ISRO’s CMS-03 Satellite Launch: When India’s latest military communication satellite lifted off from Sriharikota, few outside the scientific community noticed something strange: the rocket carrying it was officially not designed for such a heavy load. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has done what experts are calling an extraordinary feat of orbital engineering.

The mission involved India’s most powerful rocket, the LVM3, formerly known as GSLV-MkIII. Standing 43.5 metres tall and weighing 642 tons, the three-stage giant is built to carry 10 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) and about 4 tons to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). But it lifted a satellite weighing 4.4 tons (the GSAT-7R, also called CMS-03) meant for India’s Navy communications network.

A Carefully Calculated F

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