NEW DELHI: India’s most powerful homegrown rocket to date is set to launch Monday, another milestone for its indigenous space program 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 Organization (ISRO) to launch satellites. Program 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 Agence France-Presse. In February, India put a record 104 satellites in orbit from a single rocket, surpassing Russia which launched 39 satellites in one mission in June 2014.

Source: Manila Times June 05, 2017 14:26 UTC