Latest news with #spacemission
Entrepreneur
2 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
NASA-ISRO's NISAR Mission Marks Turning Point for Indian SpaceTech
Scheduled for liftoff on July 30, 2025, at 5:40 PM IST, the mission will take off aboard the GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is gearing up for one of its most ambitious space missions. The launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite. Scheduled for liftoff on July 30, 2025, at 5:40 PM IST, the mission will take off aboard the GSLV-F16 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. NISAR marks a significant milestone in global space cooperation, combining NASA's advanced L-band radar technology with ISRO's state-of-the-art S-band radar system. The mission is set to deliver high-resolution, all-weather, day-and-night imaging of Earth. This capability is said to allow scientists to track crucial environmental changes, including land subsidence, glacier dynamics, and ecosystem health, with exceptional accuracy, making NISAR one of the most sophisticated Earth observation missions ever undertaken. This mission is particularly noteworthy as it represents ISRO's 102nd mission overall and the first GSLV launch dedicated to a radar-based Earth observation satellite. It highlights India's expanding leadership in space science and its capacity to successfully execute intricate international collaborations. The satellite will help scientists better understand processes involved in natural hazards and catastrophic events, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and landslides. NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center, FL has an advisory role for the NISAR mission.… — NASA's Kennedy Space Center (@NASAKennedy) July 29, 2025 NISAR's goal is to analyze Earth's shifting processes in unparalleled detail, providing essential data for the global scientific community. According to ISRO, the satellite's key objectives are to tracking land and ice deformation to better understand events such as earthquakes, landslides, and glacial melt; mapping terrestrial ecosystems and analyzing forest changes to monitor biodiversity and carbon sequestration and study oceanic zones, including shoreline alterations and rising sea levels, with joint research input from Indian and U.S. teams. Additionally, NISAR is also geared up to monitor seasonal variations in forest coverage, detect terrain shifts in mountainous regions, and track glacial activity in sensitive areas like the Himalayas, Antarctica, and the polar zones. These insights are expected to enhance climate models, strengthen disaster response efforts, and support effective management of natural resources. Yashas Karanam, Co-Founder & COO, Bellatrix Aerospace, said that the collaborative effort shown by ISRO in providing the launch service and the S-band SAR, and NASA providing the L-band SAR on this project, truly exemplifies what global cooperation focused on the well-being of our planet should look like. "For space tech startups, this represents a turning point. NISAR's data will fuel research and drive sustainable development. It's not just a science mission, it's a living laboratory for next-gen EO platforms, where sensing, autonomy, and onboard data processing converge at scale. This mission also signals a potential openness from both the Indian and US governments to pursue similar collaborations between private space companies in their respective nations," said Karanam. The satellite is engineered to scan the Earth's entire surface twice within a 12-day cycle. During its initial three-year mission period, it will generate high-resolution images of the planet every six days, enabling near-real-time monitoring of environmental changes. In contrast to earlier Indian Earth observation satellites focused mainly on national needs, NISAR has a global scope, offering valuable data for researchers, governments, and industries across the world. ISRO said through its X (formerly Twitter), "Two Nations. One Mission. India + USA = One mission to watch Earth. #ISRO #NASA builds, Earth benefits. This marks a key milestone in Earth observation technology. Built across continents in phases, NISAR is a result of global teamwork and tech. NISAR came together through years of integration and testing. NISAR's build journey is a story of teamwork."
NHK
3 days ago
- Science
- NHK
Japanese astronaut Yui arrives at Kennedy Space Center
Japanese astronaut Yui Kimiya and the other members of the crew set to depart for the International Space Station have arrived at the launch site in the US state of Florida. A Crew Dragon spacecraft is expected to lift off from Kennedy Space Center as early as Thursday shortly after 12 p.m. local time. The crew is scheduled to spend about six months at the space station. Yui and the other members from the United States and Russia arrived in Florida on Saturday. Yui told reporters that he is very grateful to be there as part of a great team. He added that they respect each other's cultural and linguistic differences, and that they will be able to show a good example of international cooperation. Yui also said the crew is ready just like his hair, which was cut short ahead of the mission's launch. Upon his arrival at the ISS, Yui is expected to take over duties from Japanese astronaut Onishi Takuya, who has been staying at the space station since March.
