Thursday, July 4, 2013
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Monday, July 1, 2013
Congrats Isro!
July 2
It was a historic moment in India's 50-year-old space history. A few minutes after midnight on July 2, the country's first nav sat designated as IRNSS-IA was successfully placed into its orbit rocketing India into the exclusive club of nations having the space navigation capability---the other countries are the US with its Global Positioning System, Russia with its Glonass and the Chinese Compass system.
India entering this prestigious space club is not without political significance because it reduces its dependence on the US, Russia and China. India will be able to take its own decision in space navigation which could perhaps havi classified applications as as well. In all there will be a constellation of seven nav sats, the last one being in 2015.
Apart from navigation, these sats will also help in disaster management.
I was not at Sriharikota last night to witness the grand night lift off ---incidentally it was the first night launch for India. Instead, I sat in my room which is a mini space centre with all its books, posters and rocket models and keyed into doordarshan and set up my laptop. As the events occurred I tweeted.
All systems were a `go' for the launch and mission director Kunhi Krishnan activated the launch authorisation key around 11.35 p.m. Six minutes later the rocket took off with the nav sat with a blast. What a sight it was!
I saw that as the mightly four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle thundered off the launch pad trailing a yellowish plume the night sky over Sriharikota literally lit up. The mission progressed flawlessly and about 20 minutes later the satellite was injected into its orbit. India had zoomed into the exclusive space club. Hats off to the Isro team.
One thing must be said----the doordarshan commentary was somewhat boring!!!! There was no action or excitement. Viewers would like to hear the comments made by the scientists and engineers in the mission control room, rather the continuos voices of the commentators. I hope for the much-awaited Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) slated for launch in October-November 2013 the launch commentary will be really exciting and alive! a.m.
About two hours before the launch a TV channel called me and said if they could seek my comments close to the lift off. It called again to reconfirm the arrangement. I said okay, but as usual there was no telephone call till about 1 a.m. I then decided to decactivate my mobile. This particular channel, which claims to expose a number of scams, had done this even earlier. Apparently, there is no planning at all in the channel's editional department.
Once again a big congrats to Isro. Once again you have done India proud!
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