UN satellite analysis tracks Ukraine cultural damage

 Yahoo – AFP, October 26, 2022 

The United Nations is using before-and-after satellite imagery to monitor the cultural destruction inflicted by Russia's war in Ukraine, announcing Wednesday it will launch its tracking platform publicly within days. 

The UN's culture agency UNESCO said it had verified damage to 207 cultural sites in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on February 24. 

They include 88 religious sites, 15 museums, 76 buildings of historical and or artistic interest, 18 monuments and 10 libraries. 

"Our conclusion is it's bad, and it may continue to get even worse," UNESCO's cultural and emergencies director Krista Pikkat told reporters at a briefing in Geneva. 

So far in the war, none of the seven world heritage sites have been damaged. 

UNESCO -- the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization -- has joined forces with the UN Satellite Centre UNOSAT. 

Based on reports on the ground, UNESCO sends a list of potentially damaged sites to UNOSAT. It then asks for satellite images from commercial suppliers and a small team of experts studies the difference in before-and-after pictures. 

The team matches up the images and is then able to give a time window in which the damage took place. 

It does not attribute blame for the damage. 

"This is a kind of pilot experiment to see how we can usefully compile this information, and possibly in the long term, the ambition would be to widen the scope beyond Ukraine and take the tool to a global level so we can really have a kind of real-time, interactive tool for our experts," said Pikkat. 

UNESCO is also working with museums and collections in Ukraine to try to combat against the threat of looting -- a common problem in war. 

UNESCO has been discussing with Kyiv about possibly removing cultural heritage items from the country for the duration of the war, but Pikkat acknowledged that it was a "difficult call", with the first move being to evacuate collections to safer parts of Ukraine.

Dutch space technology ‘game changer’ for pollution detection

DutchNews, November 22, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

In a scientific first, Dutch and North-American scientists have detected a large source of methane pollution using space technology. 

The satellite-borne TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI), which was developed in the Netherlands, was launched on 13 October 2017 and does world-wide sweeps of the planet in search of greenhouse emissions. 

The source of the harmful greenhouse gas turned out to be an oil and gas installation in Turkmenistan in Central Asia. After the leak was reported to the company subsequent satellite images confirmed that the leak had been dealt with. 

Physics professor Ilse Aben from the Dutch institute for space research SRON, which was involved in the research, told public broadcaster NOS the leak was discovered ‘more or less by accident’.  It was flagged up at the beginning of this year by Canadian and American colleagues and who were doing methane measurements related to volcanic activity. 

‘Their measurements are limited to smaller areas while Tropomi covers the whole planet. However, they can zoom in more and on detecting a number of methane sources they contacted us to see if we could spot them too. And we could,’ Aben told the broadcaster. 

Pieternel Levelt, head of satellite detection at project leader KNMI, called the event ‘a game changer’. ‘The fact that we can detect this sort of methane leaks all over the world is very important for the climate. The instrument is having a huge impact.’ 

Tropomi, and others like it, will in future be used not only for the detection of individual sources of methane but also to check whether countries and businesses are complying with international climate protection agreements. 

‘The European Union is currently working with the European Space Agency (ESA) on new satellites which are going to measure CO2 levels from space in a few years’ time,’ Levelt said. 

CO2 is largely responsible for the warming up of the planet but methane contributes about a third of harmful gases. The most common sources for methane are cattle breeding, the oil and gas industry and coal mines.

India puts record 104 satellites into orbit

Yahoo – AFP, Arun SANKAR, February 15, 2017

Onlookers watch the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C37) at Sriharikota on Febuary 15, 2017
(AFP Photo/ARUN SANKAR)

India successfully put a record 104 satellites from a single rocket into orbit on Wednesday in the latest triumph for its famously frugal space programme.

Celebrations erupted among scientists at the southern spaceport of Sriharikota as the head of India's Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced all the satellites had been ejected as planned.

