Science & Technology

27 Mar 2019; DW: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that his country's forces had shot down a low-orbit satellite as part of a test exercise.

Modi said he was proud of his scientists and congratulated those behind the mission. He said the exercise proved India had become a "space superpower," bringing it in line with the US, Russia and China.

MOSCOW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian astronauts will carry out an experiment on controlling a propeller-driven drone on board the International Space Station (ISS), local media reported Wednesday.

"The experiment was introduced into the program. During experiments with the propeller-driven drone, it is first planned to work out the design of its body and propulsion system," Sputnik news agency quoted Alexander Bloshenko, advisor to the head of the Roscosmos state corporation, as saying.

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russian and Chinese scientists will organize joint studies of the Arctic and Antarctic, they will explore mineral and biology resources in the global ocean, the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Vice President Andrey Adrianov told TASS after the first meeting between representatives of the Russian and Chinese Academies of Sciences in Beijing on Sunday.

24 Mar 2019; DW: Boeing on Saturday said a software upgrade for its grounded 737 MAX 8 planes, which have been involved in two deadly crashes, were ready to be reviewed by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Airlines worldwide grounded the jet after the deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines flight on March 10 that killed all 157 people on board. It came less than five months after 189 people died in a Lion Air crash involving a MAX 8 off the coast of Indonesia in October.

HANOI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam will be one of the first countries in the world to roll out 5G, the latest generation of mobile communications, its minister of information and communications said here on Friday.

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung made the remarks at the ASEAN Conference on 5G in Hanoi, regarding the role of 5G as a pillar of digital economy due to its greater bandwidth, higher speeds and lower latency, Vietnam News Agency reported.

BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's State Grid plans to establish a network of its newly launched small charging piles in major cities this year, in a bid to meet the rising demand of new energy vehicle (NEV) owners, China Daily reported Thursday.

The smart charging pile, launched Wednesday by State Grid Electric Vehicle Service Co, the subsidiary of State Grid Corp of China, is designed based on the A4 paper size, much smaller than the traditional charging pile. Dubbed "E-elf", it can be hung on or embedded into the wall.

MOSCOW, March 21 (Xinhua) -- The first flight of the new Russian military transport aircraft Il-112V will take place at the end of March or the beginning of April, local media reported Thursday.

"Everything is ready, all issues with engines have been resolved," TASS news agency quoted a source in the defense industry as saying.

Il-112V will be accompanied by an An-26 aircraft on its maiden flight. "The An-26 will fly in parallel, at the same altitude and speed, to monitor the operation parameters of different systems," the source added.

DUBAI, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Eleven Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Tuesday set up the first Arab space organization, whose first project will be developing a satellite to monitor environmental and climate changes.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, UAE vice president and ruler of Dubai, attended the ceremony of signing the charter for the Arab Group for Space Collaboration, held on the opening day of Global Space Congress in Abu Dhabi.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Xinhua) -- A spacecraft's close-up observation of the near-Earth asteroid Bennu showed particle plumes erupting from its more rugged surface, which may alter the spacecraft's flight and sample collection plans in the coming year, U.S. scientists said at a teleconference on Monday.

MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS/. NASA's astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Kjell Lindgren have arrived at the Gagarin Space Training Center near Moscow for a series of training sessions.

"NASA’s astronauts will undergo a five-week course of instruction," the space training center said on its website.

Two of them - Hopkins and Glover - may become the first crew of the US spacecraft Crew Dragon (Crew-1) after the certification flight. Lindgren is being trained for a standby crew.

There will be three training sessions.