India steps up space program with big budget, bigger satellites and a leap to Mars

An Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle carrying the communication satellite GSAT- 5P

India is stepping up its space program with a higher budget, the launch of a new satellite and a proposed mission to Mars. The country's space agency will attempt ten space missions by November 2013, bringing its total budget to $1.3 billion.

The 3,400-kilogram GSAT-10 communication satellite – the heaviest ever built by India – launched early Saturday aboard an Ariane-5 rocket, the Alaska Dispatch reported. The satellite aims to be fully operational by November, and has a 15 year lifespan.

The GSAT-10 will boost telecommunications, direct-to-home and radio navigation services by adding 30 much-needed transponders to the country's current capacity. India is currently leasing foreign transponders to meet domestic demand.

The satellite launch was delayed by a week after scientists from Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) detected a small malfunction, discovering one gram of dust in the upper part of the rocket.

Future plans: Ten missions in one year

With the first launch a success, the ISRO faces a hectic schedule for the next year, with 9 more missions on the agenda. The most high-profile event is the launch of an orbiter to Mars, slated for November 2013, which aims to collect data on Martian methane sources. The ISRO timed the mission to coincide with a window where the planet's orbit brings it closest to Earth.

India intends to complete the mission with no international assistance, as a means to demonstrate the growth of the ISRO. “At the moment, we plan to do it on our own,” ISRO chief K. Radhakrishnan said.

Some experts believe that even though India has the capacity to complete the mission without outside help, there is one potential stumbling block.

“How will the Mars orbiter be controlled, being 100-200 million kilometers away from the Earth? India might not have the right technology and the needed resources for this,” Novosti Kosmonavtiki ('Space News') columnist Igor Lisov told SW.

India also has the ambitious goal of sending a manned mission to space by 2016, which will be a huge step for the country, but may also prove difficult to implement in the limited timeframe.

“India has 4 years left, which is not a long time. However, the country has the chance to adapt what has already been developed by Russia, China and US,” Lisov told SW.

Mixed response

The ISRO has grown into one of the world's top six space programs since its inauguration: “The first 50 missions took 27 years, the next 50 took place in the last 10 years and the next 58 missions will happen in the next five years,” Radhakrishnan said.

Though its budget is less than one-tenth that of NASA's, it has increased every year since the early 2000s, jumping from $591 million in 2004 to 2005, to $1.3 billion in 2012 to 2013.

However, India’s space ambitions have been met with a mixed response among the domestic population. The mission to Mars drew widespread criticism for its high costs in the midst of an economic downturn – the venture is estimated to cost the country nearly $90 million.

Nevertheless, India's science community embraced the gains made by their country's space program. “India is a country which works on different levels,” Krishan Lal, President of the Indian National Science Academy told the Alaska Dispatch.

“On the one hand, we have a space mission, on the other hand a large number of bullock carts,” he said. “You can’t, say, remove all the bullock carts, then move into space. You have to move forward in all directions.”

Air Force prepares third mission for mysterious X-37B spacecraft

X-37B spy plane

 The US Air Force confirms that they will once again launch its mysterious X-37B spy plane back into the sky, but what it will do there remains a mystery. For the third time ever, the Boeing-made unmanned aircraft will be put into orbit.

Details on the operation, as usual, remain scarce, as the Air Force remains insistent on keeping information about the aircraft under wraps. On the record, however, the agency has confirmed that the X-37B will be blasted into space next month from Cape Canaveral, Florida with the assistance of an Atlas 5 rocket.

The mission this October will mark the third instance the Air Force has tested its space-age aircraft, with its second endeavor wrapping up only earlier this year in June. The Air Force has not confirmed how long the X-37B will be in orbit during its next mission, but its last voyage lasted 469 days, more than twice the length of its first test.

For next month’s mission, the Air Force will once more use the plane that was launched into the sky during their first test run of the craft. A second craft was used for the mission that ended earlier this year.

The Air Force launched the initial X-37B under the mission name OTV-1 in April 2010 but has refrained from disclosing almost any information at all from the general public. The secrecy has in turn created concern from citizens of the United States and abroad who fear it might be engaging in surveillance missions.

Some write-ups detailing the craft’s alleged ability to collect data and transmit information through heavy clouds has led some to say that it could be involved in weather research. A report carried by NBC quotes an intelligence analyst, however, who say the X-37B could very well be a harnessing that highly developed technology to spy on civilians around the world.

