The Indian space agency expects to fly its first small rocket with a carrying capacity of about 500-700 kg sometime next year, according to a top official.

A sea turtle has a 22 per cent chance of dying if it eats just one piece of plastic, an Australian scientific institution revealed on Friday, quantifying for the first time the risk that plastic pollution poses to sea turtle populations.

Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit on Sunday two foreign satellites - NovaSAR and S1-4 - together weighing 889 kg, said a top official.

In a breakthrough move, British scientists have used natural sunlight to convert water into hydrogen and oxygen by mixing biological components and man-made technologies.

The duration of India's proposed maiden manned space mission in 2021-2022 and the number of astronauts who will be on board are yet to be decided, an ISRO official said on Wednesday.

 India's first manned space flight - Gaganyaan - is expected to send three persons into the space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the youngest member of the "Great Observatory" programme, has completed 15 years in space.

There's reason to be optimistic about Mars Opportunity rover that has been silent since June 10, after getting caught in a massive dust storm on the Red Planet that cut off solar power for the nearly 15-year-old rover, NASA said in a statement.