SPACE,\nwhen we hear this word one organisation comes in our minds i.e. Indian Space\nResearch Organisation (ISRO). ISRO is the pioneer space exploration agency of\nthe Government of India, headquartered at Bengaluru. ISRO was set up in 1969\nwith a vision to develop and harness space technology in national development,\nwhile pursuing planetary exploration and space science research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before\ncoming to ISRO and its achievements, let us first take a ride in past to\nunderstand the history of Indian space research. The space research activities\nwere initiated in India during the early 1960\u2019s, when applications using satellites\nwere in experimental stages even in the United States. With the live\ntransmission of Tokyo Olympic Games across the Pacific by the American\nsatellite \u2018Syncom-3\u2019 demonstrating the power of communication satellites, Dr.\nVikram Sarabhai, the founding father of Indian space programme, quickly\nrecognised the benefits of space technologies for India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr.\nSarabhai was convinced and envisioned that the resources in space have the\npotential to address the real problems of society. As Director, Physical Research\nLaboratory (PRL) located in Ahmedabad, Dr. Sarabhai convened an army of able\nand brilliant scientists, anthropologists, communicators and social scientists\nfrom all corners of the country to spearhead the Indian space programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India\u2019s\nfirst PM Jawaharlal Nehru, who saw scientific development as an essential part\nof India\u2019s future, placed space research under the jurisdiction of the\nDepartment of Atomic Energy in 1961. The DAE Director Homi Bhabha, who was\nfather of India\u2019s atomic programme, then, established the Indian National\nCommittee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) with Dr. Sarabhai as Chairman in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nIndian Rohini programme continued to launch sounding rockets of greater size\nand complexity, and the space programme was expanded and eventually given its\nown Government Department, separate from the Department of Atomic Energy. On\nAugust 15, 1969 the ISRO was created from the INCOSPAR programme under the DAE,\ncontinued under the Space Commission and finally the Department of Space was\ncreated in June 1972.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In\nthe 1960s, Sarabhai had taken part in an early study with NASA regarding the\nfeasibility of using satellites for applications as wide as direct television\nbroadcasting, and this study had found that it was the most economical way of\ntransmitting such broadcasts. Having recognised the benefits that the\nsatellites could bring to India from the very start, Sarabhai and the ISRO set\nabout designing and creating an independent launch vehicle, capable of\nlaunching into orbit, and providing the valuable experience needed for the\nconstruction of larger launch vehicles in future. Recognising the advanced\ncapability India had in building solid motors with the Rohini series, and that\nother nations had favoured solid rockets for similar projects, the ISRO set\nabout building the technology and infrastructure for the Satellite Launch\nVehicle (SLV). Inspired by the American Scout rocket, the vehicle would be a\nfour-stage all-solid vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nAryabhata satellite, launched in 1975 from Kapustin Yar using a Soviet\nCosmos-3M launch vehicle, was India\u2019s first satellite. By 1979, the SLV was\nready to be launched from a newly-established second launch site, the Satish\nDhawan Space Centre (SDSC). The first launch in 1979 was a failure, attributed\nto a control failure in the second stage. By 1980, this problem had been worked\nout. The first indigenous satellite launched by India was Rohini-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following\nthe success of the SLV, ISRO was keen to begin construction of a satellite\nlaunch vehicle that would be able to put truly useful satellites into polar\norbits. Design of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) was soon underway.\nThis vehicle was designed as India\u2019s workhorse launch system, taking advantage\nof both old technology with large reliable solid stages, and new liquid\nengines. At the same time, it was decided by the ISRO management that it would\nbe prudent to develop a smaller rocket, based on the SLV that would serve as a\ntestbed for many of the new technologies that would be used on the PSLV. The\nAugmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) would test technologies like strap-on\nboosters and new guidance systems; so that experience could be gained before\nthe PSLV went into full production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\nwas not until 1992 that the first successful launch of the ASLV took place. At\nthis point, the launch vehicle, which could only put very small payload into\norbit, had achieved its objective. In 1993 the time had come for the maiden\nflight of the PSLV. The first launch was a failure. The first successful launch\ntook place in 1994, and since then, the PSLV has become the workhorse launch\nvehicle\u2014placing both remote sensing and communications satellites into orbit,\ncreating the largest cluster in the world and providing unique data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nfirst development flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)\ntook place in 2001. The indigenous cryogenic engine for the GSLV\u2019s upper stage\nwas tested in 2007. ISRO had reconsidered the effectiveness of the GSLV for the\nneeds of the 2000-2010 decade and began development of an indigenous and new\nheavy launch vehicle, GSLV III. After several delays and a sub-orbital test\nflight in December 2014, ISRO successfully conducted the first orbital test\nlaunch of GSLV III in June 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chandrayaan,\n2008:<\/strong> ISRO sent a small robotic spacecraft into lunar\norbit, mounted on a modified PSLV in order to survey the surface of moon in\ngreater detail than ever before an attempt to locate resources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n AVATAR\nScramjet:<\/strong> This is a long-term project to develop a\nreusable launch vehicle (RLV) restricted to the launch of satellites.