I alt blev syv satellitter opsendt – Indien vil optræde som rummagt og gerne på lige fod med USA, Rusland og (ikke mindst) Kina, hvorfor man senere i år sender sin første rummission til planeten Mars, men også kritik på hjemmefronten.
India has put into orbit seven satellites, including one built with France to study the world’s oceans, BBC online reports Monday.
The six other satellites include two each from Canada and Austria and one each from DENMARK and Britain.
India is emerging as a major player in the multi-billion dollar space market. It plans up to 10 missions this year.
The satellite built in collaboration with France will carry two climate tools developed for analysing ocean current and sea surface heights by the French space agency CNES.
This is the 23rd mission for India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – a seven-storey-high, 230 tonne rocket.
The PSLV has so far successfully launched more than 50 satellites into space.
Også til Mars
Meanwhile, the internet-based Bangladeshi newspaper bdnews24.com writes Monday, that India will launch its first mission to Mars this year.
India will send a satellite in October via an unmanned spacecraft to orbit the red planet, blasting off from the southeastern coast in a mission expected to cost about 83 million US dollar.
The spacecraft, which will be made in India, will take nine months to reach Mars and then launch itself in an elliptical orbit about 500 km from the planet.
India’s mission to Mars has drawn criticism in a country suffering from high levels of malnutrition and power shortages, and currently experiencing its worst slowdown in growth in ten years.
