Indian Space Program: News & Discussions

[Gautam]

Some images of ISRO's Telelmetry Tracking Centres. Keep in mind these are all old photos, some very old :

Outside the ISTRAC campus in Peenya, North Bangalore. This facility controls the Mars Orbiter Mission among many others. The antenna here has a diameter of 20 m.

Second antenna(32 m dia) at the Peenya facility. There are 3 antennas in total. 3 rd one is 18 m in diameter.

A view of the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISTRAC, Peenya, as Mars Orbiter ignites its engines for the heliocentric Trans-Martian orbital insertion burn.

Scientists monitoring spacecraft 24X7work at MOX 2 building at ISTRAC. Monitoring is a 24x7 work.

ISRO Mars orbiter complex. This facility recieves and processes the information gathered by Mars Orbiter.

Downrange Station at Biak (Indonesia). That is a 12 m highly mobile antenna allowing quick lock on and rapid target switching.

ISTRAC Antenna at Mauritius. A really old photo, antennas looked funny back then.

A photo from the early 80s. ISRO's firsts communication satellite APPLE being tracked from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre(SDSC), Sriharikota.

A photo from today's 3rd orbit raising burn of the CY-2. Same place, SDSC, Sriharikota. How times change.

 

[Gautam]

Indian scientists discover 28 new stars in Milky Way

The finding of the new variable stars, whose luminosity or brightness keeps changing, is described as a "rare achievement".

By Press Trust of India, Nainital
July 26, 2019, 16:58 IST

A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbit a galactic core, as a satellite | Nasa photo for representation

Scientists at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) here have discovered 28 new variable stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

ARIES Director Wahab Uddin described the finding of the new variable stars, whose luminosity or brightness keeps changing, as a "rare achievement".

It is for the first time that variable stars have been identified in Globular cluster NGC 4147 in the constellation of Coma Berenices, former director of ARIES, Anil Pande, who now works at the institute as a senior scientist, said.

"The discovery by ARIES scientists could be crucial in advancing knowledge about the composition of globular clusters in general," Pande told PTI.

Besides the detection of new variable stars, the study also provides important insights into the internal structure of NGC 4147 which is located closer to the Earth than previously thought, he said.

"The ARIES team of researchers led by Dr Sneh Lata and Dr AK Pandey performed photometric observations of globular cluster NGC 4147 using 3.6 metre Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) established in 2016 near Nainital," Pande said.

Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) is autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology (DST) | Photo: ARIES website

A variable star is a star whose luminosity or brightness changes.

"This change may be caused due to periodical swelling and shrinking of the star or occasional block of light due to an eclipse by some other solar body," he said.

NGC 4147 was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1784, who described the globular cluster as "very bright, pretty large, gradually brighter in the middle".

This is a relatively small globular cluster, ranking 112th in luminosity among the Milky Way globular cluster population, Pande said.

A globular cluster is a spherical collection of stars that orbit a galactic core, as a satellite.

Hubble admires a youthful globular star cluster | Photo from ESA/Hubble& Nasa

Globular clusters are very tightly bound by gravity, which gives them their spherical shapes, and relatively high stellar densities towards their centres, he said.

Such clusters are found in the halo of the galaxy and contain considerably more and older stars, according to Pande.

Although it appears that globular clusters contain oldest population of the galaxy, their origins and their role in galactic evolution are still unclear, he said.

The detailed findings of the research will be published in the August issue of the Astronomical Journal.

Indian scientists discover 28 new stars in Milky Way

 

[Gautam]

Indian scientists at Ahmedabad's PRL discover EPIC new planet, 600 light years away

Indian scientists have discovered a new planet. With mass of about 27 Earth Mass and surface temperature of 600 degrees Celsius, the exoplanet revolves around a star some 600 light years away.

By India Today Web Desk, New Delhi
June 9, 2018, 18:09 IST

Indian scientists find new planet | Photo for representation: Lev Savitskiy via Getty Images

The scientific team of Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, has found a new planet.

The PRL team has found a sub-Saturn or super-Neptune size planet. The team was led by Professor Abhijit Chakraborty of PRL, Ahmedabad.

Main campus, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad | Photo from prl.res.in

The new planet has a mass of about 27 Earth Mass and size of 6 Earth Radii. The exoplanet was found around a Sun-like star and goes around the star in about 19.5 days.