France 24
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- France 24
'Project Hail Mary' sends Ryan Gosling, and Comic-Con, into outer space
Gosling was joined on a convention panel by directing duo Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, as well as screenwriter Drew Goddard and book author Andy Weir -- whose previous novel "The Martian" was also turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon. Based on Weir's 2021 book of the same title, "Project Hail Mary" follows astronaut Ryland Grace (Gosling), a science teacher waking up to learn he was recruited for a space mission to save Earth from an existential solar threat. Gosling described his character as "a scared guy who has to do something impossible." "I knew it would be brilliant, because it's Andy [Weir]," Gosling told the crowd. "It took me places I've never been. It showed me things I had never seen. It was as heartbreaking as it was funny and I was... not just blown away, but also overwhelmed." Weir for his part said it was "so cool" to see his book come to life and complimented Gosling for giving "many layers to this character I made up." Lord and Miller, the Oscar-winning duo behind the "Spider-Verse" Spider-Man animated films, talked about the challenges of shooting a "crazy ambitious" film which takes place inside a spaceship for the most part. "We had to build an entire spaceship in two modes of gravity, and then we built this entire massive tunnel at scale," Miller said. "This is insane, to build a tunnel that was like 100 feet (30 meters) long, filled up an entire stage." The event also showcased various clips from the film, receiving a positive response from fans, who noted the bond formed between Gosling's character and an alien named Rocky. "The relationship between these two characters is the heart of the movie," Miller said. "I loved it," attendee April Rodriguez, who also read the book, gushed about the film. "I just never, like, envisioned it that way. So that was pretty cool." Star Trek Comic-Con, which bring some 130,000 fans for the convention in San Diego, California, welcomed the Star Trek universe to the main stage earlier in the day Saturday to showcase its upcoming releases. Thousands of fans filled the hall to watch exclusive footage from the fourth season of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" before it premieres on Paramount+. One clip showed Captain Christopher Pike played by Anson Mount in an entire episode where the cast is depicted like puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Fans were also offered a first look of a new Star Trek series, dubbed "Star Trek: Starfleet Academy" starring Holly Hunter. Hunter plays Nahla Ake, the academy's chancellor and captain of the USS Athena, who in a clip shown at Comic-Con welcomes a new class of cadets. "It was really interesting to get the offer to be the captain, but then also to combine that with being the chancellor," Hunter said. "The captain is there to analyze in emergency situations, and then to delegate. And the chancellor is there to guide, to collaborate and to have tremendous empathy. "It was just a wonderful combination of things," she added.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
NASA crew readies for ISS mission launch on Thursday
July 26 (UPI) -- An international crew of four is readying for Thursday's planned launch of a NASA mission to the International Space Station after arriving at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Astronauts Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency specialist Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov will travel from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A to the ISS while aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour. Cardman is the mission's leader. The crew landed at Space Florida's Launch and Landing Facility at 1:12 EDT after leaving from Houston on Saturday morning. "We are absolutely joyed to be here at Kennedy Space Center," Cardman said upon the crew's landing. "This is the first moment when it's really starting to feel real," she said. "This is the beginning of a week when things will feel progressively more and more real as we approach our launch." Mission pilot Fincke said the mission gives him another chance to fly aboard a spacecraft named Endeavour. "One of the last times I landed at the [Florida launch and landing facility] was on space shuttle Endeavour," Fincke told media. "Now we get to go on another endeavor - a Dragon Endeavour," he said. The Endeavour name honors the HMS Endeavour, which British Capt. James Cook used to explore and chart the South Pacific from 1768 to 1771. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will deliver the Endeavor into low Earth orbit, which will make the Crew Dragon spacecraft the most flown among SpaceX's fleet. Thursday's launch is scheduled at 12:09 p.m. EDT and would enable the Endeavor to dock at the ISS on Aug. 2 if the launch occurs as planned. The four crew members will join Expedition 73, which already is at the ISS. An Expedition 74 crew is scheduled to replace the Expedition 73 crew while the Crew 11 team is at the ISS. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Next astronauts could be heading to the space station in week: What to know about Crew-11
