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The title says nothing, especially given ISRO's track record. The big news is about the launch vehicle - GSLV Mk III - the most powerful rocket from ISRO.
and the one that has potential to take an Indian to the moon.
Would have to be a pretty lean moon mission.
Some really nice photos of this on the ISRO site: http://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-mk-iii-d1-gsat-19-mission/gslv-m... Also the launch video is amazing. The moment the engines ignite the whole thing is moving most likely because those are solid rocket boosters and there's no throttle up time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae6LVG0j1Pg
The lift-off start position is at 3:45.
If we compare this to current SpaceX Falcon 9 (not Falcon Heavy ) http://www.spacex.com/falcon9
Falcon 9 can deliver 8300 Kg to GTO and 22,800kg to LEO.
GSLV MK III delivers 4000 Kg to GTO and 8000KG to LEO ( http://www.isro.gov.in/launchers/gslv-mk-iii )
Mr. Musk will be delivering hell lot of stuff to space with his reusable rockets. SO, he will be very cost competitive to ISRO w.r.t launch price.
Congratulations ISRO.. Good step in right direction. If we compare this to current SpaceX Falcon 9 (not Falcon Heavy ) http://www.spacex.com/falcon9 Falcon 9 can deliver 8300 Kg to GTO and 22,800kg to LEO. GSLV MK III delivers 4000 Kg to GTO and 8000KG to LEO ( http://www.isro.gov.in/launchers/gslv-mk-iii ) Mr. Musk will be delivering hell lot of stuff to space with his reusable rockets. SO, he will be very cost comp…
According to the technical overview, Falcon 9 can also deliver 4020 kg to Mars :)
This is a big deal for ISRO when it becomes operational. In terms of launching its own heavy communication satellites, it doesn't have to rely on the Ariane. I can see a lot of customers queuing up to Antrix to launch commercial satellites. One can hope it eats into SpaceX's lunch in the near future.
As for price, surfing the Internets I see Rs 350 to Rs400 crore as a price, which ~ $56-$64 million dollars. SpaceX's price for a "flight proven" GTO launch is supposedly $62 million less 10%, or about the same.
Congratulations ISRO.. Good step in right direction. If we compare this to current SpaceX Falcon 9 (not Falcon Heavy ) http://www.spacex.com/falcon9 Falcon 9 can deliver 8300 Kg to GTO and 22,800kg to LEO. GSLV MK III delivers 4000 Kg to GTO and 8000KG to LEO ( http://www.isro.gov.in/launchers/gslv-mk-iii ) Mr. Musk will be delivering hell lot of stuff to space with his reusable rockets. SO, he will be very cost comp…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
and the one that has potential to take an Indian to the moon.
With capacity of 10 tons to LEO, 4 tons to GTO, it's somewhere between the Titan II (used for Gemini) and Titan III. Would have to be a pretty lean moon mission.
This is a big deal for ISRO when it becomes operational. In terms of launching its own heavy communication satellites, it doesn't have to rely on the Ariane. I can see a lot of customers queuing up to Antrix to launch commercial satellites. One can hope it eats into SpaceX's lunch in the near future.
The last 2 Indian satellites launched on Ariane V fit on this new rocket (~3.2 metric tons), but, that's a medium-sized satellite. Ariane V usually launches pairs of satellites, one ~ 3mt and one ~ 6mt. As for price, surfing the Internets I see Rs 350 to Rs400 crore as a price, which ~ $56-$64 million dollars. SpaceX's price for a "flight proven" GTO launch is supposedly $62 million less 10%, or about the same.
As for pricing, I definitely agree SpaceX has the edge especially with their reusable rockets. But one can still hope ISRO catches up :)
Congratulations ISRO.. Good step in right direction. If we compare this to current SpaceX Falcon 9 (not Falcon Heavy ) http://www.spacex.com/falcon9 Falcon 9 can deliver 8300 Kg to GTO and 22,800kg to LEO. GSLV MK III delivers 4000 Kg to GTO and 8000KG to LEO ( http://www.isro.gov.in/launchers/gslv-mk-iii ) Mr. Musk will be delivering hell lot of stuff to space with his reusable rockets. SO, he will be very cost comp…