Modi’s pride as home-produced rocket puts satellite into orbit
INDIA yesterday successfully launched its most powerful home-produced rocket, another milestone for its indigenous space programme that hopes one day to put a human into orbit.
The 140ft rocket hurtled into a clear sky at 5.28pm local time from the southern island of Sriharikota, one of two sites used by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch satellites. Scientists hugged each other and cheered as the 630 ton rocket lifted off.
“The GSLV – MKIII D1/GSAT-19 mis- sion takes India closer to the next generation launch vehicle and satellite capability,” the prime minister, Narendra Modi, posted on Twitter.
“The nation is proud!”
The rocket boasts a powerful engine that has been developed in India over many years. Programme managers hope to reduce reliance on European engines that have propelled some of India’s spacecraft in the past.
The GSLV Mk III rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tons into a high orbit above Earth, a landmark achievement as India had struggled to match the heavier payloads of other space giants.
“This is an important moment in India’s space technology, to launch an indigenous heavy rocket,” said Ajay Lele from the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. “Communication satellites are quite heavy and we were [only] able to send up to two tons previously. This is a double quantum jump for India.”
The launch is another feather in the cap for scientists at ISRO, who won Asia’s race to Mars in 2014 when an Indian spacecraft reached the Red Planet on a shoestring budget.
That feat burnished India’s reputation as a reliable low-cost option for space exploration, with its £56.5million price tag drastically undercutting Nasa’s Maven Mars £519 million mission. ISRO is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus.
India is vying for a larger slice of the booming commercial satellite business as phone, internet and other companies seek expanded and more high-end communications.