India's Agni-III project
"Before the jubilation," said Avinash Chander, Programme Director, Agni-III, "there were times we had heart attacks." The countdown for the launch had progressed smoothly. The long-range ballistic missile lifted off at 10.52 a.m. on April 12 from its rail-mobile launcher on Wheeler Island in the Bay of Bengal, 9 km from Dhamra on the Orissa coast. Optical radar stations at Dhamra, Chandipur-on-sea near Balasore in Orissa, Port Blair, and on two ships stationed in the Bay of Bengal, were tracking the missile.
As the Agni-III project team scanned the computer screens at the Mission Control Centre on Wheeler Island, they were horrified by the data loss reported from some of the radar stations. "The moment there is data loss, the first thing that comes to mind is that something [disastrous] has happened," said Avinash Chander, who is the Director of the Advanced Systems Limited, Hyderabad, which designed and developed the missile. It was another 70 seconds before the team breathed again and felt confident about the success of the mission. More
As the Agni-III project team scanned the computer screens at the Mission Control Centre on Wheeler Island, they were horrified by the data loss reported from some of the radar stations. "The moment there is data loss, the first thing that comes to mind is that something [disastrous] has happened," said Avinash Chander, who is the Director of the Advanced Systems Limited, Hyderabad, which designed and developed the missile. It was another 70 seconds before the team breathed again and felt confident about the success of the mission. More