“The satellite can see through night and through bad weather, which means that it can also zoom in to 'countries of interest' with great detail, like a Google Earth on serious Cold War steroids,” NBC’s report from earlier this year alleges.

According to an Air Force press release, the rocket has been repeatedly put into orbit to “assure access to space for Department of Defense and other government payloads.” The craft itself consists of a plane nearly 29 feet long and 15 feet wide that also has a payload bay “about the size of a pickup truck bed,” Space.com reports.

“One of the most promising aspects of the X-37B is it enables us to examine a payload system or technology in the environment in which it will perform its mission and inspect them when we bring them back to Earth,” Major Tracy Bunko at the Pentagon’s Air Force press desk tells Space.com. “Returning an experiment via the X-37B OTV enables detailed inspection and significantly better learning than can be achieved by remote telemetry alone.”

Bunko says that the Air Force has not decided on an official launch date, or at least one that is publically known.

Daily Crap from the Mad Mullahs - Iran: Siemens placed explosives in equipment to sabotage

Iran has accused German industrial giant Siemens of placing small explosives in equipment that forms the backbone of the country’s nuclear program.

"The equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to dismantle all our systems," declared Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the security committee in Iran’s parliament. "But the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy."

He said the measures were intended to slow down the country’s burgeoning nuclear program.

Siemens issued a flat denial.

"We have no business dealings related to the Iranian nuclear program," said company spokesman Alexander Machowetz, noting that the company has not worked with Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Sales of nuclear equipment to Iran are currently banned under an international embargo, as the country is widely suspected of using it to advance a nuclear weapons development program. While Siemens does not supply Iran directly, according to inFocus Quarterly its electronic control systems – which are not under embargo – are imported through an independent third-party supplier.

Most uranium enrichment centrifuges at Iran’s nuclear sites are presumed to be operated by Siemens systems. Obtaining high-grade uranium is a prerequisite for producing nuclear weapons.

If the information on explosives is correct, this would not be the first time Siemens equipment has been used as a target.

Vulnerabilities in Siemens operating software were exploited by Stuxnet, a virus that helped to disable up to 1,000 centrifuges two years ago, though the company was not implicated in developing it.

Iran frequently accuses Western governments and companies of sabotage. Only last month, it claimed that foreign spies cut power lines to its underground nuclear facility at Fordo.

Chinese-made laptops’ latest feature: Pre-installed viruses

By the time you switch on your fresh-out-of-the-box laptop for the first time, it may already be infected with dangerous malware that can either harm you or turn your computer into a pawn in a criminal cyberwar.

­This accidental discovery was made by Microsoft’s digital crimes unit during an investigation into Chinese computer manufacturers, many of whom are illegally installing its Windows operating system onto their hardware.

"The cybercriminals are really changing the ways they try to attack you," Richard Boscovich, a former federal prosecutor and a senior attorney in Microsoft's digital crimes unit wrote in the company’s blog.

After Microsoft engineers purchased and tested local laptops, they discovered that 20 percent of them had become infected with viruses or malware at some point between leaving the assembly line and the date of purchase.

"We found malware capable of remotely turning on an infected computer's microphone and video camera, potentially giving a cybercriminal eyes and ears into a victim's home or business," Boscovich said. "Additionally, we found malware that records a person's every keystroke, allowing cybercriminals to steal a victim's personal information.”

Microsoft security officers found that most of the infected computers contained a powerful and malicious software program called Nitol. The malware apparently originated from a notorious server called 3322.org, which in 2009 was reported to be responsible for nearly a fifth of the world’s illegal transactions.

The US software giant filed a lawsuit with a Virginia District Court to block the server. The judge ruled in Microsoft’s favor earlier this week.

Server owner Peng Yong, the defendant in the trial, claimed that he had no knowledge of Microsoft’s findings and denied any responsibility.

"Our policy unequivocally opposes the use of any of our domain names for malicious purposes," Peng told the AP news agency.

In the first few days after the legal rulings, Microsoft says that it has already blocked some 37 million malware connections to 3322.org.

But as one source of malware is snuffed out, another is likely to grow in its place.

Microsoft said that no computer can be guaranteed to be virus-free as long as “unsecure supply chains” continue to exist in China. The country teems with lightly regulated electronics manufacturers, offering plenty of opportunities for fraud. And for the ordinary customer, finding out whether a hacker laid hands on your laptop after leaving the factory can be a tricky task.

"So how can someone know if they're buying from an unsecure supply chain? One sign is a deal that appears too good to be true. However, sometimes people just can't tell, making the exploitation of a broken supply chain an especially dangerous vehicle for infecting people with malware,” Boscovich said.

