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India Launches Five Foreign Satellites

Posted by Soulskill on from the high-five dept.

vasanth writes: "India has put into orbit five foreign satellites, including one built by France two from Canada and one each from Singapore and Germany. The PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) has so far successfully launched 67 satellites, including 40 foreign ones, into space. The PSLV costs about 17 million USD and the cost is seen as a major advantage India has over other countries in terms of commercial launches. When talking about the cost of the project, the Prime Minister of India noted that the launch was cheaper than Hollywood film Gravity.

8 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Manned mission please... by monzie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ISRO ( Indian Space Research Organization ) launch vehicles have attained the goals set for them. A politician recently pointed out that cost of sending 5 satellites to space was less than the budget of the movie Gravity ( I liked that movie, he should have picked Avatar for the example IMO ). The Mangalyaan ( Mars Mission ) costs less than â12 per km travelled, making it the most cost effective mars mission ever. These launches were done by the PSLV ( Polar satellite launch vehicle ) and cannot be used for manned launches. ISRO has suffered setbacks , notably with GSLV ( Geostationary satellite launch vehicle ) and in mastering the cryogenic engine. They have made progress and their track record makes them a very good contender to provide a good alternative to SpaceX.

  2. Great for India by AHuxley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They studied hard and ensured they fully understood every aspect of basic satellite lunch systems domestically before moving to the next stage.
    Other nations used military funding, the private sector, other governments and imports to try and boost their own domestic projects.
    So many failed as the cash needed never could make up for what India fully understood from the 1960's: its about not getting ahead of your own domestic science.
    Now India can enjoy lower cost launch systems without needing any other nations help, costly imports or permission.
    "Indian Space Research Organisation"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    1. Re:Great for India by ThatsMyNick · · Score: 5, Insightful

      they still can't clean up their garbage, their sewage, or feed, house, and clothe 90% of their population. They can't even keep the power grid they do have up and running reliably.

      You know what can fund them? Launching satellites for other countries, commercially, can. :)

    2. Re:Great for India by nashv · · Score: 2, Insightful

      No one was judging a country based on their rocket launching capability. People were appreiciating the efficient and economic rocket launching capability and the efforts that went into developing it. You are one who is doing the judging of an entire country, rather than just the particular achievement reported posted in the article.

      As for all the problems you describe as being present in India, as an Indian I thank you for your concern. But seeing as you aren't doing that much to help us solve them, you can keep this list of what is wrong with yourself. We already have that list for the last 60 years.

      --
      Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.
    3. Re:Great for India by Rich0 · · Score: 2

      A power grid that can't be kept up reliably? That's not something customers want to see when you're trying to convince them to let you launch multi-million dollar pieces of equipment up into space.

      Their customers don't care as long as the launch facility can operate when the locals are in darkness. Companies have figured out that by operating in the third world they can still have first-world conditions in their manufacturing facilities when it improves efficiency, but not have to pay for their employees or the rest of the country to have it when they go home. If you operate in the US you have to pay all kinds of taxes (or pay employees who have to be able to afford taxes) so that the city streets aren't covered in garbage. From a pure productivity standpoint it is much cheaper to only pay to remove garbage from areas where it could actually interfere with whatever work you're getting done.

    4. Re:Great for India by AikonMGB · · Score: 2

      Further, this is a high-technology field in which India can excel and become a prominent provider. This brings national prestige, foreign investment and support, provides (some) high-value jobs, and fosters better education. No, it's not going to solve India's problems over night, but it can help.

  3. Manned mission please... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That was true until the GSAT-14 launch. Those guys have talked about their commitment to delivering a better GSLV Mark III, so it'll be awaited.

    Technically, it doesn't make too much sense to send a human being as much as it makes to send a robotic creature down there. It's the same reason we use Drones and Surgical Arms. :-)

    Perhaps we may require humans on a space station if Robots can't handle certain sensing tasks too well. But that's pretty much the scope of human beings out there. What we could really benefit from is actually better satellite communication and reliable remote assignments with a 5 minute purview.

  4. Re:Lauch cheaper than the film Gravity . . . ? by dbIII · · Score: 2

    Sounds like a good comparison. One star vehicle launched in a place with an unreliable power grid compared with another.