The host star is about 600 light years away from the Earth.

According to the Indian scientists who found this new planet, the surface temperature of the planet is around 600 degrees Celsius given the fact that it is very close to the host star, which is to say that the new planet is 7 times nearer than the host star.

Planet size comparison of the newly discovered exoplanet and Earth | Photo from isro.gov.in

Even though its features make it inhabitable, the recent discovery is of importance.

The new planet and its discovery will help understand the formation mechanism of such super-Neptune or sub-Saturn kind of planets, that are too close to the host star.

SPECTROGRAPH :

The host star is about 600 light years away from the Earth.

The discovery of the new planet was made by measuring the mass of the planet using the indigenously designed "PRL Advance Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search" (PARAS) spectrograph.

PARAS was designed and developed by the members of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Division of PRL | Photo from Mount Abu Infrared Observatory (prl.res.in)

PARAS spectrograph was integrated with a 1.2m telescope at PRL's Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu, India. Only a few spectrographs that can do such precise measurements exist around the world and mostly are found in the USA and in the Europe.

Mount Abu Infrared Observatory | Photo from prl.res.in

PARAS is the first of its kind spectrograph in India. It can measure the mass of a planet going around a star and with this latest feat, India has joined the club of only a few countries that have discovered planets around stars.

HOST STAR EPIC 211945201 OR K2-236

The name of the host star around which the new planet was found is EPIC 211945201 or K2-236, hence, the planet will be known as EPIC 211945201b or K2-236b.

Initially, the source was found to be a planetary candidate from NASA K2 (Kepler2) photometry because it was transiting. This means, when the planet body comes in between the star and the observer on Earth as it goes around the star, it blocks a tiny amount of star-light.

This artist's concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA's Kepler space telescope | Photo: W Stenzel/Nasa via REUTERS

By measuring the amount of light blocked by the planet body, the scientists can measure the diameter or size of the planet.

The Indian scientists at PRL, Ahmedabad, found the new planet K2-236b to be 6 Earth radii.

HURDLES AND PARAS SPECTROGRAPH

The PRL team met some hurdles along the way as they encountered calculations not sufficient to confirm the planetary nature of the system.

When they came across this problem, PARAS came to the rescue.

An independent measurement of the mass of the body was necessary for the discovery, which was made by the PARAS spectrograph.

The gravitational pull caused by a planet on its host star makes it wobble around their common centre of mass.

The gravitational pull shifts the spectra and can be measured in terms of Radial Velocity using precise and stabilised High Resolution Spectrographs, like the PARAS.

PARAS was designed and developed by the members of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Division of PRL | Photo from Mount Abu Infrared Observatory (prl.res.in)

The PRL scientists observed the target over a time-baseline of 420 days, which is to say in about 1.5 years, using the PARAS spectrograph for probing the nature of the system.

According to a Department of Space Indian Space Research Organisation report, by measuring the amplitude of the teetering of the host star, the mass of the planet was found to be 27 Earth Mass.

The model shows the wobbling of the host star and its amplitude gives us the mass of the exoplanet K2-236b | Photo from isro.gov.in

Based on the mass and radius, model-dependent calculations suggest that the heavy elements, like ice, silicates, and iron content is 60-70 per cent of the total mass.

The latest discovery of the exoplanet by the PRL team was a result of 1.5 years studying and analysing the data and has indeed helped India showcase its excellence in the field.

SARASWATI

Last year, a team of Indian astronomers discovered a massive supercluster of galaxies. Saraswati - a supercluster of galaxies is as big as 20 million billion suns.

Supercluster of galaxies Saraswati discovered by Indian scientists | Photo from PTI

According to Pune-based Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Saraswati is one of the largest known structures in the neighbourhood of the universe. It is 4,000 million light-years away from Earth and roughly more than 10 billion years old.

Indian scientists at Ahmedabad's PRL discover EPIC new planet, 600 light years away

 

[RISING SUN]

Aditya L-1: After Chandrayaan 2, ISRO to pursue India's first mission to the Sun in 2020
After the spectacularly successful launch of India's second mission to the moon, Chandrayaan 2, the Indian Space Research Organisation is now gearing up for India's first mission to the Sun.

