Bharat Rakshak

I think all SHAR launches do a 'dog leg' manoveur to avoid Sri Lanka.

Good video.
No that is not stage separation. Is an upper atmosphere phenomenon (I cant recall the specific term).

Siva-saar: Long time no see. Welcome back.

Some perspective:


www.dw-world.de

From the Nation's linked story...



/sarc on
Very unphortunate that shri M Nair inadvertently communalized this pan-Indian achievement onlee. Now the pra-fools and the Pakis will smell conspiracy even on the moon.
/sarc off

Full video of the launch (4 Hours length) is available on ISRO website, where all parameters are shown as it progresses. Its beautiful.

http://www.isro.org/brodcast.htm

Good video.
No that is not stage separation. Is an upper atmosphere phenomenon (I cant recall the specific term).

Siva-saar: Long time no see. Welcome back.

Swamy ji thank you for the orbital and escape details. Wow! I used to think that escape from Earths gravity is performed much earlier than that. Couple of swings around Earth orbit, and fire boosters whoosh..on the way to Moon. Is this the way other orbiters went? Or the Apollo missions?

I feel really happy for Scientific endeavours in India. Lot of young kids now will fire up, wanting to become Scientists and Engineers rather than trash JNU passouts.

Really humbling to read about Dr Annadurai and Dr Shiv kumars experiences. Amazing and as usual Mother India always humbles one's soul. Yes indeed the Sons of the soil are worth more than any mofo socialite with an accent!

The idea of undertaking an Indian scientific mission to Moon was initially mooted in a meeting of the Indian Academy of Sciences in 1999 that was followed up by discussions in the Astronautical Society of India in 2000. Based on the recommendations made by the learned members of these forums, a National Lunar Mission Task Force was constituted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Leading Indian scientists and technologists participated in the deliberations of the Task Force that provided an assessment on the feasibility of an Indian Mission to the Moon as well as dwelt on the focus of such a mission and its possible configuration.

The task force recommended that given the technical expertise of ISRO it will be extreme worthwhile to plan an Indian Mission to the Moon. It also provided specific inputs such as the primary scientific objectives of such a mission, plausible instruments to meet these objectives, launch and spacecraft technologies that need to be developed and suggested the need for setting up of a Deep Space Network (DSN) station in India for communication with the lunar orbiting spacecraft. The team also provided a provisional budgetary estimate.

The Study Report of the Task Team was discussed in April 2003 by a peer group of about 100 eminent Indian scientists representing various fields of planetary & space sciences, earth sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, astrophysics and engineering and communication sciences. After detailed discussions, it was unanimously recommended that India should undertake the Mission to Moon, particularly in view of the renowned international interest on moon with several exciting missions planned for the new millennium. In addition, such a mission will provide the needed thrust to basic science and engineering research in the country including new challenges to ISRO to go beyond the geostationary orbit. Further, such a project will also help bringing in young talents to the arena of fundamental research. The Academia, in particular, the university scientists would also find participation in such a project intellectually rewarding.

Subsequently, Government of India approved ISRO's proposal for the first Indian Moon Mission, called Chandrayaan-1 in November 2003.

by successfully sending a moon mission, ISRO has proved its credentials beyond doubt,

In the mean time this is the closest I found with Google:

India Launches Unmanned Orbiter to Moon

I did follow that link but could not get to the video. I there a direct link to the video.

Good video.
No that is not stage separation. Is an upper atmosphere phenomenon (I cant recall the specific term).

Siva-saar: Long time no see. Welcome back.

The massive worldwide coverage of this Lunar mission, whether one likes it or not is due to Drudge Report. Most news outlets though would not admit it but they get their feed from Drudge. To increase reader traffic, NYT is also known to "leak" their headlines to Drudge Report. And Drudge Report has been covering this Indian Lunar mission for at least 24 hours before lift off. From there it was just a matter of seconds before CNN, CBS, FOX, NBC and other outlets picked up.
Avram

"The low orbit will give us really high resolution data," says Detlef Koschny, ESA Chandrayaan Project Scientist. The principal mission objective is to map the surface of the Moon in unprecedented detail. At present the maps planetary scientists have show details of some 30-100 m across. Chandrayaan will produce maps with a resolution of between 5 and 10 m across the whole surface of the Moon. "We aim to have this in two years," says Koschny.

