India launches educational satellite

From: habshi (habshi_at_anony.com)
Date: 09/20/04 

Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 21:43:17 GMT

        This is of huge significance . India will likely garner most
space launches as the cost is about a tenth of what Nasa charges.
And its in the very difficult geostationary orbit which is more
difficult than polar . NASA could be soon outsourced to India as we
bright humans head for Mars and the galaxy.

 
India launches learning satellite
 
 
The satellite will help in linking classrooms across India
India has launched its first satellite to be used for expanding the
country's educational network.
The Edusat, weighing around 2,000kg, will help train teachers and
provide primary and secondary education by linking classrooms across
India.

It is hoped the satellite will help revolutionise learning in India by
taking education to remote classrooms.

About a third of India's billion-plus population cannot read and only
13% finish high school.

'Beautiful bird'

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) took nearly three years
to build the $17m satellite.

  It will be another beautiful bird in the sky spreading education

Sriharikota director PS Goel

It was sent into space by India's locally-made geo-synchronous
satellite launch vehicle from Sriharikota island in southern Andhra
Pradesh state.

"We have got a perfect launch. I hope in the next few days we will
have major operations running," PS Goel, director of the satellite
centre, told reporters.

"It will be another beautiful bird in the sky spreading education."

A spokesman for Isro told the French news agency AFP that universities
in three Indian states would be linked through the satellite, which
has a mission life of seven years.

The states are Karnataka in the south, Maharashtra in the west and the
central state of Madhya Pradesh.

In the second phase, the satellite will link more than 1,000
classrooms in two more states.

Isro chairman Madhavan Nair said the satellite would help beam
lectures by eminent persons to classrooms across the country.

Launch history

India launches its own satellites and plans to enter the lucrative
commercial satellite launch market.

In September 2002, India successfully launched its first weather
satellite to help the country predict cyclones and storms more
accurately.

In 2001, it successfully tested its first geostationary launch
vehicle, which is capable of launching bigger satellites into a higher
orbit.

India also plans to send a spacecraft to the moon by 2008.
 

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