India Reaches Orbit — Privately — Today's Space News

About this episode

The episode discusses India's first private orbital launch and various Mars exploration findings.

Astronomy Daily S05E145 — “Arrival” — Monday, 20 July 2026. On the 57th anniversary of Apollo 11, we cover a first-of-its-kind launch, a Mars flyby science haul, a four-billion-year-old Martian record, a habitable-zone world with a likely atmosphere, shrimp feeding in simulated microgravity, and the new science of listening to black holes ring. In This Episode (01:30) India goes private in orbit — Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram-1 aces its debut “Mission Aagaman,” making India the third nation with a private orbital launch capability. Plus a Starship Flight 13 update (NET 23–24 July). (05:30) Psyche’s Mars gift — NASA/JPL releases the science haul from Psyche’s 15 May Mars gravity assist, including the magnetometer’s first measurement of another body. (08:30) Mars keeps the receipts — Perseverance examines the “Broom Point member” on Jezero’s rim — some of the oldest terrain any rover has studied, recording ~4 billion years of impacts. (11:30) A world holding its breath — A Science paper detects escaping helium at LHS 1140b, pointing to a replenished, substantial atmosphere on a habitable-zone super-Earth. (A different planet from Friday’s story!) (15:00) Space shrimp — Okayama…

Topics covered

• India's private space launch
• Mars exploration
• habitable-zone planets
• black hole research
• space food systems

Keywords

• India
• Mars
• black holes
• space shrimp
• habitable-zone
• Psyche
• gravity assist

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Skyroot Aerospace, NASA/JPL, Okayama University of Science

Places: Mars, Jezero, LHS 1140b

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