ISRO Launches Record 5 UK Satellites, Part of a Long String of Successes

vasanth writes: India launched its heaviest commercial space mission ever with its polar rocket successfully putting five British satellites into the intended orbit after a flawless takeoff. With the overall mass of five satellites being about 1,440 kg, this launch becomes the "heaviest commercial mission" ever undertaken by ISRO and its commercial arm Antrix Corporation.

The workhorse of India's space program, the PSLV is on a run of 25 consecutive successful launches. First flown in 1993, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV, is by far India's most-used rocket for orbital missions – accounting for thirty of the country's 46 launches to date including Friday's.

Comments

Re:Hmm...

[lisaparratt]

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that aid is charity. It's not. It's leverage.

Re:Hmm...

[lgw]

I'm glad India is a success in the space business... I'm not so glad of funding them out of my own pocket.

Oh? So you think India's "commercial space business" operates at a loss? I rather doubt more than $10 has gone out of "your own pocket" to India in any case, as foreign aid is a tiny percentage of US government spending.

I give thousands in charity to groups that will spend it on the needy (though I suspect little of it goes to India, as they're doing relatively well, compared to the worst places); I also invest thousands in India's economy. There's a good reason for each, but they are different reasons - the latter isn't out of charity. On the one hand, children need to survive, and become educated, and capable of supporting themselves in the modern world.* On the other hand, there also need to be jobs, and an economy to sustain them.

India in particular refuses to be the manufacturing center for the developed world, perhaps seeing the coming robots taking all that work. Instead they focus on jobs that make sense for the modern world, and a space program is an important symbol of that. I say more power to them.

*There are still plenty of places where outside assistance is needed to allow girls to attend school safely, and plenty where the local barbarians still prevent that in the name of religion - you know which one.

Re:Hmm...

[lgw]

China, which 30 years ago was poorer than India

China has a decade or two of growth over India (and you can't believe a word the government approves about conditions in China - this is a totalitarian state with total information control, and many Potemkin Businesses). It may have been the right decision 30 years ago, but does anyone really doubt manufacturing is on its way out? China has had rough economic times for the past decade as American manufacturing returns to American robots (at least, if the Chinese stock market is any guide - hard to be certain).

60% of Indians work as subsistence farmers on tiny family plots

Sure - they have a long way to go (though they're far better off than a lot of the world), but real economic change takes generations, and they're far ahead of where they were 20 years ago. Eh, opinions vary, but I can at least say I've researched it considerably before putting my money where my mouth is.

, and less than 0.0001% work for the space agency.

Does the word "symbol" in my initial post confuse you? What about the word "inspiration"? As in "half the people my age I know who work in tech were inspired by NASA and science fiction". It's important for mankind that our reach exceed our grasp. It's important to see it's not just other nations who can do these things. Don't worry, as you point out most tech workers on local projects are doing much more practical things, but dammit, symbols are important.

Re:Relative terms

[dryeo]

Actually the ISRO has launched infinite more payload then the Falcon Heavy, as the Heavy has not flown.
Falcon Heavy also benefits from over 50 years of American space development whereas India had to bootstrap the ISRO on its own.