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CHENNAI: While the country is celebrating the successful launch of Vikram-S rocket, India’s first private rocket, another spacetech company from Chennai, Agnikul Cosmos, incubated by IIT-Madras, is quietly building India’s first private launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota for its maiden rocket launch tentatively scheduled for next month.




“The launch pad work commenced six months ago and is nearing completion. It’s a miniature launch facility customised to suit our requirements. Unlike Skyroot, we can’t use ISRO’s sounding rocket complex or use PSLV/GSLV launch pads due to their sheer gigantic size for our Agnibaan rocket which will use our patented semi-cryogenic engine. We needed a modular launch pad with an umbilical tower to support the vertical launch that we are planning,” Srinath Ravichandran, CEO and co-founder, Agnikul Cosmos, told TNIE.

ISRO chairman S Somanath said the space agency welcomes private players to build infrastructure, including launch pads, at Sriharikota. “It all depends on the demand. If there is a need for more launch pads, private players are free to synergise. The space reforms introduced in 2020 were not only meant for manufacturing rockets, it can also be for ramping up infrastructure.” On why it took considerable time for the launch of Agnibaan, Srinath said, “Ours is a completely different technology.”

‘Full scale flight after successful Agnibaan launch in December’

“We will be flying a patented semi-cryogenic engine. This will be happening for the first time in the country. Unlike Skyroot’s mission, Agnibaan launch will be a near orbital flight. Though our maiden flight will also be a sub-orbital mission, the vehicle has higher capability. We just wanted to test our actual orbital flight at a smaller scale. Once the December launch is successful, we will be going for a full-scale orbital flight very shortly because almost all the systems that we will be using in an orbital flight will be tested starting from engine tanks, avionics, and flight software etc,” Srinath said.

Another difference between Vikram-S and Agnibaan is that the latter will be a controlled flight. Agnibaan will also be using a Flight Termination System supplied by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). This would be the first time a system used by ISRO for its vehicles will be used for supporting a private launch vehicle built in India.

Srinath said that the credit for private space entities making rapid strides in the sector goes to the Union government, ISRO and IN-SPACe as they have opened up their facilities and expertise for development of private space launch vehicles.
 

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India launched a new ocean monitoring satellite on Saturday morning, using its PSLV rocket to deliver the EOS-06 spacecraft into a low Earth orbit. The mission, PSLV C54, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 11:56 local time (06:26 UTC).

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EOS-06, also known as Oceansat-3, is the latest in a series of satellites operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) since 2009 to study and monitor Earth’s oceans. It will replace Oceansat-2, which was launched in Sept. 2009, continuing its work and bringing enhanced capabilities to the role.

The satellite’s primary role is to monitor the color of the ocean surface and to collect data on wind speed and direction over the surface. This allows scientists to monitor conditions, such as the distribution of chlorophyll in the world’s seas, phytoplankton blooming, and chemicals and minerals present in the water. As well as being of scientific interest, this research has practical applications, such as helping to locate suitable fishing grounds.

The EOS-06 mission is part of ISRO’s Earth Observing Satellite (EOS) series, which covers many of the agency’s current and upcoming Earth science missions. With EOS, ISRO has returned to its former practice of naming all such missions under a single umbrella — which it previously did under the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) program before separating out individual projects in the late 1990s.


The 1,117-kilogram EOS-06 satellite is equipped with four payloads. Its primary sensor is the Ocean Color Monitor 3 (OCM-3), a successor to the OCM-2 instrument on Oceansat-2. OCM-3 is a 13-band multispectral imaging system capable of recording images of the Earth at a resolution of 360 meters across 10 visible-light bands, with a lower resolution of around 1.4 kilometers available across the three additional bands in the near-infrared.

The Sea Surface Temperature Monitor (SSTM) is an infrared imaging instrument that will be used to study the temperature of the ocean surface. It is a new instrument for Oceansat-3 compared to its predecessors, and its 1,440-kilometer swath width allows EOS-06 to record daily global temperature data at a 1.08-kilometer resolution.

