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India-built satellite to takeoff on Sunday
The countdown has begun for the launch of Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, South America, early today, carrying the Indian-built European satellite W2M along with Eutelsat's (European satellite operator) Hot Bird 9 satellite for broadcasting services, a top space official said here yesterday.
- IANS
- Published: 22:40 December 20, 2008
Bangalore: The countdown has begun for the launch of Ariane-5 rocket from Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, South America, early today, carrying the Indian-built European satellite W2M along with Eutelsat's (European satellite operator) Hot Bird 9 satellite for broadcasting services, a top space official said here yesterday.
The 3.462kg W2M was designed and built at the satellite centre of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Bangalore at $80 million (Dh293.86 million) for the Eutelsat under the ISRO-EADS-Astrium alliance formed in 2006.
"The W2M is the first and heaviest satellite we have built under a commercial contract with Eutelsat through our commercial arm Antrix Corporation in 26 months. It is a good deal, as we had a 50 per cent margin," ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said early this week.
The satellite was shipped to Kourou in mid-October.
Cryogenic engine: Key test successful
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has successfully conducted a test of its indigenous cryogenic (supercooled fuel) engine to be used in the next geosynchronous launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) mission, the space agency said here yesterday.
"The flight acceptance hot test of the cryogenic engine was carried out at the liquid propulsion systems centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. This engine will be used in the next GSLV launch in April 2009," Isro said in a statement.
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