Nation Briefs

NFR: Periodicity of four pairs of festival special trains extended

Maligaon: To clear the extra rush of passengers, it has been decided to continue the services of four pairs of festival special trains to run during November. These special trains include 05952/05951 (New Tinsukia-SMVT Bengaluru); 05625/05626 (Kamakhya-Rohtak); 05736/ 05735 (Katihar-Amritsar); and 05734/05733 (Kishanganj-Amritsar). These trains will run with the existing days of service, timings, composition and stoppages.

NISAR to be declared operational on November 7: isro chief

New Delhi: NASA and ISRO are all set to declare their first-ever jointly developed NISAR satellite operational on Friday, ISRO chairman V Narayanan said here on Wednesday. The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), said to be the most expensive Earth observation satellite ever built, has the ability to monitor most of the planet’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days. The 2,400 kg NISAR satellite was launched on July 30 from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre using the GSLV rocket. “Entire data calibration has been completed, and we will have a conclave on November 7 to declare the satellite operational,” Narayanan said at the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC) here. The NISAR mission is the first to carry two SAR systems – the L-Band and S-Band sensors.