Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004 |
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Science & Technology Industry & Economy - Education GSLV places Edusat in orbit successfully M. Ramesh
Mr G. Madavan Nair, ISRO Chairman, holding the model of the GSLV launch vehicle along with Mr T. K. A. Nair (centre), Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, and Mr G. Ravindranath, Project Director GSLV -F01, at a press conference after the successful launch from the SHAR range at Sriharikota on Monday. - V. Ganesan
Sriharikota , Sept. 20 TODAY was another important day for the Indian Space Research Organisation, as the GSLV-FO1 rocket took off into the skies as per plan and put its cargo, the Edusat satellite, into the designated orbital slot. The 1,950-kg Edusat is the heaviest satellite to be launched from India. The rocket, which carried it marked a `hat-trick', being the third successful GSLV launch in a row. At 4.01 pm on this damp afternoon, the 49-metre, 414-tonne-heavy rocket thundered skyward from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, the launch base at the coastal town of Sriharikota. Seventeen minutes after the lift-off, the Rs 160-crore rocket completed its mission (and its life) by ejecting the Edusat into its orbit.
The GSLV-F04 successfully put into orbit the first satellite dedicated to education, Edusat, from the SHAR range at Sriharikota on Monday evening. - Vino John
It was India Shining all the way up — the tricolour motif on the rocket's sides gleamed as the vehicle disappeared into the high clouds, its fiery plume leaving a trail of smoke like a thick rope hanging from the sky. At last, when the consoles at the Mission Control room proclaimed the precision-injection of the satellite into the planned slot, emotion-charged ISRO scientists hugged and congratulated each other. For, this was not only the first operational launch of the GSLV rocket — the previous two were experimental — but also the weather had threatened to play spoilsport. "There was a heavy downpour last night," said the ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, "and we wondered whether we may have to postpone the launch." But a go-ahead decision was taken this morning and in the end, the menacing grey clouds let things happen as per schedule. The GSLV-FO1 used the third of the seven cryogenic engines supplied by Glavkosmos of Russia. Addressing a press conference after the launch, Mr Nair said that the process of development of indigenous cryogenic engines was on as per schedule. The Rs 90-crore Edusat carries 12 transponders — five ku-band transponders for (five) regional beams, one ku-band transponder for national coverage and six C-band transponders also for national coverage. With this, the total number of transponders with Indian satellites goes up to 143. The plan is to reach 200 by 2007. As the name suggests, Edusat is dedicated for serving the educational sector — providing connectivity to schools and colleges. Eventually, (when the user infrastructure comes up), the satellite will be able to support 25-30 uplinks and about 5,000 remote terminals per uplink. The result is immense possibilities for tele-teaching, where like in a video conference, hundreds of students in far flung areas will be able to interact with an expert teacher over the video. Mr Nair said that ISRO had signed up with "half a dozen institutions" for the use of Edusat and expected to enter into similar agreements with over 20 major institutions. He added that ISRO did not see the Edusat in the light of revenue earning instrument, its main purpose being social service. But over a period of time, private sector-driven commercial education could use Edusat's transponders for a fee. Antrix Corporation's turnover trebles Public sector Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of the Department of Space, achieved a turnover of Rs 300 crore last year, three times as much as it did in the year before, the ISRO officials said here. It earned a net profit of Rs 30 crore. Antrix sells the use of Indian transponders, data generated by Indian remote sensing satellites and the service of launching others'satellites by Indian rockets. India will launch the Agile satellite of European Space Agency next year.
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