India Launches Rocket with Student Experiments

India has successfully launched a small suborbital rocket filled with student-built experiments as part of an Indian space agency program to test designs for future rocket payloads.
 
Students from Vellore Institute of Technology University in Vellore, India worked with members of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) to develop part of the payload that would launch with their RH 200 advanced sounding rocket.
 
The rocket blasted off on Wednesday from India's Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and reached its intended altitude of 37 miles (60 km) in two minutes, ISRO officials said in a statement.
 
The project's goal is to provide hands-on experience in the design and fabrication of cutting-edge space technology, while simultaneously working toward the realization of cost-effective future space missions, ISRO officials said.
 
The student-built portion of the RH 200 rocket payload was comprised of tri-axial accelerometers that monitor accelerations in three directions, a power-switching module that acts as the power control for the payload, and a safe arm relay unit that matched the requirements of the RH 200 rocket.
 
Students at the Indian Institute of Space Technology, with support from experts at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, are also working toward their goal of making the first indigenous student rocket.
 
Additionally, as part of its ongoing effort to maintain strong ties with the student community, ISRO plans to include a miniature satellite – called a picosatellite – that was designed by undergraduate students across India, in its forthcoming PSLV-C15 mission to deliver a remote sensing satellite, called Cartosat-2B, into orbit.
 
Cartosat-2B is an Earth observation satellite set to launch early Monday (local time) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.
 
Earlier this year, the ISRO launched a fleet of 11 sounding rockets in two days to study the effects of the partial annular solar eclipse, which dominated the sky above southeastern Asia and Central Africa on 15 th Jan. 2010.