India’s Space Programme sets its sight on black holes

NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has begun a mission to explore black holes with a new space observatory, reported German news agency (dpa).

ISRO chairman Sreedhara Somanath announced on Monday that the launch of the carrier rocket from the Sriharikota space centre had been successful.

The Indian television channel NDTV reported that the production of the satellite, which is expected to have a service life of more than five years, cost around 2.5 billion rupees (US$30 million).

This is significantly less than what was spent on a satellite for a similar mission by the US space agency, NASA.

India has increasingly ambitious space plans. Most recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he wanted his country to send an astronaut to the moon for the first time by 2040 and that there would be an Indian space station by 2035.–Bernama-dpa