Gaganyaan: Isro's first manned space mission on schedule, says Raghavan

Gaganyaan - The Indian Space Research Organisation will complete its first manned space mission on schedule as the programme was finalised a few years ago, K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to the government of India, has stressed.

"This mission is not happening out of the blue, nor is it a coincidence. We were giving shape to this mission for a while," Raghavan told PTI-Bhasha in an interview.

One of the most distinguished biologists, Raghavan, 64, was appointed the principal scientific advisor in March.

The post of principal scientific advisor was created by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999. The PSA is the topmost advisor to the government on scientific policy matters.

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Independence Day this year that India will put a man or woman in the space on board 'Gaganyaan' by 2022, Raghavan said, Isro has been moving ahead to complete the mission as per the schedule.

Kerala floods: How Isro satellites are playing a key part in saving lives

KerelaFloods - Even as the unprecedented floods and landslides have devastated most parts of Kerala in the last fortnight, technologically the most helpful support the authorities are getting in handling the situation was updates from Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and its various satellites which kept their eyes open up from the atmosphere.

A set of remote sensing satellites and radar satellites has been taking pictures of various aspects of the situation in the flood-hit state from a distance of 400-800 kilometres from the Earth and sending it back with supportive data, which once crunched, helped the experts to predict the level of rains till then, what to expect in the next few hours and even about the situation in the forests and the water reservoirs.

For instance, ResourceSat-2, launched on April 20, 2011, has proved to be helpful in taking pictures on the forestry and normal terrain and how the water bodies are while ScatSat-1 can track the wind, how it flows over the sea and over the land which helps to forecast the weather. Insat 3DR, another satellite together with others can communicate how clouds are positioned and with the help of ScatSat-1, experts can come to a conclusion on how fast they are moving considering the wind speed. Insat satellites, which are geostationary, would send data in every half an hour from the atmosphere, which can give an update to the ground station.

India's South Asia Satellite is a Rs 10,000 crore gift for its neighbours

Shortly before 5 pm on Friday, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) heaviest rocket, the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), will blast off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota for the eleventh time. This time, the GSLV’s mission will be to place into orbit the so-called “South Asia Satellite”, a pure communications satellite called GSAT-9, which will provide linked communications to seven regional countries — the entire membership of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), less Pakistan. India is bearing the Rs 450 crore cost of the launch.

This project in high-technology regional diplomacy is backed by Isro’s stellar record in low-cost, high-success-rate space launches. In 2013, the agency won global plaudits for sending a low-cost orbiter named Mangalyaan to Mars, becoming the first country to succeed in doing so on its first attempt. In February, Isro’s workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, which has launched 180 satellites so far without failure in 38th consecutive successful launches, established a world record by placing 104 satellites into orbit in a single launch.

Now Isro’s credentials are being exploited to build bridges across South Asia. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka will each have access to at least one of the South Asia Satellite’s 12 Ku-band transponders, and a communications backbone created for a secure hotline linking all these countries — a life-saving facility during emergencies and natural disasters. These neighbours will together benefit to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore ($1.5 billion) over the satellite’s 12-year lifespan. This is the first time a regional technological powerhouse has gifted a communications satellite to its neighbours. There are other consortia that jointly operate satellites, but those are all commercial, for-profit enterprises.
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Isro creates history: PSLV-C37 takes off successfully with 104 satellites

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) workhorse PSLV-C37 successfully lifted off from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai carrying 104 satellites with it, a first of its kind effort by any space agency in the world.

With the successful launch today, India scripted history by becoming the first country to launch more than 100 satellites in one go. ISRO made its second successful attempt after the launch of 23 satellites together in June 2015.

PSLV-C37, which was on its 39th mission, took off at 9:28 a.m. and it is carrying the 714 kg CARTOSAT-2 series satellite for earth observation, along with 103 co-passenger satellites.


While 96 co-passenger satellites belong to USA, five are from International customers of ISRO — Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates. Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX), the commercial arm of the ISRO, has made arrangements for the nano-satellites belonging to international customers.

Two other Indian nano satellites are also carried by the rocket, and the total weight it would carry is around 1,378 kg. The nano satellites will provide an opportunity for ISRO technology demonstration payloads, provide a standard bus for launch on demand services, said Isro sources.(Read More)