BANGALORE: India successfully launched its biggest ever rocket on Thursday carrying an unmanned capsule which could one day send astronauts into space, as the country ramps up its ambitious space programme.
The rocket, designed to carry heavier communication and other satellites into higher orbit, blasted off from Sriharikota in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh in a test mission costing nearly $25 million.
"This was a very significant day in the history of (the) Indian space programme," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman KS Radhakrishnan said from mission control as fellow scientists clapped and cheered.
ISRO scientists have been riding high since an Indian spacecraft successfully reached Mars in September on a shoe-string budget, winning Asia's race to the Red Planet and sparking an outpouring of national pride.
Although India has successfully launched lighter satellites in recent years, it has struggled to match the heavier loads that other countries increasingly want sent up.
The new rocket, weighing 630 tonnes and capable of carrying a payload of 4 tonnes, is a boost for India's attempts to grab a greater slice of the $300-billion global space market.
"India, you have a new launch vehicle with you. We have made it again," said S Somnath, director of the mission.
"The powerful launch vehicle has come to shape, which will change our destiny... (by) placing heavier spacecraft into communications orbits."
The rocket was carrying an unmanned crew capsule which ISRO said successfully separated from the rocket and splashed down in the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast 20 minutes after liftoff.
The Indian-made capsule is designed to carry up to three astronauts into space.
ISRO officials said the crew capsule would be "recovered" from the sea and ferried back to Sriharikota by Friday for further studies.
India's manned spaceflight programme has seen multiple stops and starts in recent years, and ISRO says the crew capsule project would take at least another seven years to reach the point where an astronaut could be put into space.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the test mission as "yet another triumph of (the) brilliance and hard work of our scientists" in a post on Twitter.
Successful launch of GSLV Mk-III is yet another triumph of brilliance & hardwork of our scientists. Congrats to them for the efforts. @isro
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) December 18, 2014
Radhakrishnan said the next step would be to develop a more power indigenous engine, reducing India's reliance on those built in Europe, for the rocket, which is officially named the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III.
"Our own cryogenic engine, which is at development stage, will be used in powering the advanced heavy rockets in the next two years," he said.
COMMENTS (5)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@HumanBeing: No need for toilets we use the rivers flowing towards Pakistan for our 'morning business'.
@HumanBeing:
No need to build as it is in our backyard..
While at it.. They should also make the worlds biggest toilet.
@Chachoo: Takr care . "They" maybe coming to pick you up for having spoken the truth.
Meanwhile the Civilian administration of Suparco Pakistan is being totally replaced by the Most Patriotic Generals and Army Officers of Pakistan. India has the all Civilian Space Program while Pakistan's space program is being hijacked by One institute. The current administrator of Suparco is MGen Ahmad Bilal who has no idea what SLV ( Space launch vehicle ) stands for.
India launched this mission for 25 Million US Dollars and Pakistan can easily arrange this amount as well. But who will limit the Power of Army Officers and will replace them with the Professional Aeronautical and Aerospace engineers to further our space program.?
Somebody should tell our Politicians to explain this to Army Officers that SLV ( Space Launch Vehicle ) is vital for the space missions and kindly start this project as soon as possible. Also it is my request to Military Officers to limit their activities to borders and leave it Civilian Scientists to Research and Develop the products for our country.