Jugnu, a nano-satellite built by IIT, Kanpur, is India’s first indigenously designed nano-satellite to be successfully placed into its orbit. It was launched on October 12, 2011 by PSLV-C18).

The longest and darkest total lunar eclipse of the century will occur on Wednesday, giving sky enthusiasts all over the country an opportunity to witness the event.

An unusually long lunar eclipse with the Moon immersed deeply inside the umbral (darker) shadow of the Earth will occur Nehru Planetarium Director N Rathnasree said.”The total phase of this lunar eclipse will last 100 minutes.

 The next such eclipse will only take place in 2141. The total lunar eclipse will begin at 00:52:30 IST and end at 02:32:42 IST. The partial eclipse will begin at 23:52:56 IST and end at 03:32:15 IST.

The eclipse will be visible completely in Africa and Central Asia. It will be visible rising over South America, Western Africa and Europe, and seen setting over Eastern Asia, and Australia, C B Devgun from Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) said.

The magnitude of the one of the relatively rare total lunar eclipse will be 1.70 magnitude, N Sri Raghunandan Kumar of Planetary Society of India said. The next lunar eclipse to be viewed in India will be in December this year.

Also, a star named 51 Ophiuchi will be occulted during the eclipse. Sky enthusiasts can witness the whole sequence of the occultation in the zodiacal constellation of Ophiuchus.

At 11:29 PM, the Moon will occult (hide) behind the star 51 Ophiuchi. The star will reappear after 90 minutes at 01:01 AM of June 16, Kumar said.

The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facility that is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by late 2011. The station is expected to remain in operation until at least 2015, and likely 2020. With a greater cross-sectional area than that of any previous space station, the ISS can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.

The ISS is by far the largest artificial satellite that has ever orbited Earth. The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, chemistry, medicine, physiology and physics, as well as astronomical and meteorological observations. The station provides a unique environment for the testing of the spacecraft systems that will be required for missions to the Moon and Mars. The ISS is operated by Expedition crews of six astronauts and cosmonauts, with the station programme maintaining an uninterrupted human presence in space since the launch of Expedition 1 on 31 October 2000, a total of 10 years and 135 days. The programme thus holds the current record for the longest uninterrupted human presence in space, surpassing the previous record of 3,644 days, set aboard Mir. As of 27 February 2011 (2011 -02-27)[update], the crew of Expedition 26 is aboard.

What are Vyomnauts?
India’s First space mission is scheduled for 2015. In this mission three-person vehicle will initially carry two astronauts into 275-kilometre low-Earth orbit.
The ISRO is in process of choosing four astronauts from a pool of 200 fighter pilots. the media has coined a new term for Indian astronauts – Vyomnauts.
Vyoma is space. The correct sanskrit term is Vyomagami yet