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India's Space Agency Successfully Launches 2 UK Earth Observation Satellites (thehindu.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up,-up,-and-away dept.

The late-night dark skies at Sriharikota, India, lit up in bright orange hues as the PSLV-C42 lifted off and vanished into the thick black clouds, carrying two satellites from the United Kingdom -- NovaSAR and S1-4 from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR. Local news outlet reports: The lightest version of the PSLV, flying in its core-alone version without the six strap-on motors, the PSLV-C-42 rose into the skies at 10.08 p.m. Almost 18 minutes later, the two satellites were placed in the desired orbit by ISRO. This was the 12th such launch of a core-alone version of the PSLV by ISRO. "This was a spectacular mission. We have placed the satellite in a very, very precise orbit," R. Hutton, Mission Director, said.

The two satellites, owned by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) were placed in a circular orbit around the poles, 583 km (362 miles) from Earth. The commercial arm of ISRO, Antrix Corporation earned more than â220 crore ($30.5 million) on this launch. The NovaSAR is a technology demonstration mission designed to test the capabilities of a new low cost S-band SAR platform. It will be used for ship detection and maritime monitoring and also flood monitoring, besides agricultural and forestry applications. The S1-4 will be used for environment monitoring, urban management, and tackling disasters. On the sidelines, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said it will launch three more satellites to provide high-speed bandwidth connectivity to rural areas as part of the government's Digital India programme, a local news agency reported.

19 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds great! by Krishnoid · · Score: 1

    The S1-4 will be used for environment monitoring, urban management, and tackling disasters.

    Because *that* doesn't sound ominous.

    1. Re: Sounds great! by Scarletdown · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps this is to finally determine whether or not the Turtle is male or female. And they can study the 4 elephants on the Turtle's back while they are at it.

      Are you a turtle?

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  2. Awesome! by AtomicSymphonic · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is pretty neat! I would be glad to see more activity from India's space agency! India has historically had some of the world's greatest astronomers and greatly influenced European and Islamic Astronomy; it's a natural fit for them!

    Can't wait to see their contributions in a decade!

    1. Re:Awesome! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      "Islamic", maybe. European? Since the 1600s, the wobbly foundations of ancient astronomy, cosmology etc. have been thoroughly replaced with *actual* understanding.

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      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. Re:Awesome! by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      We're not talking about cosmology here, but of such things as star mapping, records of planetary movements and of abnormal events such as comets, eclipses and novas.

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      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    3. Re:Awesome! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      Since the 1600s, the wobbly foundations of ancient astronomy, cosmology etc. have been thoroughly replaced with *actual* understanding.
      Hae? What exactly did we understand more than Sumerians 3000 BC?
      Oh, we know since the 1800s or so that suns are powered by fusion, and that basically is what we know more than the ancients.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Awesome! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Yes, we learned to write a long time ago. So people wrote down a lot of data. Awesome, now what inference do you do with that data?

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      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:Awesome! by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

      For example, the law of universal gravitation so that the movements of planets finally made sense? Because those imagined epicycles sure as hell weren't really there.

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      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:Awesome! by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      Since the 1600s, the wobbly foundations of ancient astronomy, cosmology etc. have been thoroughly replaced with *actual* understanding.

      Agree with merit of this statement, however the knowledge is a continuum, without ancient astronomy there would be no modern "actual" understanding.

      Hae? What exactly did we understand more than Sumerians 3000 BC? Oh, we know since the 1800s or so that suns are powered by fusion, and that basically is what we know more than the ancients.

      You're joking I assume, at first I wanted to write down a list, but after typing for some time I got bored, and reflected and decided you must be joking.
      Just the presence of nowadays technology and astronomical instruments guarantees magnitudes of more knowledge. The shier time spent on observing and reflecting on what we see guarantees deeper understanding of virtually every aspect, not to mention about discovering features and things ancient people could not even have a slightest idea they existed, so Instead of writing down a long list to prove my point I just need one example (right?), so I will give you 2:
      Please find me a Sumerian script, where they explain:
      - why the Universe has about 75% of hydrogen, about 25% of helium, traces of depleting lithium and minuscule traces of the remaining elements
      - why the cosmic microwave background is about 2.7K

    7. Re:Awesome! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      No I'm not joking.

      Because stuff like this:

      - why the Universe has about 75% of hydrogen, about 25% of helium, traces of depleting lithium and minuscule traces of the remaining elements
      - why the cosmic microwave background is about 2.7K
      Is obviously not very relevant.
      Sure we "know more things" ... and?

      All the stars you can see with naked eye (if it is dark enough in modern time) where mapped and named by Sumerians and older civilizations already. The planets, even Saturn, were known. They knew the earth is round, and made even a wild guess that the earth is the third planet of our solar system.

      The point is the wording: "have been thoroughly replaced with *actual* understanding." As if the ancients understood nothing ... they had not the instruments, they did not consider a big bang etc. But they had *actual understanding" quite plenty. E.g. why do we use 360 degrees to describe a full circle? Hint: it is not because Sumerians and Babylonians used a 60 based counting system (because they actually did not, it is alternating 60 and 20 based) :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    8. Re:Awesome! by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Because those imagined epicycles sure as hell weren't really there.
      Actually the Sumerians knew that the planets revolve in "circles" around the sun, and they were quite certain that the earth also "is just a planet".
      Obviously they had no satellites to "prove" it

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    9. Re:Awesome! by AlwinBarni · · Score: 1

      I see your point now, we do not understand any more then the ancient people in the realm of what they did understand correctly.

  3. The pedant in me wants to know ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2, Funny

    India's ISRO Successfully Launches ...

    As opposed to the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) in some other country?

    (We don't say, "The United State's NASA" - do we.)

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:The pedant in me wants to know ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      (We don't say, "The United State's NASA" - do we.)

      We would if otherwise nobody would understand what the fuck we were talking about.

    2. Re:The pedant in me wants to know ... by msmash · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's a fair question. As someone else pointed out here, ISRO is not a household name in the US and EU. Plenty of people know it, but most do not. That's why whenever we are covering a subject that is outside of the US and UK, we try to add some context. It's a very common practice. See for instance, this WSJ headline [link will take you to Imgur, a third-party image and video hosting service]. That said, I think it would have been better if the headline said India's Space Agency. I have made the change.

    3. Re:The pedant in me wants to know ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      I was just being picky for fun, but you made good explanatory points; thanks.

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      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. Like California by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Their own damn satellite! ;)

  5. Proud of those Indians. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sure, there's poor people, and that should be fixed.
    But this gives hope, and gets people to think differently about India.
    I hope this leads to some dirt-poor Indian somewhere saying “NO. I won't accept being treated like this anymore! We're a space nation, FFS! I shall have a better life now, or I'll kick yo ass until I do, leech!"

  6. Re:Something must be wrong, somewhere by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    Because as stated upthread by someone else, Britain is nowhere near the equator. India is. Where does the US do all it's launches from, it's not Minnesota.

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