Chandrayaan-2 to be launched on July 22

  • The Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO tweeted on July 18 morning that Chandrayaan-2 will be launched on July 22 at 2.43 p.m.
  • The launch was earlier scheduled for July 15 but was called off just an hour before take-off.
  • The mission includes India’s first lander and rover, which are slated to land on moon on September 6. ISRO has chosen an unexplored site at the lunar south pole where no country has been before.

After New York, Silicon Valley, PM’s Next US Gala “Howdy, Modi” In Texas

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States in September this year will have a star-spangled event in Houston, Texas. Called “Howdy, Modi”, the “community summit” will see the Prime Minister’s trademark address to the Indian community in America’s fourth most populous city on September 22 when he visits the country for the UN General Assembly session.
  • “Howdy, Modi” will be held in Houston, Texas which has one of the largest concentrations of Indian Americans in the US.

Normal rainfall measure may be lowered

  • The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is likely to revise downward by 2% the quantity of ‘normal’ monsoonal rain, two independent sources confirmed to The Hindu.
  • IMD proposes to revise quantum downward from the long period average of 89 cm by 2%
  • Currently 89 cm of monsoon rain from June to September is considered ‘normal’, more technically, the long period average (LPA), and this is derived from the average rainfall that the country got from 1960-2010.

Unbowed, Trump intensifies attacks on four Democratic Congresswomen

  • U.S. President Donald Trump intensified his vilification of four liberal lawmakers as un-American at a raucous rally on Wednesday, underscoring that the attacks will be a key part of his strategy for winning re-election in 2020.
  • Mr. Trump spent about 20 percent of his freewheeling 90-minute-long speech criticising the four lawmakers, eliciting choruses of “Booo!” from the crowd

Boeing To Pay $50 Million To 737 MAX Crash Victims’ Families

  • Boeing Co said on Wednesday it will dedicate half of a $100 million fund it created after two crashes of its 737 MAX planes to provide payments to families of those killed, with veteran U.S. compensation expert Ken Feinberg hired by the world’s largest plane maker to oversee the distribution.
  • The announcement of Ken Feinberg’s hiring came minutes before a U.S. House of Representatives hearing featuring dramatic testimony by Paul Njoroge, a father who lost three children, his wife and mother-in-law in a 737 MAX Ethiopian Air crash in March.