The Scatterometer for Oceansat-3, or OSCAT-3, is used to monitor ocean winds. The scatterometer will emit a radio beam in the Ku-band at a frequency of 13.515 gigahertz and record how the signal is backscattered. The power of the backscattered signal is affected by the speed and direction of the wind, so by analyzing the results, a set of wind vectors can be established across the ocean’s surface.

In addition to these sensors, EOS-06 also carries the Advanced Data Collection System 4 (ARGOS-4) payload for the French space agency, CNES. ARGOS is a communications payload that will be used to receive and relay data transmitted by remote research stations and data collection platforms around the world.

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The EOS-06 satellite being prepared for launch. (Credit: ISRO)

Joining EOS-06 for the journey into orbit were eight secondary payloads — smaller satellites hitching a ride aboard the same rocket. The largest of these is Indian Nanosatellite 2B (INS-2B), with a mass of 18.28 kilograms. Also named BhutanSat, it has been built in partnership between ISRO and the Kingdom of Bhutan. It carries a multispectral imager, NanoMx, and a data repeater.

Anand, or Pixxel-TD 1, is an Earth observation satellite developed by commercial operator Pixxel. A 16.51-kilogram satellite, it will serve as a prototype and precursor to a large constellation of imaging satellites that Pixxel plans to deploy in the future. Anand will allow Pixxel to test the constellation’s hyperspectral imager in orbit.

A pair of Thybolt satellites, Thybolt-1 and -2, were carried for India’s Dhruva Space. These are tiny 0.5-unit CubeSats, measuring 10 by 10 by 5 centimeters, with a combined mass of 1.45 kilograms. The satellites carry a store-and-forward messaging system for use by amateur radio enthusiasts, with the satellite collecting messages uplinked by users and downlinking them to be uploaded to a website. Built around P-DoT, a CubeSat bus developed by Dhruval Space, the satellites will also aim to test and validate this platform in space.

PSLV carried four satellites for Swiss communications company Astrocast. The four Astrocast 0.3 satellites will continue the company’s research and development work as it moves towards deploying a large constellation of satellites to relay machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. These low-data-rate services, operating in the L-band, are designed to allow internet of things (IoT) devices to communicate anywhere in the world. The four Astrocast satellites are three-unit CubeSats and have a combined mass of 17.92 kilograms.

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PSLV C54 at the launch pad prior to Saturday’s mission. (Credit: ISRO)

ISRO used its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket to deploy EOS-06 and its co-passengers into a low Earth orbit. First flown in September 1993, PSLV is ISRO’s workhorse, having flown 55 missions before Saturday’s launch. A four-stage rocket using a combination of solid and liquid-propellant stages, it can fly in several different configurations — varying the type and number of strap-on boosters attached to the first stage — depending on required mission performance.

Five different configurations have been used. The standard PSLV, also known as PSLV-G, used six PS0M boosters powered by S-9 solid rocket motors, clustered around its PS1 first stage. The PSLV-XL — the rocket’s heaviest-lift configuration — uses the same number of the more powerful PS0M-XL booster, with an S-12 motor. The intermediate PSLV-DL and PSLV-QL variants use two and four PS0M-XL boosters respectively, while the smallest PSLV Core Alone (PSLV-CA) flies without any boosters.

For Saturday’s launch, ISRO used the PSLV-XL configuration with its six solid rocket motors. Introduced in 2008, the PSLV-XL is the most-used version of the rocket and offers the greatest payload capacity. The vehicle launched EOS-06 had flight number PSLV C54.

PSLV lifted off from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, located on Sriharikota Island on India’s east coast. PSLV’s solid-propellant first stage, designated PS1, ignited at the zero mark in Saturday’s countdown, with two pairs of PS0M-XL boosters lighting 0.42 and 0.62 seconds later, respectively. The final two boosters are air-lit, igniting 25 seconds after liftoff as PSLV climbs toward space.

After exhausting their propellant, the first pair of ground-lit boosters were jettisoned 69.9 seconds after launch, with the second pair following two-tenths of a second later. The air-lit boosters separated at the 92-second mark in PSLV’s flight, leaving the first stage firing alone for another 16 seconds.

