Friday, April 19, 2013

The First Indian Satellite Aryabhatta was Launched in 1975.

             Aryabhata was India's first satellite, named after the great Indian astronomer Aryaabhatta. It was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle. It was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to gain experience in building and operating a satellite in space.

File:Aryabhata Satellite.jpg
              It was built to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics. The spacecraft was a 26-sided polygon 1.4 m in diameter. All faces (except the top and bottom) were covered with solar cells. A power failure halted experiments after 4 days in orbit. All signals from the spacecraft were lost after 5 days of operation. The satellite reentered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 February 1992. The satellite's image appeared on the reverse of Indian 2 rupee banknotes between 1976 and 1997.

 Source: Wikipedia.


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