NASA's Parker Solar Probe lifts off successfully
Miami, Aug 12 : NASA on Sunday successfully launched the Parker Solar Probe, the US space agency's historic small car-size probe to "touch the Sun," from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
"3-2-1... and we have liftoff of Parker #SolarProbe atop @ULAlaunch's #DeltaIV Heavy rocket," the US-based space agency tweeted.
The launch was initially planned for Saturday morning.
The probe is named after Eugene Parker, a solar physicist, who in 1958 first predicted the existence of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles and magnetic fields that flow continuously from the sun.
Nestled atop a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy -- one of the world's most powerful rockets -- with a third stage added, Parker Solar Probe will blasted off toward the sun with a whopping 55 times more energy than was required to reach Mars.
Weighing just 635 kgs, it is a relatively light spacecraft, Andy Driesman, project manager for the mission at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in the US, said in an earlier statement.
Zooming through space in a highly elliptical orbit, the Parker Solar Probe will reach speeds of up to 700,000 kms per hour, setting the record for the fastest spacecraft in history.
During its nominal mission lifetime of just under seven years, the Parker Solar Probe will complete 24 orbits of the Sun -- reaching within 3.8 million miles of the Sun's surface at the closest approach.
In an orbit this close to the Sun, the real challenge is to keep the spacecraft from burning up.
3-2-1… and we have liftoff of Parker #SolarProbe atop @ULAlaunch’s #DeltaIV Heavy rocket. Tune in as we broadcast our mission to “touch” the Sun: https://t.co/T3F4bqeATB pic.twitter.com/Ah4023Vfvn
— NASA (@NASA) August 12, 2018
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Gratuity stuck despite 2 favourable orders, Ex IIT bombay contract worker commits suicide
Mumbai: On December 27, 2019, Raman Garase, alongside Dadarao Ingale and Tanaji Lad, received a disheartening "retirement letter" from the administration at IIT Bombay. Despite their fitness at 60 years old, the transition to retirement meant forfeiting post-retirement benefits, including gratuity. With over three decades of service, the trio fought for their rights, securing two favorable orders from the labor commission mandating the institute to pay up.
However, as the administration geared up for another appeal, Garase tragically succumbed to hopelessness, taking his own life on May 2. His death shows the plight of 1,800 contractual workers "retired" over the past decade, denied benefits despite years of service.
Garase, Ingale, and Lad had hoped for permanency during their decades-long tenure, promises that remained unfulfilled. The institute's silence on Garase's suicide and refusal to acknowledge his ordeal exacerbates the injustice faced by contractual workers. Their fight, supported by student groups and rights advocates, sheds light on systemic issues within institutions like IIT Bombay.
Read the detailed report by The Wire here :
