PSLV C-28 Lifts Off : Image Credit ISRO As many in the U.S. ponder the immediate future of commercial space launch industry in the aftermath of SpaceX’s surprising failure on the NASA CRS-7 mission to the International Space Station, rising space power India has taken another small but significant step in expanding its own commercial capabilities. On […]
The United Arab Emirates has provided quite a bit more information on the Mars orbiter mission it announced last year. Named Hope, it would launch in 2020, and arrive at Mars in 2021, in time to highlight the 50th anniversary of the founding of UAE. Its scientific objective is to provide the first complete holistic […]
Capsule Recovery : ISRO Although the upper stage was inert, the launch was suborbital and the capsule was an uncrewed re-entry demonstrator, rising space power India took a major step into the future with the December 18th launch of the GSLV Mk-III booster carrying the CARE crew module. Coming on the heels of the successful […]
Vostochny Under Construction. Image Credit The Moscow Times One question which defines the NewSpace movement, is which individuals, companies, or governments are investing in technologies or systems which have the capacity to significantly reduce the cost of access to space. In the case of the latter, governments, all too often it is just as easy […]
Two days after NASA hailed the arrival of its MAVEN spacecraft at the Red Planet, rising space power India is now celebrating the successful orbital insertion of its own; MOM, or Mars Orbital Mission. From the Indian space Research Organization Press Release: “India’s Mars Orbiter Spacecraft successfully entered into an orbit around planet Mars today […]
Image Credit: NASA Following a 10 month interplanetary cruise after launch from Cape Canaveral on November 18th 2013, NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) orbiter arrived successfully at the Red Planet on Sunday evening. Orbital insertion was achieved at 10:24 PM EDT, with the aid of a 33 minute burn of the six main […]
Note: More evidence that it does not take a wildly overpriced launch vehicle to achieve an excellent success record. More broadly, India’s space program is off to a good start in 2014, having seen a long awaited fully domestic success with the larger GSLV, and its Mars Orbiter probe functioning nominally on the way to […]
Emerging space power India took another step forward on Sunday with a successful launch of its Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV. The launch, which took place from the Indian Space Research Organization’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 4:18 p.m. India Standard Time, lofted GSAT-14, a 12 transponder, 1982 kg communications satellite to GTO, where it […]
Rising space power India has successfully launched its MOM, Mars Orbiter Mission on the first leg of an 11 month journey intended to place the 1350 kg spacecraft into orbit around the Red Planet on September 24, 2014. The Mars orbiter was launched into a preliminary parking orbit aboard the highly successful PSLV, Polar Satellite […]
India successfully launched its PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) today, carrying into orbit the 410 kg Indo-French built SARAL satellite, intended for ocean monitoring, as well as six other small satellites. Among them was NEOSSat, a Canadian built, suitcase sized satellite which will function as the world’s first space based telescope specifically designed to search for Near Earth Asteroids. Talk […]
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