Aug 18,2023: Chandrayaan-3 begins its final countdown to a successful Moon landing. The Indian spacecraft performed a successful separation of the Vikram lander module from the propulsion module on 17 August, ISRO informed. Now, only a few days are left before the lander module will make an attempt to do a soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon on 23 August. If the Chandrayaan-3 mission succeeds, India will become the fourth country to master the technology of soft-landing by a robotic lunar rover on the Moon’s surface after the US, China, and the former Soviet Union.
New Delhi, Aug 16,2023: The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved expansion of the Digital India programme with an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore.
The programme is aimed at re-skilling IT professionals under Future Skills Prime Programme, providing more services under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) platform, adding nine more supercomputers under National Super Computer Mission and modernisation of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) among others.
Digital India programme was launched on 1st July, 2015 to enable digital delivery of services to citizens.
“It has proved to be a very successful program,” said the government.
Providing details of the programme, an official release said that today’s announcement will give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem.
The expansion of the Digital India programme would also enable setting up of three Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities.
Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), August 14,2023: Nine people have been killed and several others are feared trapped under the debris of a temple, which collapsed in Shimla after being hit by a landslide triggered by heavy rainfall on Monday.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu expressed his condolences over the deaths and said efforts are underway to rescue the people trapped under the debris of the collapsed temple in the Summer Hill area.
“As of now, nine bodies have been retrieved. The local administration is diligently working to clear the debris in order to rescue individuals who may still be trapped,” the Himachal Pradesh chief minister said in a post on the ‘X’ app (formerly known as Twitter.
Sukhu along with state minister Vikramaditya Singh also visited the site of the temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.
“Twenty to 25 people are trapped under debris here. A total of 21 people have died in the last 24 hours in the state. I appeal to people to stay indoors, to not venture near rivers and landslide-prone areas. Restoration work will begin as soon as rain stops,” the chief minister said.
Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi, Superintendent of Police (SP) Shimla earlier said that a landslide had struck the temple and there was threat to nearby buildings also. “Several people have been stranded. We are waiting for more details,” he said.
Chennai, Aug 14,2023: After the third moon mission Chandrayaan-3,the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready for the launch of Aditya-L1 Solar Exploratory mission to study the Sun, from the spaceport of Sriharikota.
ISRO will be using its reliable and workhorse launch vehicle PSLV for the Sun mission.
ISRO on Monday said “PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1 Mission: Aditya-L1, the first space-based Indian observatory to study the Sun is getting ready for the launch.”
The satellite was realised at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC),Bengaluru and has arrived at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota, it said, in an update on the Sun mission.
Chennai, Aug 14,2023: India’s third Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3 on Monday commenced the Orbit circularisation phase after its orbit was reduced for the third time.
After today’s precise maneuvre performed between 1130hrs & 1230hrs it has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150- km x 177 km. The next Operation is planned on Wednesday when the the propulsion module will separate from the lander ahead of the soft landing on the South pole region of the moon on August 23 evening.
In an update ISRO said “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Orbit circularisation phase commences.
“Precise maneuvre performed today has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150 km x 177 km”.
The next operation is planned for August 16, 2023, around 0830 hrs, it said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had on August 9 successfully performed the second crucial maneuvre to further reduce the Orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft and took it even closer to the moon’s surface.
After the second operation, the orbit of Chandrayaan-3’s was reduced to 174 km x 1437 km and was taken further closer to the moon, it said.
After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was injected into the Lunar Orbit on August 5, it had successfully underwent the first planned Orbit reduction manoeuver late on night of April 6.
The retrofiring of engines has brought the spacecraft closer to the Moon’s surface to 170 X 4313 km.
This maneuver was the first in a series of maneuvers planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3’s Orbit and position it over the Lunar poles.
“As the mission progressed, a series of maneuvers were done to to gradually reduce the Chandrayaan-3’s orbit and position it over the lunar poles”, ISRO said.
After some maneuvers, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Following that, a series of complex braking maneuvers will be executed to facilitate a soft landing in the hitherto unexplored South Polar region of the Moon on August 23. The Space Agency said the health of Chandrayaan-3 is normal.
“Throughout the mission, the health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC), the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antenna at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, with the support from European Space Agency (ESA) and JPL Deep space antenna.