Tag Archives: NASA

Robbing NISAR to pay ISRO

Posted on December 2, 2025 by VM

A.K. Anil Kumar, the director of ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (a.k.a. ISTRAC), has reportedly made some seriously misleading comments as part of his convocation address at a Maharishi University in Lucknow.* Kumar’s speech begins at the 1:38:10 mark … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Science | Tagged AK Anil Kumar, DFSAR, earthquake forecasting, geological profiling, ground-penetrating radar, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISTRAC, Karen St Germain, L-band radar, mesh antenna, NASA, S-band radar, synthetic aperture radar, The Free Press Journal | Leave a comment

Frugality is a toxic chalice

Posted on July 28, 2025 by VM

From ‘Earth Imaging Satellite NISAR Exposes NASA’s Weaknesses, ISRO’s Strengths’, NDTV, July 26, 2025: At the end of the day, the US scientists have swallowed their pride and are sheepishly going to watch the launch of a satellite where they … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Scicomm | Tagged frugality, Indian Space Research Organisation, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, launch insurance, NASA, NISAR, Space Applications Centre, synthetic aperture radar | Leave a comment

Enfeebling the Indian space programme

Posted on July 3, 2025 by VM

There’s no denying that there currently prevails a public culture in India that equates criticism, even well-reasoned, with pooh-poohing. It’s especially pronounced in certain geographies where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) enjoys majority support as well as vis-à-vis institutions that … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Science | Tagged Axiom Space, Axiom-4, Bharatiya Janata Party, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Chandrayaan 2, Covaxin, Department of Space, Election Commission of India, Falcon 9, HUNOR, Indian Space Research Organisation, K Sivan, NASA, political capture, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, S Somanath, Shubhanshu Shukla, SpaceX, V Narayanan, VG Somani, Vikram lander | Leave a comment

India’s next man in space

Posted on June 10, 2025 by VM

NASA/SpaceX/Axiom will make their next attempt to launch the Axiom-4 mission to the International Space Station on June 11. Axiom Space’s tagline for the mission is “Realizing the Return”, alluding to three of the mission’s four crew members, including India’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Science | Tagged Axiom Space, Department of Space, Gaganyaan, Glavcosmos, Indian Space Research Organisation, Joe Biden, NASA, Prashant Nair, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shubhanshu Shukla | 1 Comment

Empathy for Donald Pettit

Posted on April 20, 2025 by VM

There was an intriguing outpouring of concern worldwide when Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore returned to Earth after 280-something days in space. People were particularly concerned about Williams’s health and how she was doing, as if Wilmore hadn’t been there … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Scicomm, Science | Tagged Anatoly Zak, Anoo Bhuyan, Barry Wilmore, Donald Pettit, episteme, Indian Space Research Organisation, Jonathan McDowell, NASA, public interest, Soyuz MS-26, Sunita Williams, techne | Leave a comment

Williams’s success is… ours?

Posted on March 20, 2025 by VM

A day before NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were to return onboard a SpaceX crew capsule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi published a letter in which he said he had inquired after her when he met U.S. President Donald … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Science | Tagged Barry Wilmore, Bharatiya Janata Party, Donald Trump, Gaganyaan, Jitendra Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, NASA, Piyush Goyal, Sakshi Malik, Sunita Williams, Vinesh Phogat | Leave a comment

On the US FAA’s response to Falcon 9 debris

Posted on March 4, 2025 by VM

On February 1, SpaceX launched its Starlink 11-4 mission onboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The rocket’s reusable first stage returned safely to the ground and the second stage remained in orbit after deploying the Starlink satellites. It was to deorbit … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis | Tagged Commercial Spaceflight Federation, deorbiting, Donald Trump, end of launch, exercise of control, expendable launch vehicle, Falcon 9, NASA, orbital launch, space debris, SpaceX, Starlink 11-4 mission, uncontrolled reentry, US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015, US Federal Aviation Administration | Leave a comment

Let’s allow space missions to be wonderful

Posted on February 19, 2025 by VM

Finally some external validation. After months of insisting Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore aren’t “stuck” or “stranded” in the International Space Station, after Boeing Starliner’s first crewed flight test went awry, the two astronauts have themselves repudiated the use of … Continue reading →

Posted in Scicomm | Tagged Barry Wilmore, boeing, crewed spaceflight, Indian Space Research Organisation, International Space Station, Moneycontrol, NASA, science communication, Sunita Williams | Leave a comment

Solve all our problems

Posted on December 12, 2024 by VM

This is xkcd #1232. When it came out I remember it was to rebut a particular line of argument against NASA’s lunar and interplanetary missions — that the agency was spending large sums of money that would be better spent … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Science | Tagged Elon Musk, Gaganyaan, game theory, human spaceflight, Indian Space Research Organisation, interplanetary spaceflight, NASA, SpaceX, sustainability, xkcd | Leave a comment

A spaceflight narrative unstuck

Posted on August 11, 2024 by VM

“First, a clarification: Unlike in Gravity, the 2013 film about two astronauts left adrift after space debris damages their shuttle, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore are not stuck in space.” This is the first line of an Indian Express editorial … Continue reading →

Posted in Analysis, Scicomm | Tagged Arrival, Barry Wilmore, Boeing Starliner, Columbia disaster, Gaganyaan, Indian Space Research Organisation, International Space Station, NASA, space journalism, Sunita Williams | Leave a comment