IMAGING

ISRO and JAXA gear up for joint Chandrayaan-5

During May 13-14, 2025, ISRO, India and JAXA, the space agency of Japan, jointly conducted the third face-to-face Technical Interface Meeting (TIM-3), towards the Chandrayaan-5/LUPEX mission, in ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru. The meeting was attended by senior officials, project executives, and technical team members from ISRO, JAXA, and the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Japan.

Following the legacy of Chandrayaan-1, Chandrayaan-2 (orbiter-based lunar exploration), Chandrayaan-3 (landerrover based in-situ exploration) and the forthcoming Chandrayaan-4 (India’s first lunar sample return mission), the Chandrayaan-5 / LUPEX (LUnar Polar EXploration) mission will be the fifth mission in the Chandrayaan series of lunar missions, in collaboration with JAXA, to study the lunar volatile materials, including lunar water, in the vicinity of a Permanently Shadowed Region (PSR) in the lunar South pole. The mission will be launched by JAXA onboard its H3-24L launch vehicle, carrying the ISRO-made lunar lander, which will carry the MHI, Japan-made lunar rover. ISRO, apart from developing the lunar lander, is also responsible for developing a few scientific instruments for the mission. The scientific instruments for this mission would be contributed by ISRO, JAXA, ESA and NASA, all thematically connected with the exploration and insitu analysis of the volatiles reserved in the lunar polar region. www.isro.gov.in

Australia to launch first zero-gravity scientific flight team

Australia will fly its first zero-gravity scientific research team on a large crewed parabolic flight in October this year, following a landmark agreement between the French Space Agency CNES and The University of Western Australia. The partnership will see sovereign Australian experiments conducted aboard Novespace’s Airbus A310 Zero-G, the world’s largest civilian microgravity research platform. The team, drawn from UWA’s International Space Centre, will carry an experiment designed to advance the extraction of fuel and fertiliser from off-Earth resources, a capability central to the long-term viability of human space exploration.

The campaign comprises three zerogravity flights, offering a total of 93 parabolic manoeuvres, each delivering up to half a minute of weightlessness, allowing the team to observe and adjust its experiment in a near zero-gravity environment. www.uwa.edu.au

China launches PRSCEO3 for Pakistan

China took its total launches this year to 26 over the weekend, with a trio of flights of legacy and newer Long March rocket models. The activity saw the launch of a remote sensing satellite for Pakistan, the lofting of four new satellite internet technology test satellites, and a further launch carrying an environment monitoring satellite. A Long March 6 rocket lifted off at 8:15 a.m. Eastern (1215 UTC) April 25 from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, northern China. Aboard was the PRSC-EO3 satellite equipped with a high-resolution optical payload, developed by the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission. spacenews.com

Developing satellite-enabled biodiversity risk solution

CATALYST (PCI Geomatics) and DUAL have successfully completed a pilot project that uses satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to assess biodiversity risk across the United Kingdom. Funded through the UK Space Agency’s Unlocking Space for Business programme, the project was delivered over six months by DUAL’s climate risk and resilience team. The collaboration produced a scalable biodiversity assessment platform designed to support insurance underwriting, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting and regulatory compliance. https://catalyst.earth/