Newly-launched Indian satellite left stranded by propulsion problem
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
India just launched its first mission of 2025.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on schedule today at 7:53 p.m. EST (0053 GMT and 6:23 a.m. local time on Jan. 29).
It was the 100th launch overall from the storied spaceport, which lies on the barrier island Sriharikota, off India's southeastern coast. The first orbital liftoff from the site occurred in August 1979, according to The Hindu.
NVS-02 was expected to take up a position along the geostationary belt, around 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) above the equator.
Reaching geostationary orbit usually first involves launching into a low Earth orbit, before the rocket's upper stage fires to send the spacecraft into an elliptical transfer orbit, with a low perigee, or closest point to Earth, and a high apogee, or furthest point from Earth, around the altitude of geostationary orbit. When the satellite reaches apogee, the spacecraft fires its engines to raise the perigee and make the orbit circular at geostationary altitude.
This is, however, the point at which NVS-02 was found to suffer a value issue, could not fire its engines, and thus remains in transfer orbit.
ISRO is now looking into alternative solutions and uses for the satellite, potentially including using the spacecraft's smaller, attitude control thrusters to raise its perigee and prevent it deorbiting due to atmospheric drag.
"The satellite systems are healthy and the satellite is currently in elliptical orbit," ISRO says. "Alternate mission strategies for utilising the satellite for navigation in an elliptical orbit is being worked out."
RELATED STORIES:
— Major milestone! India becomes 4th nation to dock satellites in orbit
— Watch Chandrayaan-3's Pragyan rover adorably avoid a lunar crater (video)
— India launches Aditya-L1 solar observatory, its 1st-ever sun probe
NVS-02 is the second of five planned next-gen spacecraft in the Navigation with Indian Constellation. NavIC, which is designed to provide India and surrounding regions with positioning, navigation and timing services, similar to those provided by the US GPS and other systems.
The launch was India's first of 2025 and the 100th launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, situated on the barrier island Sriharikota, off India's southeastern coast.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
NASA's Parker Solar Probe spots powerful magnetic explosion aimed at the sun's surface
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. While making a death-defying dive through the sun's atmosphere, NASA's Parker Solar Probe has directly recorded a powerful plasma explosion heading toward our star's surface in unprecedented detail. Parker's new measurements found protons with about 1000 times greater energy than expected and a plasma jet shooting toward the sun, not away from it. Parker was uniquely positioned between the sun and the particles' source, allowing scientists to easily figure out where they came from. These findings indicate that the complexity and strength of tangles in the sun's magnetic field can accelerate charged particles to much greater speeds than expected from the field's strength alone. The sunward plasma jet was caused by "magnetic reconnection" in the sun's atmosphere — the explosive process in which magnetic fields fracture and reconnect. The powerful phenomenon transforms energy stored in the sun's magnetic field into energy that accelerates the solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles that the sun blasts across the solar system. Understanding magnetic reconnection is critical for making better predictions about space weather, which is driven by the solar wind and other energetic outbursts from our star. Space weather is a primary suspect for what stripped away Mars' atmosphere, turning it from a habitable planet into an icy desert wasteland. On Earth, space weather can trigger geomagnetic storms that cause blackouts, damage satellites, interfere with radio and GPS signals, and even put astronauts at risk. On the bright side, it also gives Earth its signature glorious auroras. The sun's magnetic field is extremely powerful, complex and dynamic. Space weather predictions require complicated computer simulations based on equations that describe how magnetic fields behave — but the sun is so large and convoluted that these equations will always be approximations. To improve the models' accuracy, scientists must collect extremely detailed measurements of the sun. This is where the Parker Solar Probe comes in. The Parker Solar Probe is the first mission to fly into the sun's upper atmosphere, called the corona. It has been directly measuring magnetic fields and particles in and around the corona in unprecedented detail, providing scientific insight into the heliosphere (the sun's atmosphere, which encompasses the entire solar system in a massive, elongated bubble). Related: NASA's daredevil solar spacecraft survives 2nd close flyby of our sun "These findings indicate that magnetic reconnection … is an important source of energetic particles in the near-Sun solar wind," lead study author Mihir Desai, director of the Southwest Research Institute's Department of Space Research, said in a statement. "Everywhere there are magnetic fields there will be magnetic reconnection. But the Sun's magnetic fields are much stronger near the star, so there's a lot more stored energy to be released." Understanding the workings of magnetic reconnection events could help scientists better predict harmful space weather, the researchers said. RELATED STORIES —New 8K-resolution photos of the sun show off incredible details of raging sunspots —Space photo of the week: Pink 'raindrops' on the sun captured in greatest detail ever —Powerful Mother's Day geomagnetic storm created radio-disrupting bubbles in Earth's upper atmosphere "Reports