ISRO gearing up for rocket launches with Virtual Launch Control Centre

The Indian space agency ISRO is gearing up for three quick rocket launches carrying domestic and foreign satellites, said a senior official. It has also developed a Virtual Launch Control Centre to test the rocket systems at the rocket port in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh remotely from the Thiruvananthapuram based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), part of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he added.

"With Covid-19 pandemic prevailing, the Indian space agency in order to reduce the number of people travelling to Sriharikota, has developed a Virtual Launch Control Centre at VSSC. As a result, the testing of various rocket systems is being done at VSSC," S. Somanath, Director, VSSC, told IANS.

The physical launch control centre is located in the building that houses the Mission Control Centre in Sriharikota and the systems there have been replicated at VSSC in the form of a virtual launch control centre.

"Three rockets are getting ready for launch at the rocket port in Sriharikota viz Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C49 (PSLV C49), PSLV C50 and Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The first rocket to fly will be the PSLV C49 sometime next month with about 10 satellites. It will be carrying India's RISAT-2BR2 and other commercial satellites lifting off from the first launch pad," Somanath said.

The next one to fly will be PSLV C50 with the GSAT-12R satellite. The rocket is being assembled at Sriharikota with various systems coming from different centres. It will fly from the second launch pad, he added.

"We are targeting PSLV C50 sometime in December. It needs about 30 days to get ready for another launch after one launch," he said.

Presently four Indian satellites are ready for launch viz GISAT, Microsat-2A, GSAT-12R and, RISAT-2BR2. (IANS), Source: https://southasiamonitor.org

Read More........→October 06, 2020

ISRO successfully launches earth monitoring satellite HysIS

The primary mission of the Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), whose mission life is five years

Sriharikota (AP): Adding another feather to its cap, ISRO's workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 Thursday successfully injected into orbit India's earth observation satellite HysIS. The 30 other co-passenger international satellites including those from the United States of America and Australia among others, will soon be placed into orbit.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown. The HysIS was placed in orbit 17 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off.

"#PSLVC43 successfully lifts off with 31 satellites, including #HysIS, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota", ISRO announced on its Twitter handler Thursday morning.

"#PSLVC43 successfully injects Indian satellite #HysIS, into sun-synchronous polar orbit", ISRO wrote on Twitter minutes later.

The primary mission of the Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth's surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

"HysIS is an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO. It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission. The satellite will be placed in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO) with an inclination of 97.957 deg. The mission life of the satellite is 5 years," ISRO said.

The co-passenger satellites have been contracted for launch through ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited. PSLV-C43, is the 'Core Alone' version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle.

This is ISRO's second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14. Source: ummid.com

Read More........→July 21, 2020