The launch of the Indian LVM3-M6 missile Photo: AFP / AFP / Profimedia
India placed the heaviest Indian satellite into orbit on Wednesday, “an important progress”, welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the space sector of the most populous country in the world, reports AFP, taken by News.ro.
The AST SpaceMobile communications satellite – which weighs 6.1 tonnes – was placed into orbit by the LVM3-M6 rocket, which carried “the heaviest payload launched from Indian soil”, hailed the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
This achievement “consolidates India's heavy launch capability and our growing role on the world stage of commercial launches”, hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as India aims for a first manned space flight in 2027 and has ambitions to send an astronaut to the Moon by 2040.
The Indian space agency launched, at the beginning of November, another communications satellite – CMS-03, weighing 4.4 tons.
In this type of mission, it uses a modified version of the rocket that sent an unmanned device to the moon in August 2023.
India has rapidly developed its space sector in the last ten years, managing to perform at the level of the great powers at a much lower cost.
