Age of Astropolitics~II
Satellites are integral to our life and civilisation. Without them, there would be no communication network or Global Positioning System (GPS).
Satellites are integral to our life and civilisation. Without them, there would be no communication network or Global Positioning System (GPS).
In order to make India a geospatial hub, a public-private partnership (PPP) model could be followed whereby the private sector can build, launch and maintain earth observation satellites constellation with the Indian government being an assured customer and also funding the project, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) said.
The second batch of 36 satellites belonging to the UK-based Network Access Associated Ltd (OneWeb) has been fitted inside the Indian rocket LVM3's heatshield.
Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced that it has secured standardised 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) modem technology for direct communication between smartphones and satellites, especially in remote areas.
OneWeb has partnered with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of the national space agency of India -- Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) -- to facilitate this launch.
"Deployment of 46 Starlink satellites confirmed- completing SpaceX's 32nd mission of 2022," SpaceX wrote on the Twitter
Transfer of these assets to NSIL will further provide the desired financial autonomy to the company to realize capital intensive programmes/projects and thereby offering huge employment potential and technology spin-off to other sectors of the economy.
"India has a total of 53 operational satellites in space providing various identified services to the nation. 21 of these are communication satellites, 8 are Navigation satellites, 21 are Earth Observation Satellites and 3 are Science Satellites," the Minister said while replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
With today's successful mission, the ISRO has put into orbit 319 foreign satellites.
The launch was originally scheduled for last week but was postponed, first due to high winds and then due to the need for a software update.