Two satellites lost: Proton rocket launch fails to deliver

The launch of a Proton rocket booster from has ended with the failure of the upper stage to deliver two communication satellites into the intended orbits. All Proton launches have been suspended until an investigation into the incident is completed.

­The Proton-M rocket with Express MD2 and Telcom-3 communication satellites was launched at 20:31 GMT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. All stages of the booster worked correctly and satellites with Briz-M uppers stage were delivered into an interim orbit.

The final stage started with two successful engine firings, but the last third failed to eventuate.

Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos has confirmed that satellites were not delivered into their orbits and are considered lost. An emergency commission is investigating the contingency event.

The Express MD2 satellite was designed at the Khrunichev Space Center in alliance with Italy’s Thales Alenia Space to retransmit various communications flows to broadcast on the territory of Russia.

The Telcom-3 satellite was made by Russia’s Reshetnev Information Satellite Systems for Indonesia’s РТ Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk. It was supposed to provide TV broadcasts in Indonesia and the Indochina region.

The Russian space industry has suffered a number of considerable satellite losses over the last two years.

On December 5, 2010, another Proton-M rocket deviated from the course by eight degrees. As a result, three GLONASS navigation satellites fell into the Pacific. That loss was particularly painful since these three were the last to complete the 24 satellite group to make GLONASS fully operable around the globe.

In 2011, Russia made four failed launches. In February a military satellite Geo-IK-2 was lost, in August a Progress M-12M cargo ship failed to make it to the ISS and crashed in Siberia, in November Roscosmos lost the Phobos-Grunt automatic space station and, in December, a Meridian-5 communication satellite.

The latest emergency could result in a major system shake-up and even dismissals at the Khrunichev Space Center, which designed and manufactured the Briz-M upper stage. The series of emergencies last year forced Roscosmos to introduce additional acceptance measures to ensure maximum quality of the equipment. However this latest failure puts the effectiveness of that step under question.

Russian Media - Never heard of the Russian Ocean? Check in the north

Manipulator of the Mir-1 mini-submarine as it places a Russian state flag at the seabed of Arctic ocean.

It is time to recognize Russia’s overwhelming presence in the Arctic and rename the Arctic Ocean the ‘Russian Ocean’. That is the opinion expressed by the head of the Institute of Expert Assessments, a Moscow-based conservative think tank.

­The idea is apparently aimed at promoting Russia's cultural and social development – at least that is what the institute stands for according to its website.

“It's traditional to name seas and oceans after the countries that have the most influence over them,” the head of the think tank, Nikolay Pavlyuk, explained on the website. Russia’s territorial waters are the largest in the Arctic, the shelf is rich in mineral resources, the fleet is vast and its contribution to the region’s research is widely renowned, he added.

Indeed, the names of seas and oceans have many times changed throughout history. The Sea of Japan or the Indian Ocean – these names sound natural and would hardly evoke any controversial associations. But the Russian Ocean…

Moscow has long insisted it has the grounds to extend its territory beyond its exclusive economic zone. In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, it currently extends 200 nautical miles (320 kilometers) from a country's coastline.

“A significant part of the ocean bed is a sort of natural continuation of the bedrock which starts in Russia,” Pavlyuk continued, referring to the latest research of the Mendeleev and Lomonosov Ridges by Russian scientists, which argues that those formations are extensions of the Eurasian continent.

In 2002, the UN Commission neither rejected nor accepted Russia’s initial proposal of 2001 to establish new outer limits for the country’s continental shelf beyond the 200-mile zone. Back then, the UN body recommended additional research, and finally, in June 2007, Russian scientists claimed that the Lomonosov Ridge is an extension of the Russian shelf.

The following month, Artur Chilingarov, a renowned explorer, planted a titanium Russian flag on the seabed at the North Pole during a highly publicized expedition which involved an icebreaker and two submersibles. The move infuriated some Arctic nations. Canada’s foreign minister at that time, Peter MacKay, rebuked Moscow rather nervously. “You can't go around the world these days dropping a flag somewhere, this isn't the 14th or 15th century,” he said back then.

Given all this uncertainty over the legal status of many parts of the ocean, as well as the numerous lucrative factors at stake, one can only guess what stands behind the new proposal.

“We are going to submit this proposal to the country’s leaders,” promised Pavlyuk.

Well, let us see what John Baird, Canada's current foreign minister, says this time.