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PSLV C54’s second stage during integration. (Credit: ISRO)

At one minute and 48 seconds mission elapsed time, PSLV’s expended first stage separated. Two-tenths of a second later, the second stage — designated PS2 or PL40 — ignited its Vikas engine to continue the ascent. Vikas is a liquid-fueled engine, burning UH25 propellant — a mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and hydrazine hydrate in a 3:1 ratio — oxidized by dinitrogen tetroxide. It is a license-built derivative of the Viking engine formerly used on Europe’s Ariane rocket.

Forty seconds into the second stage burn, PSLV’s payload fairing separated. Termed a “heat shield” by ISRO, the fairing serves to protect the satellites and preserve the rocket’s aerodynamic profile as it climbs through the atmosphere. Upon leaving the atmosphere, it is jettisoned, reducing the rocket’s overall mass and exposing the satellites to space. Shortly after fairing separation, the rocket initiated closed-loop guidance.

The second stage flight lasted 152 seconds. The second and third stages then separated, with third-stage ignition occurring about 1.2 seconds later. The third stage, HPS3, has an S-7 solid rocket motor that burned for about 70 seconds. Following third stage burnout, the mission entered a coast phase as PSLV climbs towards the apogee — or highest point — of its trajectory. Stage separation occurred at eight minutes and eight seconds mission elapsed time, with fourth stage ignition about 10 and a half seconds after that.

PSLV’s fourth stage, the PS4 or L-2-5, is liquid-fueled and restartable, allowing it to make multiple burns for precise orbit insertion or to deliver several payloads into different orbits. Its twin main engines burn monomethylhydrazine propellant with mixed oxides of nitrogen as an oxidizer. During Saturday’s launch, the stage only made one burn, which lasted eight minutes and seven seconds. At its conclusion, PSLV was in an orbit roughly 740 kilometers in altitude, inclined at 98.34 degrees. EOS-06 separated about 47 seconds after the end of the burn to begin its mission.

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EOS-06 and its co-passengers are encapsulated in PSLV’s payload fairing. (Credit: ISRO)

After EOS-06 separates, the upper stage used its orbit adjustment thrusters to make a pair of orbit change maneuvers, lowering its orbit in preparation for the deployment of the other payloads. The first of these began 24 minutes and 11 seconds after EOS-06 separation, itself lasting 24 minutes and 19 seconds. After a 25-minute and 51-second coast, the thrusters fired again to begin the second orbit change maneuver, which lasted 21 minutes and 18 seconds. These maneuvers lowered PSLV’s orbit to around 510 kilometers, changing the orbital inclination to 97.45 degrees.

The two Thybolt satellites were the first of the secondary payloads to deploy, ejecting from their dispenser about 90 seconds after the end of the maneuver. Astrocast separated next, followed by Anand, and finally INS-2B. From the first to the last deployment, the process was expected to take 11 minutes. With spacecraft separation complete, the upper stage underwent passivation to safe its oxidizer and fuel tanks as it is to remain in orbit.

Saturday’s launch was India’s fifth of the year, three of which have been made by PSLV rockets. There are no more Indian launches currently planned for 2022 with firm dates, however another test flight for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) and a GSLV Mk.II launch of a navigation satellite were previously expected for the tail end of 2022 and are not yet confirmed to have slipped.

If neither the SSLV nor GSLV Mk.II launches take place, then the EOS-06 launch will round out a year that has seen significant milestones for ISRO. The agency’s SSLV rocket made its maiden flight in August, and although it failed to achieve orbit, vital information will have been learned that can be built upon ahead of the type’s next development launch. ISRO’s most recent launch prior to Saturday’s mission marked the commercial debut of the GSLV Mk.III — also known as LVM3 — deploying 36 OneWeb satellites successfully. A second launch for OneWeb is currently slated for January or February next year.

(Lead image: PSLV C54 launch. Credit: ISRO)
 

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gurugram, Haryana-based private space firm, Vyom Space Exploration and Services Private Limited, for its “human and cargo transportation capsule program", the central space agency announced on Tuesday. The MoU was facilitated by India’s nodal space authorization body, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (In-Space).