"My hearty congratulations to the ISRO team for this success," the agency's director Kiran Kumar told those gathered in an observatory to track the progress of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the scientists for achieving the feat which smashes a record previously held by Russia.

"They have hit a century in space technology," Modi said at an election rally in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

The rocket took off at 9:28am (0358 GMT) and cruised at a speed of 27,000 kilometres (16,777 miles) per hour, ejecting all the 104 satellites into orbit in around 30 minutes, according to ISRO.

The rocket's main cargo was a 714 kilogram (1,574 pounds) satellite for Earth observation but it was also loaded with 103 smaller "nano satellites", weighing a combined 664 kilograms. The smallest weighed only 1.1 kilogram.

Nearly all of the nano satellites are from other countries, including Israel, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and 96 from the United States.

Eighty-eight of them are from Planet Inc - a San Francisco-based Earth imagery company - and weigh 4.5 kilogram each.

Only three satellites belonged to India.

Scientists sat transfixed as they watched the progress of the rocket on monitors until the last payload was ejected, and then began punching the air in triumph and hugging each other.

This was PSLV's 39th successful mission, known as India's space workhorse.

India space mission (AFP Photo/Gal ROMA)

World record

The launch means India now holds the record for launching the most satellites in one go, surpassing Russia which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.

And it is another feather in the cap for ISRO which sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million, compared with NASA's Maven Mars mission which had a $671 million price tag.

ISRO is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus.

The business of putting commercial satellites into space for a fee is growing as phone, Internet and other companies, as well as countries, seek greater and more high-tech communications.

India has carved out a reputation as a reliable low-cost option, relying in part on its famed skill of "jugaad" -- creating a cheap alternative solution.

Experts say much of its credibility stems from India's successful launch of the Mars orbiter, which gave it an edge over its rivals in the space race.

"India is proving to be a very viable option because of the cost and the reliability factor," said Ajay Lele, a senior fellow at the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

"India has been doing these launches successfully and has established itself as a very reliable player."

Mathieu J Weiss, a liaison officer for France's CNES national space agency who is currently in India, said ISRO had pulled off a major feat.

"It's a great technical challenge to launch so many satellites at once into orbit on the right trajectory so that they don't make contact with each other," he told AFP.

Weiss said India had become a major player in the space race by making itself so competitive with its low costs and by working with private companies which are space specialists.

"India has become a space power in its own right in recent years," he added.

Last June, India set a national record after it successfully launched a rocket carrying 20 satellites, including 13 from the US.

The 50-year-old space agency plans to send four more rockets into space later this year ahead of its second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 slated for 2018.

Modi has often hailed India's budget space technology, quipping in 2014 that a rocket that launched four foreign satellites into orbit had cost less to make than Hollywood film "Gravity".

India launched 104 satellites into orbit in one go, snatching world record from Russia https://t.co/4gMHBtDZsY pic.twitter.com/yp4HbTV8pr

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 15, 2017

World nations reach landmark deal on using satellites to track flights

Yahoo – AFP, 12 Nov 2015

Crewman aboard an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft looks at his radar screens

 while searching for the missing Malaysia Airways Flight MH370 over the Indian 

Ocean on March 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Richard Wainwright)

Geneva (AFP) - World nations struck a landmark deal Wednesday on using satellites to track flights, which could prove key to preventing a repeat of the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 in March 2014.

Countries reached an accord at a conference hosted by the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that aimed to improve on the current civilian flight-tracking system which relies on ground-based radars.

"In reaching this agreement... ITU has responded in record time to the expectations of the global community on the major issue concerning global flight tracking," the organisation's secretary general, Houlin Zhao, said in a statement.

The ITU statement made clear the deal was driven by the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 which was lost en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people onboard.

That tragedy "spurred worldwide discussions on global flight tracking and the need for coordinated action," the organisation said.

Representatives of more than 160 nations attended the talks, known as the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC).

It was tasked with determining the technical requirements for a tracking system capable of providing complete surveillance of global airspace.

