Battling the action against him and three other top scientists in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, former Indian Space Research Organisation chief G Madhavan Nair on Monday demanded that the order barring them from government posts should not only be revoked but an apology should be tendered by those responsible for it. "They owe an apology not to me but to the whole country. Somebody has taken the law into their hands and they have to apologise," said Nair.
ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C6, carrying India's remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-1 and a micro satellite HAMSAT, blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Thursday.
The launch vehicle that lifted off from a newly built launchpad will release two satellites in the earth's orbit.
India charged about USD 29,000 per KG rpt per kg (of satellite weight) for the mission from the ASI as it was a very specific mission
The PSLV-C8 rocket will make its first commercial launch with an Italian astronomical satellite on board.
ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said Chandrayaan-2, to be undertaken by 2010, will have a proper lander, which would land on the lunar surface and try to explore the surface in far more detail.
G Madhavan Nair was in Thiruvananthapuram to mark the 40th anniversary of the launching of 'sounding' rockets from the Thumba Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.
The decision to provide Z grade security was taken by the Karnataka government following specific threats to ISRO scientists by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Dawaood Ibrahim.
The payloads to be carried by India's second unmanned moon mission Chandrayaan-2 targeted for launch in 2013 were announced on Monday and there will be seven onboard instruments for a range of lunar experiments.
XPoSat or X-ray Polarimeter Satellite is India's first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
The Indian Space Research Organisation has declined to give details of its correspondence with former chief G Madhavan Nair on the report of a high-level probe into the Antrix-Devas deal, on the basis of which he and three others were barred by the central government from any re-employment.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI that the agency has invited the scientists and expects representation from scientists behind Indian payloads (scientific instruments) as well those from guest instruments, including from NASA and the European Space Agency. An ISRO official said, "It will be a closed-door meeting. The scientists will analyse data from preliminary findings".
K Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, has said that India is preparing to launch its second moon mission Chandrayaan-II by 2013. "The Chandrayaan-II we are planning to have in the year 2013. By that time, we should have our GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) flying with the Indigenous Cryogenic Engine Stage. That is the target with which we are working," said Radhakrishnan.
In a security breach, a woman posing as a senior scientist entered the Indian Space Research Organisation with a fake ID card and was in the premises for four hours before being arrested by the police.
A woman, posing as a scientist, was arrested on Tuesday by the Central Industrial Security Force, when she tried to enter the campus of the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore.
The Bharatiya Janaat Party's 'lotus' bloomed for the first time in south India in 2008 but the saffron party had little time to celebrate as Karnataka was rocked by serial bomb blasts in capital Bangalore and attacks on churches that drew flak in the country and abroad.
The Lashkar has kept Indian terrorists out of such operations as planners at the terror outfit feel Indians lack maritime expertise. Preference is being given to youth from the Maldives.
The inquiry into Devas Multimedia's deal with Antrix, the commercial wing of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has found that when the Indian arm of the company was founded in 2004, it had just two shareholders and a paid-up capital of Rs 100,000.
It's a fast-track spacecraft for rural connectivity, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair told PTI in Bangalore. Primarily aimed at rural areas, it's an INSAT-class (three tonne) satellite but the speciality would be that instead of having an all-India beam, it would have spot beams covering different parts of the country, and there would be a control hub by which it would be connected to national network.
"We have short listed scientific experiments from researchers in five countries the US, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria and Germany."
The ISRO team is expected to commence the mapping operations in February, Mishra told rediff.com.
On Thursday, scientists sent the 1,380 kg spacecraft to its next destination -- highly elliptical orbit of 300 km perigee and 1.6 lakh km apogee respectively. This will be followed by three more orbit-transfer exercises.
Design a spacecraft for ISRO's mission to the moon and win great prizes from Rediff Shopping!
Chandrayan's operations will be controlled by robots and cover 3.50 lakh kilometre within a period of two years, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
The long-duration static test of liquid core stage (L110) for a new-generation heavy rocket being developed by Indian Space Research Organisation has failed, sources said.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist Sabhauddin, the man alleged to be behind the attack on the Indian Institute of Science along with prime accused Abu Hamza, has revealed that their initial plan was to attack the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair today said the country should be proud of Chandrayaan-1 for being a successful low-cost planetary mission.
Scientists at ISRO used the orbiter high resolution camera onboard the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter to study the lunar surface hours before and after the soft-landing of Vikram lander on the moon on August 23.
A failure analysis committee has been set up to study the recent mishap.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is carrying 1360-kg satellite 'Resourcesat -I'.
There is no doubt in our capabilities, says the Infosys co-founder.
An American scientist who played a key role in India's Chandrayaan mission in finding evidence of water on the Moon has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of spying for Israel, but the Indian Space Research Organisation said its security has not been compromised.
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Wednesday successfully launched seven satellites in 1,200 seconds with the help of its most trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh coast.The launch was carried out as per schedule at 11.51 am and ended at 12.06 pm.Vice President Hamid Ansari, who was present at the Satish Dhavan Space Centre, congratulated the scientists and technocrats over this splendid achievement for the nation.
"The United Progressive Alliance government should demand an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip forthwith. It should call for an urgent Security Council session to discuss the matter," the party Politburo said in a statement in New Delhi.
Chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation K Radhakrishnan, while commenting on the failure of the latest communication satellite GSAT-5P onboard homegrown GSLV-F06 powered by a Russian cryogenic engine, said that the vehicle faced problems 50 seconds after its launch."The command for aborting the launch was issued when the vehicle was at an altitude of 8 km and 2.5 km away from Sriharikota," said the ISRO chief.
ISRO officials said GSAT-4 is a technology demonstrator. Its communication payload comprises multi-beam Ka-band beam pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload.
India plans to set up about 1,000 automatic weather stations in the next financial year as part of the Indian Space Research Organisation's expansion programme to improve meteorological services.
Seven months after its launch, India's maiden mission to the moon Chandrayaan has reportedly developed a technical snag. Reports suggest that the star sensor on board Chandrayaan has malfunctioned, thus partially crippling the spacecraft.Due to the malfunctioning of the critical component, it has now become difficult to steer Chandrayaan. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation, which had successfully launched the moon mission, have patched two sensors.
The Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday achieved a significant milestone in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, when it successfully tested the indigenously developed Cryogenic Stage, to be employed as the upper stage of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
