|
|
India's space agency approves manned space mission
BANGALORE: India's state-run space agency approved its first indigenous manned mission into space on Tuesday, aiming to put an astronaut outside the earth's atmosphere by 2014.
The approval came after top Indian scientists met in the southern technology hub of Bangalore to discuss the viability of the mission.
“They were unanimous in suggesting that the time is appropriate for India to undertake a manned mission,” a statement from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.
In 1984, air force pilot Rakesh Sharma was the first Indian to go into space, riding in a then Soviet spacecraft.
The new proposal for a manned mission will be put to the federal government for approval and funding. The mission is expected to cost $2.2 billion.
ISRO is already working on the launch of its first unmanned mission to orbit the moon in 2008, powered by an locally-built rocket.
A senior ISRO official said scientists had also discussed a manned mission to the moon by 2020 as a “logical extension” of the Indian manned space mission.—Reuters
Two-year-old Emirati boy held as airport threat
DUBAI: A two-year-old Emirati boy was briefly held at Dubai airport after he appeared on a list of wanted security suspects, a local daily reported Tuesday.
Immigration officers approached toddler Suhail Saleh's parents as they wheeled their son's pram to a flight to Turkey last month for a holiday and told them he was not allowed to fly, Emirates Today reported.
“I thought he was joking and said 'take him if you want',” his father Abdullah told the daily.
“They said they wanted my son, as the date of birth, the passport number and all other details in the system showed they had the correct Suhail.”The infant was eventually allowed to fly after a probe revealed he was on the wanted list by mistake and “after making sure that he was travelling with his parents”, the paper quoted an interior ministry official as saying.—AFP
Icebergs near NZ after drifting from Atlantic
WELLINGTON: Scores of icebergs have floated to within about 300 km of New Zealand, with the largest measuring about 1.8 km in length and standing some 120 metres above water.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research oceanographer Mike Williams said on Wednesday the icebergs were likely part of a larger piece of ice which broke off the Ronne Ice Shelf, located southeast of the Falkland Islands, six years ago.
The original iceberg, named A-43, was 167 km long.
Williams said about 100 icebergs, first detected by New Zealand's air force on Friday, had drifted eastward, south of Africa and Australia, in the dominant Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
“It's a natural but a rare phenomenon. It requires a lot of rare occurrences to happen simultaneously,” he said.
“This iceberg has to have managed to make it to the right place in the main currents in the Southern Ocean to have gotten all the way around to New Zealand without melting.
“Then, it has to have moved far enough north to have got pushed up towards New Zealand rather than pushed further south which is what happens to most icebergs.”
Williams said large icebergs break off Antarctica every 50 or 60 years.
“I don't think we can specifically say this iceberg is linked to global warming,” he added.
About 90 per cent of an iceberg is under water so it is unlikely that bigger icebergs would reach the shallow coasts of New Zealand, said Williams, adding ships travelling through the area should exercise caution.
The icebergs lie south of Invercargill on New Zealand's south island.—Reuters
|
|
|
