How many space missions has been planned by ISRO to launch in 2019?

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (Space X) launched its 17th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by using Falcon 9 rocket with Dragon Spacecraft. The 213-foot-tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This mission is a part of NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, which uses commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the ISS.

China launched two Tianhui II-01 satellites from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre, also known as Base 25. The purpose of the satellite is to perform scientific experiments, land resource and geographic survey, and mapping. The satellites were launched by a Long March 4B carrier rocket also known as Chang Zheng 4B. This was the 303rd successful mission of the Long March series carrier rocket.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched a Defence Intelligence Satellite, EMISAT in its 47th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission, along with 28 other customer satellites, onboard the advanced PSLV-C45 Rocket. The PSLV C45 was launched from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It is the first time ISRO is launching satellites in three different orbits. Along with that, the PSLV-C45 launch vehicle is also the first PSLV rocket to use four strap-on motors.

India successfully completed 'Mission Shakti' operation where it destroyed a live satellite on a low earth orbit (LEO) using an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile in three minutes. India has become the 4th country after the US, Russia and China in the world to achieve this historic feat. Anti Satellite weapons also called the ASAT are developed to destroy satellites. Mission Shakti is a joint programme of DRDO and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Mission Shakti will help the country in standing strong and secure. It will further protect the nation from disharmony and bring peace.

On January 31,2019, astronomers from Italy, the UK, Germany and the United States discovered newly discovered galaxy consists of red giant particles. Bedin 1 is a new dwarf spheroidal galaxy. This ancient galaxy is one of the oldest galaxy and was named after Luigi Bedin, a researcher at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics. Bedin 1 is located 28.38 million light years from Earth.

Helium hydride ion (HeH+), the first molecule that formed almost 14 billion years ago, was detected by NASA's flying observatory SOFIA towards a planetary nebula. It is the first type of molecule (first molecular bond) that formed in the universe after the Big Bang. At that time, ionised hydrogen and neutral helium atoms reacted to form HeH+. Once the universe cooled down, hydrogen atoms started to interact with helium hydride, creating molecular hydrogen, which set the stage for star formation. From that point on, stars created the other elements of the cosmos.

A Pune-based IT firm is developing software for the world's largest ground-based telescope, the Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), which is likely to come up on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The telescope is being constructed jointly by India, US, China, Japan and Canada and is likely to become operational in the mid-2020s. India is building the telescope's complex optical structure, called the Segment Support Assembly (SSA), which will comprise 492 hexagonal mirror segments, collectively forming the primary mirror. An eight-member team at the IT firm, ThoughtWorks, is designing three different software - Common Software Services (CSS), Data Management Services(DMS) and Executive Software (ES) - to deal with the control systems to manoeuvre the telescope and manage the big data that will be generated once it becomes operational.

On 16th December 2018,India launched the Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS) to improve data relay and communication links with its remote sensing earth observation satellites. The two-satellite IDRSS will maintain continuous communication link with India's remote sensing earth observation satellites. The first one is expected to be launched in 2019. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) would carry three Indian astronauts to the space in 2022.

The US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that its InSight lander has deployed its first instrument Seismometer (SEIS) onto the surface of Mars, completing a major mission milestone that will allow scientists to peer into the Martian interior by studying ground motion also known as marsquakes. The Insight will deploy two more instruments namely Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) and Heat Probe (HP3) to study Mars' deep interiors.

National space agency ISRO and French space agency CNES signed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country in May. K.Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES of France, signed the agreement in Bengaluru. The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track the movement of ships globally, and in particular, those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands. The CNES-ISRO agreement intends to supply an operational system for detecting, identifying and tracking ships in the Indian Ocean. It provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India in May this year; sharing of capacity to process existing satellite data and joint development of associated algorithms. The two agencies have put up two climate and ocean weather monitoring satellites Megha-Tropiques (of 2011) and SARAL-AltiKa (2013) that are considered a model.