ISRO Chairman Reviews Successes and Failures, Looks Ahead

On Monday, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan gave an address at the International Conference on Contemporary Trends in Optics and Optoelectronics. During the talk, he gave a brief review of ISRO’s successes over the past five years and a preview of missions scheduled for the next two years.

Excerpts follow after the break.

Presidential Address by ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan
International Conference on Contemporary Trends in Optics and Optoelectronics

The last five years had been quite significant for the Indian Space Programme. Let us dwell a bit on it.

• We had 9 launches and realised 9 spacecrafts including the pathbreaking Chandrayaan during the four years 2006-09. We saw 7 successful missions of PSLV including two dedicated commercial launches, and 2 missions of GSLV with a failure of GSLV F02 in 2006 and a partial success of GSLV-F04 in 2007. We realised 7 Satellites including the high resolution Cartosat-2 series that brought us into an exclusive club globally.

• We demonstrated the re-entry capability of an orbiting module in 2007.

• The Indian Cryogenic Stage was tested successfully on the ground in the end of 2007.

• We executed Chandrayaan-1 mission in 2008 and vital data was collected in its 312 days of life.

• On Space Applications, we sustained our global leadership and initiated societal missions and space-based disaster management support.

ISRO's Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter

• The year 2010 started off in the backdrop of Chandrayaan-1 paving way for one of the astounding discoveries of the millennium i.e., the presence of water and hydroxyl molecules in the lunar environment and the subsequent finding of sub-surface water ice in the permanently shadowed craters of the lunar north pole.

The year 2010 demanded a quantum jump by nearly 4 times as compared to the previous years.

• During 2010, we targeted 3 PSLV Missions, 2 GSLV Missions including flight testing of indigenous Cryo stage; Realisation of 9 satellites for launch; Static testing of solid motor S-200 and Liquid stage L-110 of GSLV Mk III. We did most of it.

• We had several success stories and a couple of failures.

• In July 2010, PSLV-C15 launched Cartosat-2B and four other small satellites – one of which, STUDSAT, was built by students. A highly adaptable communication satellite, HYLAS, built jointly by ISRO and EADS-ASTRIUM of Europe was launched in November 2010. The command and control has been executed well by our Master Control Facility. We are planning to hand-over the HYLAS Satellite in its intended orbital slot to the customer – M/s. Avanti Space, UK in March 2011.

• We successfully conducted static tests of S-200, the world’s third largest solid booster, and our heaviest liquid core stage L-110 with twin engines, for our GSLV Mark III.

• To study solar eclipse of January 2010, 14 sounding rockets were launched on the dot, on the designated days, from TERLS and SHAR. Also, we tested successfully an advanced sounding rocket, to become test bed for airbreathing propulsion studies.

• Globally our efforts have been recognized. Several of world’s major space powers – Russia, USA and France – have showed keen interest in partnering with India on several fronts in space.

• While we saw several successes, there were surprises and failures too.

• After a gap of 2 & ½ years, we flew GSLV, that too with our Indigenous Cryogenic Stage on-board GSLV-D3 on April 15th. You may recall that performance of the first two stages was excellent in GSLV-D3; but the cryogenic stage did not sustain ignition beyond 0.9 sec. We learnt quite a lot from it. Corrective actions are underway with a series of static tests and a flight test planned during the year.

• GSLV-F06/GSAT 5P mission of December 25th had to be terminated in the regime of the first stage of the flight at 64 seconds, as a group of connectors residing in the bottom portion of the Russian Cryogenic stage got snapped inadvertently at 47.5 seconds from lift-off; and the control command ceased to reach the four strap-ons of the First stage.

The coming three months are going to be eventful with three major milestones to be achieved.

• PSLV-C16 vehicle is already assembled at SHAR. Resourcesat-2 and Youthsat are getting ready for shipment to SHAR. Both these satellites carry a host of advance optical payloads.

• PSLV-C17 assembly would commence soon for a GTO mission to launch GSAT-12, a communication satellite. This would be immediately followed by a series of 4 PSLVs and flight testing of our Indian Cryogenics Stage after due tests on ground. Second static testing of S-200 is on the anvil.

• Another communication satellite GSAT-8 is getting ready for launch onboard Ariane-5 in April-May 2011.

Microwave Remote Sensing Satellite – RISAT-1, Meteorological Satellite INSAT-3D, Communication Satellites such as GSAT-7 and GSAT-10 and two Indo-French Joint Missions viz., Megha-Tropiques and SARAL are our commitments for next year. We need to launch one of the IRNSS Satellites by 2012 and gear up for launching Chandrayaan-2 by 2013. We are embarking on newer vistas, opened up by challenges in climate change studies, satellite navigation and other national imperatives.