Photo: ISRO
By SAT News Desk
Melbourne, 25 September : While India was busy celebrating the success of the its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), little did people know Australian engineers and technicians working at the CSIRO-managed Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) in regional Australia today (24 September, 2014) played a critical role in confirming the successful first phase of India’s MOM. A signal from the MOM was first received by the CDSCC and it then informed India and the world that the ‘Mangalyaan’ had entered Mars orbit.
Dr. Ed Kruzins (right in the picture), director of the CSIRO-managed Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, congratulated India’s Deputy High Commissioner to Australia, Surinder Kumar Datta (centre in the picture) and First Secretary Tarun Kumar (left in the picture) moments after the signal was received from the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft after it successfully entered the orbit around Mars.
Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its Mars Orbiter Mission, which arrived in the orbit above the red planet.
The largest antenna dish in the southern hemisphere, CDSCC’s Deep Space Station 43, which has supported many important space missions, captured the minute signals from the mission and confirmed its successful entering into orbit.
“I commend ISRO on this historic event,” Mr Suckling said. “It is an important milestone for ISRO and for Indian space research and exploration.
Mr Suckling said it was an example of the expanding scientific cooperation between Australia and India.
“I welcome Australia’s and India’s strengthening cooperation in space exploration,” he said.
“The Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex is the prime station for the mission as it relays data to mission control at ISRO’s Telemetry Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore. This is a critical element of this mission.”
Australia and India have a strong record of cooperation in space research and exploration, signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Civil Space Cooperation in 2012.
– SAT News Service
