India puts into orbit its 42nd communication satellite

India on Thursday successfully placed its 42nd communication satellite CMS-01 (formerly GSAT-12R) in the geosynchronous transfer orbit in a textbook style.

India's brand new communication satellite CMS-01 with a life span of seven years will provide services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum. The satellite will cover Indian mainland, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the country's space agency.

The CMS-01 will be a replacement for GSAT-12 that weighed 1,410 kg and was launched on July 11, 2011 with a mission life of eight years.

Expressing his happiness at the successful launch of CMS-01 satellite, ISRO Chairman K.Sivan said: "In four days time the CMS-01 satellite will be taken to its intended geosynchronous orbit. The satellite's solar panel has been deployed."

He said the next rocket that would fly in Feb-March 2021 will be PSLV-C51 which will be a special one for ISRO as well as for the country.

Sivan said the rocket will be carrying India's first earth observation satellite from a start-up called Pixxel. The rocket will also carry communication satellite built by students part of SpaceKidz team and another satellite built by consortium of three Indian universities.

"The primary payload for PSLV-C51 rocket will be a Brazilian satellite weighing between 600-700kg," Sivan told IANS.

He also said Team ISRO has a busy schedule ahead with the launch of Aditya satellite, Gaganyaaan-India's human space mission, realisation of small rocket Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). Source: i

Read More........→December 19, 2020

PSLV-C50 to launch communication satellite CMS-01 on Dec 17: ISRO

DEC 11, 2020 BENGALURU: The launch of communication satellite CMS-01 onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C50), is scheduled on December 17 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Friday. "PSLV-C50, which is the 52nd mission of PSLV, will launch CMS-01 from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch is tentatively scheduled at 15:41 Hrs IST on December 17, 2020 subject to weather conditions," the space agency said. CMS-01 is a communication satellite envisaged for providing services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum, it said. The Extended-C Band coverage will include Indian mainland, Andaman-Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. CMS-01 is the 42nd Communication Satellite of India. PSLV-C50 is the 22nd flight of PSLV in ''XL'' configuration (with 6 strap-on motors), ISRO said, adding that this will be the 77th launch vehicle mission from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. Copyright © Jammu Links News, Source: Jammu Links News

Read More........→December 13, 2020

India's human space flight may face slight delay: ISRO chief

India's human space flight mission Gaganyaan will be "slightly delayed" owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic even as ISRO resumes rocket launch activities from the first week of November, space agency chief K. Sivan said on Monday.

Answering a query at the plenary session of the International Astronautical Congress 2020, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman said India's first human space flight was targeted in August 2022, but owing to Covid-19's impact on the operations, the there will be a slight slip in meeting the mission's target date.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2018, had said when the nation is celebrating 75th year of Independence in 2022, an Indian son or daughter will be flying into space under the Gaganyaan mission.

Sivan said that the Gaganyaan mission has advanced well and the country is taking the help of other space-faring nations like Russia for training the astronauts and some other critical aspects, France in the space medical area and is also approaching US space agency NASA.

On resuming rocket launches, he said some missions were delayed as officials were unable to travel to the rocket port from different cities.

Sivan said ISRO is planning to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C49 (PSLV C49) during the first week of November.

The PSLV C49 rocket will fly with RISAT-2BR2 as the main passenger and about several other third party satellites for a fee.

According to Sivan, international cooperation is the hallmark of India's space activities.

The country has signed about 250 collaboration agreements with about 59 nations.

He said India's international collaborations are a mix-some for getting advanced technologies and some are for helping other space faring nations and pointed out training 60 persons from 23 nations in building nano-satellites  Source: https://southasiamonitor.org/

Read More........→October 13, 2020

ISRO gearing up for rocket launches with Virtual Launch Control Centre

The Indian space agency ISRO is gearing up for three quick rocket launches carrying domestic and foreign satellites, said a senior official. It has also developed a Virtual Launch Control Centre to test the rocket systems at the rocket port in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh remotely from the Thiruvananthapuram based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he added.

"With Covid-19 pandemic prevailing, the Indian space agency in order to reduce the number of people travelling to Sriharikota, has developed a Virtual Launch Control Centre at VSSC. As a result, the testing of various rocket systems is being done at VSSC," S. Somanath, Director, VSSC, told IANS.

The physical launch control centre is located in the building that houses the Mission Control Centre in Sriharikota and the systems there have been replicated at VSSC in the form of a virtual launch control centre.

"Three rockets are getting ready for launch at the rocket port in Sriharikota viz Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C49 (PSLV C49), PSLV C50 and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The first rocket to fly will be the PSLV C49 sometime next month with about 10 satellites. It will be carrying India's RISAT-2BR2 and other commercial satellites lifting off from the first launch pad," Somanath said.

The next one to fly will be PSLV C50 with the GSAT-12R satellite. The rocket is being assembled at Sriharikota with various systems coming from different centres. It will fly from the second launch pad, he added.

"We are targeting PSLV C50 sometime in December. It needs about 30 days to get ready for another launch after one launch," he said.

Presently four Indian satellites are ready for launch viz GISAT, Microsat-2A, GSAT-12R and, RISAT-2BR2. (IANS), Source: https://southasiamonitor.org

Read More........→October 06, 2020

ISRO successfully launches earth monitoring satellite HysIS

The primary mission of the Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), whose mission life is five years

Sriharikota (AP): Adding another feather to its cap, ISRO's workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 Thursday successfully injected into orbit India's earth observation satellite HysIS. The 30 other co-passenger international satellites including those from the United States of America and Australia among others, will soon be placed into orbit.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown. The HysIS was placed in orbit 17 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off.

"#PSLVC43 successfully lifts off with 31 satellites, including #HysIS, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota", ISRO announced on its Twitter handler Thursday morning.

"#PSLVC43 successfully injects Indian satellite #HysIS, into sun-synchronous polar orbit", ISRO wrote on Twitter minutes later.

The primary mission of the Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth's surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

"HysIS is an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO. It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission. The satellite will be placed in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO) with an inclination of 97.957 deg. The mission life of the satellite is 5 years," ISRO said.

The co-passenger satellites have been contracted for launch through ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited. PSLV-C43, is the 'Core Alone' version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle.

This is ISRO's second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14. Source: ummid.com

Read More........→July 21, 2020