عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

King Salman Approves Providing Two Holy Mosques with 150,000 Copies of the Holy Quran

Copies of the holy Quran that have been printed by the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran. (SPA)
Copies of the holy Quran that have been printed by the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran. (SPA)
TT
20
TT

King Salman Approves Providing Two Holy Mosques with 150,000 Copies of the Holy Quran

Copies of the holy Quran that have been printed by the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran. (SPA)
Copies of the holy Quran that have been printed by the King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran. (SPA)

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued a royal order on Friday that approved providing the Two Holy Mosques with 150,000 copies of the holy Quran with the advent of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

The holy books will be printed by King Fahd Complex for Printing the Holy Quran, reported the Saudi Press Agency.

General President of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and Prophet's Mosque Sheikh Dr. Abduerrahman Al-Sudais expressed his gratitude to King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their generous gesture.

Most Viewed

 
Varieties

Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
TT
20
TT

Soviet-era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth after 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)
FILE - This photo provided by researcher Jane Greaves shows the planet Venus, seen from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Akatsuki probe in May 2016. (J. Greaves/Cardiff University/JAXA via AP)

A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.
The European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking confirmed its uncontrolled reentry, based on analysis and no-shows of the spacecraft on subsequent orbits. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also indicated that the spacecraft had reentered after it failed to appear over a German radar station.
It was not immediately known where the spacecraft came in or how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.
The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.
Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction.
Much of the spacecraft came tumbling back to Earth within a decade of the failed launch. No longer able to resist gravity’s tug as its orbit dwindled, the spherical lander — an estimated 3 feet (1 meter) across — was the last part of the spacecraft to come down. The lander was encased in titanium, according to experts, and weighed more than 1,000 pounds (495 kilograms).
After following the spacecraft’s downward spiral, scientists, military experts and others could not pinpoint in advance precisely when or where the spacecraft might come down. Solar activity added to the uncertainty as well as the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition after so long in space.
As of Saturday morning, the US Space Command had yet to confirm the spacecraft's demise as it collected and analyzed data from orbit.
The US Space Command routinely monitors dozens of reentries each month. What set Kosmos 482 apart — and earned it extra attention from government and private space trackers — was that it was more likely to survive reentry, according to officials.
It was also coming in uncontrolled, without any intervention by flight controllers who normally target the Pacific and other vast expanses of water for old satellites and other space debris.