1 Sep : NASA and aerospace company ATK Aerospace Systems successfully have tested the most powerful solid-fuel rocket engine ever, even though its future in the space program remains in doubt.
A huge roar and massive flames accompanied the two-minute “static” or non-flight test of the five-segment DM-2 (Demonstration Motor 2) rocket booster in the western desert state of Utah.
The DM-2 was designed as the first stage of the Ares I rocket to provide the lift-off thrust for the next generation of Orion spacecraft, which NASA hoped would return astronauts to …

17 Aug : The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Jitin Prasada informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today that during the year 2009-10 and 2010-11(till date), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Oil India Limited (OIL) and Private JV Companies have made 51 hydrocarbons discoveries located in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura and Eastern and Western Offshore of the country. Out of these discoveries, oil discoveries are 21, gas discoveries are 19 and remaining 11 are oil and …

25 July : The Ministry of Earth Sciences will celebrate its Foundation Day on 27th of this month. Though the Government of India approved formation of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), which came into being on 12th of July 2007,its seeds were sown by the then Prime Minister Late Mrs. Indira Gandhi who created the Department of Ocean Development as an independent scientific Department on July 27, 1981. The Department was notified as the Ministry of Ocean Development (MoOD) in February 2006. Keeping in view the close interaction between Ocean, …

24 June : This year’s first partial lunar eclipse will occur on 26th June when more than 50 per cent of the full moon disc will be under earth’s shadow, but it will be visible only in the Northeast in India.
“The moon will rise in Kolkata around 6:25 pm, but only the end phase of the eclipse will be visible in the Northeast, including Assam,” M P Birla Planetarium Director (Research and Academics) Debiprosad Duari said in Kolkata on Thursday.
The eclipse will be visible in Eastern Asia, Australia, Antarctica, parts …

13 June :  A one-time international prize, named after Bhaskaracharya’s mathematical treatise Leelavati, will be awarded at the International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM), that will be held in Hyderabad in August.
The Executive Organising Committee (EOC) of ICM, being held for the first time in India, has decided to recognise the outstanding contribution to public outreach on mathematics by an individual by conferring the Leelavati Award.
“The EOC is making efforts towards making the prize a regular feature at future International Congresses,” G Madhavan, the spokesperson for ICM-India, said.
The ICM, dubbed as …