from the American Meteorological Society indicated that the powerful solar events in May 2024 wreaked havoc with farmers when extreme geomagnetic storms disrupted the precise GPS-guided navigation systems used to plant, fertilize and harvest rows of seeds, causing an estimated loss of up to $500 million in earning potential," Desai said. "Parker's access to this new data is critical, particularly as we remain in the midst of a very active solar cycle." The latest measurements of magnetic reconnection, reported in a paper published May 29 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, are one of many new discoveries Parker has made. In 2023, over 700 peer-reviewed scientific papers were published using data collected in the probe's first four years of operation, and there are still many more discoveries to be made. The spacecraft completed its second ultra-close flyby of the sun on March 22, zooming within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) of the sun's surface — matching its own record from December 2024.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Our planet's oxygen levels will drop, and there's no way to stop it
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. It's no secret that Earth is doomed. Sure, there's the threat of climate change and the fact that sea levels are rising around the world. But that's not what we're talking about. Instead, our planet's impending doom is actually set to happen billions of years from now, long after we're all gone, when the oxygen levels drop and life as we know it ceases to exist. When this change occurs, it's going to happen pretty rapidly, a study published a few years ago claims. It will be similar to the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) that happened over 2.4 billion years ago. Back then, oxygen flooded the Earth's atmosphere, giving birth to life as we know it today, or at least its earliest evolutionary forms. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 Researchers have long argued that atmospheric oxygen, which humans need to breathe, is unlikely to be a feature of habitable worlds forever. We've seen other planets around us that appear to have been stripped of their oxygen, like Mars and Venus. And many argue that Earth is set to see a similar future at some point down the line. Of course, the factors resulting in dropping oxygen levels are complex. Not only do we have natural global warming to blame, but human-driven climate change could also play a large role in the end of life on Earth as we know it. Models suggest that Earth's oxygen levels could drop as low as those of Archean Earth, when microbial life was the only life to be found on our little blue and green planet. Those levels of oxygen would, obviously, not be ideal for people or animals that require oxygen to breathe. Of course, there is always the chance that we manage to get off Earth and settle somewhere else before Earth becomes uninhabitable, but if we don't, and humans are still alive billions of years from now, then it will be the end of the road. Overall, Earth's future billions of years from now is looking pretty bleak. Scientists estimate that the sun will explode, effectively ending life in our solar system some 2 billion years from now. Before that happens, life on Earth will change drastically, as oxygen levels are expected to drop almost a million times lower than today, researchers told New Scientist. Luckily, the end of the world isn't the most pressing problem we have to face at the moment, though there are arguments about how we could possibly delay the inevitable. Even if we did, there's not really anything we could do about it but hope Elon Musk and NASA's plan to put humans on Mars in the 2030s works out. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
See the moon shine with famous red star Antares in the southern sky on June 9
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The waxing gibbous moon will shine close to the red star Antares in the constellation Scorpius on the night of June 9. Stargazers in the U.S. will find the moon rising higher over the southeastern horizon after sunset on June 9, with Antares shining brightly around 4 degrees to the lower left of the lunar disk. For context, your little finger held at arms length accounts for roughly 1 degree in the night sky, while your index, middle and ring fingers together amount to around 5 degrees, according to NASA. Antares is also known as the "Heart of the Scorpion" thanks to its prominent position in the zodiacal constellation Scorpius, which itself contains a number of stunning deep sky objects, such as the Messier 4 globular cluster and the closest stellar nursery to Earth — Rho Ophiuchi. As a red supergiant, Antares boasts a diameter 700 times greater than our sun and is known to shine roughly 10,000 times brighter. It is expected to end its life in a dramatic supernova explosion when it runs out of fuel — an event that could happen anytime from tomorrow to a million years or so from now. The lunar disk will appear to close in on Antares as the night of June 9 progresses, with the red star eventually setting above the moon's upper left shoulder as the duo slip beneath the southwestern horizon in the predawn hours of June 10. Viewers based in a number of southern hemisphere countries, including Australia, Tasmania and Papua New Guinea, will see the moon slide directly in front of Antares, blocking its light in an event known as an '"occultation" starting at 4:47 a.m. EDT (0847 GMT), according to Stargazers hoping to capture the majesty of the lunar surface should check out our handy guide detailing how to photograph the moon, while those looking for a closer view of the cosmos should read our lists of the best telescopes and binoculars for exploring the night sky. Editor's Note: If you happen to capture a picture of the moon and Antares and want to share it with readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@
