Recent 6 months news in Science

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) has launched two Falcon 9 rockets, setting a company record with the shortest launch gap of 38.5 minutes.

The first rocket carried 8 Globalstar satellites and was launched from the Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, USA. The second rocket carried the classified United States Space Force (USSF)-366 mission for the USSF and was launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA.

The SPIRE Lab of the IISc Bengaluru, in collaboration with the AI and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK) and Google, has launched an open-source speech AI model named SraVaani.

The model is capable of recognizing 65 Indian languages and dialects. It has been released under a permissive Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) licence on the Hugging Face platform.

Indian researchers led by Dr Shubhasis Haldar have developed a deep-learning AI framework named “ACSCeND” to identify hidden cancer stem-like cells (CSCs).

The framework was developed through a collaboration between the SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences (SNBNCBS) and Ashoka University.

Astrobase Space Technologies Pvt Ltd has unveiled “EVEREST”, the first privately developed 800 kilonewton (kN) Full-Flow Staged Combustion (FFSC) rocket engine of India, in Bengaluru. The engine is specifically designed for reusable medium-lift launch vehicles and advanced orbital missions.

It is to be noted that Astrobase completed sub-scale and turbopump tests during 2025 and 2026, with plans to produce around 20 engines and conduct full-scale hot-fire testing in 2026.

NASA has invited ISRO to join its Moon Base programme, which aims to establish the first permanent human outpost near the lunar South Pole.

The invitation was extended during the 9th India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group (CSJWG) meeting held at the ISRO Headquarters in Bengaluru.

Anil Menon, an Indian-origin astronaut of the NASA, has successfully completed his inaugural spacewalk, designated as “US Spacewalk 96”, outside the International Space Station (ISS).

The Extravehicular Activity (EVA) lasted for 6 hours and 27 minutes, and was conducted alongside veteran NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. With this achievement, Menon joins Sunita Williams and Raja Chari in the group of Indian-origin astronauts who have performed spacewalks.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has developed India’s first fully annotated Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) reference genome of the pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L. Millsp.) variety ‘Asha’.

This genome has been approved as the global reference genome to facilitate the development of climate-resilient, high-yielding, and nutritionally enriched pigeonpea varieties.

Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has unveiled ‘MA-104’, India’s first indigenous live attenuated vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF). The vaccine is developed by the ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (ICAR-NIHSAD) in Bhopal.

It is to be noted that ASF is a highly contagious viral disease affecting both domestic and wild pigs, with a mortality rate of nearly 100%.

The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has completed the first detailed Catalogue of Lepidoptera in India.

As per the catalogue, India hosts 13,703 species of Lepidoptera across 3,705 genera, which includes 1,417 species of butterflies and 12,286 species of moths. The project also includes a dedicated catalogue for the moth superfamily Geometroidea, identifying 2,205 species within the country.

This catalogue comprises 22 volumes and provides an updated taxonomic inventory of butterflies and moths. The final volume was authored by ZSI taxonomists Rahul Joshi and Navneet Singh and published in the international journal Zootaxa.

Alibaba has unveiled its largest and most capable AI model named "Qwen3.8-Max". The model features 2.4 trillion parameters. It is positioned behind Moonshot AI's Kimi K3, which comprises 2.8 trillion parameters.

DeepSeek has launched its 'V4-Flash model', claimed to be the most cost-effective AI model globally.

The Application Programming Interface (API) of the model is priced at $0.14 per million input tokens and $0.28 per million output tokens.

SpaceX has successfully completed the 13th integrated test flight of its Starship launch system from Starbase, Texas, USA. The mission, marking the second test flight of Starship Version 3 (V3), involved the first-ever deployment of 20 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites.

The launch system concluded the flight with a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. It is to be noted that the NASA monitored the mission to evaluate its suitability for future 'Artemis' lunar missions.

Researchers from the NASA have proposed an AI mission concept named "Planetary Rings Autonomous EXploration with In-situ Sampling (PRAXIS)". It has been proposed under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) 2026 program.

The mission aims to enable the first-ever direct collection and analysis of particles from Saturn's rings. It is designed to deliver direct observations of millimetre- to centimetre-sized ring particles, addressing a key priority identified in planetary science decadal surveys. The project is led by Dr. B Marco Quadrelli.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research – Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI) has launched a mobile application titled “DeepDATA” in Kochi, Kerala.

Developed under the “Deep Ocean Mission” of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), the application provides scientifically verified information regarding deep-sea fish species.

Indian Analog Astronaut Captain Aman Johri has successfully completed a microgravity research flight under 'Project Astra Farm'.

The mission focused on studying the behavior of onions and potatoes grown in Maharashtra under microgravity conditions. The research was conducted using a passive microgravity payload in collaboration with the National Research Council Canada (NRC-CNRC).

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) organized a Technology Transfer Event at its headquarters in New Delhi. The programme was coordinated by the CSIR-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIR-CSIO), Chandigarh.

During the event, 4 indigenous technologies were transferred to the industry, and an Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled rural water service delivery, measurement, and monitoring system was commercially launched. The event also recognized the royalty received from Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) for the licensed production of indigenous defence technologies.

HEX20, a Kerala-based space startup, has successfully launched its second satellite named KOYO (Kinetic Optical Yaw Observer) onboard the SpaceX Transporter-17 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California.

The satellite acts as a multi-payload test platform carrying 81 payloads to facilitate in-orbit technology validation and the commissioning of international payloads.

VK Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, has commissioned India's first and deepest two 1,000-metre geothermal wells at Puga Valley, Ladakh. These wells, executed by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) Energy Centre, are critical for the 1 Megawatt (MW) Pilot Geothermal Power Plant.

This project is India's first demonstration-scale geothermal power project situated at an altitude of over 14,000 feet. It is to be noted that the wells reached a maximum temperature of 135°C at a depth of 400m.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) of NASA have discovered a new giant exoplanet named 'Beta Pictoris d'. Located 63 light-years from the Earth, the planet is estimated to be 23 million years old.

With a mass of at least 2 times that of Jupiter, it is the smallest among the 3 known giant planets in the Beta Pictoris system. It is to be noted that this makes the Beta Pictoris system the second known planetary system to feature at least 3 directly imaged planets.

The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has granted marketing authorisation for the Dengue Tetravalent Vaccine (Live, Attenuated), known as "Qdenga". This is the first dengue vaccine to be approved in India for the prevention of the disease.

Manufactured by Takeda GmbH, Germany, and imported by Takeda Biopharmaceuticals India Pvt Ltd, the vaccine is indicated for individuals aged between 4 and 60 years. It is produced in Vero cells. It is to be noted that the vaccine has already received regulatory approval in 42 countries.