Department of Science and Depart of Space under the leadership of Union Minister of State For Science and Technology Jitendra Singh will organise multiple events across India to further enhance space research
ISRO and its associated entities will organise different events at its headquarters in Bengaluru and at different units located in different states.
Educational institutions across the country, especially schools and research establishments, will organise awareness events along with Indian startups and established companies
Bengaluru, NFAPost: The stage is set for the Golden Jubilee celebration of the launch of India’s first satellite Aryabhata in the country.
ISRO launched Aryabhata on 19 April 1975 using a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle from the Soviet Union’s (now Russia) rocket launch complex at Kasputin Yar, now part of the Federal Administrative Territory of Astrakhan Oblast.
It is interesting to not that the first satellite Aryabhata was launched by the Soviet Union as part of Interkosmos programme which provided access to space for friendly nations.
On 19 April 1975, the satellite’s 96.46-minute orbit had an apogee of 619 kilometres (385 mi) and a perigee of 563 kilometres (350 mi), at an inclination of 50.7 degrees. It was built to conduct experiments in X-ray astronomy, aeronomics, and solar physics.
The spacecraft was a 26-sided polyhedron 1.4 metres (4.6 ft) in diameter. All faces (except the top and bottom) were covered with solar cells. A power failure halted experiments after four days and 60 orbits, with all signals from the spacecraft lost after five days of operation.
Spacecraft mainframe remained active till March 1981. the satellite entered Earth’s atmosphere on 10 February 1992 due to orbital decay.
The Soviet Government decided to launch the Indian satellite after an agreement between India and the Soviet Union was signed. Indian side it was directed by U R Rao and he signed the agreement in 1972. It allowed the USSR to use Indian ports for tracking ships and launching vessels in return for launching various Indian satellites.
India’s first satellite Aryabhata is named after legandary mathematician-astronomer Aryabhata from the classical age his major works include the Āryabhaṭīya and the Arya-siddhanta. For his explicit mention of the relativity of motion, Aryabhata also qualifies as a major early physicist. He was born in 476 at Kusumapura or Pataliputra, currently known as Patna in Bihar.
Aryabhata correctly insisted that the Earth rotates about its axis daily, and that the apparent movement of the stars is a relative motion caused by the rotation of the Earth, contrary to the then-prevailing view, that the sky rotated. This is indicated in the first chapter of the Aryabhatiya, where he gives the number of rotations of the Earth in a yuga, and made more explicit in his gola chapter.
TheNFAPost Newspaper and NFAPostTV will hold a series of seminars, meetings, fireside chats etc as part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the launch of India’s first satellite Aryabhata.
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