First Satellite Launched by India

Aryabhatta was the first satellite launched by India. It was named after the great Indian astronomer of the same name. Aryabhatta weighed 360kg and was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Cosmos-3M launch vehicle.

The satellite had following objectives:

*To indigenously design and fabricate a space-worthy satellite system and evaluate its perfromance in orbit.

*To evolve the methodology of conducting a series of complex operations on the satellite in its orbital phase.

*To set up ground-based receiving, transmitting and tracking systems.

*To establish infrastructure for the fabrication of spacecraft systems.

*Aryabhatta carried experiments related to X-Ray Astronomy, Solar Physics and Aeronomy. The satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on 11 February 1992.