India Space Indian Space Program

[Rodeo]

India's rocket engine and space programs are doing really well. Impressive milestones achieved in this field dominated by US, Europe, Russia and China.

Curious, why many Indian weapon development and defense procurement pograms aren't going as well ...

This was answered by @Nilgiri before. Here's the post:

Coffee House

Happy Diwali!

defencehub.live

 

[Chocopie]

Thanks for your info. Another Korean member who couldn‘t get the head around this issue

 

[Nilgiri]

Next launch is coming up

ISRO to launch NVS-01 navigation satellite on May 29

"The launch of the GSLV-F12/NVS-01 mission is scheduled on Monday, May 29 at 10:42 hours IST from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota," the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said in a release on Monday. Subsequent orbit raising manoeuvres will be used...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Mission successful (will automatically archive)

 

[Gessler]

Mission successful (will automatically archive)

Second-generation NaVIC navigation satellite is in orbit, with Indian-made rubidium atomic clocks!

The 2nd gen with multiple improvements has been deployed - 10 years after the first-gen was launched in 2013. Good to see continued progress in indigenous GPS alternatives.

 

[Nilgiri]

Second-generation NaVIC navigation satellite is in orbit, with Indian-made rubidium atomic clocks!

View attachment 57772

View attachment 57773

The 2nd gen with multiple improvements has been deployed - 10 years after the first-gen was launched in 2013. Good to see continued progress in indigenous GPS alternatives.

Also great to see the GSLV is back in the stable after the previous (cryo upper stage) failure of F10.

They ran a robust failure analysis on the cryo stage....and this success is the fruit of that.

===================

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1663407044714541057

 

[Nilgiri]

Yeah the mojo, I wasn't feeling it...things were tense from the start. I feel its from covid shutdown and now restart process.

Things do not sit so well 100% reliably if you have in storage for extended period from delays etc...

At workplace we had to ditch a whole bunch of instruments and gauges just earlier....they were sitting not being used (again due to covid shutdown) and there was just enough issues developed inside some of them...given fluids extracted and possible residuals caused by that.

Now we know (from using and seeing the unacceptable errors)...but the cost is there all the same.

With complex system and total one-time all-in use like a cryogenic rocket engine....well one can imagine how it can also be the case here too.

From Chairman Somnath's summary of the failure analysis done on CUSP here and comparing to my initial take on the failure above, I feel the wait period likely played a role in the specific valve he mentions deteriorating just enough...going forward they should be careful about cryo stages they have prepped, then de-fuelled to put in stasis and then re-prepped again later etc....if that scenario should occur again. They would have gone through the QC/QA from production side as well, but no way to know if anything came up there related to the F10 failure.

The larger video subjects is worth watching or flicking through to your interest @Gessler @Rodeo et al.

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1666047291377975297

 

[Nilgiri]

Chandrayaan 3.....One month away....

Chandrayaan-3 scheduled for launch in July: ISRO chairman

Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled for launch between July 12 and 19 this year

www.thehindu.com

Rocket integration for July launch of Chandrayaan-3 begins

India's space agency, ISRO, is integrating the Launch Vehicle Mark-III for the mid-July launch of Chandrayaan-3. The spacecraft assembly aboard the rocket will begin early next month. Chandrayaan-3 is India's third lunar mission and will demonstrate new technologies for interplanetary missions...

www.hindustantimes.com

 

[Nilgiri]

Top NASA official pushes for India to join the Artemis Accords

NASA official Bhavya Lal says the inclusion of India in the Artemis team would help the country affirm its status as a global space power.

thefederal.com

Ahead of Modi's US visit, Nasa wants India to join lunar mission | India News - Times of India

India News: Days before PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the US from June 21 to 25, Nasa officials are increasingly talking about roping in India for Nasa's Artemis Ac

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[Gessler]

@Nilgiri it's happening.

