ISRO: A Boon for India’s space technology
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has become one of the world’s top space organizations for research and human space exploration. With the vision of achieving new heights, ISRO is working on the development of space rockets, satellites and the exploration of deep space.
ISRO is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru, founded 51 years ago on the 15th of August in 1969 by Vikram Sarabhai. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the missile man of India was the project director of the launch vehicle at ISRO. Before ISRO, Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR) launched India’s first rocket in 1963. From transporting their first rocket on the back of a bicycle to being the first country to reach Mars in the 1st attempt, ISRO has come a long way. Its focus is to be cost-effective without compromising on the quality of material & resources.
Currently, Dr. Kailasavadivoo Sivan is the chairman, Secretary/DOS of ISRO. Moreover, ISRO has managed to launch a number of satellites & completed numerous missions in these years, which are listed below:
- 101 Spacecraft Missions including 3 Nano Satellites & 1 Micro Satellite.
- 72 Launch Missions including Scramjet-TD & RLV-TD.
- 9 Student satellites.
- 269 Foreign Satellites of 32 countries.
ISRO has successfully achieved several missions & some of the top achievements are here:
- SRE-1 in 2007: Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), which was launched on January 10, 2007. The rocket used to launch SRE-1 was PSLV C7 along with 3 other satellites. The SRE capsule was back on earth on 22nd January 2007.
- Chandrayan 1 in 2008: It was launched on 22 October 2008 & operated till August 2009. India launched the spacecraft using a PSLV-XL rocket & the vehicle was inserted into lunar orbit on 8 November 2008. The estimated cost for the project was ₹386 crore.
- GSLV MK III in 2014: ISRO successfully conducted the first orbital test launch of GSLV Mk III on 5 June 2017. In June 2018, the Union Cabinet approved ₹38 billion to build 10 GSLV Mk III rockets over a five-year period.
- Mars Orbiter Mission in 2014: Mangalyaan or MOM is ISRO’s biggest achievement as it is the first Asian nation to reach Mars on its first attempt. It was launched on 23 November 2013. After a 298-day transit to Mars, it was put into Mars orbit on 24 September 2014.
- Heaviest commercial mission in 2015: ISRO created a record of carrying five British commercial satellites onboard PSLV-C28. The life of the mission is seven years. The three DMC3 satellites, each weighing 447 kg, travelled 647 km in 19 min 22 seconds using the high-end version of PSLV (PSLV-XL).
- IRNSS in 2016: The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is a self-regulating navigation system of India. It covers India and a region extending 1,500 km around it. The system currently consists of a constellation of seven satellites.
- 104 Satellites in 1 mission: ISRO created another record by launching the highest number of satellites in a single mission. The total weight of all the 104 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C37 was 1378 kg & out of the 104 satellites lifted off, 101 were foreign satellites.
In 2020, ISRO launched these three satellites, GSAT-30, EOS-01, CMS-01. And at present, ISRO is getting ready for the upcoming launches, which will bring India a whole new meaning of success in this competitive era. Among those planned missions in the coming years, some are Chandrayan-3, Gaganyaan, RISAT-1A (most probably in 2021), Aditya-L1, NISAR (most probably in 2022), LUPEX, Mangalyaan-2 (most probably in 2024), Shukrayaan-1 (most probably in 2025).
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