India began its space program in 1963 under the Department of Atomic Energy and with the establishment of The Space Commission and Department of Space in 1972 it was formalized. India has made steady progress in the development of launch vehicles and satellites. The first Indian satellite was Aryabhata, which was launched by a Soviet rocket on 19th April 1975. With the successful launch of the SLV-3 on 18th July 1980 when a 35kg satellite called Rohini was placed in LEO, India entered the Space Age.

The primary objective of the Indian Space Program is to achieve self-reliance in space technology and develop application driven programs to meet the national needs. Space technology in India is primarily geared towards improving telecommunications, meteorological forecasting, providing advanced natural disaster warning, distance education and remote sensing for agriculture, soil, mineral and water resources management.

India's first operational Earth Observation satellite IRS-1A, a 850 kg satellite was launched into a 900 Km polar orbit on 17th March 1988 by a Soviet rocket. In 1997, India used its own rocket PSLV to place IRS-1D into polar orbit. With the development of PSLV, India has the capability to place upto 1,200 kg satellites into polar orbit. The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) system has the largest constellation of commercial earth observation providing data in a variety of spatial and spectral resolutions.

India's first operational telecommunications satellite was INSAT-1A, which was launched by a NASA Delta rocket on 10th April 1982. Since then, India relied on European Space Agency's Ariane rockets to launch its INSAT series satellites into geostationary orbit.

On April 18, 2001, India blasted itself into the elite space club of heavy satellite launchers with the successful test-flight of GSLV-D1. The successful launch of India's first educational communication satellite "EDUSAT" by GSLV-F01 on September 20, 2004 heralds the operational reliability of the heavy lifter to Geostationary orbits.

Turning a new page in its modest space odyssey, the Indian Space Research Organization successfully launched India’s first unmanned mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, 2008 at 6.22 AM IST atop the PSLV-C11 launcher. Chandrayaan-1 carries 11 scientific instruments to prepare 3-dimentional chemical and mineralogical mapping of the lunar surface. The payload consists of five Indian instruments, two from NASA, three from ESA and one from Bulgaria. A Moon Impact Probe (MIP) consisting of Altimeter, Video Imager and a Mass spectrometer was released from the final orbit of 100 KM above the moon's surface on November 14, 2008. Chandrayaan-1 marks the beginning of deep space exploration by ISRO and slated to be followed by Chandrayaan-2, a moon lander/rover by 2012, mission to Mars by 2014 and a planned Manned Mission by 2015. For latest information, follow my blog: Chandrayaan-1: India's First Mission to the Moon

Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO is responsible for marketing to international customers and PSLV launcher has launched several mid-small sized foreign satellites/payloads, including one astronomy satellite for Italy and one remote-sensing satellite for Israel successfully in 2007. In a major commercial deal, ISRO has built and delivered a 3,462 kg Telecom satellite with 32 transponders to Europe's EADS Astrium and was successfully launched by Ariane 5 Rocket on December 20, 2008.

CONTENTS
Space
Aviation
News
Current Projects
International Co-operation
People/ Interviews
Articles/ Publications


Space Transportation Systems
Launch Vehicle First Flight Flights Failure Reliability LEO (Kg) SSO (Kg) GTO (Kg)
GSLV 2001 5 1 80% 8,000   2,500
PSLV 1993 16 1 93.75% 3,000 2,000 1,500


Indian Remote Sensing Satellites
Satellite Launch Resolution (M)/
Swath Width (km)
Panchromatic		 Multispectral Repeat Cycle (days) Status
IRS-1A March 17, 1988 36/ 72.5 148 22 Mission completed in 1992
IRS-1B August 29, 1991 36/ 72.5 148 22 Mission completed in 1999
IRS-1E September 20,1993 Could not be placed in orbit due to PSLV-D1 launch failure
IRS-P2 October 15,1994 5.8/ 70 131 24 Mission completed in 1997
IRS-1C December 28,1995 5.8/ 70 142 24 Still in Operaton
IRS-P3 March 21, 1996 188 804 5 Additional X-Ray Astronomy payload. Still in Operation
IRS-1D Sep. 29, 1997 5.8/ 70 142 24 Due to underperformance of fourth stage of PSLV, onboard fuel was used to place it in circular orbit. Still in Operation
IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT-1) May 26, 1999 360x236 804 2 Carries out Ocean Color Monitoring for fisheries survey in the IO region . Still in Operation
Indian Telecom Satellites: INSAT-2 Series
Satellite Launch Transponder
INSAT-2E Apr. 99 24
INSAT-2D Jun. 97 24; Failure
INSAT-2C Dec. 95 24
INSAT-2B July 93 20
INSAT-2A July 91 20
INSAT-3 Series
Satellite Launch Transponder
INSAT-3A April 09, 2003 18 C-Band, 6 Ku-Band, Meteorology Sensor, SAS&R transponder
INSAT-3B Mar. 22, 2000 24
INSAT-3C Jan. 23, 2002 24 C-Band; 6 Ext. C-Band, 2 S-Band; 1-Mobile
INSAT-3D 2001/02 24
INSAT-3E 2002/03 36

INSAT-4 Series
Satellite Launch Transponder
INSAT-4A Dec.22, 2005 12 Ku Band, 12 C Band
INSAT-4C July 10, 2006 Unsuccessfull
INSAT-4CR Sep. 02, 2007 12 Ku Band
Indian Space & Earth Science Missions
Spacecraft Launch Mission Orbit
SROSS-C May 1992 Astrophysics LEO
SROSS-C2 May 1994 Astrophysics LEO
Ocean Sat [IRS-P4] 1999 Oceanography SSO
MetSat 12 Sept. 2002 Meteorology GEO
EDUSAT 20 Sept. 2004 Distance Education Communication GEO
OceanSat-2 2009 Oceanography SSO
Major Indian Aerospace Organizations

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