Aryabhata (satellite) Aryabhata (satellite) Aryabhata (Hindi: आर्यभट) was India's first satellite, named after the famous Indian astronomer of the same name. It was launched by India on 19 April 1975 from Kapustin Yar, a Russian rocket launch and development site in Astrakhan Oblast using a Kosmos-3M launch vehicle. It was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation.The launch came from an agreement between India and the Soviet Union directed by UR Rao and signed in 1972. It allowed the USSR to use Indian ports for tracking ships and launching vessels in return for launching Indian satellites. Aryabhatta is the first man made
Astrakhan Oblast Okrug of Stalingrad Oblast. From October 8, 1980 to October 27, 1984, and under the leadership of Nikolai Baibakov, the USSR held fifteen deep underground nuclear tests for Nuclear Explosions for the National Economy at the site "Vega" in the Ryn Desert in the east of the oblast less than 50 km from downtown Astrakhan to create reservoirs for natural gas storage. Because of the detonation depth (975 to 1,100 meters) and relatively low yield (3.2 to 13.5 kilotons), no radiation was released to the environment. These blasts had lower yields than the Project "Sapphire" blasts, which were 40 km