Today, April 29, 2021, the third-largest launch vehicle in the world, the Long March 5, decorated with a large CMS (China Manned Space) logo, carried the first and core module, Tianhe-1, of the Large Modular Chinese Space Station. China’s current accomplishment is the culmination of its aim,
Early this week, on 19th April 2021, the US space agency NASA achieved a rare feat, a first of its kind. NASA demonstrated a powered flight using a coaxial rotor drone, weighing merely 1.8 kilograms, from the surface of Mars. The INGENUITY, as the drone is called dotingly, was
The process of validating vaccines for public inoculation is methodical and tedious. The process is so quantitatively pragmatic that a decimal difference in the vaccine's efficacy matters a lot. There are many boxes to tick. The first box to check is vaccine efficacy; the second is the ease
India has had big successes during its first stint as an observer in the Arctic Council. Since then, the country has made substantial progress in its climate action pledges and developed comprehensive strategies to mitigate climate change. With its re-election, India can now offer much more to the global
Indian cinema is notably underrepresented in the science fiction genre. Finding credible movies from this genre in a romance-infested Indian cinema is as arduous as finding a needle in a haystack. However, whenever an advertisement for a movie that comes close to this genre appears, it naturally rouses curiosity.
As the density of satellites increases in Earth's orbit, extreme space weather events like solar storms and radiation whiplashes threaten satellite constellations. A ‘whole-of-government’ approach is needed to address the challenges of space weather on India’s converging space and digital economies. By 2030, the global
With an increasing human footprint in the solar system, we need regulatory mechanisms to prevent biochemical contamination of unexplored celestial bodies. he world is on the cusp of the second space age. An increasing number of national space agencies, public and private space innovation start-ups, and space contractors are
Japan's former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's vision, which he expressed in India's Parliament's haloed halls in 2007, has finally been realised. The Security Quadrilateral Dialogue, QUAD, Finally saw the light of day, 14 years since its formal revelation. A significant success for
As more countries pursue missions to Mars, planetary explorations are evolving from being science-driven scientific pursuits to an economics-driven one. For India, commercializing planetary exploration must be a national priority. This demands more attention and contributions from the private sector - especially startups and innovative companies - to ensure a
The Union Budget 2021-22, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, has been a distinctive one for scientific research and development (R&D) for many reasons. It is the first budget of an extremely critical decade for the Indian economy; it is the first one after
Bharti Global’s stake in OneWeb has given India lateral entry into this lucrative and newly-competitive global satellite-based internet services market. India and the U.K., the two stakeholders in this company, can build and sustain this collaboration through a well-thought-out bilateral space diplomacy agenda. OneWeb,
India’s pledge to the Paris Agreement gives it the flexibility to confidently place its climate action policies across various multilaterals. Although an observer of the Arctic Council, India can collaborate with the body's upcoming chair, Russia, to alleviate climate change concerns stemming from the Arctic. It is