India's Successful Commercial Satellite Launch

An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday India successfully launched an Italian astronomical satellite. A BBC article (view video clip) notes that the launch grants India membership in the exclusive group of nations that can sustain commercial satellite launches. India's launch vehicle has less overall capacity than the competition — up to 1,500 kg to orbit — but the country plans to sweep the low end of the market by offering the lowest cost per launched kilogram for smaller payloads."

Comments

Re:Next superpowers...

[vivaoporto]

Well, I don't know if in a multilateral world (as opposed to the Bi-polarized Cold War world) there is space to the concept of "Superpower" anymore, but if there is (along with India and China), Brazil, South Africa and Australia stands a chance too. A lot of economic and technological development happening barely unnoticed south of the equator too.

Re:Small payloads?

[namityadav]

I think that this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Space_Research _Organisation article has some good details about the Indian Space program, for those interested.

Re:Does anyone know...

[Timesprout]

Their bomb is very touchy about its weight you insensitive clod. And no it's not fat, it just has an alternative structural framework.

Re:W00T!

[namityadav]

No government spends all it's money on sanitation first before looking into something more progressive like Space research. I appreciate it when a country looks towards the future, and not just the immediate short-term solutions.
The somewhat betterment of the conditions (And I do not turn a blind eye to the fact that these betterments are still only on the surface) in India is largely because of it's new-found IT power, opening of market to the west and getting more exposure to the outside world. Not because India was employing more people in the Sanitation department. Continuing in the same direction will have a good enough trickle-down effect to eventually help sanitation too (I know that you used sanitation only as an example. I am also using it only as an example).

Moreover, unlike most other space agencies, the Indian program still focuses a lot on educational broadcasting and remote sensing. Better than launching those "Spy" satellite, IMHO.

Racism acceptable on /. where India is concerned

[fiannaFailMan]

I've all but stopped reading /. threads on Indian technical developments. The predictable torrent of snide little stereotypical racist comments that seem to get modded 'funny' is a bit off-putting, and they usually outnumber any vaguely interesting or informative comments by about 7 to 1. The /. crew needs to grow the hell up.

Re:can you blame them?

[fiannaFailMan]

if by competitive you mean undercutting first world by living in "developing" conditions, settling for income which wouldn't qualify to pay for a refrigerator box in the middle of highway 1 let alone raise a family, then yeah.. it's competitive.

Damn straight it's competitive. It's less than what you earn, more than what he would earn without outsourcing and therefore makes life better for him. If you can't compete, get another job. Innovate. Start a business. Get off your ass and do something. Don't just sit there expecting some communist-style subsidy or GW Bush-style protectionist tarriffs to keep your standard of living inflated to such dizzy heights while half the world squats in poverty. I know you'd just love to keep all that wealth to yourself but there are about 6 billion other people in this world too you know. If they can raise their income at the expense of a certain gas-guzzling nation that burns up 25% of the world's resources but only has 5% of the world's population, then fair fucks to them.

youre really sensitive to racism but youre perfectly ok with the dispossession of the middle class of an entire nation for the sake of another which should be building its own middle class without draining the wealth of another... im confused as to what political affiliation youre supposed to have.

Your justification of racism is noted. And I'm a bit confused as to why you think the USA is entitled to keep all the world's wealth to itself. Is that part of your 'manifest destiny' or something?

Re:can you blame them?

[fiannaFailMan]

stop contradicting yourself

Wait until I start contradicting myself and I'll think about it. "Troll" indeed!

youre either for the communist ideal of wealth redistribution or youre not. if youre for it you cant use "communist" as a derogatory term, and if youre not you have no right to assert the rights of other nations to steal american's jobs.

"Steal?" That would be an illegal thing. Here is the news. Open markets and free trade are LEGAL! Outsourcing is LEGAL. "Theft" has shit all to do with it. Communism is all about putting artificial constraints on the market. Free trade is the opposite, leading to a better distribution of wealth. Better distribution of wealth isn't an ideal exclusive to communists, free marketeers would like to see it too. But feel free to redefine free trade as 'communism' for the purposes of your argument if you want.

if india wants the freaking jobs, they should start their own companies and create their own job market rather than destroying the american job market.

Oh here we go! So you're another protectionist "keep the jobs in the hands of good, white, god-fearing christian folks y'hear" merchant? What makes your country so special that you're entitled to hang on to all the world's cool jobs when there's a bunch of people elsewhere who can do the same work for less, hmm? Anything to do with skin colour? Or is it a nationality thing? Something to do with your 'manifest destiny' or something?

Here is the news. There's a big bad world out there and it's got COMPETITION for you. If you don't compete, you get eliminated. So you either do it right (i.e. do a better job than the Indians) or get out of the heat of the kitchen and do something else. It's very simple.

And in the meantime, you might also want to think about fixing that little racism problem.