SPACE WIRE
India to launch satellite exclusively for education in 2004
BANGALORE, India (AFP) Jun 24, 2003
India will launch a satellite exclusively dedicated to education in late 2004, the chief of the national space agency said Tuesday.

"We are currently in talks with the (federal) human resource development ministry and plan to launch the satellite by fourth quarter of next year," said Indian Space Research Organisation chairman Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan.

Named EDUSAT, the satellite network will assist with teacher training in remote regions, he said.

"It will help create virtual classes," Kasturirangan said at the inauguration of the southern Indian state of Karnataka's State Remote Sensing Applications Center's geo-informatics laboratory.

The center has 120 scientists working in fields ranging from oceanography and geology to cartography and the digital image processing of data from remote sensing satellites.

Kasturirangan said space scientists were also working on a plan to link the rural districts of Karnataka to urban hospitals to provide better healthcare facilities.

He denied media reports that India was planning to put an astronaut on board the International Space Station, being put together by a US-led consortium including Russia, Canada and Japan.

"There is no proposal to put our own man in the station," he said.

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