The Indian Space & Research Organisation is pacing up as it gets its new chief in Dr. S Somnath.
Dr S Somnath said that the space agency will conduct five major satellite launches in the coming three months.
The Isro chairman presented a brief about the Forthcoming missions. It includes a RICAT-1A PSLV C5-2 launch which has been scheduled for February this year. It will be followed by the launch of OCEANSAT-3 and INS 2B ANAND PSLV C-53 in March. The SSLV-D1 Micro SAT will be launched in April 2022.
ISRO will also launch GSAT-21. This is the first fully funded satellite by the New Space India Limited. The communication satellite will be developed by NSIL to meet the Direct to Home application needs.
Space programmes have been given a special impetus. Space technology has now been made applicable in different sectors like roads and highways, railways, healthcare, agriculture.
Somnath has briefed on India’s maiden manned mission Gaganyaan. He also said that there had been a delay due to the Covid-19. But now things have again fallen back on track.
ISRO is planning to launch the first uncrewed mission under Gaganyaan in 2022. The second unmanned mission “Vyommitra” will carry a robot. Somnath has said that the selected Indian astronauts have successfully undergone Generic Space Flight Training in Russia.
Somnath further said, the preparations for the manned mission have in-flight demonstration of the Crew Escape System functioning in the lower atmosphere. Somnath has been appointed as a ISRO chief for a term of three years. The ISRO chief said that India needed new players in the space sector. Somnath had served as the director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram. It was instrumental in the development of the GSLV Mk-III launcher. Somnath was a team leader for the Integration of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