The Aditya L-1 mission, which is currently still in its planning stage, could be launched as early as the beginning of 2020, according to previous reports. After NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018, Aditya-L1 will be the first probe to make observations crucial to better understanding the Sun. The Aditya-L1 mission is ISRO's first planned probe to study the Sun's corona and its atmosphere. It is expected to launch in 2020 on a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota.

Illustration of NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image: NASA

The corona is the outer layer of the Sun, which extends thousands of km above the visible disc around it. Interestingly, it has a temperature over a million degrees Kelvin — far higher than the surface of the Sun (which is relatively cooler, at 6000 degrees Kelvin). Why the corona gets heated to such high temperatures is still an unanswered question in solar physics, and something NASA's Parker probe is currently exploring. ISRO's Aditya L-1 will also soon follow suit and study this astrophysical mystery.

The Aditya L-1 mission will observe the Sun's corona using photography and instruments, from its position at the First Lagrange point, also known as L1 Lagrange point. The L1 point is the most significant of five such Lagrangian points, all of which lies partway between the Sun and the Earth — 1.5 million kilometres inside the Earth's orbit.

At any of the five Lagrange Points in our Earth-Sun-moon system, the gravitational forces acting between two objects (like the Sun and the Earth, for example) cancel each other out, therefore allowing spacecrafts to 'hover' if parked here. This hack also allows them to lower their fuel consumption by a lot by remaining in a fixed position relative to an object — even as the Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits both the Sun and Earth.


An image of the Lagrange Points shown using gravity wells. NASA's James Webb telescope is positioned in the L2 point, and the confirmed dust clouds are located in L4 and L5, equilateral to the Earth and Moon. Image courtesy: Monde

The ambitious mission is being planned days after the ISRO launched Chandrayaan 2, the first-ever Indian spacecraft which would make a soft-landing on the moon.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon by August but will attempt a soft-landing by 7 September, at the end of a 48-day journey from the time of its launch. If successful, Chandrayaan 2 will make India only the fourth nation after the United States, Russia and China to make a soft-landing on the moon's surface.
Aditya L-1: After Chandrayaan 2, ISRO to pursue India's first mission to the Sun in 2020- Technology News, Firstpost

 

[Gautam]

Some recently signed international partnerships of ISRO :

Cabinet approves ISRO Technical Liaison Unit at Moscow :
Cabinet approves ISRO Technical Liaison Unit at Moscow

Cabinet approves Memorandum of Understanding between Indian Space Research Organisation and the Bolivian Space Agency on Cooperation in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space for peaceful purposes :
Cabinet approves Memorandum of Understanding between Indian Space Research Organisation and the Bolivian Space Agency on Cooperation in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space for peaceful purposes

Cabinet approves Memorandum of Understanding between India and Bahrain on Cooperation in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes :
Cabinet approves Memorandum of Understanding between India and Bahrain on Cooperation in the Exploration and Uses of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes

 

[Ankit Kumar]

 

[Gautam]

View attachment 8708

Manned lunar mission ? I know there is a future human moon landing mission after Gaganyaan, but Gaganyaan isn't a lunar mission. Where did you get this ? Is it officially from ISRO ?

 

[Ankit Kumar]

Manned lunar mission ? I know there is a future human moon landing mission after Gaganyaan, but Gaganyaan isn't a lunar mission. Where did you get this ? Is it officially from ISRO ?

YouTube page of ISRO posted it

 

[Gautam]

YouTube page of ISRO posted it

I can't seem to find it. But I'll take your word for it. The picture you posted has listed mission is a chronologically inconsistent manner if you compare it with what ISRO chairman Dr. K. Sivan unveiled as a roadmap with timelines.
The Aditya L1 was supposed to happen atleast 3 years before Chandrayaan-3, not after it.

The rest of the mission mentions serial number of missions(Chandrayaan-3, Mangalyaan-2, Shukrayaan-1 & 2), however the Gaganyaan is not given a serial of 2.
The original plans were to send a manned mission to the LEO stay for a while and then return to the surface of Earth. That was Gaganyaan-1. After that we will build the Space station for prolonged human missions in LEO/MEO. After that, there has been a proposed plan for what is unofficially called Gaganyaan-2. Which is a manned lunar mission.
Now if what you posted is a revised plan, then its an explosive revealation. And potentially a very dangerous idea. We will be sending people to moon with unproven technology. Also the GSLV M-3 isn't nearly powerful enough to pull this off. There is no way we can do this in the original time frame.

