🚀NDSS Newsletter - June 2024
The New Delhi Space Society presents the latest happenings in everything space!
Hello, fellow space enthusiast! 👋
Welcome to the June 2024 edition of this newsletter!
Before we begin, let us introduce ourselves! 📡
The New Delhi Space Society (NDSS) is a non-profit organization and functions as a chapter of the National Space Society (NSS). It was founded in 2018, seeing the level of enthusiasm in New Delhi students about space exploration and the lack of resources for this enthusiasm. Consisting of avid outer-space aficionados, we aim to make space an accessible resource for everyone. 📰
In pursuit of the aforementioned goal, we came up with this newsletter - a unique way for us to share our passion with you. Offering interesting nuggets of space news goodness, the newsletter promises to broaden your knowledge about humanity and its experiences with(in) the cosmos, whilst also bringing new opportunities for readers, all one small step at a time. 👨🚀🌕
Now, dear reader, let’s dive right in!
What’s new❓
An exciting time for space launches and promises of more to come very soon, the previous month has seen significant strides for the space industry!
Highlights:💡
Agnikul Cosmos launched the world’s first rocket with a 3D-printed engine! 🥇
Boeing’s Starliner finally launches but faces more delays on its return flight. 👀
ISRO astronauts are to be trained in a partnership with NASA. 🤝
The GOES-U satellite mission is ready for launch later this month! 📅
— Editor’s Pick:📌
Gaganyaan’s first uncrewed mission gears up for flight in the next month. ⏳
More to know:🔍
Agnikul launches a historical first!
After multiple attempts, Indian private space startup Agnikul Cosmos managed to pull off quite the feat with their own Agnibaan Sub-Orbital Technology Demonstrator (SOrTeD) (✅) rocket’s test flight on May 30. 🚀
Although the test flight lasted only for a humble two minutes, it made Agnikul the second 🥈 non-ISRO Indian company after Skyroot Aerospace to launch a sub-orbital rocket. ⏱️
The greatest achievement of the mission probably lies in its single-piece semi-cryogenic engine, nicknamed Agnilet, for it was entirely 3D-printed. 🖨️ Additionally, the avionics architecture on the rocket was also entirely indigenous. ♻️
Read more on Agnikul’s Website. 📖
This success is just a reminder of how promising the current Indian private space industry is. 🎉
Starliner faces another delay, this time in space:
The Boeing Starliner has unfortunately been no stranger to setbacks, but it finally launched from Cape Canaveral on June 5 for its first crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS)🛰️ with two astronauts aboard. 🧑🚀
A part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, Starliner seeks to provide a reusable crew capsule spacecraft design. 💊 The Crewed Flight Test, as it is called, took astronauts Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams to Low Earth Orbit with the help of the Atlas V rocket. 🚀
However, the return mission to Earth from the ISS has been further delayed owing to thruster issues and a helium leak ⚠️, effectively leaving both astronauts stranded at the ISS for the time being. The eight-day mission has been effectively extended to a twenty-day mission, with the astronauts stipulated for re-entry on June 26. ⌚
Read more on CNN. 📖
NASA hopes to utilize Starliner as an alternative option to SpaceX’s Falcon vehicles, but for now, the spacecraft is yet to truly prove its performative merit flawlessly if it is to enter full-fledged service. 📋
ISRO collaborates astronaut training with NASA:
Training astronauts is undoubtedly an arduous task, and redundancies in the process are imperative to ensure the safety that is paramount for human spaceflight 🦺. Thus, it is only reassuring to hear New Delhi and Washington announce a further collaboration on June 17 under the joint U.S.-Indian initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), which seeks to put an ISRO astronaut on the International Space Station. 🛰️
Preparations for providing advanced training to ISRO astronauts at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre are already underway. 👟
Read more on SpaceNews. 📖
GOES-U is all set to go!
With the complexities of space weather needing to be understood now more than ever (throwback to the solar activity ☀️ in May this year), space missions that seek to establish equipment that helps us do the same are the need of the hour. 🔍
That is where the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite - U (GOES-U) enters the picture, with it ready to launch on June 25. 📅
Interestingly, GOES-U will carry aboard it a Compact Coronagraph (CCOR), which will enable it to monitor solar weather phenomena, like solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), effectively replacing ♾️ the role of the aging Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) probe by NASA & ESA, which itself is scheduled to be retired sometime in 2025. 💼
Read more on Space.com. 📖
The fourth and final mission of its kind, GOES-U will hopefully prove to be a valuable asset when it comes to our understanding of solar and space weather. 📈
Editor’s Pick:📌
Gaganyaan-1 prepares for its maiden flight:
ISRO’s Gaganyaan program is certainly ambitious, and like with most ambitious spaceflight missions, it is necessary to go through various stages of uncrewed tests 📋 before the final crewed operation. Gaganyaan-1 marks the beginning of the primary uncrewed tests for the Indian spaceflight program. 🧑🚀
The main spacecraft for the mission, the Orbiter Module Adapter (OMA), will be the Human-rated Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (HLVM-3) rocket’s payload. 📦 The rocket passed the qualification tests in February this year, and the launch is currently scheduled for July. ⏰
Read more on ISRO. 📖
Here’s to hoping for the success of Gaganyaan-1 and the next missions in the program as well! ✅
Opportunities: ❗❗
Job Alerts
Aerospace Engineer, Infosys (Bengaluru, Karnataka, India)
Mechanical Design Engineer, Skyroot Aerospace (Hyderabad, Telangana, India)
Structural Dynamics Engineer, Bellatrix Aerospace (Bengaluru, Karnataka, India)
Internships
Marketing Internship, Aviotron Aerospace (New Delhi, Delhi, India) (Hybrid)
Events
India Space Congress 2024 (26th-28th June 2024) (New Delhi, Delhi, India)
IEEE SPACE 2024 (21st-23rd July 2024) (Bangalore, Karnataka, India)
Written by Amartya Bagchi on behalf of the New Delhi Space Society.