INDIA JOINS ELITE CLUB

With this India has joined the elite club of launching a heavy satellite+ (above 2,300 kg). So far, the United States, Russia, Europe, China and Japan have achieved this feat.

HUMANS INTO SPACE?

This is India’s “fat boy” of the future as it will undoubtedly be human rated to carry Indian astronauts likely to be named ‘gaganauts or vyomanauts’. GSLV Mk III, will be the country’s vehicle to ferry Indians into space. And when that happens, India will become the fourth nation — after Russia, the United States and China — to put astronauts into orbit. Isro has also indicated that the first astronaut from India could well be a woman. Meanwhile, Isro is also mulling the idea of missions to Jupiter and Venus.

FUTURE MISSIONS

Isro says GSAT-19 features certain advanced spacecraft technologies including “miniaturised heat pipe, fibre optic gyro, Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) accelerometer and cryogenic upper stage engine”. These are all important developments being tested so that they become mainstay systems on future missions.

It took Isro 15 years to build “100% desi rocket”, as scientists often call GSLV Mk III. The rocket is capable of lifting payloads of up to 4,000 kg into the GTO and 10,000 kg into the Low Earth Orbit. Till now, Isro had to depend on foreign launchers for communication satellites weighing more than 2,300 kg.

LOW-COST SPACE EXPLORATION

GSLV Mk III’s launch is another feather in the cap of Isro scientists, who had earlier won Asia’s race to Mars in 2014 when an Indian spacecraft reached Mars on a minimum budget. The launch adds India’s reputation as a reliable low-cost option for space exploration.

The launch is also the first flight for CE-20 engine, which was under development since 2002. The engine, which runs on a less complex technology compared to its Russian design predecessors, has undergone more than few years.
The GSAT-19 carried transponders and a geostationary radiation spectrometer. The instrument will monitor and study the nature of charged particles and the influence of space radiation on satellites and their electronic components. The first successful flight of indigenously made cryogenic stage powered GSLV Mk II was on January 5, 2014 when it carried GSAT-14. Since then, Mark II has seen four successful flights including the launch of South Asia Satellite on May 5 this year.