India to sign Artemis Accords, send joint mission to ISS says White House

India has officially joined the Artemis Accords, a non-binding set of principles designed to guide civil space exploration based on the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. NASA and ISRO are working on a human spaceflight cooperation framework, with a joint space mission to the International Space Station...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Also there'll be a joint mission to the ISS next year (nice for photo-ops & PR but not of any strategic significance), plus we'll be signing a framework agreement for human spaceflight cooperation (this is indeed significant, especially if it allows us to substitute Russia for Gaganyaan astronaut training until we finish setting up our own facilities).

On Artemis Accords itself, it was inevitable I'd say.

There was no place for India in the Russo-Chinese cooperative ventures. We were certainly not going to share a stage with our enemies in space especially at a time like this when we're dealing with policy decisions regarding increasingly strategic uses of space (setting up bases, resource-extraction etc.). On the other hand, there is simply not enough domestic wherewithal or investment capacity to pursue resource-extraction & interplanetary colonization independently. At least nothing on the scale of the big coalitions (West & Russia/China).

So Artemis it is. IMO, a wise decision.

++

To be noted, we'd be one of only about half a dozen countries in the Accords who have independent space access. And in next few years, one of only 2 with independent human spaceflight capability. That means we'll be negotiating with a hard hand to get sizeable workshare contracts in a lot of future space infrastructure development (lunar & mars-orbiting space stations, terrestrial bases, cargo missions etc.)

A nice boost for the local Private industry as well.

All in all, a great development! Go Artemis!

P.S. It's probably best to hold off on starting a thread until after the official signing is done. Modi is in DC right now, so don't know if signing itself will take place or they'll do some sort of MoU and do the real signing later.

@TR_123456 @Yasar

 

[Gessler]

@Nilgiri

It seems signing on to the Accords has already started opening doors:

L&T likely to fuel space exploration plans of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos-owned firm engines: Jeff Bezos-owned firm sourcing engines based on the Artemis Accords

www.business-standard.com

Blue Origin has begun negotiations to source engine manufacturing services from India's L&T - which makes solid-propulsion solutions for ISRO.

For decades, both public & private-sector aerospace companies in India developed in a closed market, catering only to the limited, but technically challenging local industrial needs of ISRO. Now, their scope for space-related business is set to expand rapidly.

Thanks to ISRO's programs, a lot of these companies (L&T, HAL, Godrej Aerospace, etc.) have developed industrial capabilities that very few enterprises in the world have. They manufacture stuff like the S200, the 3rd-biggest solid rocket booster in the world (after the Shuttle's and the Ariane 5's), like the CE-20 (the most powerful upper-stage cryogenic engine in the world currently). They are tooling up to build the Gaganyaan crew module as we speak.

When you combine that with the low costs of India's manufacturing scene, the scope of work these companies can do (both as primary contractors, wherever deals are yet to be signed, as well as Tier-1/2 suppliers for existing primary contractors) in programs like Artemis, Axiom station, etc. is simply immense.

This biz is about to take off!

 

[Nilgiri]

@Nilgiri

It seems signing on to the Accords has already started opening doors:

L&T likely to fuel space exploration plans of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos-owned firm engines: Jeff Bezos-owned firm sourcing engines based on the Artemis Accords

www.business-standard.com

Blue Origin has begun negotiations to source engine manufacturing services from India's L&T - which makes solid-propulsion solutions for ISRO.

For decades, both public & private-sector aerospace companies in India developed in a closed market, catering only to the limited, but technically challenging local industrial needs of ISRO. Now, their scope for space-related business is set to expand rapidly.

Thanks to ISRO's programs, a lot of these companies (L&T, HAL, Godrej Aerospace, etc.) have developed industrial capabilities that very few enterprises in the world have. They manufacture stuff like the S200, the 3rd-biggest solid rocket booster in the world (after the Shuttle's and the Ariane 5's), like the CE-20 (the most powerful upper-stage cryogenic engine in the world currently). They are tooling up to build the Gaganyaan crew module as we speak.

