India’s most powerful homegrown rocket to date is set to launch Monday, another milestone for its indigenous space programme that one day hopes to put a man into orbit. The 43-metre (140-foot) rocket is scheduled to lift off just before 5:30 pm (1200 GMT) from the southern island of Sriharikota, one of two sites used by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to launch satellites. Programme managers hope the technology will reduce reliance on European engines that have propelled some of India’s spacecraft in the past. “This is an important moment in India’s space technology to launch an indigenous heavy rocket,” Ajay Lele from the Delhi-based Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses told AFP. The space agency tested a less-developed version of the rocket in December 2014 while the cryogenic engine was still in the testing phase.

Source: Egypt Independent June 05, 2017 10:07 UTC