 

[Ankit Kumar]

I can't seem to find it. But I'll take your word for it. The picture you posted has listed mission is a chronologically inconsistent manner if you compare it with what ISRO chairman Dr. K. Sivan unveiled as a roadmap with timelines.
The Aditya L1 was supposed to happen atleast 3 years before Chandrayaan-3, not after it.
View attachment 8709

The rest of the mission mentions serial number of missions(Chandrayaan-3, Mangalyaan-2, Shukrayaan-1 & 2), however the Gaganyaan is not given a serial of 2.
The original plans were to send a manned mission to the LEO stay for a while and then return to the surface of Earth. That was Gaganyaan-1. After that we will build the Space station for prolonged human missions in LEO/MEO. After that, there has been a proposed plan for what is unofficially called Gaganyaan-2. Which is a manned lunar mission.
Now if what you posted is a revised plan, then its an explosive revealation. And potentially a very dangerous idea. We will be sending people to moon with unproven technology. Also the GSLV M-3 isn't nearly powerful enough to pull this off. There is no way we can do this in the original time frame.

Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO

Agree. I think it's a typo.

 

[Ankit Kumar]

 

[Gautam]

The Indo-French Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment(TRISHNA) Mission :

The Indian-French Trishna Mission: Earth Observation in the Thermal Infrared with High Spatio-Temporal Resolution

The Indian-French Trishna Mission: Earth Observation in the Thermal Infrared with High Spatio-Temporal Resolution - IEEE Conference Publication

TRISHNA is currently in A phase (feasibility assessment) till end 2019. It will be followed by a one-year B phase. The launch could be foreseen at 2024-2025 horizon.

The monitoring of the water cycle at the Earth surface which tightly interacts with the climate change processes as well as a number of practical applications (agriculture, soil and water quality assessment, irrigation and water resource management, etc.) requires surface temperature measurements at local scale. Such is the goal of the Indian-French high spatio-temporal TRISHNA mission (Thermal infraRed Imaging Satellite for High-resolution Natural resource Assessment).

The need of space borne systems combining both high spatial resolution and high revisit frequency in thermal infrared (TIR), which do not exist today, is now largely recognized by the scientific community and end-users. After several previous advanced studies, a project, TRISHNA, is currently in the feasibility assessment phase, conducted by the French Space Agency (CNES) and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

Baseline details :

1. Resolution: 50 m at nadir (<100 m edges of swath). Binned at 1000 m over oceans.
2. Revisit and coverage: 3 observations for any ground location per 8 days period (from the 3 sub- cycles of a 8 day-orbit at 761 km), global coverage.
3. NeDT: 0.3 K (0.1 K for ocean binned at 1 km)

Spectral bands :

1. TIR: 8.6 μm, 9.1 μm, 10.3 μm and 11.5 μm
2. VNIR: 0.485, 0.555, 0.650 and 0.860 μm
3. SWIR: 1.650 μm. 1.38 μm highly desirable.
4. Possible degradation of the spatial resolution for blue (0.485 μm) and cirrus (1.38 μm) bands.

 

[RISING SUN]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1157905876717645827

 

[Gautam]

Spaceflight purchases first commercial flight of new Indian small launcher

by Jeff Foust
August 6, 2019
Updated 11:20 a.m. Eastern.

India's SSLV is a derivative of the workhorse PSLV rocket(above) designed to place payloads weighing no more than 500 kilograms into orbit. Credit: ISRO

LOGAN, Utah — Spaceflight announced Aug. 6 that it will purchase the first commercial launch a new Indian vehicle scheduled to make its debut later this year.

Spaceflight said it will launch payloads for an undisclosed U.S. satellite constellation customer on a flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), a derivative of the existing, larger Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The launch is scheduled for later this year and will be the second for the SSLV after a demonstration launch expected no earlier than September.

While the companies didn’t announce the customer for the mission, a July 25 filing with the Federal Communications Commission by Earth imaging company BlackSky Global sought a license for four of its satellites it said would launch on the SSLV in November 2019. The applications said the satellites would be deployed into two orbital planes, consistent with Spaceflight’s announcement.