The ITU said a frequency band previously used to transmit signals from aircraft to terrestrial stations would be enabled to send transmissions from aircraft to satellites.

This change will enable "real-time tracking of aircraft anywhere in the world,” said Francois Rancy, director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau.

The new system is expected to be fully implemented in 2017, but Rancy noted that most planes already have the necessary equipment, so compliance will not pose major logistical hurdles.

US Ambassador Decker Anstrom praised the deal, saying it would "enable better tracking and location of aircraft that otherwise could disappear from terrestrial tracking systems.”

A photo taken on October 7, 2015 shows the headquarters of the International

 Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN specialized agency for information and

communication technologies in Geneva (AFP Photo/Fabrice Coffrini)

The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization has previously voiced support for a proposal that would make it obligatory for airlines to track their aircraft using a system that gives its location at 15-minute intervals.

The ground-based radars currently in use can track a plane but coverage is sketchy and fades when aircraft are out at sea or they are flying below a certain altitude, shortcomings that intensified the need to develop a better system.

Finding consensus on other agenda items at the WRC could prove tougher however, including discussions on using existing satellites to provide coordinates to civilian unmaned aircraft systems, or drones.

Countries are also discussing whether to shift the way radio spectrum is used by different radio transmission technologies and applications.

The United States among others wants to see a reallocation of a significant amount of spectrum for mobile technologies and emerging 5G mobile networks.

But this is a touchy subject, as most of the high-quality spectrum is today used by broadcasters, and striking a deal by the end of the conference on November 27 is not guaranteed.

World nations reach landmark deal on using satellites to track flights https://t.co/RE9NYeBDxH pic.twitter.com/srF4mQt5rC

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 11, 2015

Guizhou radio telescope may pick up signs of alien life

Want China Times, Chuang Shu-chung and Staff Reporter 2015-07-23

The radio telescope under construction in Guizhou, July 16, 2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

A 500-meter aperture spherical telescope (FAST) is currently being constructed on top of a Karst landscape in Pingtang county in the Qiannan Buyei and Miao autonomous prefecture of Guizhou. Once complete, the radio telescope will be the most likely avenue for China to make first contact with aliens, according to our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

On July 22 the installation of the first set of 1000 panels began. The telescope will incorporate 4,450 panels on completion, forming a 250,000-square-meter reflecting surface, roughly the size of 30 football pitches, which will give it the largest diameter of any telescope of its kind in the world at 500 meters.

The cable net is capable of moving along with celestial bodies, according to Zheng Yuanpeng, the technician responsible for the panels. The net automatically adjusts the 4,450 reflective panels which will lie on top of it, allowing the telescope to observe every corner of the sky. The telescope will reportedly be ten-times more agile than the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in the Ahrgebirge in Germany.

The head of production for China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), Yang Dingjiang, stated that possible contact with aliens is only one of the aims of the radio telescope. Yang said that the telescope was also aimed at exploring the origins of the universe, the structure of the interstellar medium, dim pulsars and dim radio sources, as well as searching for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

Related Articles:

NASA discovers closest Earth-twin yet (USA)

Hawking launches biggest-ever search for alien life (UK/Russia)

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

Europe launches satellite to boost color vision of Earth

Europe's space program has launched one of its new generation of satellites aimed at giving scientists a better view of Earth. Sentinel-2A is equipped with new equipment that will allow it to pick out more colors.

Deutsche Welle, 23 June 2015

The European Space Agency confirmed early on Tuesday that Sentinel-2A, the latest in its array of satellite aimed at monitoring environmental change, was safely in orbit.

2nd #Copernicus environmental satellite #Sentinel2 A safely in orbit http://t.co/wDMxZRJbV3 pic.twitter.com/x8fc3M5HwV

— ESA (@esa) 23 juni 2015

The announcement came soon after the agency confirmed the satellite had successfully deployed its solar panels.

