INDIA NEWS: Nov 8, 2008

Finally Chandrayaan in lunar Orbit

India on Saturday successfully put its first unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-I into lunar orbit - a major step towards placing it in its designated slot 100 km from the moon.

“The spacecraft was placed in an elliptical orbit - at 7,500 km aposelene (farthest from moon) and 500 km periselene (nearest to moon) through complex manoeuvres,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S Satish said.

“The liquid apogee motor (LAM) onboard was fired for 805 seconds (13.4 minutes) between 5 pm (IST) and 5.15 pm (IST) to put the spacecraft into the elliptical orbit around the moon," Satish added.

In this orbit, the spacecraft takes 10 hours to complete one revolution around the moon.

Over the next two-three days, Chandrayaan will be progressively lowered to an orbit that will be 500 km aposelene and 100 km periselene.

“The spacecraft will be gently pushed to its designated slot in the lunar orbit and positioned at a distance 100 km from the surface of the moon,” Satish said.

The complex manoeuvres were executed by ISRO’s telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) on the outskirts of Bangalore and monitored by its deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore.

“The health of the spacecraft is good and its vital functions are operating normally,” Satish added.

The terrain mapping camera onboard will continue to take pictures of the moon’s surface even as it revolves around its polar orbit.

Chandrayaan carries 11 scientific instruments, including six foreign payloads - two from the US, three from the European Space Agency (ESA) and one from Bulgaria. The remaining five are indigenously designed and developed by various centres of the state-run ISRO.

The spacecraft was blasted off Oct 22 onboard the 316-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota spaceport, about 80 km north of Chennai.

India-Australia Nagpur Test Match 2.0

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India eked out a vital 86-run first innings lead to gain a slight upper hand in the fourth and final cricket Test against an unsually subdued Australia who scored at an agonisingly slow pace in Nagpur on Saturday.

Responding to India's first innings total of 441, the Australians squandered the advantange of a solid start to lose wickets at periodic intervals after the lunch break and fold up for 355 just a few minutes before stumps on an absorbing third day.

Opener Simon Katich (102) scored his third century since returning to the national team and his fifth overall to lay the foundation for his team alongwith Michael Hussey (90) but their dismissals in quick succession opened up the floodgates.

The visitors, who were placed at a comfortable 255 for three at one stage, slipped to a precarious 266 for six before recovering to some extent mainly due to the efforts of Brad Haddin (28) and Cameron White (46).

India were yet to open their account in the second innings with Virender Sehwag safely negotiating Mitchell Johnson's only over before close of play.

The Aussies were inexplicably defensive in their approach and allowed the hosts to create pressure by drying up the run flow on a track which has shown gradual signs of deterioration.

The tourists could add just 166 runs to their overnight tally, an uncharacteristically slow run rate of less than 2.5 runs from the champion team which is desperate to win the Test and level the series 1-1.

With two days left, the Indians will now look to score quickly in the second innings and have another crack at the Aussies on a last day pitch which was expected to turn a lot more.

Resuming at 189 for two, Australia made slow and steady progress against the pace duo of Zaheer and Ishant Sharma before losing Katich for 102 with half an hour left for lunch.

Katich faced 189 balls and struck nine boundaries. The left-hander added 155 runs with fellow-Western Australian Michael Hussey for the third wicket.

Zaheer, who bowled a long spell of nine overs for 15 runs from the end opposite to the pavilion, switched ends and struck in the second over by trapping Katich leg before with a ball that swung in late and hit the batsman's boot.

India should have sent back Katich soon after play began but Dravid at first slip grassed the thick edge despite getting both hands to the ball flying to his left. The batsman was on 94 and became the fourth Australian player to make a century on this tour.

The first hour of play produced just 25 runs in 13 overs with both Katich and Hussey waiting for the bad ball to score runs.

It was Katich's fourth century outside his home country and first since hitting two in the West Indies in May-June that had revived his stuttering career.

Katich, thus, made amends for getting out on 99 at this Orange city, but in the old VCA ground, four years ago.

It was also his second ton against India after his 125 at Sydney in 2004, his maiden hundred.

Meerut Blast

Three persons were killed and two injured on Saturday in an explosion in an army waste dump in Ahmednagar area of Merut.
"The labourers were rummaging through the waste which was to be transported when the blast occurred," Deputy Inspector General of Police PK Ramashastri told PTI.
While three persons died on the spot, two were critically injured, he said. Senior UP police officials, including Ramashastri, have rushed to the spot.
The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital where their condition was stated to be critical. "It appears to be an accidental blast," Ramashastri said.