launch vehiclerocket system
Launch vehicles of the world » India
India launched its first satellite in 1980 using the four-stage solid-fueled Satellite Launch Vehicle 3 (SLV-3), which was developed from the U.S. Scout launch vehicle first used in the 1960s. India did not have a prior ballistic missile program, but parts of the SLV-3 were later incorporated into India’s first IRBM, Agni. The four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was then developed; it used a mixture of solid- and liquid-fueled stages. The first PSLV launch took place in 1993. During the 1990s India developed the liquid-fueled Geostationary Space Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which used cryogenic fuel in its upper stage. The GSLV was first launched in 2001. Both the PSLV and GSLV remain in service.
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Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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Indian space program launch vehicle
...Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was then developed; it used a mixture of solid- and liquid-fueled stages. The first PSLV launch took place in 1993. During the 1990s India developed the liquid-fueled Geostationary Space Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which used cryogenic fuel in its upper stage. The GSLV was first launched in 2001. Both the PSLV and GSLV remain in service.
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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Indian space program launch vehicle
...U.S. Scout launch vehicle first used in the 1960s. India did not have a prior ballistic missile program, but parts of the SLV-3 were later incorporated into India’s first IRBM, Agni. The four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was then developed; it used a mixture of solid- and liquid-fueled stages. The first PSLV launch took place in 1993. During the 1990s India developed the...
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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Indian space program launch vehicle
India launched its first satellite in 1980 using the four-stage solid-fueled Satellite Launch Vehicle 3 (SLV-3), which was developed from the U.S. Scout launch vehicle first used in the 1960s. India did not have a prior ballistic missile program, but parts of the SLV-3 were later incorporated into India’s first IRBM, Agni. The four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was then developed;...
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work of Abdul Kalam Abdul Kalam, A.P.J.
...Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He soon moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, India’s first indigenously designed and produced satellite launch vehicle. Rejoining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned the program that produced a number of successful missiles, which helped...
Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
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launch vehicles launch vehicle
...First launched in 1994, a version of Pegasus known as Taurus lifts off from the ground, using a converted ICBM as a first stage and Pegasus as a second stage. A new small launch vehicle called Falcon was first tested in 2006. It was developed on the basis of private investment rather than being funded by government contracts and is intended to be the first in a new, lower-cost family of...
any of a series of U.S. rockets that were originally developed as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs; see rocket and missile system: Ballistic missiles) but subsequently became important expendable space-launch vehicles.
Titan I, the first in the series, was built by Martin Company (later Lockheed Martin Corporation) for the U.S. Air Force in the late 1950s. A two-stage ICBM fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen, it was designed to deliver a four-megaton nuclear warhead to targets in the Soviet Union more than 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away. Between 1962 and 1965 several squadrons of Titan Is were operational at air force bases in the western United States. The missiles were stored underground in reinforced-concrete silos but had to be raised to ground level for launch and required a minimum of 15 to 20 minutes for fueling.
By 1965 Titan I had been replaced by Titan II, a much larger ICBM (approximately 30 metres [100 feet] long) that could be launched directly from its silo and was fueled by internally stored hypergolic fuels (self-igniting liquids such as hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide). Tipped with a nine-megaton warhead—the most powerful nuclear explosive ever mounted on a U.S. delivery vehicle—and stationed at bases in the central and western United States, Titan II was the principal weapon in the land-based U.S. nuclear arsenal until it was replaced by more-accurate solid-fueled ICBMs such as Minuteman. The last Titan IIs were deactivated between 1982 and 1987. Converted Titan IIs were used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as launchers for Gemini manned spacecraft during the 1960s. After its deactivation as an...
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- Atlas V rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, with the New Horizons …[Credits : NASA/KSC]
- Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen–gasoline rocket in its frame; the rocket was first …[Credits : NASA]
- World War II-era German V-2 missile being erected for launch. The precursor of modern ballistic …[Credits : Bilderdienst im Suddeutschen Verlag]
- Test launch of a V-2 rocket.[Credits : Camera Press]
- Launch of the Mercury spacecraft Friendship 7 carrying U.S. astronaut John H. …[Credits : NASA]
- Apollo 15 spacecraft as it lifts off from Cape Kennedy, Florida, U.S., atop a Saturn V three-stage …[Credits : NASA]
- Major elements of the U.S. Apollo program, showing the Saturn V launch vehicle and configurations …[Credits : Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]
- Rocket engines of the Soviet launch vehicle that was used to place manned Vostok spacecraft into …[Credits : Novosti Press Agency]
- Delta II launch vehicle.[Credits : © Corbis]
- U.S. space shuttle, composed of a winged orbiter, an external liquid-propellant tank, and two …[Credits : Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]
- Launch of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery, July 2006.[Credits : Gianni Woods/NASA]
- Russian Proton launch vehicle with the Granat high-energy astrophysics observatory, prior to launch …[Credits : Tass/Sovfoto]
- Ariane 44L launch vehicle lifting off Oct. 28, 1998, from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, …[Credits : AFP/Corbis]
- Long March 3 launch vehicle inside a test building at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. …[Credits : Roger Ressmeyer—Corbis]
- An H-IIA launch vehicle lifting off on Dec. 18, 2006, from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.[Credits : JAXA]
- Upper stage Agena, the target vehicle for the Gemini 12 rendezvous and docking, launched two hours …[Credits : NASA]
- Space shuttle main engine flow.[Credits : Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]
- Cutaway of a large solid rocket motor. This type of motor, used on the U.S. space shuttle, consists …[Credits : Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]
- U.S. Air Force Delta II launch vehicle, lifting off March 29, 1993, from the Kennedy Space Center, …[Credits : Corbis]
- Interior of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, U.S. …[Credits : RogerRessmeyer—Corbis]
- An Ariane 5G launch vehicle at the European Space Agency’s launch base in Kourou, Fr.Guia., on Feb. …[Credits : ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE-S. Corvaja]
- The second stage (right) of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket ready to be mated to the first …[Credits : NASA]