A picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as, the copy of Bhagavad Gita was processed to space aboard an Indian start-up satellite, one of the 18 co-passengers launched with Brazil’s earth observation satellite Amazonia-1. The mission time – 1 hour 55 minutes.
It is worth mentioning here that Narendra Modi’s photograph was inscribed on the top panel of the spacecraft Satish Dhawan Sat (SD-SAT) from Chennai-based Space Kidz India (SKI). “This is to show solidarity and gratitude for his (PM’s) Aatmanirbhar initiative and space privatisation,” SKI had said earlier.
ISRO chairman Dr K Sivan and scientific secretary R Umamaheshwaran have also been engraved on the bottom panel of the SDSAT built by Space Kidz India. The Prime Minister’s picture and name are etched on the top panel. It has been learnt that the names of 25,000 people have also been engraved.
Space Kidz India is an organisation which is striving hard to promote space science among students. It should be noted that this was one of the longest ISRO missions, surpassed only by the PSLV-45 mission that launched an Indian reconnaissance satellite including 28 customer satellites, as well as, three payloads on the fourth stage of the launch vehicle in 3 hours in April 2019.
It has been learnt that the Amazonia-1 satellite is the first satellite to be designed, forged and operated by Brazil through its National Institute for Space Research.
“I am extremely happy to declare that PSLV C51 successfully launched in the precise orbit of Amazonia 1 today. In this mission, India and ISRO is extremely proud and honoured and happy to launch the first satellite designed, integrated and Operated by Brazil. My heartiest congratulations to the Brazilain team for this achievement,” said Indian Space Research Organization chairperson Dr K Sivan.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian Minister for science, technology and innovation Marcos Pontes, who marked his presence at the ceremony, said, “I would like to thank each and every one of you who helped make this a successful launch. We have been working on this satellite for many years. This is a very important moment for Brazil.” The space agency has as many as 14 missions planned for the year.
PM Modi also congratulated Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and termed the mission “historical” in space cooperation.”Congratulations President Jair Bolsonaro on the successful launch of Brazil’s Amazonia-1 satellite by PSLV-C51. This is a historic moment in our space cooperation and my felicitations to the scientists of Brazil,” he wrote on Twitter.