network of lights” stretching from larger cities to smaller ones, and the grandeur of the Himalayas as the backdrop. This unique perspective, according to her, was truly “incredible.”

The 59-year-old astronaut also shared her excitement about NASA’s upcoming Axiom mission, which will take four astronauts to space, including Subhanshu Shukla, an Indian Air Force test pilot and ISRO astronaut. “It’s pretty awesome,” she said, acknowledging the significance of Shukla being a “hometown hero” for India. Williams also expressed her willingness to contribute to India’s space program, saying she hopes to share her experiences and support the country’s growing space ambitions.

“I would love to be a part of that and help them along,” she stated. The astronaut, whose parents were born in India, also expressed a desire to visit her “father’s country” soon. As she chatted with Wilmore, the two joked about taking their crew members on a trip to India. “You might stick out a little bit. That is okay. We will get you all primed of some spicy food,” she said with a laugh.

–IANS

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NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have begun a 45-day rehabilitation program to help them adapt to Earth’s gravity after spending nine months in space.

The duo returned early Wednesday (Indian time) aboard SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission, splashing down off the coast of Florida. Following their extended stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS), the astronauts will now undergo physical reconditioning to counteract the effects of prolonged weightlessness.

Astronauts returning from space often experience physiological changes, including fluid shifts causing puffy faces, muscle atrophy leading to chicken legs, temporary height increase, and reduced bone density. Microgravity affects various aspects of an astronaut’s body, including aerobic capacity, muscle strength, endurance, stamina, balance, coordination, bone density, and neuro vestibular function.

The Astronaut Strength, Conditioning, and Rehabilitation (ASCR) specialists have implemented a structured reconditioning program aimed at restoring physical health. The rehabilitation process begins immediately upon landing and involves two-hour daily sessions, seven days a week, for 45 days. The program is customised for each astronaut, based on test results, medical status, and mission roles. The rehabilitation is divided into three phases.

The first phase starts on landing day and focuses on mobility, flexibility, and muscle strengthening. The second phase incorporates proprioceptive exercises and cardiovascular training, while the third and longest phase prioritises functional development. Past cases have shown that astronauts often regain and sometimes even improve upon their pre-flight physical condition after completing this program. Williams and Wilmore’s prolonged stay in space was unplanned.

They launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner on June 5 last year for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission. However, technical issues with the spacecraft’s propulsion system forced it to return without them, extending its stay aboard the ISS. Their situation gained widespread attention, sparking debates about space travel safety and even political discussions.

The return process began after Crew-10 arrived at the ISS on Sunday, allowing Williams, Wilmore, NASA’s Nick Hague, and cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov to begin preparations for their journey home. Seventeen hours after departing the ISS, their SpaceX Dragon capsule safely splashed down at 3:27 a.m. IST. Following their retrieval from the capsule, they were immediately sent for medical evaluations before starting their rehabilitation.

–IANS

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Indian-origin NASA astronaut Sunita Williams on Thursday stepped out of the International Space Station (ISS) for a spacewalk along with colleague Nick Hague, the US space agency said.

This is Williams’ first spacewalk in 12 years, and the eighth in her career, while it’s Hague’s fourth. The mission designated US Spacewalk 91, is expected to last around six and a half hours. Hague serves as spacewalk crew member 1 and is wearing a suit with red stripes.

Williams is serving as spacewalk crew member 2 and is wearing an unmarked suit. The astronaut-duo is currently working to perform maintenance tasks and replace hardware, NASA said.

“NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Suni Williams, step outside of the Space_Station to support station upgrades, including repairs to our NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer) X-ray telescope.

In a blog post, NASA informed that Williams and Hague will work to replace a rate gyro assembly that helps provide orientation control for the station and install patches to cover damaged areas of light filters for NICER.

They will also replace a reflector device used for navigational data on one of the international docking adapters. In addition, the pair will check access areas and connector tools that will be used for future maintenance work on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. NASA also informed a second spacewalk, scheduled to begin at 8:15 a.m. on January 23.

