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India Launches Hefty Communications Satellite Into Orbit to Cap Busy 2018 (space.com)

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

India successfully squeezed a seventh launch into the year Wednesday, using an upgraded version of the country's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle to place a massive communications satellite into orbit for the Indian Air Force. From a report: That communications satellite, called the GSAT-7A, weighs nearly 5,000 lbs. (2250 kilograms) and will allow the Indian Air Force to manage all of its space communications itself, rather than paying for satellite services. "This mission, both in the launch vehicle as well as the satellite, there are so many firsts," K. Sivan, chair of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said. [...] Today's was India's last scheduled launch for 2018, although the country is eyeing two launches in January 2019, including of its second moon mission, Chandrayaan 2.

28 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. More orbital junk by GrBear · · Score: 1

    Just what we need.. even more space debris! Yay! I can't wait for SpaceX to toss another 1500 more chunks into orbit.

    1. Re:More orbital junk by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If everything launched into orbit is, ipso facto "junk", then why worry about junk running into other junk?

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    2. Re:More orbital junk by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      Yeah, plus SpaceX does it so much cheaper than everyone else, but somehow India has so much money they choose to do it themselves. It is almost as if launching satellites into orbit in 2018 isn't that big a deal.

    3. Re:More orbital junk by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 1

      Big satellites aren't much of a problem, they're easy to track or calculate their orbit. Probably more so in geostationary orbit (sitting above a fixed point on the equator).

      Mini-satellites launched into a low orbit aren't much of an issue either: they will de-orbit and burn up in the upper atmosphere after a relatively short amount of time.

      It's the stuff in between that's the problem: a wrench or a bolt lost by an astronaut during a spacewalk, a part or module that somehow comes loose from a satellite & goes its own way, etc. Many of such items too small to detect or keep track of, but big enough to do damage when it hits something at speed.

    4. Re:More orbital junk by Chrisq · · Score: 2
      Actualy the Indian launch is slightly cheaper:

      The GSLV MK-III costs approximately $60 million, which ISRO intends to further lower to garner the lucrative heavy satellite launch contracts. While a satellite launch on Arianespace's rocket costs about $100 million after subsidies, SpaceX charges approximately $62 million.

    5. Re:More orbital junk by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Impossible. Because Musk can land rockets vertically and has "drone ships" and stuff that makes it a lot cheaper. Plus they have cool polo shirts.

    6. Re:More orbital junk by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Communications satellites like this one go into geostationary orbit. That's an orbit with a radius of 42,164 km, for a circumference of 264,924 km. There are currently about 1800 satellites (and dead husks) in geostationary orbit, for an average spacing of 147 km between each satellite.

      The space debris problem is primarily limited to low earth orbit (about 150-1000 km altitude). It takes a lot more energy to get up to geostationary orbit, so we don't put satellites there unless we absolutely need it to stay above a fixed longitude.

    7. Re:More orbital junk by LostMyAccount · · Score: 1

      I'll see your polo shirt and raise you a Nehru jacket.

    8. Re:More orbital junk by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      India never wants to have to ask another nation for anything to do with "space" again.
      Never will India have to consider what it wants to do in space from another nations perspective.
      The education system, production lines and tech is now full in place in India. The science and production lines can grow with any future advancements.
      No outside nations support, help, comments, regulations, laws are needed.
      Launching satellites into orbit is a big deal for India as the USA and other nations attempted to hold India back for using advanced space tech.
      The money now results in their own science, production lines and tech ready for their own national needs.
      No having to ask a USA, a China, a France for permission on what type and size of satellites India is "allowed" to use and at what height, date and with what tech.
      Not having to ask a US brand and the US gov for permission to do anything space related was money very well invested over decades and generations.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    9. Re:More orbital junk by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Costs != prices. Why underprice your competitors at the expense of your own profit margin?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    10. Re:More orbital junk by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      In any case this is just the dry run for the big one, the resupply contract for the ISS. Next launch will be 5000lb of poppadoms, rogan josh, samosas, and tandoori chicken.

  2. Re:This is excellent news! by kaka.mala.vachva · · Score: 1

    *Sigh* At least on Slashdot, you'd think people would comment on the technical chops to do what ISRO does, rather than try and be funny about Indians doing what American companies pay them money to do.

  3. Still under-developed by chrism238 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Another space launch by India; good on them, but do they seriously still believe they should be classified as a 'developing nation' to receive part of $100B as part of the Paris Climate Agreement? China and your moon mission this month - we're looking at you too!

    1. Re:Still under-developed by lazarus · · Score: 1

      Good point. They have 1.3 billion people in their country, over 60% of whom do not have access to a toilet and yet they are launching satellites that weight as much as a full size pickup truck into orbit. Are they a developing nation? What's the metric?

