India Space program Research - India department of space , Science advancement India Space program In 1992 the ISRO set up the Antrix Corporation to market space and telecommunications products to help recover some of the costs of the annual space budget. That budget increased from Rs3.8 billion in FY 1990 to an estimated Rs7.5 billion in FY 1994. The majority of the FY 1994 expenditures were slated for rocket development (50 percent) and communications and remote sensing satellite operations (26.8 percent). Space research began with the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. From Thumba Indian scientists launched United States-made rockets carrying French satellites to study the upper atmospheric winds over the magnetic equator. From this station, Indian scientists also have carried out original research in electrojet currents over the magnetic equator, vertical profiles of airglow, and cosmic X-ray background radiation. The first Indian experimental satellite was launched in 1975, followed by four others; operational communications and remote sensing satellites have been launched as part of the Indian National Satellite System (Insat). Insat is an interagency project operated by the Department of Space for domestic radio relay, computer network, television, rural telegraph network, and weather, emergency, and other radio communications. Three satellites operated by Insat were in use in the mid-1990s in cooperation with the International Telecommunication Union's International Telecommunications Satellite (Intelsat) system. The three satellites (the first-generation Insat-1D in June 1990, the second-generation Insat-2A in July 1992, and Insat-2B in July 1993) were indigenously built under the direction of the ISRO and put into geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean using French rockets launched in French Guiana. Additional and more advanced communications satellitesInsat-2C, Insat-2D, and Insat-2Ewere planned for launch in FY 1994, FY 1995, and FY 1996. | |
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