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ISRO on Saturday said that it has successfully carried out the ignition trial of the indigenous CE20 cryogenic engine powering the upper stage of LVM3, with a Multi-element igniter under vacuum conditions, which simulates the engine ignition in the vacuum condition of space. This test was carried out on Friday in the High Altitude Test Facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex, Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu, ISRO said in a statement. This engine is crucial for the Gaganyaan mission, India's ambitious crewed space mission. During this test, the ignition of the engine Thrust Chamber was carried out with a multi-element igniter in a vacuum, under the tank pressure conditions that are expected to prevail at the time of restarting the cryogenic engine in flight. The performance of the engine and the facility during the test was normal and as expected. Restarting a cryogenic engine is inherently complex and as part of the studies related to the restart operation, ISRO is exploring the initiation of
ISRO's attempts to place the NVS-02 satellite in the desired orbit suffered a setback after the thrusters on board the spacecraft failed to fire, the space agency said on Sunday. The NVS-02 satellite, which was crucial for India's own space-based navigation system, was launched on January 29 on board the GSLV-Mk 2 rocket which was ISRO's 100th launch from the spaceport at Shriharikota. "But the orbit raising operations towards positioning the satellite to the designated orbital slot could not be carried out as the valves for admitting the oxidizer to fire the thrusters for orbit raising did not open," the space agency said in an update to the GSLV-F15 mission on its website. The satellite is orbiting the Earth in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) which is not suitable for the navigation system. "The satellite systems are healthy and the satellite is currently in elliptical orbit. Alternate mission strategies for utilising the satellite for navigation in an elliptica
The 27-hour countdown for ISRO's historic 100th mission from this spaceport, launch of a Navigation satellite onboard a GSLV rocket commenced on Tuesday, sources in the space agency said. Also, this would be the first mission for ISRO Chairman V Narayanan, who assumed office on January 13. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenous Cryogenic upper stage in its 17th flight, carrying the navigation satellite NVS-02 is scheduled for lift-off at 6.23 am on January 29 from the second launch pad here. The navigation satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass. "The 27.30 hour countdown commenced at 02.53 am on Tuesday," multiple sources told PTI. The 50.9 metre tall GSLV-F15 follows the GSLV-F12 mission which successfully carried navigation satellite NVS-01, the .
ISRO on Sunday said the two satellites launched to perform space docking experiments were brought within three metres and then moved safely back in a trial attempt. The space agency also said the docking process would be done after analysing the data further. "A trial attempt to reach up to 15 metres and further to three metres is done. Moving back spacecraft to safe distance. The docking process will be done after analysing data further," ISRO said in a post on X. The Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) project has missed two announced schedules for docking experiments on January 7 and January 9. ISRO launched the mission on December 30. The PSLV C60 rocket, carrying two small satellites -- SDX01 (Chaser) and SDX02 (Target) -- along with 24 payloads, lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. About 15 minutes later, the two small spacecraft weighing about 220 kilogrammes each were launched into a 475-kilometre circular orbit, as intended. The SpaDeX project is
The launch of two satellites for the space docking experiment (SpaDeX) also marked a first for the industry, which built the two spacecraft on their own under guidance from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) engineers. The two satellites -- SDX01 (chaser) and SDX02 (target) -- each weighing 220 kg were integrated and tested by Ananth Technologies Limited (ATL), which has been associated with a number of ISRO projects for the past several years. "So far, large satellites have not been realised in the industry by themselves. This is the first time that the two satellites have been integrated and tested in the industry," said U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) Director M Shankaran after the two satellites were placed in a 476 km circular orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C60) on Monday night. Shankaran described the launch of the two satellites a trailblazer for the industry. "We hope that this is going to be the first of the several such satellites done by the
ISRO is set to launch two satellites on Monday night from the Sriharikota spaceport to demonstrate docking and undocking of spacecraft in orbit, which will make India the fourth country in the world to achieve the feat. The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) warhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will place the two satellites -- SDX01 and SDX02 -- in a 476-km circular orbit and attempt the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDEx) in the first week of January, the space agency officials said. "This mission will mark India's entry into the exclusive league of nations capable of mastering space docking," Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh said. The SpaDEx mission is expected to be a stepping stone for India's future endeavours in space exploration which include getting rocks and soil from the moon on Earth, the proposed Bharatiya Antariksha Station and landing an astronaut on the lunar surface. Only the US, Russia and China have mastered space dockin
ISRO's successful launch of European Space Agency's (ESA) Proba-3 satellites onboard PSLV-C59 rocket is a 'groundbreaking mission' and would significantly advance the understanding of Sun's corona and solar wind, a former ISRO scientist said. According to P V Venkitakrishnan, former director of Capacity Building Programme Office, ISRO headquarters, the 'innovative design and advanced technologies' used in the mission would pave the way for future space weather forecasting and solar physics research. "This mission is a collaborative effort between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation. Proba-3 is a pioneering mission designed to explore the Sun's corona, the outer atmosphere of the Sun", he told PTI. It aims to study the Corona, which is hotter than the Sun's surface, and explore the solar wind which is a stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun, Venkitakrishnan said. "The data from Proba-3 satellites would help scientists better ...
More than 10 companies and consortia have evinced interest in manufacturing the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), with a few being shortlisted as potential bidders for the transfer of technology, ISRO chairman S Somanath said on Tuesday. He said the selected industry partner will first develop two SSLVs with assistance from ISRO over a two year period before venturing out on its own to build rockets to place small satellites in low earth orbits. "More than 100 groups/consortia had come forward and showed interest in transfer of technology for the SSLV," he told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the AICTE and Indian Space Association. Somanath said IN-SPACe had organised a one-day interaction with industry players to understand issues that they may have related to technology transfer and how to do it, and expectations from ISRO for them. He said a few companies/consortia have taken the Request for Proposals (RFP) documents for transfer of technology for the .
The countdown for the launch of an earth observation satellite, onboard the third and final development flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle-03 commenced on Friday, ISRO said. The SSLV-D3-EOS-08 mission follows the second successful launch of the second test flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D2-EOS-07) in February 2023. Today's mission is the third for the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency in 2024, after the successful PSLV-C58/XpoSat in January and GSLV-F14/INSAT-3DS missions in February. In an update on Friday, ISRO said, "SSLV-D3-EOS-08 Mission -- Six-and-a-half-hour countdown leading to the launch commenced at 02.47 hrs IST". The smallest SSLV rocket, which measures about 34 metre in height, was planned to be launched on August 15 at 9.17 am and was later rescheduled to August 16, at 9.19 am from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here. The primary objectives of the SSLV-D3-EOS-08 mission include designing and developing a microsatellite
The historic success of ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon has captured the attention of several startups to tap the Indian space sector, said former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan. Tamil Nadu Minister for Industries TRB Rajaa said the achievements of space scientists and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) should be celebrated. Rajaa and former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan took part in the launch of space technology accelerator "Vaanam" (Tamil word meaning sky) backed by its co-founders Sameer Bharat Ram and Hariharan Vedamurthy, on Wednesday. The space tech aims to nurture startups in the space sector by offering its expertise including seed fundings among others. "We are evaluating about 6 startups this year (to offer its expertise)", Ram said. According to him, the Indian space economy pegged at USD 13 billion is expected to touch USD 44 billion in 10 years. Ram said Nambi Narayanan and actor Madhavan, who played the role of Narayanan himself, in the multilingua