Chandrayaan-1 placed in transfer orbit
Sriharikota (PTI): Chandrayaan-1, India's maiden moon spacecraft, was on Wednesday put into Transfer Orbit around the earth by the Polar Launch Vehicle PSLV-C11 about 19 minutes after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.
The 1,380 kg Chandrayaan-1, carrying 11 payloads, was released into a Tansfer Orbit at a perigee (nearest point to earth) of about 250 km and apogee (farthest point from the earth ) of about 23,000 km, 18.2 minutes after the PSLV-C11 blasted off as the scientists broke into jubiliation at the mission control centre.
After a series of procedures over the next two weeks, the spacecraft would reach its desired Lunar orbit and placed at a height of 100 km from the Lunar surface, marking the operational phase of the mission which would put India in the elite lunar club.
Earlier, at the end of the 49-hour countdown, the 44.4 meter tall four-stage PSLV-11 lifted off from the second launch pad into a cloudy sky.
This is the 14th flight of ISRO's workhorse PSLV, which had launched 29 satellites into a variety of orbits since 1993, and 13th successive one in a row.
Chandrayaan-1 is carrying 11 payloads, five entirely designed and developed in India, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from US, which would explore the Moon over the next two years.
Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman G Madhavan Nair described the successful launch as a historic moment in India's space programme.
"The launch was perfect and precise. The satellite has been placed in the earth orbit. With this, we have completed the first leg of the mission and it will take 15 days to reach the lunar orbit," Nair announced in the mission control centre shortly after PSLV-C11 put the spacecraft in a transfer orbit.
After circling the earth in its highly elliptical Transfer Orbit for a while, Chandrayaan-1 would be taken into more elliptical orbits by repeated firing of the spacecraft's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) at opportune moments.
Subsequently, the LAM would be again fired to take the spacecraft to the vicinity of the moon by following a Lunar Transfer Trajecctory (LTT) path, whose apogee lies at 3,87,000 km.
Later, when Chandrayaan-1 reaches the vicinity of the moon, its LAM would be fired again so as to slow down the spacecraft sufficiently to enable the gravity of the moon to capture it into an elliptical orbit. The next step would be to reduce the height of the spacecraft orbit around the moon in various steps.
After some more procedures, Chandrayaan-1's orbit would be finally lowered to its intended 100 km height from the lunar surface, which was expected to take place around November 8.
Later, the Moon Impact Probe would be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 in a chosen area following which the cameras and other payloads would be turned on and thoroughly tested, marking the operational phase of the mission
Chandrayaan-1 aims at achieving expansion of scientific knowledge about Moon, upgradation of Indian technological capability and providing challenging opportunities for planetary research to young scientists.
The objectives would be achieved through high-resolution remote sensing of moon in the visible, near infrared, microwave and x-ray region of electromagnetic spectrum.
The eleven payloads, five designed and developed in India, three from European Space Agency, one from Bulgaria and two from NASA, would expand various scientific knowledge about the moon.
The Indian payloads included Terrain Mapping Camera, Hyperspectral Imager, Lunar Laser Ranging Instrument, High Energy X-ray Spectrometer and Moon Impact Probe.
Chandrayaan-1 was built at ISRO's Satellite Centre, Bangalore, with contribution from various wings of the space agency, including the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
The ground facilities of Chandrayaan-I would perform the highly important task of receiving the microwave containing the health information of the spacecraft as well as the valuable scientific information, which the spacecraft sends.
It also transmits the radio commands to be sent to the spacecraft during all the phases of its mission

REPRO RATE

Applications invited
Kozhikode: The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) has invited applications from candidates who have passed M.B.A./BTech/M.A (Economics) for the post of research associate on a temporary basis. Candidates should be familiar with computer applications. Those interested candidates should apply to the Senior Administrative Officer, IIM-K, IIM-K campus P.O. - 673570, Kunnamangalam, Kozhikode.

REPRO RATE

Repo rate cut, home loans may get cheaper
Mumbai: After shoring up the banking system with Rs. 1,45,000 crore funds, the Reserve Bank on Monday paved the way for cheaper home, consumer, corporate and personal loan rates by slashing its key short-term lending rate (repo) by 100 basis points.
The cut in repo, the first since 2004, would allow banks to immediately borrow short-term funds from the apex bank at a cheaper eight per cent as against nine per cent till now.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that this move “will enthuse investors to continue to take forward their investment proposals.”
“It is a welcome step and clearly shows that the interest rate regime is now on a descent curve,” HDFC Bank’s Deputy Treasurer Ashish Parthasarathy told PTI here.
Earlier, the RBI cut the mandatory cash deposits that banks must keep with it (CRR) by 250 basis points after five years, along with other measures.
“It is a pro-growth measure,” IDBI Bank’s Chairman and Managing Director Yogesh Agarwal said. While the CRR cuts stopped rates from moving upwards, the repo rate cut could see a softening of deposit and lending rates, Mr. Parthasarathy said. —PTI