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In 1994, Narayan Nambi an ISRO aerospace engineer was falsely arrested by the Investigation Beuro on charges of espionage. He was accused of passing on confidential launch vehicle flight test data to foreign nationals. In 1996 he was cleared by the Central Investigations Bureau and India's Supreme Court found him not guilty in 1998. In 2019 he was presented with India's third-highest civilian award, the Padma Bhushan.

This interview with S Somanath (director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre) and R Umamaheshwaran (Scientific Secretary) was recorded on 24th October 2019 during the International Astronautical Congress in Washington DC. It was not focused on a specific theme but rather an update on all things @ISRO - current and future activities.

In his 1979 novel, Fountains of Paradise, Arthur C Clarke imagines a cable stretching from the Earth's equator to Geosynchronous orbit. He called it a "space elevator" and imagined it would be constructed from continuous pseudo-one-dimensional diamond crystals. Bangalore based NoPo Technologies is now commercially producing Carbon Nanotubes. Could this material, one day be used to construct Clarke's space elevator?

As in other nations, the private space sector is now emerging in India. One name that pops up when discussing private and commercial space in India is Narayanan Prasad

Episode 87 - Apollo Era recollections of a Brit working in @NASA

Moon: Art, Science, Culture The 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was a momentous event and expected to be marked by numerous publications. Most books cover the technologies, events, personal recollections and politics of the first human voyage to another world. One book jointly authored by an art historian and an astronomer has a fresh perspective. The guests in this episode are the authors of the book Moon: Art, Science, Culture - Dr Alexandra Loske Associate Tutor in Art History, University of Sussex and Dr Robert Massey Deputy Executive Director Royal Astronomical Society. The book is attracting an interesting eclectic mix of readers with an interest in science and art. Some of the topics we spoke about include Fritz Lang’s 1929 sci-fi movie (watch full-length movie on Youtube here) Frau im Mond.The book has a chapter about the Nebra Sky Disk and we also discussed the Antikythera Mechanism.One of the earliest books with a picture of the Moon, called The Moon: Considered as a Planet,

Brian Harvey is a Dublin based writer who has authored more than 14 books the space programmes of USSR/Russia, USA, India, Korea Japan and China. He has a deep understanding of the motivations and politics as well as the space technology that has emerged.

Why has NASA not been able to launch American astronauts to space on American rockets since 2011? What is the SLS and the Gateway? Will China and US cooperate in space?

Astrotalkuk.org - Episode 83 - India's Human Spaceflight Programme. R Umamaheswaren talks about @ISRO Human Space Flight Programme #gaganyaan and thinks the chances of a woman as a member of the first crew "highly likely". recorded at #IAC2018

A conversation with Prof. Fujimoto Masaki about @JAXA current and future plans to explore the inner solar system and #samplereturn missions. Recorded in Bremen just after #IAC2018

Astrotalkuk.org. Episode 81 - United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Simonetta Di Pippo, Director of UNOOSA# talks about some of UNOOSA's current projects. recorded during #IAC2018

Astrotakuk.org Episode 80. S. Somnath joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in 1985 and today he is its director. Recorded at #IAC2018

Astrotalkuk.org - Episode 79 satsearch.co A digital marketplace for the global space supply chain? With @satsearchco. Recorded at #iac2018.

Dr Kiran Kumar. Credit ISRO Mr Kiran Kumar studied physics, physical engineering and electronics in educational institutions in India including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. He specialised in electro-optical imaging systems and in 1975 was recruited by Dr Yash Pal (one of a few key individuals who played a pivotal role in the early days of India’s space programme) to ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad. During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue devices that he started working with before moving on to modern solid state devices such as  Charged Couple Devices (CCDs). He contributed to imaging systems in India’s first remote sensing satellite (Bhaskara-1) and deep space missions to the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) and Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission). During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue de