During the second mission, Wilmore and Williams will remove a radio frequency group antenna assembly from the station’s truss, and collect samples of surface material for analysis from the Destiny laboratory and the Quest airlock to see whether microorganisms may exist on the exterior of the orbital complex.

They will also prepare a spare elbow joint for the Canadarm2 robotic arm in the event it is needed for a replacement. Meanwhile, NASA has yet again delayed the mission to return Williams and Willmore to Earth, as the launch of SpaceX Crew 10 has been delayed to late March 2025. Williams and Willmore became the first to ride the Starliner, developed by Boeing. What began as an eight-day sojourn on the International Space Station (ISS) has extended to 10 months now in space for the astronauts, while the faulty Starliner, declared unfit for human travel by NASA, is back on Earth unharmed.

The astronauts were scheduled to return to Earth onboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule in February 2025. However, NASA opted to delay Crew 10 to allow additional preparation time for the new SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, to enhance the safety of the astronauts. Recently, Williams noted that she “wants to go home because we left our families a little while ago, but we have a lot to do while we’re up here.

–IANS

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The NASA-SpaceX spacecraft, carrying Crew-9 members NASA astronaut Nick Hague (commander) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov (mission specialist), was on its way to the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, in a mission that aims to bring stranded Indian-origin astronaut Sunita Williams back to Earth in February next year.

The NASA-SpaceX mission safely reached orbit, after it was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This mission is significant as it marks the first human spaceflight to launch from Space Launch Complex-40. “SpaceX Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). The new crew arrives at the orbiting lab Sunday, Sept. 29, for a five-month science mission,” NASA posted on X social media platform.

The targeted docking time is approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday (3.30 am Monday India time), according to NASA. The Crew-9 members will have two empty seats for NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Sunita Williams will fill when the spacecraft returns next year. The Crew-9 was initially expected to launch on Thursday but was postponed due to poor weather conditions due to hurricane Helene, currently impacting the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Williams and Willmore travelled to the ISS on an eight-day sojourn on the faulty Boeing’s Starliner. While the Starliner was declared unfit for human travel by NASA, and it returned safely to Earth, the astronaut duo are stuck in space. For the first time since May 2020 test flight, SpaceX launched two astronauts to the ISS on a Dragon spacecraft. In a bid to make room for Williams and Willmore in the orbiting lab, NASA had pulled out two other Crew-9 members — commander Zena Cardman and three-time shuttle flier Stephanie Wilson.

–IANS

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Alena Wicker, a young woman from the United States, has made headlines after she got selected to be a part of NASA, all of 16 years old. Alena, from the state of Arizona in the United States, has already completed her entire high school through homeschooling. She is also set to begin her college education at Arizona State University later this year.

The 12-year-old is confident she will be working at NASA by the time she is 16 years old. Currently, she plans to study astronomy,  planetary science and chemistry. In a video she posted online, she said, “I will fly one of those future spaceships by the time I graduate from college. It doesn’t matter what your age or what you plan to do. Dream for it and then accomplish it.” Alena said she was inspired by NASA after seeing NASA’s rover land on Mars after perseverance recently.

Alina’s ability to learn things quickly was first noticed by her mother, Daphne McCarter. After noticing that her daughter learned the whole school curriculum quickly, she realised that her daughter was a prodigy. “At the age of 4, Alena told me I was going to work for NASA and I was going to go there. Alina would point to the stars. She naturally had the ability for numbers and logos and science. So I started to develop that skill,” Daphne said.

Now, 12-year-old Alena plans to start a podcast to create her profile for a NASA job with a college course. Michael Gurney holds the record for the youngest person to graduate from college. It is noteworthy that he was just 10 years old when he received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology.

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NASA’s Perseverance rover made its historic landing on the red planet on Thursday as it hurtled headfirst onto the surface of Mars. The rover is the most advanced astrobiology lab ever flown to another world and was headed for a self-guided touchdown inside a vast, rocky basin called Jezero Crater at the edge of a remnant river delta carved into the red planet billions of years ago.

“It’s full of the stuff that scientists want to see but stuff that I don’t want to land on,” Al Chen, head of JPL’s descent and landing team, told reporters on Wednesday. Getting Perseverance to its destination in one piece after its 293-million-mile journey, he added, is far from assured.

