India’s space programme suffered a major setback last week when the country’s
rocket, on its maiden voyage, put a remote-sensing satellite into the wrong
orbit. The satellite ended up on an elliptical path between 300 and 820
kilometres above the Earth. Engineers will have to guide it into a circular
orbit using the small amount of fuel on board.
In a second upset earlier this week, India had to abandon its most advanced
communications satellite, INSAT-2D, after a power failure deactivated the system
that keeps it pointing Earthwards.