From an orbital spot 488 miles (786 kilometers) above Earth, the satellite will collect data to document environmental changes and help shape reaction to natural disasters.

The satellite was lifted into position by an unmanned Vega rocket that blasted off late on Monday from the Guiana Space Center at Kourou, French Guinana.

Sentinel-2A adds a high resolution capability to the EU's Copernicus monitoring system. It is the latest part of the 4.3-billion-euro ($4.85-billion) Sentinel program to upgrade Copernicus and will operate in tandem with another satellite, to be launched in 2016.

Sentinel-2A was developed with the
 intention of revisiting areas of interest
more frequently than before

It will provide high-resolution imaging of vegetation, soil and freshwater to a resolution of 10 meters (32.5 feet), looping the world every 100 minutes. Equipped with the capability to scrutinize vegetation, Sentinal-2A could assist in improving food security and forest monitoring.

"By frequently revisiting areas, it will allow a new generation of operational products, from land cover and change detection maps, disaster maps and leaf area index to chlorophyll content and other bio-geophysical variables," said Volker Liebig, ESA's Director of Earth Observation Programmes.

The latest satellite's predecessor, Sentinel-1A, was launched in April 2014 to scan the Earth's surface with cloud-penetrating radar.

As one of the EU's flagship space initiatives, Copernicus monitors the world's land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere for evidence of environmental change and damage.

The European Remote Sensing Satellite, launched in 1995, was the first spacecraft to contribute to Copernicus. Initially known as Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, the initiative was renamed in 2013 after the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who determined that the Earth orbited the Sun.

rc/msh (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

Russia to build own space station by 2023, says Putin

Yahoo – AFP, 16 April 2015

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the worst is over for Russia's economy

 (AFP Photo/Alexei Druzhinin)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia plans to build its own orbiting space station by 2023, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday during a marathon call-in session with the nation.

"By 2023, we plan to create our own national space station in orbit," Putin said.

"This is something far-off in the future, but also necessary for us from the point of view of our national economy."

Russia and NASA recently agreed to keep operating and financing the International Space Station at least until 2024, but future joint space projects remain in doubt, as relations between Russia and the US have plunged to post-Cold War lows over the Ukraine conflict.

The Kremlin strongman said Russia needs its own space station to be able to view its own territory properly from space.

"We use the ISS actively for science and the economy, but from the ISS only 5 percent of the area of Russia can be seen," Putin said.

"From a national station, we should be able to see the whole of the area of our huge country."

"It goes without saying we will bring this project to fruition, and without any doubt, it will be under our control," Putin said.

Russia said earlier this year that it planned to create its own space station using its modules from the ISS after it is mothballed.

In March, the head of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, said at Baikonur after meeting his NASA that Russia would work jointly with its US counterpart on a project of a new orbital station.

But NASA did not confirm such a plan, saying only that the heads of NASA and Roscosmos discussed future cooperation.

China has also announced plans to complete a permanent orbiting space station by 2023 as part of ambitious plans to become a superpower in space.

The Russia-Soviet space station Mir was ditched in 2001 after 15 years of service.

Putin was speaking during a national phone-in that included a video link with workers at Russia's new cosmodrome under construction, Vostochny in the country's far east.

The new launch pad is designed to reduce Russia's reliance on its rented Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The delayed Vostochny project is mired in scandal, however, with those in charge of the construction under investigation and suspected of misusing millions of rubles in state funds.

'Space Silk Road' to back China's Belt and Road plan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-04-02

The new Beidou satellite is launched into space carried by
a Long March 3 orbital carrier rocket, March 30. (Photo/CNS)

At 9 pm on March 30, China successfully launched the Long March 3 (LM-3) orbital carrier rocket, carrying the first of China's new generation Beidou satellites, set to transform the Beidou satellite navigation system from a regional to an international guidance system, according to the Chinese-language website of China's Global Times.

