Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K Sivan on January 1, 2020 announced that ISRO will establish a second launch port in Thoothukodi district in Tamilnadu exclusively to launch small satellite launch vehicles. This launch port will come up in 2300 acres.
2019 Achievements
- During 2019, six launch vehicle and seven satellite missions were realised by ISRO. The year also marked the 50th launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). Dr Sivan said that two new variants of the PSLV were introduced. For the first time, the spent fourth stage of the PSLV was successfully demonstrated as an experimental orbital platform. Indigenously developed Vikram processor by Semi-Conductor Laboratory was flight tested during the year. International mobile standards body 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) approved India’s regional navigation satellite system NavIC which would facilitate NavIC’s use in mobile phones.
- In an effort towards horizontal expansion of ISRO, Space Technology Cells, Space Technology Incubation Centres andRegional Academic Centres for Space were established during the year and many more such centres are planned in the future. A special programme for school children called “YuvaVIgyaniKAryakram (YUVIKA)”aimed at imparting basic knowledge on Space Technology, Space Science and Space Applications was also introduced during the last year.
- To carry forward the industry production of space systems, ISRO incorporated New Space India Limited (NSIL), under the Department of Space and efforts in realising PSLVs from industry initiated.
Future plans
- On future programmes, the ISRO Chairman said that Chandrayaan 3 mission to the moon, comprising of a lander and a rover is approved by the Government.
- On the lines of GPS navigation system developed by America, the Indian navigation system called Navic with the indigenous atomic clock will be operational with mobile phone manufacturers coming forward to install the regional navigation device.
- For India’s first manned mission to outer space Gaganyaan, the process of Astronaut selection is over and four men selected from Indian Air Force will leave for Russia in the third week of January to get training. The Gaganyaan mission is targeted to be launched by 2022.
- Before that unmanned missions will be launched to test the crew module with robots resembling humans.
- This unmanned space mission will test spacecraft re-entry technology, space capsule recovery experiment and effect of microgravity on the crew module necessary for the human space travel.