When you combine that with the low costs of India's manufacturing scene, the scope of work these companies can do (both as primary contractors, wherever deals are yet to be signed, as well as Tier-1/2 suppliers for existing primary contractors) in programs like Artemis, Axiom station, etc. is simply immense.

This biz is about to take off!

Coimbatore is my hometown

The L&T production facility there has really expanded capability lately....so this will further increase by taking on larger projects like this.

 

[Gessler]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1674263151649644549

It's not entirely clear if they're talking about using HLVM3 (human-rated LVM3) as a launcher for the capsules already intended to dock with Orbital Reef (i.e. Boeing's Starliner or the Dream Chaser), or looking at a version of the Gaganyaan capsule.

Either way, these are a flurry of positive developments over the last week. My biggest fear with the local space industry was that it would be forced to wither as ISRO's mission tempo alone would not be enough to sustain a commercial operation on the part of subcontractors. But now it seems we have lots of options on hand for being a truly global player in the space biz.

 

[Nilgiri]

Either way, these are a flurry of positive developments over the last week. My biggest fear with the local space industry was that it would be forced to wither as ISRO's mission tempo alone would not be enough to sustain a commercial operation on the part of subcontractors. But now it seems we have lots of options on hand for being a truly global player in the space biz.

I didn't quite share the fear, though I understand where it can come from.

Yes what you describe was the dominant traditional factor/model from the cold war era and inertia afterwards for a good 20 - 30 years or so.

But Space applications (and feeding to space technology, manufacturing and research etc.) is massive, so whatever the pace set by ISRO is only one part of the ecosystem that India is growing vertically and laterally in globalised world here.

i.e I knew India's IT and services strength, along with improving relations with the West (and more integration with its markets) will augment things commensurately and not be totally reliant on particular ISRO tempo. There is so much for India to compete for and grab in the larger world market sector well within the capacities it has developed.

 

[Nilgiri]

Pune’s GMRT becomes first Indian facility to detect gravitational waves

Operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), India's Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) located in Pune was among the six of the world's largest radio telescopes that paved the way for this discovery of nano-hertz gravitational waves.

indianexpress.com

Indian telescope & astronomers help global team hear 'humming' of gravitational waves - Times of India

Science News: In a major breakthrough, a global team of astronomers that included scientists from seven Indian institutes have, for the first time, heard the low-pi.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[Nilgiri]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1675424958074458119

Gaganyaan: First batch of crew recovery team finishes phase-1 training | India News - Times of India

India News: BENGALURU: The first batch of crew recovery team of Mission Gaganyaan completed Phase-1 of training at Indian Navy's Water Survival Training Facility .

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

[Gessler]

If this report is true, SCE-200 has been properly test-fired:

More lifting-power for Indian rockets: ISRO test-fires India's most powerful rocket engine

In a major technological breakthrough that will eventually add more lifting-power to Indian rockets, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully test-fired its most powerful-yet rocket engine. Chairman ISRO Dr. S. Somanath confirmed the development to WION. The test firing was...

www.wionews.com

The report is quoting ISRO Chief S. Somanath, but no other source is reporting this. Fishy...stay tuned.

But I did not expect a full test so soon.

 

[Gessler]

If this report is true, SCE-200 has been properly test-fired:

More lifting-power for Indian rockets: ISRO test-fires India's most powerful rocket engine

In a major technological breakthrough that will eventually add more lifting-power to Indian rockets, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully test-fired its most powerful-yet rocket engine. Chairman ISRO Dr. S. Somanath confirmed the development to WION. The test firing was...

www.wionews.com

The report is quoting ISRO Chief S. Somanath, but no other source is reporting this. Fishy...stay tuned.

But I did not expect a full test so soon.

Okay so the report is true, hot testing has indeed begun:

First hot test of the Semi-cryogenic engine conducted at IPRC, Mahendragiri

www.isro.gov.in

However it seems they ran into a glitch and terminated the test. But it's still positive to know they've moved into hot testing phase.

 

[Gessler]

Meanwhile, the Private sector:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1676107539040329728