The first few parameters checked were power, battery back-up and temperature. Power is the most crucial as spacecraft movement is based on it and it can receive commands only if power systems are working perfectly.

ISTRAC checked orbit orientation of the spacecraft. At around noon, Chandrayaan-1 was at a perigee of 255km and an apogee of 22,866-km.

Orbiting will be changed to once in 10 days some time in the next two weeks to enable it to slip into lunar orbit. "This is also a move to save fuel. It's best to spend as less fuel as possible while reaching lunar orbit. So orbiting once in 10 days will enable it to get into lunar orbit on the basis of the movement of earth and moon rather than merely its own fuel," ISTRAC officials explained.

All stations receiving signals — Sriharikota, Brunei, Indonesia, Thiruvananthapuram, Port Blair and the Deep Space Network (DSN) at Byalalu near Bangalore — will relay and transmit them to ISTRAC. "While stations are many, the analysis, command and control centre is ISTRAC Peenya.

Some perspective:


www.dw-world.de

A "small" fuel spill mishap when the Polar rocket with the Chandrayaan-I spacecraft atop was being fuelled created a near "scare" during the final countdown for the launch of India's maiden unmanned moon mission, ISRO Chief Madhavan Nair said.

This was revealed by Nair who earlier in the day spoke of how space scientists at the Sriharikota spaceport faced an "ordeal" after rains pounded the area and surrounding parts for nearly five days.

"Yesterday, we had a small mishap during filling operation when some of the fuel spilled over from one of the courses of the ground system and this created almost a scare," Nair said.

The ISRO chief also said launch personnel had to clear the "pad" and then carry out repairs before proceeding with the blast-off preparations.

"We had to take a tough decision as to how much of fuel had to be loaded, how much as to be unloaded and number of operations to be carried out simultaneously which we have never done earlier," he said. {Obviously, this was either the second or the fourth stage}

"We lost 10 hours in the countdown yesterday due to inclement weather and almost lost the hope of making the launch. But working against all odds ISRO team has won the game," Nair said. North-East monsoon usually peaks over the eastern coast around this time of the year.

"It was an ordeal and never before we had such horrible weather just ahead of the launch date," he added. {It has been pouring non-stop for the last few days in the east coast adjacent to Sriharikota. While the launch itself would still have happened in rains, obviously preparations would be an ordeal in these heavy rains.}

Then they invited another constipat shadow Tory minister who argued that UK has to cut aid to India because it is being misused. .

At 1.20 p.m., exactly seven hours after the launch of Chandrayaan 1 from Sriharikota, the giant saucer-shaped antennae, standing out conspicuously amid the stark landscape of Byalalu village near Bangalore, began to rotate gently as it picked up the first signals from the lunar spacecraft.

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon the mood at the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) here was celebratory as scientists received data from the parabolic antennae indicating that Chandrayaan I was in good health and on track. The 20 space scientists at the IDSN who had kept awake through Tuesday night in preparation for this moment applauded and shook hands as the first signal flickered on the telemetry monitors. “Everything worked out just perfectly and we received the data exactly as scheduled,” said L. Srinivasan, General Manager of ISRO’s Bangalore Telemetry, Tracking and Command Facility.Not far, a much larger group of scientists at the mission’s nerve centre, ISTRAC (ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network), analysed the telemetric data from Byalalu sent through a communication link.

“For the next four or five days, Chandrayaan will be tracked by several small antennae around the world. After this period, when the satellite crosses one lakh kilometres, only three ground stations with large antennae will track it: those at Byalalu, Maryland and Canberra,” said Mr. Srinivasan.

The Byalalu centre will be one of only two ground stations by the time the payload data from the 11 experiments on board comes in, the other one being Maryland. “It will only be after November 15 that Chandrayaan will be placed in the final polar orbit of the moon, 100 km away from the lunar surface. This is when data from the scientific experiments will start coming in,” said Mr. Srinivasan.

Kayuga was probably a wolfpack beast of a satellite: was hurled by their biggest H2-x launcher.

Once near the moon, Kaguya will split into three satellites; a 3-ton main orbiter which will orbit the planet at an altitude of 100km, and the smaller Relay and VRAD Satellites, which will orbit and gather information about the poles.

One of the neatest aspects of the Kaguya mission is its inclusion of a High Definition Television camera to send back movies of the Earth from the Moon. This means that we will be able to see the Earth-rise from the Moon's horizon!