India Launches 10 Satellites At Once

freakxx writes "India sets a world record after launching 10 satellites in one go using its workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). All the satellites were put into their respective orbits successfully. It was the core-alone version of the launch vehicle weighing 230 tonnes with a payload of 824 kg in total. Two of the satellites were Indian satellites, while the rest were from different countries. By this launch, the ISRO has proven its credibility and it is going to boost India's image in the attractive multi-billion commercial market of satellite launches. This was the 12th successful launch of the PSLV."

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[Wowsers]

Someone should tell the European Union about this way of launching satellites... then the politicians might stop wasting vast amounts of European taxpayers money on their own vastly over-budget but completely worthless GPS system, using the tracking of road drivers as one excuse for it's existence.

On the good side...

[Anonymous Coward]

On the good side, we don't have to worry about the US military weaponizing space, since the complete ineptitude of conservative ideology will soon leave the US without a means of even getting into space, or the money to put anything there.

Stay the course, fiscal conservatives! You still haven't hit rock bottom!

Japan trains in 1991

[phoneteller]

Look at how they used to pack passengers in Japanese trains in 1991 Video of Japanese train in 1991 [beewulf.com]!!

Re:Leave it to India

[phorm]

It may be marked as funny, but I find it fairly true that India is definitely a country where the "more-in-less" concept seems to fit. I have a room for rent in my condo, and recently got an email from an family that is moving here and wanted to rent my room (not a small room, but it's still only a single room in a 3bdrm/1bthrm condo) for the parents and their child. When it comes to space and comfort VS saving bucks, the common mentality seems to go with the latter.


I'd imagine that the packed human-conditions may very well affect an overall thinking of how to best-fit as much possible into a small space. A lot of other highly-populated countries seem to be very good at miniaturization for similar purposes.

Re:Good for India.

[Eastender]

I am an Indian. I live in New Delhi. Having a a fair amount of exposure to the business world (2 decades), I have experienced more than my share of arrogance and well, I also have experienced the brilliance of the people from US and Europe. Things are changing, attitudes to Indians are becoming a little more respectful (though we tend to exasperate a lot of people with our casual attitude at times ...) India had made immense investments in education, science, technology, poverty alleviation schemes and infrastructure etc... though not always wisely, efficiently and hardly ever in ways free from corruption and exploitation by the political-business interest groups, Thankfully, something still got through to the people and they made the best use of it. That is the story of India: We are making it despite the government, which much to its dismay (any govt in power, I am happy to say, is discovering this), is finding that it has to give back to the people something, else it gets voted out of power. Democracy rocks. In India, it may be chaotic, but at the end of the day it works. I dunno why. :) I am loving it!

Building a... MIRV?

[Moraelin]

Here's a funny thought:

1. India has nukes. (It also sits on huge reserves of Thorium and has breeder reactors, so it can transform them to uranium or eventually plutonium, as needed.)

2. If you can put an object in orbit, you can make it come down wherever you want it to come down. Or use a smaller rocket and/or a heavier load to make them go ballistic instead of orbitting at all. (For reference, the USSR's space program started the other way around. Someone realized that they had build a rocket so powerful to haul nukes, that it could put a small-ish object in orbit.) Rockets are that interchangeable purpose.

3. Inclined/polar orbits? Always good to have for a nuke, if nothing else, to hit a location that's not near the equator. Plus you might want to go extremely inclined to minimize flight time and thus warning time (I think both the USA and the USSR had most of their nukes aimed at each other over the arctic), or to lob them over international waters and avoid pissing off everyone else in their path.

As a bonus: once you can do polar orbits and big payloads, you can use spy sats.

Now I'm not saying India is necessarily aiming to become an ICBM power. Maybe, maybe not. And they're probably not yet ready to willy-wave internationally about it, in any case. But I'm saying I wouldn't be the least surprised if that was at least one factor in funding that space program.

I still remember seeing the news on TV when they had built their first nuke, and the general euphoria. It was waay back, while they were even poorer than today. Arguably that money could have been better invested in industrializing a little faster. But there were people cheering in the streets that they now have a big destructive weapon. I can see a lot of political capital in the implicit "and now we can lob it at anyone too!" message.

Now I'm not singling India out there. I think they're just... humans, like everyone else. And it's a sad thing that we'd rather have a big stick to threaten the neighbours with, than an extra slice of bread.

Re:Building a... MIRV?

[Lord Haw Haw Haw]

Here's a funny thought: 1. India has nukes. (It also sits on huge reserves of Thorium and has breeder reactors, so it can transform them to uranium or eventually plutonium, as needed.)

India also has uranium/plutonium for enough nukes. So why bother with the thorium route. Anyway, we are preserving our supply for more *interesting* applications and shopping around for an independent source of uranium for power, courtesy the nuke deal.

2. If you can put an object in orbit, you can make it come down wherever you want it to come down. Or use a smaller rocket and/or a heavier load to make them go ballistic instead of orbitting at all. (For reference, the USSR's space program started the other way around. Someone realized that they had build a rocket so powerful to haul nukes, that it could put a small-ish object in orbit.) Rockets are that interchangeable purpose.

India has a few ballistic missiles... The Agni series is the most prominent of the lot. I believe we are testing 5K range next year. (Beijing at last...) not quite the US yet, but still... Then there is the Surya. This one is almost mythical, but give it a couple of years... around the world should be a snap.

3. Inclined/polar orbits? Always good to have for a nuke, if nothing else, to hit a location that's not near the equator. Plus you might want to go extremely inclined to minimize flight time and thus warning time (I think both the USA and the USSR had most of their nukes aimed at each other over the arctic), or to lob them over international waters and avoid pissing off everyone else in their path. As a bonus: once you can do polar orbits and big payloads, you can use spy sats.

India has been using remote sensing satellites for years and years... satellites in polar orbits go around the world and spy on the world. nothing to see here... lets move on...

Now I'm not saying India is necessarily aiming to become an ICBM power. Maybe, maybe not. And they're probably not yet ready to willy-wave internationally about it, in any case. But I'm saying I wouldn't be the least surprised if that was at least one factor in funding that space program.

we are aiming to be one. It is a stated objective. The US knows it and wants to be on our good side. You can't make enemies of any and every country that can fry a couple of your cities... can you?

I still remember seeing the news on TV when they had built their first nuke, and the general euphoria. It was waay back, while they were even poorer than today. Arguably that money could have been better invested in industrializing a little faster. But there were people cheering in the streets that they now have a big destructive weapon. I can see a lot of political capital in the implicit "and now we can lob it at anyone too!" message.

Yup, I've heard this argument before. don't compete with the big boys till you figure out hunger etc. This is a socialist argument and I reject it. So should you. This money spent on space is accelerating industrialisation. As does research in military applications. Food preservation by irradiation (yeah i know, still borders on science fiction), cheaper and better prosthetics, better alloys et al. All this is stuff the west denies us citing dual use and other such rubbish. An atomic clock is dual use... Bah!

Now I'm not singling India out there. I think they're just... humans, like everyone else. And it's a sad thing that we'd rather have a big stick to threaten the neighbours with, than an extra slice of bread.

this was about a civilian satellite launch, you made it into a stick... I'm waiting for the time, when US reduces it's stockpile of Nukes to a point where it can destroy the world only tens of times over, rather than hundreds of times over. then we'll talk about the extra slice of bread. Your Paranoia knows no bounds. Rest assured, the stick is being built and we plan the biggest of them all. I hope you sleep well...