New Delhi: Don't be surprised if you get to know that your pilot is sleeping in the cockpit on a long flight! Rules have now been framed to allow them to take a power nap to fight fatigue, of course under stringent conditions.
Taking cue from global best practices, aviation regulator DGCA has drafted rules to allow a pilot take a short nap on flight deck, with the other pilot taking full control of the aircraft on a long-distance flight, official sources said.
The rules were framed after several pilots' unions sought changes in Flight Duty Time Limitation (FDTL) provisions on adequate rest to mitigate fatigue so that pilots remain alert and perform aircraft operations as per the safety norms. Many countries already have rules to allow 'controlled rest' to pilots while on their cockpit seats. This is among measures which are part of what the International Civil Aviation Organisation calls Fatigue Risk Management Systems....
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06:10 PM, May 28, 2013
Washington: Moon dust samples gathered by Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11 lunar mission have been discovered inside a California lab warehouse after sitting in the dusty storage unnoticed for more than 40 years. Vials of Moon dust brought back to Earth by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were found last month by an archivist while tidying up a storage space at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "We don't know how...
10:08 PM, May 26, 2013
London: A study of future human missions has indicated corporate researchers could be living on the moon by the time NASA astronauts head off to visit an asteroid in the 2020s. The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows "a lot of excitement and interest from various companies" for such ventures, Daily Mail quoted Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Las Vegas-based firm, as saying. The projects range...
05:08 AM, May 25, 2013
Washington: A gigantic asteroid will fly by Earth at the end of this month, making its closest approach for at least the next two centuries. On May 31, asteroid 1998 QE2, believed to be about 2.7 kilometres or nine Queen Elizabeth 2 ship-lengths in size, will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 5.8 million kilometres, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. "Asteroid...
05:28 PM, May 19, 2013
Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17, 2013 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash...
06:53 AM, May 19, 2013
Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash nearly...
12:36 PM, May 18, 2013
Cape Canaveral, Florida: A music video shot aboard the International Space Station went viral on Monday, turning an astronaut into an overnight music sensation with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity." As the first Canadian to command the space station, a $100 million project of 15 nations, Chris Hadfield had already earned himself a place in the history books. But as he prepared to return home on...
11:58 AM, May 14, 2013
Washington: Want to be a part of space exploration history? NASA is inviting public to submit their names, short poems and personal messages online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian atmosphere. The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku, NASA said. However, only three haikus...
01:31 PM, May 02, 2013
Washington: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's North Pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 2,000 kilometres wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are travelling 150 meters per second. The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided...
03:06 AM, May 01, 2013
Beijing: Over 600 Chinese have applied to join an ambitious Dutch aerospace project that plans to send humans on a one-way trip to Mars for permanent settlement. The Dutch project, while triggering enthusiasm to explore outer space, is also under fire with the trip being viewed by some as a suicide mission, with applicants being shipped to a planet that is uninhabitable by humans. The project, Mars One, is being...
07:00 PM, Apr 29, 2013
Washington: An Indian scientist and his Taiwanese colleague have discovered a blue super-giant star located in the constellation Virgo, far beyond our Milky Way Galaxy. Over 55 million years ago, the star emerged in an extremely wild environment, surrounded by intensely hot plasma (a million degrees centigrade) and amidst raging cyclone winds blowing at four million kilometres per hour. Research using the Subaru Telescope, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's...
09:40 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Washington: NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator said Friday. The ship would capture the 500-ton, 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, said a government document. Senator Bill Nelson said...
08:12 PM, Apr 06, 2013
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who is visiting India after returning to India after spending 127 days in space, interacted and shared her experiences with students at National Science Centre in New Delhi on Monday. Sunita Williams's itinerary includes visits to Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat. ...
05:24 PM, Apr 01, 2013
NASA astronaut Sunita Williams is in India and she told students in Delhi she hasn't seen any aliens and said, interestingly, borders mean nothing from space. She spoke to CNN-IBN's Senior Editor Suhasini Haider about her experiences in the space. ...
02:37 PM, Apr 01, 2013
Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the record for the longest space flight by a woman astronaut, has a date with India. She will start her India trip on April 1 from the national capital. She will be speaking with students at the National Science Centre in the national capital. Following that she will meet the President Pranab Mukerjee before leaving for Kolkata. ...
07:45 AM, Apr 01, 2013
Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a female astronaut, will start her India trip on April 1 from the national capital. Williams will visit the National Science Centre (NSC) in the national capital on April 1 and interact with students and teachers. ...
05:00 PM, Mar 31, 2013
op Indian space scientist UR Rao has been inducted into the Satellite Hall of Fame in Washington DC by the Society of Satellite Professionals International, in the US. ...
05:17 PM, Mar 28, 2013
India's first Mars Orbit mission this year offers an exciting opportunity for the collaboration between the two countries in this field, a senior US official has said. "We should seek to increase our commercial space cooperation and create opportunities for US and Indian companies and our very capable space science communities have much to offer each other through collaboration," said Geoffrey Pyatt, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and...
06:35 AM, Mar 22, 2013
New results from looking at the split-second after the Big Bang indicate the universe is 80 million years older than previously thought and provide ancient evidence supporting core concepts about the cosmos - how it began, what it's made of and where it's going. ...
01:58 AM, Mar 22, 2013
NASA chief Charles Bolden has advice on how to handle a large asteroid headed toward New York City: Pray. That's about all the United States - or anyone for that matter - could do at this point about unknown asteroids and meteors that may be on a collision course with Earth, Bolden told lawmakers at a US House of Representatives Science Committee hearing on Tuesday. ...
10:36 PM, Mar 20, 2013
