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Neighbourhood first

Indian Space Research Organisation crossed another milestone on Friday by the historic launch of the GSLV F09 mission carrying the…

Neighbourhood first

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (FACEBOOK)

Indian Space Research Organisation crossed another milestone on Friday by the historic launch of the GSLV F09 mission carrying the GSAT-9 South Asia Satellite. The idea of SAS was mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2014 after talks with SAARC leaders a month after his swearing-in. It is the first time a country has launched a satellite for the free use of its neighbours in pursuance of the Prime Minister’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. “The launch tells us even the sky is not the limit when it comes to regional cooperation,” said Modi in a televised joint videoconference with leaders of all SAARC countries barring Pakistan. Pakistan opted out of SAS claiming it had its own space programme. Originally called SAARC Satellite, the name was changed to South Asia Satellite because of Pakistan’s unwillingness to participate for fear of India eavesdropping on its strategic communications although all countries would be able to control their ground stations autonomously. Modi said SAS “demonstrates that our collective choices for our citizens will bring us together for cooperation, not conflict, development, not destruction, and prosperity, not poverty.” Of the six beneficiary countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan alone does not share a common border with India. As its Prime Minister Ashraf Ghani said, if cooperation through common border was not possible, it can be connected through space now. Each participating country will be allotted a transponder in the 36-54 MHz range as it wishes. The entire cost of Rs 450 crore for the satellite and its launch will be borne by India. The participants will have to pay for their ground stations only.

The GLV F09 mission also marks the beginning of the end of India’s dependence on the European Space Agency’s facility in Kourou, French Guyana, to launch our heavier satellites at exorbitant cost. It is the fourth consecutive flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle with indigenous cryogenic engine powering the upper stage. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, work-horse of ISRO, cannot carry a payload of more than 1,400 kg. In Friday’s successful launch, ISRO also experimented with electric propulsion system for the first time on an Indian spacecraft. The satellite was flying with about 80 kg of chemical fuel, one-fourth of what it would have carried normally. With the crucial weight factor for managing the satellite in orbit for its life-span of 12 to 15 years coming down drastically, the forthcoming GSLV MkIII can increase its payload considerably. ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar deserves congratulations for discarding the fantasy of competing with the economically advanced nations and following in the footsteps of the late Vikram Sarabhai, father of India’s space programme, who had said, “If we are to play a meaningful role nationally, and in the comity of nations, we must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to the real problems of man and society which we find in our own country.”

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