Spaceflight, which provides rideshare services on a wide range of launch vehicles, believes the SSLV will be an ideal fit for many of its customers based on the vehicle’s performance and its cost.

“I think its hugely exciting because it’s an attractive price point and, for us, it’s a really good size,” said Curt Blake, president and chief executive of Spaceflight, in an interview during the Conference on Small Satellites here. “And there is a shortage of launch capacity right now, especially to sun-synchronous orbit.”

SSLV will be able to carry up to 500 kilograms to mid-inclination low Earth orbits and 300 kilograms to SSO. While the company didn’t disclose pricing, Blake said the price is “a little bit better” than rideshares on PSLV. “In terms of small launch vehicles, it’s much better than what’s out there,” he added.

That price, he said, is low enough that Spaceflight can afford to purchase several vehicles at a time, meeting needs of customers that need to go to specific orbits. NewSpace India Ltd., the Indian venture that is marketing the SSLV to Spaceflight and other customers, is “flexible and accommodating to work with,” he noted. “It’s going to be a huge boon for the industry.”

Spaceflight has flown more than 100 satellites on several previous PSLV launches, and said that even with the introduction of SSLV he anticipated more rideshare missions on that larger rocket. “Launch is such a scarce resource that not optimizing to bring your costs down by utilizing every bit of capacity there is is kind of wrong,” he said.

Spaceflight is using a wide range of launch vehicles to meet the growing demand for dedicated and rideshare smallsat services. The company flew seven smallsats on the previous Rocket Lab Electron launch June 29, and will fly three satellites on the next Electron launch, scheduled for Aug. 16.

The company also has payloads on the first Small Satellite Mission Service flight of the Vega small launch vehicle, which will carry 42 satellites overall. That launch was scheduled for September but will likely be postponed because of the ongoing investigation into the July 10 failure of a Vega rocket carrying an imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates.

Blake said he was awaiting to hear the outcome of the investigation and plans for return to flight, but that none of his customers had yet asked to be moved off the flight. Arianespace officials at the conference said Aug. 5 that they had no updates on the status of the Vega, as the board of inquiry convened to investigate the failure was still at work.

Spaceflight is also looking for other options, including new small launch vehicles, to meet demand. “We just need more small launch vehicles out there,” he said.

Caleb Henry contributed to this article from Washington.


Spaceflight purchases first commercial flight of new Indian small launcher - SpaceNews.com

 

[Gautam]

@Parthu remember our conversation about RTGs and unavailability of Pu-238 for the production of a prototype RTG ?

Well here is a publication from BARC that was put out in 2016 about Pu-238 production. It states :

" Np-237 is used as a target material for producing Pu-238, which is used as a power source and a heat source for space missions. The following characteristics of Pu-238 make it a unique candidate for fueling Radioisotope Thermo-electric Generator(RTG).

(i)Pu-238 has high specific power (0.54 W/g) due to emission of alpha particles(Eα= 5.499 MeV, 71.04 % and 5.456 MeV, 28.25 %) which can be readily converted to electricity^2.

(ii)The long half-life of 238Pu (about 88 years) makes it suitable for deep space missions where the possibility of generation of electricity from sun light doesn’t exist.

(iii)Low gamma energies (Eγ= 43.49, 99.85, 152.72KeV)^3 of Pu-238 reduces the shielding requirement thereby reducing the weight which is the prerequisite for space applications.

Pu-238 has been extensively used worldwide to provide power to spacecrafts and has played important role in scientific developments in space exploration. Pu-238 can be formed by neutron irradiation of precursor isotope Np-237 target in a reactor and the process is explained in the paper.

Present work Np-237 is produced as by product in the nuclear reactor using uranium and plutonium as fuel. The spent nuclear fuel generated from reactor operation, containing uranium, plutonium, minor actinides, and fission products, undergoes reprocessing using PUREX process. In order to tap the particular stream of PUREX for Np recovery, the present studies were initiated, jointly by RACD and NRB, to determine the concentration of neptunium. "

https://inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/48/041/48041905.pdf

Keep in mind, this is an "external" document as in de-classified and its from 2016. Suffice it to say, we've made a lot more progress then what this document reveals.