The next group of astronauts could be heading to space in a week, where they will relieve a group of spacefarers at the International Space Station who played a critical role in bringing the Boeing Starliner saga to an end. The mission, known as Crew-11, is the latest in a series of joint ventures between NASA and SpaceX to send astronauts to the outpost, where they spend months at a time conducting scientific research only possible in orbit. The four-person crew, which includes two NASA astronauts, are the first humans to fly to space since a relatively brief private voyage known as Axiom Mission 4 came to an end earlier in July after 20 days. The arrival of the astronauts selected for the Crew-11 mission at the space station will also pave the way for four others to leave. Their Crew-10 predecessors arrived at the ISS in mid-March in a headline-grabbing mission that set the stage for the long-awaited departure of the NASA astronauts − Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams − who crewed the ill-fated Starliner space capsule the year before. Here's everything to know about the Crew-11 mission and its impending launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What is the SpaceX Crew-11 mission? As the name suggests, Crew-11 is NASA and SpaceX's 11th science expedition to the International Space Station. The missions, most of which last about six months, are contracted under NASA's commercial crew program. The program allows the U.S. space agency to pay SpaceX to launch and transport astronauts and cargo to orbit aboard the company's own vehicles, freeing up NASA to focus on its Artemis lunar program and other spaceflight missions, including future crewed voyages to Mars. When was the first NASA, SpaceX Crew mission? What is the Dragon? The first of SpaceX's Crew missions ferrying astronauts to the orbital outpost on its Dragon capsule began in 2020. Standing nearly 27 feet tall and about 13 feet wide, Dragon capsules can carry up to seven astronauts into orbit, though most of SpaceX's Crew missions feature a crew of four. The Dragon is also the only U.S. spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to and from the space station. For that reason, NASA selected the Dragon to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two NASA astronauts who rode the Boeing Starliner capsule to the space station in June 2024 for the vehicle's inaugural human spaceflight test. Certifying the Starliner capsule for operation would eventually give NASA a second vehicle in addition to Dragon for regular human spaceflights to orbit. Who are the astronauts on the Crew-11 mission? The Crew-11 mission includes four spacefarers: Mission commander , a NASA astronaut from Virginia making her first spaceflight Pilot , a NASA astronaut from Pennsylvania making his fourth trip to space Mission specialist , a Japanese astronaut with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut making his second trip to the space station Mission specialist Oleg Platonov, a Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut making his first spaceflight Crew-11 astronauts reassigned after Boeing Starliner failure In an interesting twist, Cardman, Fincke and Yui all experienced major spaceflight assignment changes as a result of the Boeing Starliner debacle. Fincke and Yui were both originally selected to fly on the Starliner's crew rotation mission had the spacecraft's inaugural human flight test in June 2024 been a success. Fincke was also the backup astronaut on a flight test for which Wilmore and Williams were ultimately selected. As for Cardman, she would have flown on the Crew-9 mission in September 2024 before she and NASA astronaut Stephanie Wilson were bumped from the mission. Instead of a full contingent, only NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov traveled to the space station to leave two seats for Wilmore and Williams on the return flight. The decision was made when NASA opted to undock the troubled Starliner capsule without its crew, leaving Wilmore and Williams in need of a ride home. When will NASA, SpaceX launch Crew-11 for ISS? The Crew-10 mission is due to get off the ground no earlier than 12:09 p.m. ET Thursday, July 31, from near Cape Canaveral, Florida, according to NASA. SpaceX uses its Falcon 9 rocket – one of the most active in the world – to launch the crew missions from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Once in orbit, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that the astronauts are aboard then separates from the rocket, using its own thrusters to continue onto the space station. When will the Crew-10 astronauts depart space station, return to Earth? The arrival of Cardman, Fincke, Yui and Platonov will ultimately pave the way for their predecessors, the Crew-10 contingent, to depart the space station and head back to Earth. NASA astronauts Nichole Ayers and Anne McClain arrived March 16 at the station with JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov as part of the Crew-10 mission. That mission made headlines for its role in paving the way for the NASA astronauts who crewed the doomed Boeing Starliner to depart with the Crew-9 mission. But the Crew-10 astronauts won't leave right away. What follows upon the arrival of any astronauts is a brief handover period in which the new crew members are familiarized with the orbital laboratory and station operations. McClain, Ayers, Onishi and Peskov will then depart a few days later on the same Dragon capsule that transported them to the space station. Mission teams will also have to review weather conditions off the coast of California, where the Dragon will eventually make a water landing. Who else is at the International Space Station? Another three spacefarers are also living and working about the International Space Station as members of Expedition 73. That includes NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, who reached the outpost in April 2025 with cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky. Contributing: Brooke Edwards, Florida Today Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Crew-11? SpaceX astronauts prepare for space station mission Solve the daily Crossword
