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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.

6 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. 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.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    2. 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.
    3. 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.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  2. 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.)

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. 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.