Now comes the speculation. If and when we make a RTG, what would be the first use of it ? Maybe Chandrayaan-3/SELENE-R or Mangalyaan-2. ISRO is still iffy on whether to carry a lander/rover for Mangalyaan-2 or not. More clarity exists on the Chandrayaan-3/SELENE-R mission. The links posted on #557 & #566 of this thread clearly states that lunar night survival on the South pole of moon is an integral pert of the mission. Surviving the night would require a RTG. Maybe that's where ISRO's RTG comes in. To the best of my knowledge, JAXA has never built/used a RTG before. Of the two countries involved, we have more experience with handling Plutonium thanks to our nukes and wide variety of reactors.

CY-3/SELENE-R is scheduled to happen in 2023, where as the MY-2 is in 2024. We still have 4-5 years time from mission launch for either of them. That's about 2.5 years to develop the RTG, as the presence of the RTG would dramatically change mission plans and mission plan has to be ready at least a year before actual building/testing of the spacecraft begins.

Anyway it goes, interesting times ahead.

 

[GuardianRED]

Spaceflight purchases first commercial flight of new Indian small launcher

by Jeff Foust
August 6, 2019
Updated 11:20 a.m. Eastern.

India's SSLV is a derivative of the workhorse PSLV rocket(above) designed to place payloads weighing no more than 500 kilograms into orbit. Credit: ISRO

LOGAN, Utah — Spaceflight announced Aug. 6 that it will purchase the first commercial launch a new Indian vehicle scheduled to make its debut later this year.

Spaceflight said it will launch payloads for an undisclosed U.S. satellite constellation customer on a flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), a derivative of the existing, larger Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The launch is scheduled for later this year and will be the second for the SSLV after a demonstration launch expected no earlier than September.

While the companies didn’t announce the customer for the mission, a July 25 filing with the Federal Communications Commission by Earth imaging company BlackSky Global sought a license for four of its satellites it said would launch on the SSLV in November 2019. The applications said the satellites would be deployed into two orbital planes, consistent with Spaceflight’s announcement.

Spaceflight, which provides rideshare services on a wide range of launch vehicles, believes the SSLV will be an ideal fit for many of its customers based on the vehicle’s performance and its cost.

“I think its hugely exciting because it’s an attractive price point and, for us, it’s a really good size,” said Curt Blake, president and chief executive of Spaceflight, in an interview during the Conference on Small Satellites here. “And there is a shortage of launch capacity right now, especially to sun-synchronous orbit.”

SSLV will be able to carry up to 500 kilograms to mid-inclination low Earth orbits and 300 kilograms to SSO. While the company didn’t disclose pricing, Blake said the price is “a little bit better” than rideshares on PSLV. “In terms of small launch vehicles, it’s much better than what’s out there,” he added.

That price, he said, is low enough that Spaceflight can afford to purchase several vehicles at a time, meeting needs of customers that need to go to specific orbits. NewSpace India Ltd., the Indian venture that is marketing the SSLV to Spaceflight and other customers, is “flexible and accommodating to work with,” he noted. “It’s going to be a huge boon for the industry.”

Spaceflight has flown more than 100 satellites on several previous PSLV launches, and said that even with the introduction of SSLV he anticipated more rideshare missions on that larger rocket. “Launch is such a scarce resource that not optimizing to bring your costs down by utilizing every bit of capacity there is is kind of wrong,” he said.

Spaceflight is using a wide range of launch vehicles to meet the growing demand for dedicated and rideshare smallsat services. The company flew seven smallsats on the previous Rocket Lab Electron launch June 29, and will fly three satellites on the next Electron launch, scheduled for Aug. 16.

The company also has payloads on the first Small Satellite Mission Service flight of the Vega small launch vehicle, which will carry 42 satellites overall. That launch was scheduled for September but will likely be postponed because of the ongoing investigation into the July 10 failure of a Vega rocket carrying an imaging satellite for the United Arab Emirates.

Blake said he was awaiting to hear the outcome of the investigation and plans for return to flight, but that none of his customers had yet asked to be moved off the flight. Arianespace officials at the conference said Aug. 5 that they had no updates on the status of the Vega, as the board of inquiry convened to investigate the failure was still at work.

Spaceflight is also looking for other options, including new small launch vehicles, to meet demand. “We just need more small launch vehicles out there,” he said.

Caleb Henry contributed to this article from Washington.