      --
      I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
    2. Re:Still under-developed by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      India had a very different approach to space tech.
      They could not buy in, import and ask for other nations for "free" help.
      So India had to slowly do the math, science and production lines at its own pace.
      A generation and decades later everything is in place and India is winning.
      Contsider that with the way France, the UK efforts with Skynet (satellite) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., China, the USA started and worked on their rockets.
      Very different approaches, education, workers, laws and budgets.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Still under-developed by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Define toilet? Why do people claim people in India have no toilets?

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    4. Re:Still under-developed by lazarus · · Score: 1

      Because the World Health Organization told us I guess:

      "India with 626 million people who practice open defecation, has more than twice the number of the next 18 countries combined"

      They seem to define Toilet as not practicing open defecation.

      --
      I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
    5. Re:Still under-developed by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      And who tells us that this is true, or that they in fact have no toilet?
      I mean: did you never piss at a tree?

      I never have been in India, but I find it hard to believe that houses have no toilets or no "outhouse".

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:Still under-developed by Can'tNot · · Score: 1

      I don't see how that's a good point at all. You said yourself that 60% of their population doesn't have access to a toilet - how is that not good enough for them to qualify?

      I think you may have confused the word "developing" with "so poor that they're not developing at all."

    7. Re:Still under-developed by yes-but-no · · Score: 1

      In india, the open spaces/forest/waste-land which are public land is freely accessible to anyone. cows to graze say. Unlike so called developed nations where they fence it off and ask for special permits (ie u hv political/economic clout) to enter. Human waste gets recycled in such area may be in a cpl of days and rains wash it off too. And for billions/millions of years that's what mammals/reptiles and all other living thing on earth having been doing. This collecting of waste n sewage system is something like 100 years old, at most. All the disease talk is sheer fear mongering. Also how do you know this system is not worse than using open space like a forest as your toilet? May be the city sewage system creates an environment for more deadly virus/bacteria to develop.
      Of course in cities and towns they do hv toilets.

  4. Re:This is excellent news! by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

    *Sigh* At least on Slashdot, you'd think people would comment on the technical chops to do what ISRO does, rather than try and be funny about Indians doing what American companies pay them money to do.

    Thank you....come again!!

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  5. Because it requires no toilets by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Otherwise, India would not have been to pull it off.

    1. Re: Because it requires no toilets by fifi320 · · Score: 1

      aren't much of an issue either: they will de-orbit and burn up in the upper atmosphere after a relatively short amount of time. https://audacity.onl/ https://findmyiphone.onl/ https://origin.onl/

  6. India is a Failed Nation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    India is a typical failed nation.

    New Delhi wastes money on military satellites and nuclear weapons when most Indians live in poverty. By contrast, when Poland was an impoverished nation, Warsaw deliberately refused to spend money on military satellites and nuclear weapons; the Polish government spent most of its resources on economic development.

    Today, India remains economically poor, but Poland is relatively wealthy.

    Among the Russian elites, supporters of Vladimir Putin use India to justify rejecting democracy. They point to the poverty and poor governance in India. They recommend autocratic China as a model for Russian development.

    Get more informatioin about this issue.

  7. Re:India is a Failed Nation by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

    Sure, because other than their economic agenda, India and Poland were in a totally similar situation... Come on. Poland did not have a poor underclass at the size and level of poverty that India did. And Poland wasn't all that underdeveloped, it was a relatively modern nation.

    If India focuses solely on fighting poverty, they will be fighting poverty forever. Instead, they choose to also stimulate high tech enterprises. As to allocation of funds: it looks like India saves money by building and launching such satellites themselves rather than buying sats and launches abroad, while at the same time stimulating their own economy, providing local jobs, a little national pride, and perhaps some inspiration to future engineers. By the way, their space program budget is a tiny fraction of their rural development program, it's not like one precludes the other. As for the nukes: perhaps they feel that they need some of them, what with having a pissed-off neighbour who also has nukes.

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  8. Re: India is a Failed Nation by cyber-vandal · · Score: 1

    I heard the same thing growing up in the UK in the 80s but now Sikhs and Hindus are held up by righties as a model of how immigrants should behave unlike those evil Muslamics that want to destroy our culture. No doubt in 20 or 30 years' time someone else will be blamed for our public services being short of money.

  9. Re:This is excellent news! by Miles_O'Toole · · Score: 1

    If you were a jackass, you might think that.

    --
    Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
  10. Hefty? by edibobb · · Score: 1

    The Indian satellite is a little over half the weight of the GPS satellite SpaceX intends to launch (9,700 lbs).