'The ISRO has done enough simulations and also redundancies have been built in so that chances of such failure are remote. Still, we have to keep our fingers crossed'
The Luna-25 spacecraft crashed into the Moon after it spun into an uncontrolled orbit, Russia's Roscosmos space agency said on August 20.
Ex-ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said the scientists at space agency have achieved this historic success by getting a salary one-fifth of the scientists in the developed world.
Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon, was launched on October 22, 2008 from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh.
Central Administrative Tribunal on Friday dismissed former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair's plea, seeking quashing of the Centre's decision to debar him from holding government posts for his alleged role in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, on the ground of maintainability.
Former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair alleged that the ISRO spy case in 1994 was an attempt to destroy the organisation and scientist Nambi Narayanan was the scapegoat in the episode.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Thursday rubbished suggestions of a scam in the scrapped controversial Antrix-Devas deal and maintained that estimation of huge loss to the exchequer is "totally erroneous".
In a belated action, defence public sector undertakings Bharat Electronics Limited has removed former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair from its Board of Directors as he was barred from holding any government post for his role in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G Madhavan Nair on Monday said he would file an appeal under the Right To Information Act by Tuesday seeking reasons for blacklisting him from government jobs even as he reposed faith in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to revoke his ban order. "I will file the appeal on Monday or Tuesday (before the Central Information Commission)," he said.
The government is yet to take a call on former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair's request to the Prime Minister's Office to order an inquiry into the reasons behind annulment of the controversial Antrix-Devas deal and the procedure followed.
Former Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair is pinning hopes on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to revoke the order banning him and three others from government jobs despite Union Minister V Narayanasamy ruling out its review, as he reiterated there is "no issue" vis-a-vis the Antrix-Devas deal.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy on Sunday accused former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair of misleading the nation by saying he was not given a chance to explain his case before the high level panel which indicted him and three other space scientists in the Antrix-Devas deal.
Indian Space Research Organisation chairman G Madhavan Nair, Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, historian Ramachandra Guha and noted billiard player Pankaj Advani were among the 63 personalities who received the Padma awards in New Delhi on Tuesday. The recipients also include social activist Sunderlal Bahuguna and veteran actor Helen Khan. President Prathibha Patil gave away the Padma awards at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Nair, who has been barred from holding any government post for his alleged role in the controversial Antirx-Devas deal, was in Patna on Friday to bid farewell to his colleagues.
India's ambitious unmanned lunar mission `Chandrayan' is likely to soar into the skies in the second week of October, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair said on Wednesday."The satellite integration is almost complete. And we would be entering the thermovac in about a week's time. It takes about 45-50 days for the launch after thermovac, after which we would declare the date. The earliest is October," he said.
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".
India will develop its own version of the Global Positioning System by launching seven satellites in 6 years. The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System, to be functional by 2012, will be used for surveillance, telecommunications, transport etc.
Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair is all set to become the first non-American to head the International Academy of Astronautics.
The government has sanctioned seed money of Rs 10 crore to carry out various studies on experiments to be conducted, route of the mission and other related details necessary to scale the new frontier, said ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
India and the US have agreed to cooperate in the exploration and use of space for peaceful purposes, including in human space flight, under an agreement signed between their space agencies.
Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair met Dr Singh in Delhi on Friday afternoon and briefed him on the lunar mission launched on October 22.
India and Russia held discussions on the possibility of cooperation in space exploration, including missions to the moon and Mars. Russia's head of Federal Space Agency met the Indian Space Research Organisation chairman.
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.
"It (the cost of setting up the launch pad) is around Rs 600 crore. A major national facility (for training astronauts) will be established in Bengaluru, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair told PTI.
K Narayana, former director of SDSC-SHAR and currently senior advisor to the Centre, will chair the 15-member panel
It is raining heavily at Sriharikota where the Satish Dhawan Space Centre is located
ISRO is developing a 100-kg "satellite bus" as demand has picked up for launching nano-satellites, chairman G Madhavan Nair said.
two US scientific instruments will be on board India's mission to the Moon 'Chandrayaan-1'.
On the positive side, if India indeed decides to go ahead with the manned mission, it would give a tremendous impetus to the development of many new technologies, including relating to life-supporting ones.
ISRO will build an identical GSLV and a satellite similar to INSAT-4C for a launch in June next year.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited ISRO's Satellite Centre and TCS's facility in the International Tech Park in Bangalore.
Highlighting the achievements of ISRO, he said the organization, which had modest beginnings several decades ago, is trying to establish itself as the leading player in the area of satellite launches.
The satellite has reached its final slot and will be fully operational by the month-end.
But satellites can provide images capturing the trail of disaster caused by a tsunami for assessment and fast tracking relief operations.
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 ISRO chairman said there was no proposal now to send any Indian astronaut to space through the US.
NASA plans to deploy mini-synthetic aperture radar and spectrometer with 0.3 micron to 0.9-micron capabilities in the Indian spacecraft for experiments.
Indian space scientists have received signals of Indian National Satellite-4A.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair acknowledged that with the booming IT sector absorbing young engineers with fat pay packets, other fields are facing the brunt.
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