India launched its heaviest satellite into Earth orbit on Wednesday, a feat that prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak of a “significant progress” for the space sector of the country with the largest population in the world, according to AFP, quoted by Agerpres.
AST SpaceMobile, a communications satellite weighing 6.1 tons, was placed in low Earth orbit by the LVM3-M6 rocket, which thus carried into space “the heaviest payload launched from Indian soil”, announced the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Success “strengthens India’s ability to send heavy launch vehicles into space and our growing role in the global commercial launch market,” greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the context in which his country aims for a first manned space flight in 2027 and aims to send an astronaut to the Moon by 2040.
India’s space agency successfully launched another 4.4-ton communications satellite, CMS-03, in early November. For this type of mission, the Asian country is using a modified version of the rocket it already used to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in August 2023.
India has rapidly developed its space sector over the past decade, achieving performance at the level of the largest space powers, but at much lower costs.
We remind you that, on Monday, December 22, the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) announced that the Japanese H3 rocket failed in its attempt to place a geolocation satellite in Earth’s orbit, after the premature shutdown of one of its engines.