According to Isro, the startup is being incubated under ‘JSIIC’. Details about the incubation program, or Isro’s targeted timelines, were not disclosed publicly by the body.

A ‘capsule’ in a space mission is the module inside which any cargo is placed for being carried to space. In manned missions, the capsule is what hosts the astronauts. The capsules have typically been single-use in nature, with the exception of US-based private space firm, Elon Musk’s SpaceX’s reusable human and cargo module, Crew Dragon.

Manish Kukreti, founder and chief executive of Vyom Space, told Mint that the company has so far been working with research and development (R&D) partners in Europe to develop its product.

“India is not a market that is already developed in terms of the entire gamut of space infrastructure, which required us to tap global partners to develop our product. There will be a clear and obvious demand in the space industry for reusable capsules that can carry cargo and eventually humans, and so far, only the US and China have been able to develop such a product," Kukreti said.

According to Kukreti, the company will be delivering the first prototype of its space capsule to Isro within the next 16 months, subsequent to which the capsule would be tested by the space body. “We are developing only the core technology of the capsule itself, and given the vast body of expertise that Isro has in the other parts of a space mission, wouldn’t want to delve into every single aspect of it," he said.

Isro’s announcement of an MoU with Vyom Space comes amid a slew of achievements for the private space sector in India. On November 18, Hyderabad-based Skyroot Aerospace became the first himegrown private space company to launch a rocket into space. A week later, on November 26, Pixxel and Dhruva Space launched their second round of satellites aboard Isro’s latest commercial mission.

Last week, Srinath Ravichandran, chief executive of Agnikul Cosmos, told Mint that the company plans to launch its own rocket — and India’s first orbital private rocket — from Srihariokota, Andhra Pradesh before the end of the year.

Vyom’s Kukreti said that the company’s own module will be reusable, and therefore be an evolution of what the first prototype module of Isro’s manned mission, Gaganyaan, will use. “If you look at Gaganyaan, the modules are all single-use modules, which thus do not have high commercial viability. This is what we seek to offer to Isro’s missions," he said.

While Kukreti refused to disclose funding details of the startup, he admitted that building a space capsule is “a very capital intensive task". However, he claimed that the startup already has “commitments" from private investors around the world.
 

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We are talking about the space economy as a whole here, estimated at around 400 - 500 billion USD currently in the world and projected to reach around 1 trillion USD by 2040 (and maybe sooner).

Space launch revenue represents maybe around 15 billion USD revenue in comparison ~3% of the space economy.

So while it is important for India to keep and have a significant foot in the door there (especially given the strategic benefit) till more breakouts can be achieved down road with more technological innovation and maturity of scale then, it specifically is not the larger picture by far for the ecosystem development being talked about in the interview.

The larger Indian space economy will be expanded and guided price-signalling, investment and capacity wise largely by India's 3.5 trillion market capitalisation, ~ 65 unicorns and other very positive forces, using what ISRO has kept relatively closer to chest till now given slower pace of earlier era of Indian private sector.

This video goes through (in quite some detail) where a large part of the future growth in space sector will be @Rodeo et al :

 

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Bhopal: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to carry out the first landing demonstration of its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Saturday, its chairperson S. Somanath has said.

Somanath, who was speaking to ThePrint on the sidelines of the 8th India International Science Festival in Bhopal, said the demonstration will continue as planned provided climate and weather conditions are suitable.

An RLV is a launch vehicle that is designed to return to the Earth substantially intact and could, therefore, be reused.

ISRO’s Reusable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstration (RLV-TD) Programme is a series of technology demonstration missions, seen as the first step towards realising a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) fully reusable vehicle. A TSTO, or a two-stage rocket, is a spacecraft in which two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity.

This is the first time ISRO is conducting a landing demonstration for its RLV-TD Programme.

ISRO has also planned the launch of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) with a payload capacity to deliver 500 kg to low Earth orbit (500 km), Somanath told ThePrint.

