Science & Technology

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — Three astronauts successfully blasted off Monday to the International Space Station from Kazakhstan, a perfect launch that follows October’s aborted mission.

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency and Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos lifted off as scheduled at 5:31 p.m. (1131 GMT; 6:31 a.m. EST) Monday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

GENEVA (AP) — A U.N. agency says China has issued the most international patent applications for an eighth straight year, showing the country’s heft in intellectual property amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s accusation that the growing Asia power steals it.

The World Intellectual Property Organization said Monday that innovators around the world filed a record 3.17 million patents last year, an annual increase of nearly 6 percent.

New Delhi, Dec 2 (PTI) India's first locomotive-less train, known as Train 18, breached the 180 kmph speed limit during a test run on Sunday, a senior railway official said here.

When this Rs 100-crore indigenously designed train is made operational, it will become the country's fastest train.

29 Nov 2018; AFP: China's science ministry has ordered that people involved in the controversial baby gene-editing experiment halt their activities, a government official told state media Thursday.

The ministry "firmly opposes the baby gene-editing incident and has already demanded that the relevant organisation suspend the scientific activities of relevant personnel," a ministry official said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

Sriharikota (AP), Nov 29 (PTI) Adding another feather to its cap, ISRO's workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 Thursday successfully injected into orbit India's earth observation satellite HysIS.

The 30 other co-passenger international satellites including those from the United States of America and Australia among others, will soon be placed into orbit.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown.

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- NASA's InSight spacecraft has sent signals to Earth after its successful landing on Mars, indicating that its solar panels are open and collecting sunlight on the Martian surface.

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter relayed the signals as well as images showing InSight's landing site, according to a release of NASA on Tuesday.

The solar array deployment ensures the spacecraft can recharge its batteries each day.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has launched a single-stage rocket to test a locally made engine as part of efforts to place a satellite into orbit.

The Science Ministry says it has confirmed its engine test was successful after the rocket landed off the southern coast on Wednesday.

It says South Korea aims to develop a domestically built space launch vehicle by 2021.

In 2013, South Korea succeeded in thrusting a satellite into orbit aboard a rocket blasted from its soil for the first time, but parts of that rocket were built with Russian help.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Minutes after touching down on Mars, NASA’s InSight spacecraft sent back a “nice and dirty” snapshot of its new digs. Yet the dust-speckled image looked like a work of art to scientists.

The photo revealed a mostly smooth and sandy terrain around the spacecraft with only one sizable rock visible.

“I’m very, very happy that it looks like we have an incredibly safe and boring landing location,” project manager Tom Hoffman said after Monday’s touchdown. “That’s exactly what we were going for.”

Bengaluru, Nov 26 (PTI) ISRO is all set to launch its workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 carrying India's earth observation satellite HysIS and 30 co-passenger satellites, including 23 from the US, from Sriharikota on November 29.

The space agency said the 45th flight of PSLV will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

"HysIS is an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO. It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission.

HONG KONG (AP) — A Chinese researcher claims that he helped make the world’s first genetically edited babies — twin girls born this month whose DNA he said he altered with a powerful new tool capable of rewriting the very blueprint of life.

If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics.

A U.S. scientist said he took part in the work in China, but this kind of gene editing is banned in the United States because the DNA changes can pass to future generations and it risks harming other genes.