On March 31 the China Satellite Global Services Alliance (CSGSA) held a press conference in Beijing, announcing the latest stage in the construction of a "Space-based New Silk Road." They stated that it will enable the smooth development of China's "Belt and Road" plan–comprising the New Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Space-based Silk Road

The deputy director general of the alliance in charge of daily operations, Wang Zhongguo, said at the press conference that at the end of 2014, the alliance decided to focus its strategy on the Belt and Road project and international expansion. Currently the alliance has established trial satellite receiving bases in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Hainan and Fujian, all important locations for the Belt and Road projects. After this it will move westwards over land, through Central Asia and Southwest Asia to Europe and over sea through the South China Sea, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean to Africa and South and Central America, establishing receiving stations all over the world.

The alliance is said to be an open interdisciplinary non-profit NGO, with members including the management of companies throughout the astronautical industry chain, research institute staff and academics.

Wang said that the alliance has entered into talks with a range of countries, including Malta, Malaysia, India, the US and Norway regarding establishing satellite receiving facilities within their borders. Satellite cooperation with Malta has already been incorporated into the country's trade treaty with China. He said that as well as the construction of new receiving stations, already established receiving stations can be used too. The Chinese University of Hong Kong previously built a ground receiving station, which will be able to receive signals from Chinese satellites, which it can then use to provide services to the public.

If the Space-based Silk Road is to be realized then the building of related infrastructure must be prioritized as a central project, he said. This can be done by improving the communications infrastructure within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SHO). Joint funds can be used to establish a low orbit data acquisition satellite system, improve the coverage of navigation along the Belt and Road routes and to build a remote sensing Virtual Constellation. Ground infrastructure must also be jointly constructed, including facilities for the receiving, processing and distribution of satellite information.

Satellites

Wang said that China currently has 120 satellites in orbit and that its communications satellites can provide coverage for 98% of the world's inhabited areas; China's remote-sensing satellites can also provide global coverage. The recently launched new generation Beidou navigation satellite brings the number of Beidou satellites to 17. The Beidou system is expected to have global coverage by 2020.

The Space-based Silk Road will comprise several dozen high capacity communications satellites, offering broad coverage, and these will be used as a supplement for data acquisition satellite systems. They are also expected to improve navigation services along the Belt and Road routes. The remote-sensing satellites will also engage in long term observation of land masses, the oceans, the atmosphere and environmental changes.

When asked if the Gaofen series of satellites would be incorporated into the Space-based Silk Road satellite system, Wang said that this would depend on the demands of the owners, as most were commissioned by businesses.

Wu Jiyun, vice director of the Satellite Technology Application Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, says that currently Beidou is second only to the US GPS navigation system. He added that Beidou's accuracy is already a match for GPS in the Pacific and that China intends for it to match GPS's capabilities worldwide by 2020.

Belt and Road

The Space-based Silk Road will enable the Chinese government to continue observing different regions of the world even in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseen circumstances. The system is also likely to help Chinese businesses expand internationally and it can act as a scout for infrastructure construction along the land and sea routes.

Yuanzheng-1 'space shuttle bus' enters orbit for first time

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-03-31

Concept art of the Yuanzheng-1 shuttle. (Internet photo)

China's Yuanzheng-1 ("Expedition") upper stage aircraft with the ability to launch more than 10 satellites went into orbit on March 30, the Global Times reports.

Yuanzheng-1 is one of the 40 spacecraft China plans to send into orbit in 20 separate launches in 2015, as declared during the annual meetings of the country's parliament and political advisory body earlier this month. The UK's Daily Mail described it as China's largest rocket which can restart its engine in space about 20 times. It can launch more than 10 satellites during the course of its mission.

Liang Xiaohong, party secretary of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, said the carrier rocket bearing Yuanzheng-1 can carry aircraft using its own power system after reaching an initial orbit. Using liquid propellant, Yuanzheng-1 can be operated for up to 6.5 hours in space.

