Science & Technology

BEIJING, May 29. /TASS/: The China National Space Administration (CNSA) conducted a launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft that is expected to dock the Tianhe module of China’s new space station, which is being created in the orbit, according to a live stream on the Sina news portal.

The spacecraft was launched at 20.55 local time (15.55 Moscow time) from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site (in the northeast of the southern Chinese province of Hainan) aboard a Chang Zheng 7 rocket.

New Delhi, May 26 (PTI) Scientists have developed two new drugs to both prevent the COVID-19 infection, and also treat people who have been exposed to the novel coronavirus so that they do not develop severe disease.

The peptide-based drugs developed by researchers at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Australia are being tested in hamsters at France's pre-clinical and clinical research facility, IDMIT.

Early promising results, published in the journal Nature Cell Discovery, show the drugs are not toxic, and have few side effects.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s first Mars rover has driven down from its landing platform and is now roaming the surface of the red planet, China’s space administration said Saturday.

The solar-powered rover touched Martian soil at 10:40 a.m. Saturday Beijing time (0240 GMT), the China National Space Administration said.

China landed the spacecraft carrying the rover on Mars last Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in a first for the country. It is the second country to do so, after the United States.

New Delhi, May 21 (PTI) The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed a COVID-19 antibody detection kit that offers results in just 75 minutes, the defence ministry said on Friday.

The testing kit is called DIPCOVAN and it offers a "significantly faster turn-around-time as it requires just 75 minutes to conduct the test without any cross reactivity with other diseases", the ministry's statement noted.

The kit has a shelf life of 18 months, it added.

BEIJING (AP) — China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest step forward for its ambitious goals in space.

Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander for a few days of diagnostic tests before rolling down a ramp to explore an area of Mars known as Utopia Planitia. It will join an American rover that arrived at the red planet in February.

London, May 7 (PTI) Health authorities in England are believed to be especially concerned about one strain out of three Indian variants they have been tracking since last month.

According to a report based on leaked data by the BBC, Public Health England (PHE) is said to have recommended the B.1.617.2 version of the Indian variant to be classed as Variant of Concern (VOC) as it appears to spread more quickly than two other identified subtypes of the Indian variant.

Amaravati, May 6 (PTI) The very infectious strains of coronavirus, B.1.617 and B.1, are currently found in the COVID-19 positives in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana and spreading fast in younger age groups, apart from adults.

The N440K is neither a 'variant of interest' nor is virulent now, the state Health Department has said quoting a study by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology.

PTI, 5 May 2021: (Eds: Disclaimer: The following press release comes to you under an arrangement with PRNewswire. PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.)

New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch a data relay satellite that will help maintain contact with the Gagangyaan mission throughout after the launch, sources said.

The satellite will be launched before the final leg of the Gaganyaan mission, which will send astronauts to the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). The first leg -- the unmanned mission -- is to be launched in December.

BEIJING (AP) — China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god, the government announced Saturday.

The rover is aboard the Tianwen-1 probe that arrived in Mars orbit on Feb. 24 and is due to land in May to look for evidence of life.

It is part of Chinese space plans that include launching a crewed orbital station and landing a human on the moon. China in 2019 became the first country to land a space probe on the little-explored far side of the moon and in December returned lunar rocks to Earth for the first time since the 1970s.