Eyes
on space, India launches 'mini-Hubble'
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[September 28, 2015]
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India launched
its first space research observatory and several U.S. satellites on
Monday, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to expand his
country's influence in the competitive, $300 billion global space
industry.
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The observatory, named ASTROSAT, will help Indian scientists
intensify space exploration efforts by studying distant celestial
objects and conduct deeper analyses of star systems.
"This launch ... is important for astronomical sciences," Harsh
Vardhan, India's minister for earth sciences, said in a statement.
"We look forward to prospective research."
The simultaneous launch of six other satellites, four of which were
for the United States, came hours before a scheduled meeting between
Modi and U.S. President Barack Obama.
Modi is bullish about India's space research program and has
repeatedly lauded the efforts of his scientists, who last year
scored big on the global stage when their low-cost Mars mission
entered the red planet's orbit on its very first attempt.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Sep/28/images/ads/current/st_clara_sda_daily_fallfest_2015.png) Despite the recent successes, the growth of India's space program
has been stymied by lack of heavier launchers and slow execution of
missions - during 2007-2012, only about half of the planned 60
missions were accomplished.
In December, India successfully tested a new, more powerful rocket -
the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III - that
can put heavier payloads into space, but it is not yet operational.
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ASTROSAT is seen as a smaller version of NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope that was launched in 1990. It will be able to detect
objects in multiple wavelengths such as X-rays, but with far lower
precision than Hubble, said Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of
Fundamental Research.
"This will bring little commercial advantage but will show India's
new capability in space research," said Vahia, whose institute made
three of the five scientific instruments aboard ASTROSAT.
The ASTROSAT instruments will transmit data to a control center in
the southern city of Bangalore that will manage the satellite during
its five-year mission life.
(Reporting by Aditya Kalra; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
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