Liang said the spacecraft will play an important role in China's future lunar and Mars missions as well as orbital transfer and space debris clearing.

Referred to as the "space shuttle bus" by various media, the first mission of Yuanzheng-1 is likely to be to launch satellites for China's Beidou Navigation System. Earlier reports suggest China plans to launch four Beidou satellites this year.

Russia offers US space station help after rocket explodes

Yahoo – AFP, 29 Oct 2014

A NASA video image shows an Orbital Sciences Corporation unmanned spacecraft

 exploding on October 28, 2014 at Wallops Island, Virginia, six seconds after launch
(Photo AFP)

Russia on Wednesday offered to help the United States with deliveries to the International Space Station after an unmanned American supply rocket exploded on lift-off.

"If a request is made for the urgent delivery of any American supplies to the ISS with the help of our vessels then we will fulfill the request," Russian space agency official Alexei Krasnov told state-run RIA Novosti news agency, adding that NASA had not yet asked for assistance.

An unmanned rocket owned by private firm Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded Tuesday in a giant fireball and plummeted back to Earth just seconds after a launch from Wallops Island, Virginia on what was to be a resupply mission.

Orbital's Cygnus cargo ship was carrying 5,000 pounds (2,200 kilograms) of supplies for the six astronauts living at the research outpost, a US-led multi-national collaboration.

Officials said the cost of the rocket and supplies was over $200 million, not including the damage caused on the ground.

People who came to watch the launch walk away after an unmanned rocket owned

 by Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded (background) October 28, 2014 just 

seconds after lift-off from Wallops Island, Virginia (Photo AFP)

Europe stopped delivering supplies to the ISS this summer, and the outpost is now resupplied by Russia and two NASA-contracted private American firms -- Space X and Orbital Sciences.

Russia on Wednesday successfully launched its own supply mission from the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan.

The Russian cargo ship Progress took off for the ISS on a planned mission to replace a sister vessel.

Krasnov said that the impact of the loss of the rocket on Russian operations at the space station would be "minimal."

China launches first mission to moon and back

Yahoo – AFP, 24 Oct 2014

A rocket carrying an experimental spacecraft intended for the moon and back
 launches from Xichang space base in China's Sichuan province on October 24,
2014 (AFP Photo)

Beijing (AFP) - China launched its first space mission to the moon and back early Friday, authorities said, the latest step forward for Beijing's ambitious programme to one day land a Chinese citizen on the Earth's only natural satellite.

The unnamed, unmanned probe will travel to the moon, fly around it and head back to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere and landing, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) said in a statement.

"The first stage of the first return journey test in China's moon probe programme has been successful," it said after the launch, from the Xichang space base in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The module will be 413,000 kilometres from Earth at its furthest point on the eight-day mission, it added.

The official Xinhua news agency said it would re-enter the atmosphere at 11.2 kilometres per second (25,000 mph) before slowing down -- a process that generates extremely high temperatures -- and landing in northern China's Inner Mongolia region.

The mission is intended to test technology to be used in the Chang'e-5, China's fourth lunar probe, which aims to gather samples from the moon's surface and will be launched around 2017, SASTIND said previously.

Beijing sees its multi-billion-dollar space programme as a marker of its rising global stature and mounting technical expertise, as well as evidence of the ruling Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

The military-run project has plans for a permanent orbiting station by 2020 and eventually to send a human to the moon.

China currently has a rover, the Jade Rabbit, on the surface of the moon.

The craft, launched as part of the Chang'e-3 lunar mission late last year, has been declared a success by Chinese authorities, although it has been beset by mechanical troubles.

Related Article:

Tests of China's first low-earth orbit comsat complete

India wins Asia's Mars race as spacecraft enters orbit

Yahoo – AFP, Gulab Chand, 24 Sep 2014

Staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) celebrate after the Mars

 Orbiter Spacecraft (MoM) successfully entered the Mars orbit, in Bangalore, on

September 24, 2014 (AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran)

India won Asia's race to Mars on Wednesday when its unmanned Mangalyaan spacecraft successfully entered the Red Planet's orbit after a 10-month journey on a tiny budget.

