Mighty India Power

Isro’s 2010 space dream should be a technological leapfrog. It will soon launch the GSLV-D3 rocket with an indigenous (Indian) cryogenic stage and engine for the first time in the country’s space history. The space agency has so far been launching GSLV rockets on borrowed Russian technology. The GSLV launch, if successful, will make India only the fifth or sixth country in the world to launch a rocket with indigenous cryogenic technology. The cryogenic stage is the upper stage of the rocket that will house the cryogenic engine within it. “Cryogenic technology involves the use of super-cooled liquid fuel to launch heavy rockets like GSLV with the fuel being a mix of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. Launching rockets with liquid fuel of the cryogenic kind has never been easy and Isro will do it this time on its own with the stage and engine developed by itself,” Isro officials said. Isro achieved a significant milestone recently when it successfully tested the cryogenic stage. The tes

Russia will help India build a manned spacecraft and send an Indian into space by 2020 under a 10-year cooperation programme using the technology it uses to build its Soyuz spacecraft, an official of the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in Moscow on Wednesday. "The Indian side intends to use the experience of building the manned spaceship Soyuz to advance in building their own spaceship. We will build this spaceship on a similar technical scheme, but it will not resemble Soyuz," Alexei Krasnov, chief of the department of piloted programmes at Roskomos, said. The spaceship would be smaller than the Soyuz, as Indian launch vehicles are too light to deliver a full-size Soyuz into orbit. "With Roskosmos's appropriate support we will be able to reequip technically and increase the production of the spaceships," Krasnov said. Krasnov noted, ''It is not surprising that India has turned to Russia for help in its space programme, as we have been cooperat

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will take up the indigenous development of a medium altitude long endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question today that the development would be undertaken against against confirmed Qualitative Requirements (QRs) to meet the requirements of the three Services. Mr Antony said the UAV had been named Rustom-H. The Indian industry would be the development-cum-production partner for the project, which is expected to be completed in 78 months after formal sanction

Dr. Anil Kakodkar, who has recently relinquished charge as Chairman Atomic Energy Commission claimed on Sunday that India had credible thermo-nuclear bombs in its arsenal.“I think that is guaranteed. The Army should be fully confident and defend the country. There is no issue about the arsenal at their command,” Kakodkar said in an interview with Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN Devils Advocate programme. When Kakodkar was asked about low yield of 1998 thermo-nuclear tests as pointed by four leading Indian scientists and international experts, Kakodkar claimed the yield of thermo-nuclear tests was verified, not by one method but several redundant methods based on different principles, done by different groups. Review was made and “I had described the tests in 1998 as perfect and I stand by that,” he said. Indian scientists Dr Santhanam, Dr Iyengar, Dr Sethna and Dr Prasad·have raised serious doubts about India’s thermo-nuclear tests of 1998 while Dr Santhanam said “we have hard evidence o

  Balasore: India Sunday successfully tested a nuclear-capable ballistic missile Dhanush from a warship in the Bay of Bengal, an official said. Dhanush, the naval version of the Prithvi missile, was launched from INS Subhadra that was anchored about 35 nautical miles offshore from the test range of Chandipur in Balasore district, 230 km from Bhubaneswar. The missile, which has a range of 350 km and carries a nuclear warhead of about 500 kg, was fired at 11.31 a.m. All the operations for the launch were carried out by Naval personnel. "It has met all the mission objectives. All the events occurred as expected and were monitored by the range sensors. It was a text book launch and a fantastic mission accomplished," the official said. V.K. Saraswat, scientific advisor to the defence minister, and director general and secretary, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was on-board the ship during the mission. Prithvi is part of India's ambitious i

India’s first science satellite Astrosat is all set to be launched next year, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Madhavan Nair said today. One more satellite ‘Aditya’ to study Sun’s coronal mass ejection (CME) would be launched in two years while the science mission to planet Mars by 2013, Nair said, addressing a galaxy of scientists from India and abroad and the student community at the Grand Finale function of Bhabha Centenary celebrations, which concluded today. The multi-wavelength astronomy mission Astrosat on an Indian remote sensing satellite-class satellite in a 650-km, near-equatorial orbit would be launched next year, he said, adding it will be launched by the Indian launch vehicle PSLV from the Sriharikota launchpad. The expected operating life time of the satellite will be of five years. ‘Adiyta’ will be launched in next two years to study the properties of CMEs, that are gigantic bubbles of electrified gas that billow away from the Sun.