First points for Force India Formula 1 team

On Aug 30, 1:43 pm, Muhammad Javed Iqbal <kaleemjavediq...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
 BANGALORE: India’s first moon mission, launched amid much fanfare
last year, came to an abrupt end on Saturday after the country’s lunar
craft lost contact with its controllers, the national space agency
said.

India launched an unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon’s
surface late last year in an event that the national space agency
hoped would give the country international ‘brand recognition’ in the
lunar business.

The landing of the probe vaulted the country into the league of space-
faring nations led by the United States and regional neighbours
Russia, China and Japan and was seen as a symbolic and proud moment in
the country’s development.

‘The mission is definitely over. We have lost contact with the
spacecraft,’ project director M. Annadurai told the PTI news agency.

Earlier, the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had
said in a statement that radio contact with the Chandrayaan-1
satellite had been lost.

The satellite was launched on October 22 and then a TV-set-sized probe
painted in the green, white and orange colours of the Indian flag was
fired which landed on the moon on November 14.

The first mission was expected to last two years and was intended as a
first step towards landing an unmanned moon rover by 2012. The ISRO
also aims to launch satellites to study Mars and Venus.

The director of the ISRO, S. Satish, said that all attempts to re-
establish contact with the satellite had been futile. ‘We are unable
to send commands or receive data,’ he said, adding that there was no
method to restore the failed communication systems.

‘It will continue to orbit around the moon. If not controlled, it may
crash after sometime on the lunar surface,’ he acknowledged.

Critics had underlined at the time of the launch that India, which has
hundreds of millions of people living in deep poverty, should not have
embarked on a space race with ‘starstruck’ regional powers.

The craft suffered a setback earlier this year when one of its sensors
was burnt due to solar radiation.

As a result, it had to suspend some scientific experiments and raised
its lunar orbit to 200 kilometres instead of the original 100
kilometres.

The last data received at the Deep Space Network control centre, 40
kilometres from India’s tech hub Bangalore, was during an orbit at
00:25 am local time.

India had been keen to display its scientific prowess and claim a
bigger slice of the global satellite business. The first space mission
cost $80 million, less than half the amount spent on similar
expeditions by other countries.

India began its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites
and launch vehicles to cut dependence on overseas agencies. — AFP

Hey porki - you said it too soon didnt you ? Get an F1 team and fly
your first satellite - then come and raise your eyes in front of
Indians. Till then - 5 times a day, rapid buttliftning prescribed for
your pain
.