Sven Grahn has been working in the space field in one way or another for over fifty years. Officially retired, he continues to work as a project leader of a student satellite at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He is perhaps best known for his work in tracking satellites launched by the secretive Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s.In those pre-internet days, his work along with others helped to identify individual mission characteristics such as mission types, members of the crew, take off and landing times. He recorded over 1000 conversations from orbiting spacecraft as they flew over Sweden. In this interview, he speaks about The impact of the space race on his choice of career His work on sounding rockets and meteorology in Sweden and beyond Satellite tracking. What he tracked, heard and recorded using radio and tape recorders. How he came to research and write about the  satellite tracking conducted at Jodrell  Bank radio telescope in England As an 11-year-old, Sven had see

Bayar Goswami One of the earliest characteristics of human civilisation (large populations living together in organised cities) was the creation of rules or laws that everyone who lived there agreed to abide by. The 50th anniversary of first humans to visit the Moon is celebrated later this year. In 1968 it was pretty much just two countries and a few space missions per year. Today, over 70 countries have something in the way of a space programme and along with a blossoming private space sector, space is likely to become very busy in the next decade or so. This surge of space activity will determine how the laws in space will apply and begin to set the scene for human civilisation beyond Earth.   On earth, most nations follow international laws most of the time. International rules for operating in space were defined by the UN in five treaties established between 1967 - 1984. 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space,

One mission two spacecraft, China is going back to the Moon with Chang'E 4 mission that I think is the most exciting lunar mission since the 1970s. By the end of 2018, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will launch Chang'E 4 that will explore the far side of the Moon with a lander and a rover. Since it is on the other side of the Moon, it will be totally out of sight from the Earth. To facilitate communication, a relay satellite will be launched in advance of the lander/rover's arrival at the Moon. In addition to engaging private sector companies in China, Chang’E 4 will include a significant level of international collaboration in this mission with payloads from Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Sweden. Ye Quan-Zhi is a postdoc astronomer who specialises in small bodies in the solar system. Like me, he started off as an amateur astronomer but now uses telescopes with apertures measured in meters rather than inches!  In addition to his research, he writes about space in the Planetary So

Dr Brian Weeden Space, as the author Douglas Adams said "is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is". After 6 decades of launching spacecraft, some orbits are now congested with space debris from collisions and poor end-of-life mission management. This has now become a serious hazard and even a danger to operational spacecraft. With plans to launch thousands of additional satellites, the Mega Constellations, in the coming decade, the need for some sort form of "traffic management" in orbit has never been greater. The Secure World Foundation was established in 2002 by philanthropists Marcell Arsenault and his wife Cynda Collins Arsenault. It's vision of "sustainable and peaceful uses of outer space contributing to global stability and benefits on Earth" is timely. In the last decade, the urgency to address the profound impact of climate change on Earth has finally been (almost) heeded,  the next decade will focus on space. The SWF is informing and leading this de

If you follow this podcast, you will notice a very long pause since the previous episode. I have been busy writing my second book, the Indian Space Programme which is now finally complete. So I am now back to my familiar but irregular podcasting mode. The growth in the space sector now widely estimated to be worth annually over 300 billion USD globally. It is primarily being driven by the commercial sector.  The bulk of the expenditure is in satellite television, communication services, Earth observation and businesses enabled by global navigation. In the past, it was technological development driven by the national space programmes that triggered the development of low-cost consumer products. Today it’s the other way round. Sophisticated manufacturing methods and high public demand for digital products have produced low-cost consumer devices which without too much modification can be qualified for use in space. This is particularly true in the sudden growth of the small satellite market. In this episode, I

Its been a while since I posted episode 72.  Now that the book The Indian Space Programme has been published, I am resuming the podcasting. You can see some Amazon Reviews and if you have one, add your own too. More about that book on this short BBC radio interview here. . If you want you can subscribe to my monthly newsletter. The previous newsletter (March 2018) available here. April's newsletter coming out tomorrow! Scheduled episodes currently looks like this Episode 73. Dr. Rajan Bedi - Using Commercial Of the Shelf (COTs) Components to build spacecraft (1st May 2018) Episode 74. Dr Brian Weeden -  Space Debris and Sustainable use of Space (18th May 2018) Episode 75. Dr Quan-Zhi Ye.  China - Back to the Moon with Chang'e 4 (1 June 2018)