The SSLV launch, planned between 10-15 February, comes six months after ISRO’s maiden SSLV-D1 failed to reach stable orbit because of a sensor fault in the separation stage.

Recalling that mission, which was launched on 7 August last year, Somanath said he was “not very enthused” about ISRO’s achievement in 2022.

“For me, it was not enough. My goals were much higher,” he told ThePrint. “SSLV was not successful. It was narrowly missed and was a huge disappointment for me personally. But then we are working hard on the launch this year.”

He added that ISRO also wanted to conduct an abort test — that would check the system meant to help crew escape from a spacecraft in case of emergency — for its space mission Gaganyaan last year, but couldn’t do it.

In addition to the RLVs and SSLV, the space agency also has plans to launch a spacecraft to study the Sun this year, the scientist said.

A NASA-ISRO mission & more this year

According to ISRO’s website, Saturday’s landing demonstration will involve a “landing experiment (LEX)” in which the RLV will be carried using a helicopter to an altitude of 3-5 km and released at approximately 4-5 km from the runway with a horizontal velocity.

After the release, the RLV glides and navigates toward the runway, and carries out a conventional autonomous landing. This is planned in a defence airfield near Chitradurga in Karnataka.

Somanath also spoke about ISRO’s other launches this year — including Aditya L1, a coronagraphy spacecraft that’s aimed at helping scientists study the Sun’s corona.

The scientist said that the spacecraft is on schedule, with ISRO planning to carry out the launch in April or May. “The important payload of this mission — the solar coronagraph — will be flagged off from the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) to ISRO Satellite Centre on Republic Day.”

The solar coronagraph is a telescope that is designed to block out direct light from the Sun to help study it better. The IIA has developed the coronagraph that will be used in ISRO’s space mission.

“Over the next two months, other payloads will also be brought and assembled in time for the launch,” Somnath said.

In addition, the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) will be brought from the US on 1 February to India, Somnath said, adding that he plans to travel to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to oversee the flagging off. This is the first project jointly developed by NASA and ISRO.

A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) refers to a technique for producing fine-resolution images from a resolution-limited radar system.

NISAR, which is being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO “will be the first radar of its kind in space to systematically map Earth”, according to the US federal space agency.

According to Somanath, there are two important payloads on this mission — the US-made radar L-Band and the Indian-made S-Band.

“We first prepared our payload and sent it to the US. The US payload is now integrated and testing was done over the last few months,” he said.

ISRO is scheduled to launch NISAR in September.

Joshimath and NDMA’s ‘gag order’

Somanath also spoke about ISRO’s report on land subsidence in Joshimath and why it was taken down last week.

On 14 January, the report was taken off ISRO’s website, a day after the National Disaster Management Authority’s gag order asking government agencies to refrain from interacting with media and sharing information on social media.

ISRO’s chairperson told ThePrint that “there was no directive to the ISRO to take down the report”, and that the decision to do so was voluntary.

“There has been no ban on us as such. The warning we got was that we should not reveal data without it going through different administrations levels who can take the required actions,” Somnath said. “News and its analysis can create a scare and somebody might misuse it. The warning was not to give too much information to the public such that it creates panic.”

The agency, he said, continued to provide information “to all the agencies, for example, the NDMA”.

“We have only been told not to put info in the public domain,” he said. “All scientists who need the data are getting it, we can assure (you) that. We’ve mechanisms to share this data with experts.”

Work on methane engine

The ISRO was working to develop a methane-fuelled rocket engine, Somanath said.

“Methane is identified as the fuel of the future. Its density is lower than kerosene. But its advantage is that it has high efficiency and does not produce soot, which is very dangerous for engines,” he said.

ISRO, one of several science organisations in India trying to develop methane-based engines, has also tested a 20-tonne methane engine and has completed the design of the hundred-tonne one, the scientist said.

“It’s a very simple reaction that can be carried out anywhere, and will be valuable for long-term space missions when enough fuel for the entire duration of the mission may not be feasible to carry,” Somanath said, adding that it will take the agency four-odd years to fully develop the engine.

“We have recently done a successful demonstration of producing methane from carbon dioxide and water at the lab scale. We are now scaling up to implement it in space missions,” he said.

