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ISRO begins flight integration activity for next lunar mission

Agencies
October 25, 2017

Hyderabad, Oct 25: The ISRO has started flight integration activity for its next lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 and scientists are currently carrying out tests for the lander and the rover that will explore the moon.

Officials said the spacecraft launch, on board GSLV-Mk II, is planned for March and many new technologies have been developed indigenously to achieve the mission requirements.

Chandrayaan-2, India's second mission to the Moon, is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission nine years ago. This spacecraft is a composite model consisting of orbiter, lander and rover.

According to the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency, unlike Chandrayaan-1, wherein an impact probe crash-landed on the surface of the moon, Chandrayaan-2 will soft-land its lander with the rover on the lunar surface to conduct the next level of scientific studies.

"Things are going on. The orbiter is getting ready. Flight integration activity is going on, and a series of tests are planned for lander and rover. They are all in progress and we are working towards the first quarter (of 2018) launch of Chandrayaan-2," ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar told PTI.

Officials said rover flight systems test include "soil mixing exercise" and mobility test to evaluate the rover's wheel-soil interaction.

According to them, the lander configuration has been finalised to meet soft and safe landing at the identified site, as also payload configuration and interfaces with the lander.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had also established a lunar terrain test facility for conducting lander leg drop tests.

"It is a totally Indian mission; no other collaboration," Kiran Kumar said.

"It (Chandrayaan-2) differs from the previous one (Chandrayaan-1) in the sense that in the last one, we had moon impact probe that descended on the moon in an uncontrolled manner, whereas this (Chandrayaan-2) will carry a lander, which will descend on the surface of the moon in a controlled manner," he said.

After the lander lands on the moon, the rover will come out and it will do some in-situ observations and we will be able to get these observations through radio contact, Kiran Kumar said.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

Moscow, Aug 7: Russia will register its first vaccine against the coronavirus on August 12, Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev said on Friday.

The vaccine has been developed jointly by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry.

"The vaccine developed by the Gamaleya centre will be registered on August 12. At the moment, the last, third, stage is underway. The trials are extremely important. We have to understand that the vaccine must be safe. Medical professionals and senior citizens will be the first to get vaccinated," Gridnev told reporters at the opening of a cancer centre building in the city of Ufa.

According to the minister, the effectiveness of the vaccine will be judged when the population immunity has formed.

Clinical trials of the vaccine began on June 18 and included 38 volunteers. All of the participants developed immunity. 

The first group was discharged on July 15 and the second group on July 20.

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Agencies
June 26,2020

New Delhi, Jun 26: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday said the central government cannot shirk its responsibility of securing our borders with China and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take the nation into confidence on the situation in Ladakh.

In a video message put out as part of the Congress party's campaign to honour the Army personnel who sacrificed their lives in Ladakh, she asked why the country's soldiers were martyred when China has not captured any Indian territory, as claimed by the Prime Minister.

"Today when there is a crisis-like situation at the India-China border, the central government cannot shirk its responsibility (of securing them)," she said in a video message as part of 'SpeakUpForOurJawans' campaign.

"The country wants to know if China has not captured our land in Ladakh, as claimed by the Prime Minister, then why were our 20 soldiers martyred," she asked.

She said while the Prime Minister says there is no intrusion into Indian territory, experts after seeing satellite images talk of the presence of Chinese troops in our territory confirming the intrusions.

"When and how will the Modi government take back from China our land in Ladakh? Is our territorial integrity being violated by China in Ladakh? Will the Prime Minister take the nation in confidence on the situation at the border?" Gandhi asked.

She said the government should give full support and strength to the Army, saying "this will be true patriotism".

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News Network
July 21,2020

Lucknow, Jul 21: Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon, a veteran political figure in Uttar Pradesh where he had served as a cabinet minister, died at a hospital here early Tuesday.

The 85-year-old was admitted to the hospital on June 11 with breathing problems, fever and difficulty in urination.

He died at 5:35 am in Medanata Hospital, according to his son Ashutosh Tandon, a UP cabinet minister.

Lalji Tandon is survived by wife and three sons.

His body will be kept at his official residence in Hazratganj and later at his Sindhi Tola residence in Chowk to enable people to pay their last respects.

The last journey will start at 4 in the evening for the Gulala Ghat where his last rites will be performed later in the day, Ashutosh Tandon said in a statement.

The UP government has announced three days mourning as a mark of respect to Lalji Tandon, a former cabinet minister, a government spokesman said.

Belonging to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani era of BJP leaders, Lalji Tandon proved himself as an able administrator during his decades-long political career in Uttar Pradesh.

A former Lok Sabha MP, he was later given gubernatorial responsibility.

He took oath as Madhya Pradesh governor on July 29, 2019, when the Congress was in power in the state, after serving in the same post in Bihar for nearly 11 months. 

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