with  this  rocket  india  enters  the  first  league  of  the  space  race

India has launched the GSLV Mk III rocket into space, with technology that makes it a major player to watch in the space market.

The GSLV Mk III has taken off from the island of Sriharikota, east of the city of Bangalore. It is a monster 640 tons of weight and 43 meters long. The launch is one more step in the path of India as a space power, due to the technical characteristics of the rocket. And it is that in recent years the Asian country has emerged as an important player in this area, capable of competing with powers that have a much larger budget.

In this case the flight consisted of putting a 3.17 tonne satellite into orbit. The GSLV Mk III has dropped its payload 117 kilometers above sea level, fulfilling the mission. Although what is really important is the technology deployed in the operation. The Indian authorities have stressed that this launch brings the country closer to the next generation of space vehicles.

One of the fundamental pieces of the GSLV Mk III is your cryogenic engine , which combines liquid hydrogen and oxygen for propulsion. For its development Indian researchers have spent more than 20 years. To date they normally used European engines. Some satellite launches were even delegated to the French space agency.

low cost missions

One of the advantageous qualities of Indian space missions is their low budget. The country has achieved that its rocket launch has the lowest possible costs, and with this philosophy they compete. In 2014, a vehicle was put into orbit around Mars and alone**** cost 74 million dollars. By comparison, the budget for NASA’s MAVEN space probe was $671 million. At the time, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that orbiting the red planet had cost less than shooting the movie Gravity.

Last February, India broke the record for simultaneous satellite launches. Put 104 of these devices into orbit and he also did it without excessively scratching his pocket. The commercial arm of ISRO, the Indian space agency, charges three million dollars to send a satellite into space. It is a much lower rate than what private companies have in the business. And the satellite launch market is worth $300 billion.

ISRO’s idea is to deepen its study of Mars, but it also has Venus and Jupiter in mind. Of course, all designed for keep the low cost philosophy.

Images: ISRO