Tejas, India's first Light Combat Aircraft

India achieved a major milestone in military avionics today when the indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas was given initial operational clearance (IOC) on January 10 in a function at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited airport here paving the way for its induction into the Indian Air Force.

Defence Minister of India Shri AK Antony handing over the “Service Document of Tejas” to Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik during Initial Operational Clearance function of Indigenous Tejas Light Combat Air Craft at Bangalore on 10 Jan 2011.

Defence Minister Shri AK Antony handing over the book on “Release of Service Certificate” to Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik during Initial Operational Clearance function of Indigenous Tejas Light Combat Air Craft at Bangalore on 10 Jan 2011

Three suns over China

An optical illusion has caused the appearance of 'triple suns' in the Chinese skies.

An astronomical phenomenon that appears to show three suns appears above Changchun, the capital city of Jilin Province in northeast China. Two smaller suns appeared on either side of the sun, with a strong light on top. The smaller twins were about one-tenth of the size of the sun. Together with the bright light, they formed a round, rainbow-like aura around the sun.

Experts said that such a phenomenon is called "phantom sun", which is an optical refraction in the atmosphere. In winter, the clouds are formed by ice crystals and they are relatively higher in the sky than in summer.  When they happen to form a particular shape, they can reflect the sunshine in such a way that produces the astronomical phenomenon of "triple suns".

ISRO to implement Indian regional navigation satellite system

ISRO is planning to implement the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) to provide India and neighboring countries with the Position Navigation and Timing (PNT) service. 

The government had approved the project, which would be implemented in the next few years. Initially, the system would have seven satellites and then 11. At present, two space navigation systems operate in the world — the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). The Galileo of Europe and China's COMPASS (Beidou) are likely to start working in five to 10 years.

About the satellite navigation system, Prof. Kibe said a combination of satellite navigation and satellite communication had resulted in the production of handset phones capable of communication and position determination. ISRO's GPS-Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) project was being implemented for the benefit of civil aviation. It would especially be useful in aircraft landing.

“For landing, you need accuracy of less than six metres.” Despite being useful in position, GPS did not offer the guarantee of service, he said, and this shortcoming would be addressed in the GPS augmentation system like GAGAN.

Talking about the challenges in space observations, R.R. Navalgund, Director, ISRO Space Applications Centre, said very high resolution system, instruments to measure accurately greenhouse gases and constellation of satellites for disaster monitoring, besides long-term calibrated climate data records of land, ocean and atmosphere, would be required to assess the likely scenario of changes in the resources of the earth.

On space biology, P. Dayanandan, emeritus professor, said 14 nations of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, including India, were hopeful that one day, human beings might live and work in other destinations within the solar system. The most challenging of all problems in space colonisation would be to provide a permanent life support system.

The research now focused on building bio-regenerative systems, which would be based on the principle of biospherics that imitated the life-sustaining biosphere of the earth. He appealed to the Union government and the ISRO to establish a comprehensive space biology programme and give academic institutions greater encouragement.

ISRO to launch Singapore's first satellite

ISRO is going to launch Singapore's first satellite X-Sat in orbit February 2011. The launch of the satellite, dubbed X-Sat, has been delayed since 2007.  Experts estimated that the delay has raised the cost of satellite four-fold to more than 40 million Singaporean dollar from earlier estimates of 10 million, according to a report in The Straits Times today.

The X-Sat will be launched on Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has made 17 launches since its maiden flight in 1993, and have successfully put 38 satellites into the space out of the 40.

The X-Sat, a refrigerator-sized micro-satellite, would be in orbit for three years at a height of 800 km. It would take photographs to measures soil erosion and environmental changes on Earth, then relay them to a ground station at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said: “the PSLV was in the assembling stage. We will be doing the flight testing stage later in January, and are expecting it to be launched in the first week of February," he was quoted as saying in recent media reports.  The 100-kg X-Sat would be one of the three riding on the PSLV rocket

The X-Sat would make Singapore one of the first Southeast Asian countries to have locally-built satellite in space. The satellite is built by NTU, one of Singapore's top universities and research and development centers.