Agni-5, India’s answer to China’s Dongfeng-31A missile

India's Agni-5 can target our Harbin city: China

India's Agni 5 Missile scares China

India’s ultimate Intercontinental ballistic missile—nuclear-capable Agni-5

The mighty Chinese dragon is finally growing nervous at the growing reach of the Indian missile programme. According to agency reports from Beijing, the leading official Chinese newspaper People’s Daily has claimed that the Agni-5 missile — India’s latest nuclear-capable missile being developed by the DRDO’s Hyderabad-based Advanced Systems Laboratories — can even target China’s northern-most city of Harbin.

“India’s Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) has made its forthcoming Agni-5 missile highly road-mobile, or easily transportable by road, which would bring Harbin, China’s northernmost city within striking range if the Agni-5 is moved to north-east India,” agency reports quoted the People’s Daily as stating. Harbin is the capital of China’s Heilongjiang Province. The paper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, noted that the Agni-5 which has a range of 5,000 km is similar to the Dongfeng-31A showcased during China’s National Day military parade on October 1 in Beijing. India is going to test-fire the missile in early 2011, the Chinese report claimed. Officials of the DRDO had indicated earlier that the designing of the Agni-5 missile — that will have an estimated range of 5,000 to 6,000 km — could be completed by the end of 2010 following which the missile could be tested as early as 2011.

“The development of the Agni-5 missile programme is on schedule,” defense sources said on Friday, without elaborating.

The development of the Agni-5 missile is the next step for India’s missile programme after the Agni-3 missile which has a range of 3,500 kms. The Agni-3 missile is already currently undergoing trials and is the first missile that can strike large parts of China. The Agni-5 missile, on the other hand, is expected to bring the whole of China under its range which is why the Chinese are growing increasingly nervous. China, which has missiles that can reach every part of India, has an advanced missile programme and has demonstrated the ability to knock out even satellites in space. While the Agni-3 is a two-stage ballistic missile, the Agni-5 missile will be designed to be a three-stage ballistic missile (for greater reach) capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads. The Agni-V missile will be launched from canisters and can be moved quickly by road so that it can be launched from venues that are closer to the target.

China To Start Space Station in 2010 or 2011

China is planning to launch their own space station, named Tiangong, by the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011. There have been a few instances where information about the station surfaces briefly over the past few years about the development of the space station. Specific details on the program are not being release in large doses by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), so the development of the station is somewhat shrouded in mystery.

Qi Faren, one of the designers of the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft, said in an interview on CCTV last month of the upcoming launch, "Quality is the key to technology. We must guarantee a successful launch. We will launch it whenever we are ready. It will be the end of 2010, or the beginning of 2011."

NASA eyes three cheap space missions

NASA has named low-cost missions to Venus, the moon and an asteroid on a shortlist to become its latest space adventure, as the US agency faces astronomical political pressure to cut costs.

The proposed probes -- to the surface of Venus, the moon and to bring back a piece of a primitive asteroid -- must all come with a price tag of less than 650 million dollars, a fraction of the cost of manned space flight.

The agency, in a statement Tuesday, said the winner of the competition will be announced in mid-2011, with the project to launch by the end of 2018.

NASA has faced growing pressure to cut its budget as the US government's debt soars and as the United States buckles under the deepest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Megha-Tropiques

ISRO and French National Space Centre (CNES) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2004-05 for the development and implementation of Megha-Tropiques (Megha meaning cloud in Sanskrit and Tropiques meaning tropics in French).

The launch of Megha-Tropiques is planned by 2009-2010.Megha-Tropiques is aimed at understanding the life cycle of convective systems and to understand their role in the associated energy and moisture budget of the atmosphere in the tropical regions. The satellite will carry an Imaging Radiometer, a six channel Humidity Sounder and GPS Radio Occultation System.

India and Russia to launch Youthsat

YOUTHSAT is a joint scientific mission between India and Russia with participation of youth from both the countries to celebrate the golden Jubilee of the satellite era.

The second satellite in the micro satellite series proposed is YOUTHSAT which will carry payloads of scientific interest with participation of youths from Universities at graduate, post graduate and research scholar level. Youth from universities will participate from testing of the payloads in laboratory up to utilization of the data from payloads. Participation of youth will inculcate interest in space related activities and provide opportunities for realization of future payloads for scientific experiments. The micro satellite bus is planned and designed to carry different kinds of payloads like earth imaging, atmospheric applications, weather monitoring, stellar observations, scientific experiments etc.

YOUTHSAT is planned to be launched as auxiliary satellite along with any remote sensing satellite planned for launch during 2009-10 in a polar sun-synchronous orbit of local time of around 0900 to 1030 hrs.