Thaindian News

By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, Sep 19 (IANS) While the preparations for launch of India’s ocean monitoring satellite Oceansat 2 and six other nano satellites Sep 23 is on, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is getting ready for the bigger launch slated in the next two months — that of the communications satellite GSAT 4.

Speaking to IANS over phone from ISRO’s launch centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, M.Y.S. Prasad, associate director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre said: “Preparations are already on for the launch of GSAT 4 — the communication satellite using the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The rocket assembling process has started.”

The first stage of GSLV with four strap-on motors has been assembled and assembling of the second stage is to start soon.

The third stage — cryogenic stage — will come from ISRO’s Thiruvananthapuram facility, he said.

“GSLV will blast off from the second launch pad with its third stage fitted with an India built cryogenic engine thereby making the country absolutely self reliant in building the bigger rocket,” S. Sathish, ISRO’s director of publications and public relations, told IANS over phone from Bangalore.

For all the five earlier GSLV missions, ISRO had used Russian cryogenic engines.

Last December, the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage engine passed the flight acceptance test with the engine tested for 200 seconds.

The development of cryogenic engines involves mastering materials technology, operating rotary pumps and turbines which run at 42,000 revolutions per minute (RPM).

Weighing around two tonnes, GSAT 4 will carry a multi-beam Ka-band bent pipe and regenerative transponder and navigation payload in C, L1 and L5 bands. The satellite can guide civil and military aircraft.

GSAT 4 will also carry a scientific payload, TAUVEX, comprising three ultra violet band telescopes developed by Tel Aviv University and Israel space agency (ELOP) for surveying a large part of the sky in the 1,400-3,200 A wavelengths.

Meanwhile, ISRO officials are gearing up the next week’s PSLV launch carrying the 960 kg Oceansat 2 and six nano satellites totalling around 20 kg.

“We conducted the pre-launch rehearsal — all activities that have to be carried out ten hours before the actual launch — starting at 2 a.m. Saturday and completed at 12.30 p.m. Everything went off well,” said Prasad. He said the actual 49-hour countdown process will start Monday 8 a.m. The rocket will fly at 11.51 a.m. Wednesday.

According to Satish, Oceansat 2 will be placed in a sun-synchronous orbit 720 km above the earth.

Prasad added: “Oceansat 2 will cover the whole earth as the coverage strip will be moving since it is not geostationary satellite. The orbit is designed in such a way that the satellite will cross the Equator at 12 noon near India.”

Along with Oceansat 2, four overseas Cubesats each weighing 1 kg will be ejected from the rocket, while the two Rubinsats each weighing 8 kg will orbit attached to the rocket’s fourth stage, he added.

This will be the second time that ISRO will launch a cluster of nano satellites. In 2008 ISRO — launching its cartography satellite (CARTOSAT-2A) and Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) — also sent up eight nano satellites and set a world record of maximum number of satellites sent up in a single launch.

“The increased launch of nano satellites from foreign countries is expected to propel Indian universities to follow the footsteps of Anna University to build satellites,” Satish remarked.

Chennai-based Anna University became the first Indian university to build a small satellite Anusat which ISRO launched in April this year.