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Sky high: GSAT-8 put into orbit, ‘Astra’ boost for armoury
The 3,100 kg GSAT-8, primarily aimed at augmenting India’s direct-to-home TV broadcast services, was hurled into space by European launcher in a 31-minute mission on Ariane 5 rocket’s 44th consecutive successful flight. The Indian satellite, with a Japanese co-passenger ST2, was the second to be injected into the Geo Synchronous Transfer Orbit by the rocket which blasted off at 2.08 am (IST) from French Guiana, a region of France on the North-East coast of South America. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated the Department of Space for the successful launch of GSAT-8. He spoke to Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan over phone and conveyed his greetings. GSAT-8, which is expected to become operational in 4-6 weeks after being inducted into the INSAT system, is equipped with 24 high-powered Ku Band transponders to augment India’s Ku-band relay capabilities - particularly DTH services. “This (the launch) is another great moment for us" Radhakrishnan said in Kourou where his team watched the launch. The total cost of the GSAT-8 project is about Rs 600 crore, including around Rs 250 crore for the spacecraft, more than Rs 300 crore for launch services by Arianespace and over Rs 30 crore towards insurance, ISRO sources said. Radhakrishnan said the user community in India is looking forward for the operationalisation of the 24 transponders into the Indian National Satellite system. ISRO officials said the launch was doubly gratifying as the space agency had lost two satellites last year in unsuccessful missions of indigenous GSLV rockets launched from home soil. After the successive failures, ISRO was desperately looking to augment transponder capacity to meet the growing demand.“Currently, ISRO has 151 transponders providing a variety of services. Today’s launch of GSAT-8 will augment the transponder capacity with the addition of 24 Ku band transponders taking it to a total of 175,” ISRO spokesperson S Satish said. GSAT-8 has a mission life of more than 12 years and would be co-located along with INSAT3-E. Besides the transponders, GSAT-8 is configured to carry a two-channel GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands. The GAGAN payload provides the Satellite Based Augmentation System, through which the accuracy of the positioning information obtained from the GPS satellite is improved by a network of ground-based receivers and made available to the users in the country. — PTI dth services to get a push n
The 3,100-kg GSAT-8 (see pic) was hurled into space by European n The satellite is primarily aimed at augmenting India’s DTH broadcast services. n
ISRO’s Master Control Facility in Karnataka has confirmed the reception of signals from GSAT-8 and taken charge of the command and control of the satellite immediately after its injection into the orbit The Astra Edge
n The indigenously developed missile is envisaged to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft at supersonic speeds in the head-on mode at a range of 80 km and in tail-chase mode at 20 km. n
It uses solid propellant and can carry a conventional warhead of 15 kg. It is the smallest of the missiles developed by the DRDO in terms of size and weight and can be launched from different altitudes n
DRDO says it’s more advanced than the similar class of missiles of the US, Russia and France. Balasore (Orissa), May 21 “The missile was test-fired around 1032 hrs and the trial was successful,” Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) sources said. The missile is envisaged to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft at supersonic speeds in the head-on mode at a range of 80 km and in tail-chase mode at 20 km. “Before the sophisticated anti aircraft missile would be integrated with fighter aircraft like Su-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, it would undergo some rigorous and flawless tests both from ground and fighter jets,” said a scientist associated with the project. Astra, which uses solid propellant, can carry a conventional warhead of 15 kg. It is the smallest of the missiles developed by the DRDO in terms of size and weight. It is 3.8-metre long and has a diameter of 178 mm with an overall launch weight of 160 kg. The missile could be launched from different altitudes - it can cover 110 km when launched from an altitude of 15 km, 44 km when fired from an altitude of eight km and 21 km when the altitude is sea-level. DRDO officials said it was more advanced than the similar class of missiles of the US, Russia and France. The missile’s captive flight tests from Su-30MKI were carried out near Pune in November 2009 when seven sorties were conducted. Astra’s first flight trial took place on May 9, 2003 from the ITR at Chandipur. — PTI
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Bangalore, May 21