Aryabhata was India's first satellite launched in 1975. It was named after the famous Indian astronomer and mathematician. It was completely designed and fabricated in India and launched by a Soviet Kosmos-3M rocket from Kapustin Yar. Aryabhata weighed 794 pounds ( 360kg ) and was instrumented to explore conditions in Earth's ionosphere, measure neutrons and gamma rays from the Sun and perform investigations in X-ray astronomy.