According to space.com, this mission has been a decade in the making, which is why various officials from NASA expressed a lot of excitement and trepidation in a press conference held on Wednesday, February 17. A greater and better understanding of Perseverance comes after putting it in context with the 50 or so years of NASA’s Mars missions that came before. The groundwork for this life-seeking mission began with exploring signs of water from orbit, landing a few missions, and then sending out the first rovers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The Commune has already covered an extensive explainer about the Perseverance mission to Mars and its significance, which you can find here.

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Feature Image Credits: The Indian Express

In another feather on the cap of Indian-Americans, Bhavya Lal has been appointed as its acting chief of staff for the United States (US)’s apex space research body National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),  reports Times of India.

As per a statement issued by NASA, Lal has previously served as a member of the research staff at the Institute of Defence Analyses Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020 and has also led the analysis of space technology, strategy and policy for NASA, White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Space Council, the US’ Department of Defence and the intelligence community.

Lal is a highly accomplished academic and as per her updated bio in NASA, Lal “brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020. There, she led the analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organizations, including NASA, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community.”

Lal was also a member of President Joseph Biden’s presidential transition agency review team for NASA and oversaw the space body’s transition to the new political administration from the previous one.

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S Riyasdeen, a second-year Mechatronics student from Sastra University has been selected to be a part of NASA mission to make the world’s lightest satellite. Riyasdeen created a 37 mm sized FEMTO satellites VISION SAT v1 and v2 with a payload of 30 mm weighing 33 gms and is now the world’s lightest FEMTO satellite, the New Indian Express reported. He hails from Karanthai in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district.

“The satellites are named as VISON SAT v1 and v2 and both are of 37 mm in size and the payload is only around 30 mm with 33 grams weight and thus it has become the world’s lightest FEMTO satellites”, Riyasdeen was quoted as saying. He used polyetherimide thermoplastic resins as well as 3D printing technology.

Apart from polyetherimide thermoplastic resins, the boy deployed 3D printing technology to create the satellite. The competition was conducted by the National Aeronautical Space Agency (NASA) and had 1,000 participants from 73 countries. The competition was held for students between the age of 11 and 18.

SASTRA is to fund up to ₹5 lakhs as incubation grant to Riyasdeen to fulfil his aspiration to establish a successful start-up, said SASTRA Vice-Chancellor S Vaidhyasubramaniam.

உலகின் எடை குறைந்த செயற்கைக் கோளை வடிவமைத்து சாதனை புரிந்து தமிழகத்திற்கும், இந்தியாவிற்கும் பெருமை சேர்த்துள்ள தஞ்சையை சேர்ந்த மாணவர் ரியாஸ்தீன் அவர்களுக்கு எனது வாழ்த்துகளும், பாராட்டுக்களும்! இதனை நாசா 2021-ல் விண்ணில் ஏவ இருப்பது கூடுதல் பெருமிதமும், மகிழ்ச்சியும் அளிக்கிறது. pic.twitter.com/V6ixBrfzdg

— CMOTamilNadu (@CMOTamilnadu) December 28, 2020

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As the astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) beamed a message to their families back home on earth. they were in for a pleasant surprise, as some holiday levity had swept in. SpaceX Crew Dragon pilot Victor Glover showed off his socks, custom-printed with photos of his family, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency engineer Soichi Noguchi shared an early Christmas present for the team – a can of mackerel made by a group of schoolgirls.

The International Space Station will host seven crew members throughout the holiday season, the most ever for the orbiting laboratory in its 20 years of having humans living aboard.

The Expedition 64 crew members are taking the day off, but NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Kate Rubins, and Japanese space program astronaut Soichi Noguchi still took some time to send a message of “resilience” back home during a particularly difficult holiday season.

“Resilience” is also the name they gave to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that launched four of the astronauts to the space station last month.

The Expedition 64 crew members are taking the day off, but NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Kate Rubins, and Japanese space program astronaut Soichi Noguchi still took some time to send a message of “resilience” back home during a particularly difficult holiday season.

“Resilience” is also the name they gave to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that launched four of the astronauts to the space station last month.

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