India Tests Shuttle Concept

 

India’s space agency ISRO says Monday's (May 23rd) test flight of their reusable space shuttle was a success, validating the technologies on board.

ISRO also released video of the launch, showing the ignition and lift-off of the HS9 booster rocket with the shuttle resting on its nose.

The $14m (yep, 14 million)  Reusable Launch Vehicle, which is around the size of a minibus, was lofted to an altitude of apx. 40 miles, before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The craft was allowed to skip back into the atmosphere at Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound)and exposing the Reusable Launch Vehicle to max temperatures of around 3632 degrees.


India's shuttle is not expected to come into service for at least 15 years, but ISRO hopes the reusable technology will reduce costs and make access to space more affordable.
 
More info HERE

India Now Has a Space Telescope

 A recent launch has added to India's capability by launching it's first space observatory.

Called Astrosat  along with satellites from the US, Canada, and Indonesia from the Satish Dhawan Space Center.

Astrosat will study distant stars, white dwarfs, pulsars, and   supermassive black holes

Astrosat on Wikipedia

India Can Launch a Mars Mission for Less That Than the Cost of a Holliwood Blockbuster!

Saritha Rai, a reporter for the New York Times, wrote recently that India had recently launched  a spacecraft to Mars.  There are many facets that makes the  Mangalyaan satellite unique however:

• "...it is the $75 million mission’s thrifty approach to time, money and materials that is getting attention." Saritha writes

Furthur on Sarita write:

• [Recently] NASA sent off its own Mars mission, five years in the making, named Maven. Its cost: $671 million. The budget of India’s Mars mission, by contrast, was just three-quarters of the $100 million that Hollywood spent on last year’s space-based hit, Gravity.”

Complete Saritia Times article HERE

India's first space mission beyond Earth orbit launched successfully

India has now succesfully joined the all too small group of countries who have sent scientific missions beyond low Earth orbit. Launched at 0052 GMT, Oct. 22, Chandrayaan-1 carries with it 11 scientific experiments including three from the European Space Agency, two from NASA, and one from Bulgaria.

Chandrayaan-1 will map the surface of the Moon, determine its mineralogy content, and land a small impact probe which will "give ISRO [Indian Space Research Organization] scientists experience to be used in subsequent lunar landing missions."

The mission cost a relatively minuscule $86m for a mission that is a small step forward in humanity's eventual colonization of the Moon and is a well-deserved source of pride for an important, developing country.

<Space.com Article>

<Moon Daily Article>

<Variety SF Article>