New Delhi: India on Monday launched its first transportation vehicle, covering a total of six vehicles, from the NSSI-5B, a launch vehicle for launching satellites into orbit, on a mission to deliver a robotic payload to a research centre in Hyderabad.
The launch was made on the maiden flight of the new vehicle, NSSIV-5, which is capable of lifting more than 7.5 metric tonnes to a height of 1,300 metres, or 1,500 metres above the Earth.
India is a key market for the NISS space company, which manufactures the unmanned vehicles, as the country is the world’s third largest importer of satellite technology.
It is also home to the Nissas rocket fleet.
India is the first nation to launch the NOSS-5 vehicle, which was launched in November 2015 and is powered by two rocket engines.
The vehicle is expected to fly for around three months and will be launched on an Indian-made NISS-5 rocket, which can lift a total weight of up to 1.8 tonnes, according to the Space and Technology Corporation of India (STECI), which is also responsible for launching the rocket.
The rocket will be powered by a GSLV rocket, a medium-lift version of India’s indigenous Vikramaditya rocket, and can carry a payload of up of 15,000 kg.
The GSLV was designed by the Indian Space Research Organisation and built by Bharat Heavy Industries Limited.
The new vehicle is based on the GSLV-V1, a modified version of the GSL V1.
It was launched on September 1, 2016, from a launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, on the second of the six missions.
The first launch of the vehicle was on September 9, 2015, and the second on September 15, 2016.
The NSSSV-2 vehicle is designed for carrying unmanned spacecraft to orbit and carry out research experiments, according the agency.
The agency has been developing the NIST-3 vehicle, a heavy-lift vehicle that can lift payloads up to 2.5 tonnes.
India has a fleet of more than 20 NISS spacecraft, including six of the space-faring space shuttle, two of the Mars orbiters, two Chinese Chang Zheng spacecraft and two European Galileo spacecraft.
The NISSS-2 rocket is one of the vehicles that will be used for launching this mission.
The space agency plans to use the vehicle for its next three launches, including a new satellite launch in 2021 and another launch in 2024.