Work on ground station for 'Chandrayan' is on: ISRO

Hyderabad, Mar 29: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Madhavan Nair today said satellite building and ground station work was under progress to launch 'Chandrayan', India's first moon mission, in early 2008.

Speaking to newspersons here, Mr Nair said work was moving fast to launch the 'dream' project of the ISRO. The moon mission would be launched in early 2008.

Stating that the demand for commercial satellites was increasing world over, he said the ISRO would launch PSLV, GSLV and Cartosat satellites during this year.

PSLV would be launched in the middle of the year which would carry Italy's satellite to the orbit.

The Cartosat, which was launched recently, was working successfully and the second one would be launched very shortly, Mr Nair said, adding at present 12 transponders were available for DTH services which can telecast more than 130 TV channels through satellite network.

Earlier, inaugurating Science and Technology Multi-functional Laboratory, established by the Dr B R Ambedkar Open University here, the ISRO Chief said, ''there is a need to give emphasis on science education from the primary school level in the country.'' Stating that skills are required in technical education for the national development, Mr Nair said, ''we need to increase agriculture productivity and tackle drinking water scarcity and health care problems with the assistance of science.''

UNI