(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
 

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Dignitaries from the U.S. and Indian space agencies, along with members of the media, were invited to see NISAR’s science payload in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory clean room.

It’s nearly time for the scientific heart of NISAR – short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar – an Earth science satellite being jointly built by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation, to ship out to its last stop before launching into orbit: southern India. Before its departure, members of the media got a chance to see NISAR’s advanced radar instruments up close on Feb. 3 in a clean room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. Journalists spoke with ISRO Chairman S. Somanath, JPL Director Laurie Leshin, dignitaries from NASA headquarters and India, and members of the mission team.

“This marks an important milestone in our shared journey to better understand planet Earth and our changing climate,” Leshin said. “NISAR will provide critical information on Earth’s crust, ice sheets, and ecosystems. By delivering measurements at unprecedented precision, NISAR’s promise is new understanding and positive impact in communities. Our collaboration with ISRO exemplifies what’s possible when we tackle complex challenges together.”

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Somanath, Indian Ambassador and Deputy Chief of Mission Sripriya Ranganathan, and NASA officials toured the High Bay 2 clean room, where they saw engineers and technicians putting the science instrument payload through final electrical testing.

Outside the facility, in front of a scale model of the NISAR satellite, NASA’s NISAR Project Manager Phil Barela and ISRO’s NISAR Project Director CV Shrikant ceremonially broke fresh coconuts. The tradition, common in India, often marks auspicious occasions and signifies hope for a smooth road ahead. Leshin also presented the ISRO delegation with a jar of JPL lucky peanuts.

Also present were Bhavya Lal, NASA’s associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy; Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division; and Gerald Bawden, NISAR program scientist, among others.

“Today we come one step closer to fulfilling the immense scientific potential NASA and ISRO envisioned for NISAR when we joined forces more than eight years ago,” Somanath said. “This mission will be a powerful demonstration of the capability of radar as a science tool and help us study Earth’s dynamic land and ice surfaces in greater detail than ever before.”

Members of the media also visited the clean room, speaking with key figures on the NASA mission team, including Deputy Project Manager Wendy Edelstein and Deputy Project Scientist Susan Owen.

NISAR will gather radar data with a drum-shaped reflector antenna almost 40 feet (12 meters) in diameter. It will use a signal-processing technique called interferometric synthetic aperture radar, or InSAR, to observe changes in Earth’s land and ice surfaces down to fractions of an inch.

Since early 2021, engineers and technicians at JPL have been integrating and testing NISAR’s two radar systems – the L-band SAR provided by JPL and the S-band SAR built by ISRO. Later this month, they will move the SUV-size payload into a special cargo container for a 9,000-mile (14,000-kilometer) flight to India’s U R Rao Satellite Centre in the city of Bengaluru. There it will be merged with the spacecraft bus in preparation for a 2024 launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh state.

The observations NISAR makes will help researchers measure the ways in which Earth is constantly changing by detecting both subtle and dramatic movements. Slow-moving variations of a land surface can precede earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions, and data about such movement could help communities prepare for natural hazards. Measurements of melting sea ice and ice sheets will improve understanding of the pace and impacts of climate change, including sea level rise. And observations of the planet’s forest and agricultural regions will improve our knowledge of carbon exchange between the atmosphere and plant communities, reducing uncertainties in models used to project future climate.

Over the course of its three-year prime mission, the satellite will observe nearly the entire planet every 12 days, making observations day and night, in all weather conditions.

“We have only just begun to envision the new knowledge and tangible benefits NISAR observations will have for communities around the world,” St. Germain said. “This moment is the culmination of years of cooperation between NASA and ISRO and shows our shared commitment to advancing science and benefitting humanity.”

More About the Mission

NISAR is a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and ISRO. JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, leads the U.S. component of the project and is providing the mission’s L-band SAR. NASA is also providing the radar reflector antenna, the deployable boom, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem. ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band SAR, the launch vehicle, and associated launch services and satellite mission operations.

