India's Mars satellite successfully enters orbit, bringing country into space elite_The Guardian.pdf

(3427 KB) Pobierz
sign in
home
›
science
US
world
opinion
sports
soccer
tech
culture
life
fashion
business
money
travel
all
Science
India's Mars satellite successfully enters
orbit, bringing country into space elite
Prime minister Narendra Modi exultant as India’s landmark achievement puts China in the
shade
1194
Jason Burke
in Delhi
Wednesday 24 September 2014 00.22 EDT
You’re viewing a beta release of the Guardian’s responsive website. We’d love to hear what you think.
Leave feedback
Find out more
0:00 /
0:00
India
has become the first nation to send a satellite into orbit around Mars on its
first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so.
Mission control in the southern Indian city of Bangalore received confirmation of
the success at 7.41am Wednesday, local time. The satellite Mangalyaan had
entered the orbit of the red planet 12 minutes earlier, but the message needed to
traverse the 400m miles (650m km) to Earth.
India now joins an elite club of nations who have successfully carried out
interplanetary space missions, and has scored a significant point in its rivalry with
China.
The prime minister, Narendra Modi, who won power in May in a landslide
victory, was in Bangalore with the Indian
Space
Research Organisation (ISRO)
watching the operation.
“We have gone beyond the boundaries of human enterprise and innovation,”
Modi said, as scientists celebrated.
Advertisement
“We have navigated our craft through a route known to very few,” Modi said,
congratulating the ISRO team and “all my fellow Indians on this historic
occasion”.
Modi, who travels to the US to address the United Nations later this week, called
for further efforts “for challenging, the next frontier”.
The mission has led TV bulletins and filled front pages. It has been mentioned in
the prayers of temple priests and even on special emails sent out to parents of
exclusive nursery schools in Delhi. Tens of millions of people across the country
followed the progress of the craft live.
There was a a significant chance of failure. Of 51 previous attempts to reach
Mars,
more than half failed.
“Just getting there is a big, bold statement. Succeeding would be a giant one
about India’s place in the region and in the world,” said Pallava Bagla, a high-
profile science commentator, on Tuesday.
Mangalyaan, which means “Mars craft” in Hindi, took off from the island of
Shriharikota, off India’s eastern coast, 10 months ago. The 3,000lb (1,350kg)

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin