Thirty years ago today — July 18, 1980 — the country of India became the seventh nation to launch a spacecraft using an indigenous rocket system.
Ronihi (also known as RS-1, for “Rohini Satellite 1”) was launched from Sriharikota Space Center on an SLV-3 rocket by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). RS-1 was a test satellite, used to evaluate the launch vehicle’s performance — particularly the performance of the rocket’s fourth stage.
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