India’s first hybrid sounding rocket by private players was launched on 19 February 2023 from Pattipulam village, Chengalpattu.
Key points
- Martin Foundation, in association with Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam International Foundation and Space Zone India, launched the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Satellite Launch Vehicle Mission- 2023.
- The organisations mentioned that 5,000 students were involved in the project. The selected students designed and constructed a student satellite launch vehicle (rocket) and 150 PICO satellite research experiment cubes that contained different payloads.
- The reusable rocket was made by the selected top 100 students, while the rest made the satellites. The rocket can be used for research in weather, atmospheric conditions and radiations.
About Sounding rockets
- Sounding rockets are one or two stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research.
- They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.
- With the establishment of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) in 1963 at Thumba, a location close to the magnetic equator, there was a quantum jump in the scope for aeronomy and atmospheric sciences in India.
- The launch of the first sounding rocket from Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 21 November 1963, marked the beginning of the Indian Space Programme .
- Sounding rockets made it possible to probe the atmosphere in situ using rocket-borne instrumentation.
- Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram has been pioneering the sounding rocket launch for scientific studies.
- Large numbers of sounding rockets have been developed and launched from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS).
- ISRO has developed a series of sounding rockets called Rohini series, important among them being RH-200, RH-300 and RH-560, number in the name indicating the diameter of the rocket in mm. 1545 RH-200 rockets have been launched so far.
