Science and Technology
India Successfully Test Fired N-capable Agni-I Missile
India on 11 September successfully test-fired indigenously developed nuclear-capable surface -to-surface Agni-I missile from Wheeler Island off Odisha coast.The Agni I has a range of 700–1250 km.
NASA Unveils World’s Largest Welder To Build World’s Most Powerful Rocket
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden officially unveiled the world’s largest welder to start construction of the world’s most powerful rocket – NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket – at NASA’s Michoud’s Vertical Assembly Center (VAC) on 12 September.
Nasa’s Maven Spacecraft Successfully Enters Mars Orbit
Nasa’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft on 22 September 2014 entered orbit around Mars, completing an interplanetary journey of 10 months and 442 million miles (711 million kilometers). Maven is a space probe designed to study the Martian atmosphere while orbiting Mars. Mission goals include determining how the Martian atmosphere and water, presumed to have once been substantial, were lost over time.
ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft Successfully Inserted into Mars Orbit
The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), also called Mangalyaan “Mars-craft” is a Mars orbiter launched into Earth orbit on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was successfully inserted into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014. It is India’s first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. This was also India’s first attempt to reach Mars orbit — historically, only Europe’s ESA made it to Mars on its first attempt.