Indian rocket carries Canada's first military satellite into space

Canada's first military satellite is headed into orbit alongside six other satellites that were all launched aboard a single Indian rocket Monday morning.

The ‘Sapphire’ will increase Canada’s ability to protect its "assets and interests" in space and track man-made objects in orbit to avoid collisions, according to the Department of Defence.

A second Canadian satellite will help scientists keep track of meteors, asteroids and other space debris that could be heading towards earth.

The NEOSSat (Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite) will also track space debris in orbit, to better understand their movements.

The NEOSSat and the Sapphire are among seven satellites that were put into orbit aboard a single rocket scheduled to launch from the southern Andhra Pradesh state in India Monday morning.

Also launched was a French-built satellite that will study the world’s oceans, along with two satellites from Austria, which were developed in Canada, and one each from Denmark and Britain.

The Globe and Mail science reporter Ivan Semeniuk said this is the first time that so much Canadian hardware was launched aboard a single rocket.

"The French-Indian satellite is the main payload, but it’s often the case with these launches that there’s enough room for a few other small passengers," Semeniuk told CTV’s Canada AM on Monday.

He described Sapphire as being the size of a dishwasher while NEOSSat is comparable to the size of a suitcase. "It's amazing is how small the technology is getting," he said.

Semeniuk said that NEOSSat will specifically monitor meteors and asteroids that orbit closer to the sun and are typically more difficult to see from the ground. If the Canadian-made satellite was launched earlier this year, Semeniuk said it may have been able to detect the meteor that recently exploded in the skies above Russia's Urals region.

Though he added that the bigger threat in space is pieces of debris colliding with working satellites. Semeniuk said Canada is becoming a leader in development of smaller satellites as another two Canadian-made satellites are expected to be launched in about a year. "There are some terrific engineers in Canada that have worked on these satellites, and we need to celebrate it."

ISRO’s workhorse puts 6 Sats in orbit

http://ndianexpress.com/nation/article1478901.ece

Barring a 5-minute space debris induced delay, the trusty Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-20 upheld its reputation as being the most successful workhorse constructed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and made a textbook entry into space. Tension was high at the command centre, as the entire launch was watched by President Pranab Mukherjee, who made his maiden visit to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Monday.

Clear skies heralded the launch of the space vehicle, as it made a serpentine spire of smoke through the atmosphere. As the vehicle propelled itself to an altitude of 800 km in just over 21 minutes after launch, the nervous looks on the scientists’ faces gave way to relieved smiles as ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan declared the mission a success.

Admittedly, the President was “delighted” at having watched the progress of the projectile into outer space. This ensured that Pranab Mukherjee followed in the footsteps of his predecessors Pratibha Patil and APJ Kalam, both of whom watched successful launches at the space centre in Andhra Pradesh, during their respective tenures. Given the fact that this was a rare evening launch, the President spent the night at the space station.

This marks the 22nd successful launch for the PSLV which, barring the first disastrous flight, making for a great track record for ISRO — unlike its ill-fated cousin, the GSLV. Much like most of the missions that the space centre at Sriharikota has seen in recent times, this vehicle also carried six satellites from France, Denmark, Austria, UK and Canada. The largest satellite (which also gave the mission its name) was SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtika), an Indo-French collaboration developed to increase oceanographic studies and measurement. Given the rate at which India has been placing international satellites in space, it is not surprising that this was the 56th satellite successfully placed in orbit.

Although delaying the launch of a space vehicle because of floating space debris isn’t exactly a rarity, the period of delay was a significant five minutes. Previous launches had delays of about one minute, owing to the detection of space debris in the launch path.

“We had detected the possibility of there being space debris in the flight path and had a launch window of 20 minutes, between 5.56 pm and 6.16 pm. So, to be on the safer side, we rescheduled the launch by five minutes and saw it off successfully a little after 6.01 pm,” said a senior ISRO official and a launch team member.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.