Scientists at mission control let up a wild cheer as the gold-coloured craft manoeuvred into the planet's orbit at 8:02am (0232 GMT) following a 660-million kilometre (410-million mile) voyage.

"History has been created. We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near impossible," a jubilant Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) base near Bangalore.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C)
 greets scientists after the Mars Orbiter
 Spacecraft (MoM) spacecraft successfully
 entered the Mars orbit, in Bangalore, on
September 24, 2014 (AFP Photo)

"The success of our space programme is a shining symbol of what we are capable of as a nation," Modi said, grinning broadly and hugging the ISRO's chairman.

The success of the mission, which is designed to search for evidence of life on the Red Planet, is a huge source of national pride for India as it competes with its Asian rivals for success in space.

India has been trying to keep up with neighbouring giant China, which has poured billions of dollars into its programme and plans to build a manned space station by the end of the decade.

At just $74 million, the mission cost is less than the estimated $100 million budget of the sci-fi blockbuster "Gravity". That figure also represents just a fraction of the cost of NASA's MAVEN spacecraft, which successfully began orbiting the fourth planet from the sun on Sunday.

India now joins an elite club of the United States, Russia and Europe who can boast of reaching Mars. More than half of all missions to the planet have ended in failure, including China's in 2011 and Japan's in 2003.

The PSLV-C25 launch vehicle, carrying the Mars

 Orbiter probe as its payload, lifts off from the

 Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota,

 on November 5, 2013 (AFP Photo/Seshadri 

Sukumar)

No single nation had previously succeeded at its first go, although the European Space Agency, which represents a consortium of countries, did also pull it off at its first attempt.

NASA sends congratulations

Now Mangalyaan has reached Mars, the probe is expected to study the planet's surface and scan its atmosphere for methane, which could provide evidence of some sort of life form.

Mangalyaan is carrying a camera, an imaging spectrometer, a methane sensor and two other scientific instruments.

NASA congratulated India on its "Mars arrival", welcoming Mangalyaan, which means Mars vehicle in Hindi, in a tweet to "the missions studying the Red Planet".

Indian engineers employed an unusual "slingshot" method for Mangalyaan's interplanetary journey, which began when it blasted off from India's southern spaceport on November 5 last year.

Lacking enough rocket power to blast directly out of Earth's atmosphere and gravitational pull, it orbited the Earth for several weeks while building up enough velocity to break free.

Critics of the programme say a country that struggles to feed its people adequately and where roughly half have no toilets should not be splurging on space travel.

But supporters say it is the perfect opportunity to showcase India's technological prowess as well as a chance for some one-upmanship on its rival Asian superpower.

"It's a low-cost technology demonstration," said Pallava Bagla, who has written a book on India's space programme.

Visitors look at a scale model of India's Mars Orbiter spacecraft, at the Nehru

 Planetarium, as a special preview on the Mars Orbiter Mission, in Bangalore, on

September 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Manjunath Kiran)

"The rivalry between regional giants China and India exists in space too and this gives India the opportunity to inch ahead of China (and capture more of the market)," Bagla told AFP.

The decision to launch the mission was announced in a speech an Independence Day 2012, shortly after China's attempt flopped when it failed to leave Earth's atmosphere.

India has so far launched 40 satellites for foreign nations, since kick-starting its space programme five decades ago. But China launches bigger satellites.

ISRO scientists said the Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM had "demonstrated and proved" India's "technological capabilities" and showed it was capable of venturing further.

"MOM is a major step towards our future missions in inter-planetary space," a beaming ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters.

The probe is expected to circle Mars for six months, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) from its surface. Its scientific instruments will collect information and send it back to Earth.

Indian mission on Mars beams back first photos

Related Article:

Indian mission on Mars beams back first photos