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"India Tests Heavy Satellite Rocket Successfully
Thu May 8,11:07 AM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!
SRIHARIKOTA, India (Reuters) - India tested its most ambitious satellite launch rocket successfully on Thursday, injecting a 1.8 ton experimental payload into an orbit tuned to the earth's movement, space officials said.
Witnesses said the launch, which is a step forward in India's attempts to be a player in the lucrative business of launching satellites, went off smoothly at the southern spaceport of Sriharikota, some 60 miles north of the city of Madras.
The blast-off at 4:58 p.m. (7:28 a.m. EDT) was the second successful test of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV-D2, and came two years after the first launch that took place days after an attempt that was aborted due to a technical glitch. The first rocket, GSLV-D1, had placed a 1.5 ton satellite in space from the launch port located on the Bay of Bengal coast.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said the GSAT-2 communications satellite was placed in its planned transfer orbit, from where it would be pushed deeper into space to a final orbit aligned to match a point on the earth.
Heavy geo-synchronous satellites, resembling watchtowers in space, are used for communications, broadcasting and weather forecasts.
ISRO officials said last week that there is a market for the launch of five to six 2.0-tonsatellites every year across the world, and India could offer the service at attractive prices.
ISRO says it is in exploratory talks for marketing tie-ups with companies like Lockheed Martin Corp .
India can also save money in its satellite program with its own launch services. It has so far used Europe's Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites."
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Taken from:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ia_rocket_dc_1[/url]
Thu May 8,11:07 AM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!
SRIHARIKOTA, India (Reuters) - India tested its most ambitious satellite launch rocket successfully on Thursday, injecting a 1.8 ton experimental payload into an orbit tuned to the earth's movement, space officials said.
Witnesses said the launch, which is a step forward in India's attempts to be a player in the lucrative business of launching satellites, went off smoothly at the southern spaceport of Sriharikota, some 60 miles north of the city of Madras.
The blast-off at 4:58 p.m. (7:28 a.m. EDT) was the second successful test of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV-D2, and came two years after the first launch that took place days after an attempt that was aborted due to a technical glitch. The first rocket, GSLV-D1, had placed a 1.5 ton satellite in space from the launch port located on the Bay of Bengal coast.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said the GSAT-2 communications satellite was placed in its planned transfer orbit, from where it would be pushed deeper into space to a final orbit aligned to match a point on the earth.
Heavy geo-synchronous satellites, resembling watchtowers in space, are used for communications, broadcasting and weather forecasts.
ISRO officials said last week that there is a market for the launch of five to six 2.0-tonsatellites every year across the world, and India could offer the service at attractive prices.
ISRO says it is in exploratory talks for marketing tie-ups with companies like Lockheed Martin Corp .
India can also save money in its satellite program with its own launch services. It has so far used Europe's Arianespace to launch its heavy satellites."
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Taken from:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ia_rocket_dc_1[/url]
Way to go.... 
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