India’s Space Programme

India’s Space Programme

India is working assiduously to make a dent in space research. The steps to build know-how for satellite technology were taken by late Dr. S. Vikram Sarabhai. He set up, in 1970, the Satellite Systems Division (SSD) as part of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Trivendrum with Prof. U.R. Rao as its head. On May 10, 1972 India signed an agreement with the Soviet Union under which India could build its satellite and the Soviet Union would launch it.

The Department of Space and the Space Commission were established in June 1972 with their headquarters at Bangalore, for the purpose of rapid development in space technology and its application.

Dr. Satish Dhawan, Chairman of Space Commission was entrusted with the task of implementing Indian Scientific Satellite Project. The Indian Scientific Satellite Project was set up at Peenya near Bangalore under Prof. U.R. Rao. It was meant to design and fabricate satellites indigenously.

EDUSAT Launched—India’s first full-fledged educational satellite, 1950 kg. EDUSAT was successfully placed in a geostationary orbit by GSLV-FO1 on Sept. 20, 2004 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

CARTOSAT-I Launched—India’s first mapping satellite CARTOSAT-I was launched on May 5, 2005 from the newly built second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota with the help of PSLV-C5 rocket. CARTOSAT-I weighs 1,560 kg. Another satellite which was also launched along with it is 43 kg Hamsat.

India Launched INSAT-4A—India launched into space its heaviest yet satellite INSAT-4A on December 22, 2005 from Kourou launching centre in French Guiana.

INSAT-4C—The launch vehicle Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-FO2) carrying the 2,168 kg satellite INSAT-4C to boost Direct To Home television service and digital news gathering, deviated from its chartered path soon after lift off from Satish Dhawan space centre in Sriharikota on July 10, 2006 and crashed into the Bay of Bengal. Thus this mission was unsuccessful.

PSLV-C7—Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) carries four satellites—the 680 kg India Remote Sensing Satellite CARTOSAT-2, the 550 kg Space Capsule Recovery Equipment (SRE-1), Indonesia’s LAPAN–TUBSAT and Argentina’s six kg nanosatellite, PEHUENSAT-1, blasted off majestically into space on January 10, 2007 from the spaceport at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota. The generated data by CARTOSAT-2 would find useful application in urban and rural infrastructure development and management, besides strengthening the land information system and Geographical Information System (GIS) which can track even the movement of vehicles on roads.

INSAT-4B—ISRO’s latest Satellite INSAT-4B successfully launched on March 12, 2007 by the European Arian-5 ECA launch vehicle from the Kourou island in French Guiana. The 3025 kg INSAT-4 B is the second satellite in the INSAT-4 series. INSAT-4B will further augment the INSAT capacity for Direct-To-Home (DTH) television services and other communication and TV services.

PSLV-C8—The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C8 has been launched successfully on 23rd April, 2007 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR Sriharikota. PSLV is carring 352 kg of Italian Satellite AGILE along with it. The 352 kg. Italian Satellite will be studying gamma-ray and X-ray bursts in the Universe that can provide clues about the origin of the universe.

INSAT-4CR—India launched its largest rocket GSLV-FO4, carrying communication satellite INSAT-4CR from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Sept. 2, 2007. The INSAT-4CR at 2130 kg, is the heaviest satellite to be launched by the ISRO.

PSLV-C9—India created history by launching ten satellites in one go with its Polar launch vehicle carrying the heaviest payload of 824 kg. The 230 tonne PSLV-C9 put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the CARTOSAT-2A remote sensing satellite.

India Launches its first Moon Mission Chandrayaan-1—India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) on Oct. 22, 2008 successfully put its first moon mission spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 into its initial orbit marking the spacecraft’s long journey to the Moon. On Nov. 14, 2008 Moon Impact Probe (MIP) sent on board Chandrayan-1 landed on the moon.