ESA-CAS SMILE Mission Launched

19 May 2026National

The European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly launched the SMILE mission to study the interaction between the solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere.

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GSAT-7B, the Indian Army's First Dedicated Communication Satellite, Targeted for a Mid-2028 Launch

ISRO is targeting a mid-2028 launch for GSAT-7B, the Indian Army's first dedicated communication satellite, which will carry secure voice, data and video links for troops in high-altitude and border areas and reduce the Army's dependence on Air Force and civilian capacity. The Ministry of Defence signed a ₹2,963 crore contract with NewSpace India Limited, ISRO's commercial arm, in March 2023 for its indigenous design and manufacture, and it is billed as India's heaviest communication satellite. It follows GSAT-7 Rukmini for the Navy and GSAT-7A for the Air Force, and runs alongside the Navy's GSAT-7C and Varunastra contracts cleared in October 2026.

GK ByteISRO was founded in 1969 and is headquartered at Bengaluru under the Department of Space, with Antrix and NewSpace India Limited as its commercial arms | GSAT-7, nicknamed Rukmini, was launched in 2013 for the Indian Navy and provides maritime communication over the Indian Ocean Region | NewSpace India Limited was incorporated in March 2019 and is headquartered in Bengaluru

📅 22 Oct 2026InternationalRead complete →

Skyroot Aerospace Signs Two-Launch Contract with US Firm Reflect Orbital for On-Demand Sunlight Satellites

Skyroot Aerospace, the Hyderabad-based launch company founded in 2018, signed a contract with the US startup Reflect Orbital for two dedicated satellite launches on its Vikram rockets. Reflect Orbital plans satellites carrying large mirrors that redirect sunlight to chosen locations after sunset, offering controllable illumination over about 5 km with an on-off option for search-and-rescue, solar farms, remote industrial zones and defence. The first mission will fly on Vikram-1 and the second on the more powerful Vikram-1U, which adds first-stage boosters. Skyroot launched Vikram-S in November 2022 as India's first private rocket and flew Vikram-1 to orbit in July 2026.

GK ByteSkyroot Aerospace was founded in 2018 by former ISRO engineers Pawan Kumar Chandana and Naga Bharath Daka and is headquartered at Hyderabad | Vikram-S, launched on 18 November 2022 from Sriharikota under Mission Prarambh, was India's first privately developed rocket | IN-SPACe, set up in 2020 and headquartered at Ahmedabad, is the single-window regulator and promoter for India's private space sector

📅 19 Oct 2026InternationalRead complete →

NASA Picks PUFFINS, a USD 20 Million Ultraviolet SmallSat Led by Bengaluru-Born Ramya Anche

NASA has selected PUFFINS - Polarimetry in the Ultraviolet to Find Features in INterStellar dust - a USD 20 million small-satellite mission under its Astrophysics Pioneers programme, with Bengaluru-born Ramya Anche of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory as Principal Investigator. A roughly 10-inch telescope will use ultraviolet spectropolarimetry on about 70 stars to establish what the smallest interstellar dust grains - below about 50 nanometres, invisible to optical and infrared telescopes - are made of and how they clump into planets. Launch is targeted for around 2030, as a precursor to NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory.

GK ByteNASA's Astrophysics Pioneers programme funds small, low-cost astrophysics missions such as CubeSats, SmallSats and balloon payloads | Polarimetry measures the polarisation of light; interstellar dust grains align with magnetic fields and polarise the starlight passing through them | The Habitable Worlds Observatory is NASA's planned large ultraviolet-optical-infrared space telescope intended to search for signs of life on Earth-like exoplanets

📅 19 Oct 2026InternationalRead complete →

ISRO Completes Crew Module-Service Module Separation Tests for Gaganyaan at VSSC

ISRO has completed a series of Crew Module-Service Module (CM-SM) separation tests at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, on a rig that simulated the full CM-SM assembly with extensive instrumentation. The sequence validated pyrotechnic devices and jettisoning systems that sever several umbilical connections, and checked shock survivability of avionics, the Inertial Navigation Systems, the Aft and Conical Heat Shield, the CM Deployable Umbilical Shield and the Uprighting System. It clears a key gate before the first uncrewed mission Gaganyaan-1 (G1), which will carry the half-humanoid robot Vyommitra, and follows the crew-module qualification and air-drop tests completed earlier in 2026.

GK ByteGaganyaan uses the Human-Rated LVM3 (HLVM3) launch vehicle flying from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota | The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram is ISRO's lead centre for launch vehicle development | ISRO was founded on 15 August 1969 and is headquartered in Bengaluru

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