\nTheoretically, AVATAR was to be a cost-effective launch vehicle for small\nsatellites and therefore a commercially competitive launch system. ISRO\nsuccessfully tested a scramjet air breathing engine which produced Mach 6 for\nseven seconds. ISRO continued research related to using scramjets in RLVs since\n2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISRO\nachieved a significant milestone through the successful test of indigenously\ndeveloped Cryogenic Stage, to be employed as the upper stage of India\u2019s GSLV.\nThe test was conducted for its full flight duration of 720 seconds on November\n15, 2007 at Liquid Propulsion test facility at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. With\nthis test, the indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage has been fully qualified on the\nground. The flight stage was ready for use in the next mission of GSLV\n(GSLV-D3) in 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nApril 28, 2008, ISRO successfully launched 10 satellites in a single mission.\nThese include 690 kg CARTOSTAT-2 and another 83 kg mini Indian satellite,\nIMS-1; and eight other nanosatellites made by various universities; and R&D\ninstitutions in Canada and Germany offered at a subsidised price as part of a\ngoodwill gesture by the Indian Department of Space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mangalyaan,\n2014: <\/strong>India joined an exclusive global club when it\nsuccessfully launched the Mars Orbiter Mission on a shoestring budget that was\nat least 10 times lower than a similar project by the US. Only the US, Russia\nand Europe had previously sent missions to Mars, but what made India\u2019s\nachievement stand out was that it succeeded in its first attempt, which even\nthe Americans and the Soviets could not do. Rs. 450-crore project revolved\nround the Red Planet to collect data on Mars\u2019 atmosphere and mineral\ncomposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On\nFebruary 15, ISRO kicked off 2017 with a historic record-breaking launch. In\none of the most complicated missions in the history of Indian space\nexploration, India, with the help of six other nations, launched 104 satellites\ninto space. These satellites were launched in a single launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2230 kg satellite was launched by GSLV\nMark-II (GSLV-F09) into its planned Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on May\n5, 2017. This was the fourth consecutive success achieved by GSLV carrying\nindigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage. The GSLV-F09\u2019s main objective is\nto establish a smooth communication network amongst the South Asian nations by\nproviding them with applications in Ku-band, which gives them a higher\nfrequency range to communicate in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With\nalready 17 Indian satellites circling the planet, ISRO launched 18th\ncommunication satellite, GSAT-17, to join the fleet. The GSAT-17 has been\ndesigned for an operational lifespan of about 15 years. The spacecraft carries\nequipment to aid meteorology and search and rescue operations primarily over\nthe Indian sub-continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ISRO\nlaunched its 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission on\nJanuary 12, 2018 from Sriharikota Spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. Thirty-one\nspacecraft, including weather observation Cartosat-2 series satellite, were\nlaunched by PSLV-C40. Out of the 31, 28 satellites are foreign, while three are\nfrom India.\n\nISRO\u2019s latest missions are GSLV-F11\/GSAT-7A Mission, GSAT-11, PSLV-C43\/\nHysIS Mission and GSLV MkIII-D2\/ GSAT-29 Mission. GSLV-F10\/Chandrayaan-2 Mission, planned\nduring early 2019, undoubtedly shows, once again, India\u2019s prowess in the field\nof space technology. Of late, ISRO has launched \u201cSamwad with Students\u201d on New\nYear Day i.e. January 1, 2019. We hope that under the leadership of Dr. K.\nSivan, ISRO will be successful in all its upcoming missions and shall make many\nmore proud moments for us.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SPACE, when we hear this word one organisation comes in our minds i.e. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ISRO is the pioneer space exploration agency of the Government of India, headquartered at Bengaluru. ISRO was set up in 1969 with a vision to develop and harness space technology in national development, while pursuing planetary exploration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":635,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634\/revisions\/635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.competitionreview.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}