Indian Communication Satellite Launched
Wednesday, March 22 6:36 PM SGT
NEW DELHI (AP)--India's most advanced communications satellite soared into space Wednesday from a launching site in South America, a landmark in the nation's space program, officials said.
The Insat-3B satellite was hurled into orbit by the Ariane-505 rocket, belonging to the European aerospace consortium Arianespace, from Kourou in the South American country of French Guyana, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement.
"It was a beautiful takeoff...a majestic flight," Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, chairman of ISRO, was quoted as saying by Press Trust of India.
"Insat-3B represents a major step of ISRO to bring the benefit of space technology to grass-root level development," he said.
Insat-3B is the first satellite in the advanced Insat-3 series launched by the ISRO (http://www.isro.org/) . Another satellite, Asia Star of Worldspace, USA, was also launched from Ariane-505 minutes before the Indian satellite blasted into space.
ISRO said the satellite will help mobile telephony, banking and financial institutions, stock markets, and consumer goods and engineering companies.
Insat-3B is being monitored at Intelsat ground stations in Perth, Australia, Fucino, Italy and Lake Cowichan, Canada, the statement said. |
