V. Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India, emphasised that collaboration is crucial for progress while speaking at the inaugural session of the US-India Space Business Forum in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Stressing the importance of collaboration, Mr. Narayanan pointed out that November 21, 1963, marked a major milestone for India, when the first tiny rocket lifted off from...
Tag: Science
Space is for everyone, collaboration crucial for progress, says ISRO Chairperson V. Narayanan
V. Narayanan, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India, emphasised that collaboration is crucial for progress while speaking at the inaugural session of the US-India Space Business Forum in Bengaluru on Tuesday. Stressing the importance of collaboration, Mr. Narayanan pointed out that November 21, 1963, marked a major milestone for India, when the first tiny rocket lifted off from...
What is a wet dress rehearsal?
A week ago, NASA found a hydrogen leak during a wet dress rehearsal of its Artemis II mission. A dress rehearsal in rocketry is a full run-through of activities that will happen on the day of launch, to validate people, hardware, software, and timelines as an integrated system. A dry dress rehearsal practices the countdown...
Indian space programme rooted in international cooperation rather than competition: ISRO chief
ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan on Tuesday (February 10, 2026) said that India’s space programme was conceived as a people-centric and application-driven initiative, rooted in international cooperation rather than competition. Highlighting six decades of the country’s space journey, Mr. Narayanan said the programme had evolved from modest beginnings into a globally respected ecosystem that serves not...
What explains SpaceX, Blue Origin stepping up their moon plans? | Explained
Two of the world’s most visible private space companies are shifting their attention and resources to moon missions even as both continue to speak about longer term ambitions to Mars and beyond. For many years, the public identity of SpaceX has been fused with settling humans on Mars. Its founder and CEO Elon Musk has...
What explains the SpaceX, Blue Origin moonward pivot? | Explained
Two of the world’s most visible private space companies are shifting their attention and resources to moon missions even as both continue to speak about longer term ambitions to Mars and beyond. For many years, the public identity of SpaceX has been fused with settling humans on Mars. Its founder and CEO Elon Musk has...
On gravity’s role in the earth’s journey through space
A fresh year has just started, and we are already a month old. Year endings and startings are always occasions to ponder. Here in IIT Kanpur, where some of us teach, the first week of January is always hectic. A new semester just started, students are back after winter breaks, and people are rushing through...
New AI method helps identify which dinosaur made which footprints
Footprints are among the most common kind of dinosaur fossils. Sometimes scientists find a single, lonely footprint. Sometimes they come across a chaotic jumble of tracks resembling a dance floor, sort of a dinosaur discotheque. But identifying which dinosaur left which track has been notoriously difficult. Researchers have now developed a method harnessing artificial intelligence...
Leo D’Souza, Mangaluru’s Mendel who worked to transform cashew industry
On January 20, 2026, Rev. Dr. Leo D’Souza, a Jesuit scientist based in Mangaluru, died aged 93. Dr. D’Souza, fondly known as Fr Leo, trained in the 1960s at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, working alongside stalwarts in the field such as Ingo Potrykus, Joseph Straub, and Sudhir Kumar Sopory....
SpaceX shifting focus from Mars to moon, Musk says
SpaceX is putting its longstanding focus of sending humans to Mars on the back burner to prioritise establishing a settlement on the Moon, founder Elon Musk said Sunday (February 8, 2026). The South Africa-born billionaire’s space company has found massive success as a NASA contractor, but critics have for years panned Mr. Musk’s Mars colonisation...