Spaceflight purchases first commercial flight of new Indian small launcher - SpaceNews.com

Whats the Status of the Third Laundpad? - Would we see the SSLV launch from this?

 

[Gautam]

Whats the Status of the Third Laundpad?

Being built as we speak. Construction started in Sep 2012. A lot of tenders were out. When we say Third Launch Pad, its not just the pad but also the support structures. They include a vehicle assembly building, mobile pedestals, umbilical towers, emergency exits, ground escape system, crew ingress and egress systems, safety bunkers, material handling equipment and related electrical systems. I am led to believe that the underground infra is completed where as the the over ground construction remains under construction.

As the TLP is primarily being constructed for Gaganyaan mission there are some new elements that the FLP and SLP doesn't have. Testing and validation of those structures will take some time. Overground work is expected to end by 2019 or early 2020. I don't know much else at the moment. Will post if I find something.

Would we see the SSLV launch from this?

The SSLV D-1 was meant to be fired off from the FLP within the next 2 months. Now that was the original plan. Something odd happened after that, ISRO started issuing tenders for what they called : "SSLV Launch Complex(SLC)". Which is odd because the launch pad(FLP) was already there, what was the need for tenders of a new one ? and why "Launch complex" not "launch pad" as is conventionally named ?

Here is one of those tenders :
https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/tenders/pt11-03-11486.pdf

Then I remembered that there is a military dimension to it as well. SSLV as you know is supposed to provide the Armed Forces with a launch on demand services for military satellites. Such a feature would require the SSLV to be fired from TELs and not from conventional Launching Pads. Maybe that's what we will see with the SSLV D-1 flight scheduled to happen no later than September this year. More details will come later, let's wait for it.

 

[GuardianRED]

Being built as we speak. Construction started in Sep 2012. A lot of tenders were out. When we say Third Launch Pad, its not just the pad but also the support structures. They include a vehicle assembly building, mobile pedestals, umbilical towers, emergency exits, ground escape system, crew ingress and egress systems, safety bunkers, material handling equipment and related electrical systems. I am led to believe that the underground infra is completed where as the the over ground construction remains under construction.

As the TLP is primarily being constructed for Gaganyaan mission there are some new elements that the FLP and SLP doesn't have. Testing and validation of those structures will take some time. Overground work is expected to end by 2019 or early 2020. I don't know much else at the moment. Will post if I find something.


The SSLV D-1 was meant to be fired off from the FLP within the next 2 months. Now that was the original plan. Something odd happened after that, ISRO started issuing tenders for what they called : "SSLV Launch Complex(SLC)". Which is odd because the launch pad(FLP) was already there, what was the need for tenders of a new one ? and why "Launch complex" not "launch pad" as is conventionally named ?

Here is one of those tenders :
https://www.isro.gov.in/sites/default/files/tenders/pt11-03-11486.pdf

Then I remembered that there is a military dimension to it as well. SSLV as you know is supposed to provide the Armed Forces with a launch on demand services for military satellites. Such a feature would require the SSLV to be fired from TELs and not from conventional Launching Pads. Maybe that's what we will see with the SSLV D-1 flight scheduled to happen no later than September this year. More details will come later, let's wait for it.

What is the estimated height of the SSLV? would this be a reason as the present Launch Pads towers over it? Hence a new launchpad/complex?

The Military angle is very interesting. This is something @Parthu answered my queries on this (See Post#11)
2019 - A Big Year For Indian Military in Space

 

[Gautam]

What is the estimated height of the SSLV?

would this be a reason as the present Launch Pads towers over it? Hence a new launchpad/complex?

On the contrary the modern launch tower(not the older one) was designed to avoid this very problem. It was designed from the ground up to be able to launch different rockets of varying heights and be very modular with weight support, umbelical chord placement etc.

The height is no issue at all. As you can see the tower is taller than every rocket that can be fired off from it.

Notice how the SSLV has a diameter of 2m, much like the Agni-5. The logistics involved can be somewhat shared, except for constraints of length and weight. Though unlike the Agni-5, the SSLV is unlikely to be road/rail mobile. I am, somehow, imagining the military version to be based in underground silos. Of course the civilian/commercial version will have a launch tower, the one in use or maybe a new one.

 

[_Anonymous_]

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