NASA gives space cargo contracts

NASA(The National Aeronautics and Space Administration), has give a contract of USD 3.5 billion in contracts to start-up companies on to deliver cargo to the International Space Station after the US space shuttles are retired. Aerospace giants Lockheed and Boeing are failed to get this.

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), a Hawthorne, California-based company headed by PayPal founder Elon Musk, and Dulles, Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp are due to start cargo shipments to and from the space station beginning in 2010.

The USD 100-billion orbital outpost -- being assembled in stages with modules for living and research -- is a joint project by the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and European nations.

NASA decided to use a commercial contractor for deliveries rather than relying on the Russian Progress cargo vehicles, which help deliver supplies to the space station.

Russia will transport US astronauts to and from the station on its Soyuz capsules after the shuttles are retired in 2010. The proposed shuttle replacement will not be ready to fly until about 2015.

These commercial carriers will carry about 40 to 70 percent of our cargo to space station," NASA's associate administrator for space flight. SpaceX and Orbital Sciences beat out a Chicago-based consortium called PlanetSpace that included three of the U.S. space agency's prime contractors -- Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Alliant Techsystems Inc.

SpaceX's contract is for 12 flights for USD 1.6 billion, while Orbital will make up to eight flights for USD 1.9 billion.

Both companies had previously been awarded NASA contracts, worth a combined $500 million, to develop their orbital cargo delivery systems.

SpaceX plans to launch from a complex it built at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, beside the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orbital plans to fly from NASA's Wallops Island facility in Virginia.

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PSLV-C11 on its way to launchpad from Vehicle Assembly Building

PSLV-C11 on its way to launchpad

Galaxy's gigantic star discovered

Canadian scientists have discovered the hugest star so far in the Galaxy. Researchers from Montreal University in alliance with an international team of astrophysicists; have found that the super-large star has a weight 116 times that of the sun.The researchers has discovered the super-massive star in the company of yet another massive star whose mass is also 89 times that of the sun.These two massive stars form a binary system, with the lighter star waltzing around its heavier companion. They have a rotation period of 3.77 days.

Located in the massive star cluster NGC 3603 of the Milky Way, the super-massive two-star binary system has been named A1, a university statement said. NGC 3603 (entry number 3603 of the New General Catalogue) is a giant cloud of gas and plasma which is several hundred light years across and lies in the Constellation Carina in the Milky Way. It is about 20,000 light years from the sun.

The statement said the masses of these massive stars were calculated by a combination of observations made with the SINFONI (spectrometer for infra-red faint field imaging) instrument on the Very Large Telescope at the European Organization for Astronomical Research centre in Chile, and infrared images coming from the Hubble Space Telescope. The two stars are so massive and bright that the light they transmit shows characteristics that only Wolf-Rayet stars possess.

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Flying saucer (or) unidentified flying object

Flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object (UFO) with a disc- or saucer shaped body. It is described as silver or metallic covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, moving rapidly either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft.

The first highly publicized sighting was seen by Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. He never specifically used the term "flying saucer" and he was quoted the shape of the objects as a "saucer", "disc", or "pie-plate", and several years later added he had also said "the objects moved like saucers skipping across the water."

Flying objects sighting was followed by thousands of similar sightings across the world. Such sightings were once very common, to such an extent that "flying saucer" was turn a synonym for UFO.
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Flying saucer (or) unidentified flying object

Flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object (UFO) with a disc- or saucer shaped body. It is described as silver or metallic covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, moving rapidly either alone or in tight formations with other similar craft.

The first highly publicized sighting was seen by Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. He never specifically used the term "flying saucer" and he was quoted the shape of the objects as a "saucer", "disc", or "pie-plate", and several years later added he had also said "the objects moved like saucers skipping across the water."

Flying objects sighting was followed by thousands of similar sightings across the world. Such sightings were once very common, to such an extent that "flying saucer" was turn a synonym for UFO.
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Chandrayaan

What is Chandrayaan?

Indians are fascinated by Moon from ancient days and now 21st century india is ready to go on moon! Chandrayaan is the mission towords that aim.

Chandrayaan-1

On 56th indepence day, August 15 2003, India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced. "Our country is now ready to fly high in the field of science. I am pleased to announce that India will send her own spacecraft to the moon by 2008. It is being named Chandrayaan-1". In Sanskrit (language of Ancient India) "Chandrayaan" means "Moon Craft".
Moon has always fascinated Indians from ancient days and now 21st century india is ready to land on moon! Chandrayaan-1 is the first mission towords the dream. In Chandrayaan-1, the lunar craft would be launched using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) weighing 1304 kg at launch and 590 kg at lunar orbit. Lunar craft would orbit around moon 100 km from moon surface.