The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has given the approval for ongoing GSLV continuation programme Phase-4 that consists of 5 GSLV rocket flights during 2021-2024.The GSLV Programme- Phase 4 will enable the launch of 2 tonne class of satellites for geo-imaging, navigation, data delay communication and space sciences. The total fund requirement for the phase 4 programme is Rs 2,729.13 crore. This amount includes the cost of 5 Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles (GSLVs), addition of essential facility, programme management, launch campaign and extra funds required to meet the scope of the programme.

Scientists have discovered the most-distant body ever observed in our solar system, located over 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. The new object has been nicknamed Farout. Earlier, 2018 VG18, the object is the first to be observed at a distance of more than 100 astronomical units from the sun. Farout is about 120 AU, or about 11 billion miles, from the sun. One AU is the distance from Earth to the sun or about 93 million miles

Maitrayee Bose, Indian-origin cosmochemist along with Ziliang Jin, a postdoctoral scholar in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, have found water in asteroid Itokawa samples collected by the Japanese space probe Hayabusa. The research paper detailing the analysis of five of the particles from the asteroid samples was published in the journal Science Advances on 8th May 2019. Itokawa is a peanut-shaped S-type asteroid about 1,800 feet long and 700 to 1,000 feet wide. It circles the Sun every 18 months at an average distance of 1.3 times the Earth-Sun distance. The samples were collected from an area on Itokawa known as the Muses Sea, which is smooth and dusty.

Russia has conducted a final test of a nuclear-capable glider that flies at 20 times the speed of sound. The missile was launched from the Dombarovskiy missile base in the southern Ural Mountains and hit its target on a test site in Kamchatka, about 6,000km away. Avangard is designed using new composite materials to withstand temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Celsius that come from a flight through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.

Asian Cup gold medallist Shakil Ahmed has set up a world record in indoor rowing by completing 1 lakh meters in above-40 years category in Kolkata. Shakil began his record-setting indoor rowing feat in Salt Lake stadium complex and achieved the milestone of covering 1 lakh meters of simulated distance in 10 hours.