To learn more about NISAR, visit:

https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov/
 

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SSLV-D2 mission successful - all 3 sats (2 Indian, 1 American) placed in intended orbits.

Good news - a huge leap toward achievement of true launch-on-demand capability.
 

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SSLV-D2 mission successful - all 3 sats (2 Indian, 1 American) placed in intended orbits.

Good news - a huge leap toward achievement of true launch-on-demand capability.


Footage from assembly etc pre launch:

 

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BENGALURU: The flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 cryogenic engine that will power the cryogenic upper stage of the launch vehicle for the Chandrayaan-3 mission was successfully conducted, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation. The hot test was carried out for a planned duration of 25 seconds at the High Altitude Test Facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu on February 24, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said.

"All the propulsion parameters during the test were found satisfactory and closely matched with predictions," an ISRO statement said on Monday.

The cryogenic engine will be further integrated with the propellant tanks, stage structures and associated fluid lines to realise the fully-integrated flight cryogenic stage, ISRO said.

Earlier this year, Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully underwent EMI/EMC test at U R Rao Satellite Centre here.

EMI-EMC (Electro - Magnetic Interference/ Electro - Magnetic Compatibility) test is conducted for satellite missions to ensure the functionality of the satellite subsystems in the space environment and their compatibility with the expected electromagnetic levels, it was noted.

"This test is a major milestone in the realisation of the satellites," ISRO had said.


Chandrayaan-3 interplanetary mission has three major modules: the propulsion module, lander module, and a rover. The mission's complexity calls for establishing radio-frequency (RF) communication links between the modules.




During the Chandrayaan-3 lander EMI/EC test, launcher compatibility, antenna polarisation of all RF systems, standalone auto compatibility tests for orbital and powered descent mission phases, and lander and rover compatibility tests for post landing mission phase were ensured, according to ISRO.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. ISRO plans to launch the mission in June.

It will be launched by Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh).

The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
 

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India's most powerful rocket launched the final 36 satellites for OneWeb's first-generation internet constellation on Saturday night (March 25).


A Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) rocket lifted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre Saturday at 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT and 9 a.m. India Standard Time on March 26), carrying 36 OneWeb broadband satellites toward low Earth orbit (LEO).

About 90 minutes later, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that all 36 spacecraft had been deployed successfully(opens in new tab) into the intended orbit, a circular path about 280 miles (450 kilometers) above Earth. The satellites will raise their own orbits over the coming days and weeks, finally settling in at an altitude of about 745 miles (1,200 km).

Saturday's launch was a huge one for OneWeb. It was the 18th and final mission devoted to building out OneWeb's first-generation broadband constellation in LEO, which before Saturday consisted of 582 satellites.


"This launch will be one of the most significant milestones in OneWeb's history so far, with the launch adding an additional 36 satellites to the OneWeb fleet, the first-ever completed global LEO constellation," OneWeb representatives said in a prelaunch statement(opens in new tab).

"By completing the constellation, OneWeb is taking a pivotal step forward in delivering global coverage," they added.

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Most of the 17 previous OneWeb launches were conducted by Russian-built Soyuz rockets operated by the French company Arianespace. But Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 sundered that partnership, impelling OneWeb to find new rocket rides for its satellites.

The London-based company soon did just that, inking deals with both SpaceX and NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), ISRO's commercial branch. SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets launched three missions for OneWeb, which is interesting, given that Elon Musk's company is building its own broadband constellation in LEO, called Starlink.

Saturday's liftoff was the second under the NSIL contract. The first, in October 2022, was also flown by an LVM3, which is also known as the GSLV MK III. ("GSLV" stands for "Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.")

The 143-foot-tall (43.5 meters) LVM3 is India's brawniest rocket. It's capable of delivering 17,600 pounds (8,000 kilograms) of payload to LEO, according to its ISRO specifications page(opens in new tab).

The 36 OneWeb satellites that went up Saturday weigh a total of 12,798 pounds (5,805 kg), ISRO wrote in a mission description, which you can find here(opens in new tab).

Editor's note: This story was updated at 1:20 a.m. ET on March 26 with news of successful launch and satellite deployment.

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