ISRO plans to push more satellites this year

The coming year’s Rs.5,615-crore outlay for the Department of Space has no new or big-ticket projects even as it levels the allocation exactly with what was earmarked originally for 2012-13. The prestigious Mars Orbiter Mission — floated some two years back and slated for October this year — looks the fanciest, while the launch vehicles continue to get their proud slice of the pie.

This year, apart from the Mars project estimated at Rs.450 crore, the space agency wants to push its first navigational satellite (NSS), the dedicated GSAT-7 spacecraft (costing Rs. 462 crore with launcher) for the Navy; and the four-tonne advanced communications satellite ACTS or GSAT-11. The ACTS will be the heaviest satellite to be built to date by ISRO.

The advanced Geo-Imaging Satellite GISAT to be put in the medium Earth orbit is on the to-do list. The completion of the GSLV rocket with its indigenous cryogenic engine and GSLV Mark-III — its big brother version for lifting 4-tonne satellites — remain priorities, the official said. Mk-III is slated for the first trial in the second half of this year without the cryo-stage. These two, along with the semi-cryogenic programme, get about Rs. 420 crore.

Last year’s outlay is now revised to Rs.5,615 crore from Rs.3,880 crore. This year, DoS gets a non-Plan provision of Rs.1,177 crore.

An upgraded PSLV rocket will lift the 1,300-kg Mars spacecraft to the longest space haul that India has ever travelled — after the 4-lakh-km Chandrayaan-1 mission of 2008.

An outlay of Rs.167.5 crore has been set apart for the Mars mission in the budget. In the absence of the GSLV to lift communications satellites above 2,000 kg, three procured or foreign launches have been factored in for the ACTS, GSAT 15 and 16. Chandrayaan-2 and the human flight plan, which get relatively small outlays, have been put on the backburner for now.

India's 101st space mission succesfull

PSLV: India's 101st space mission successful

In an important landmark for the Indian space program, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV (on Feb 25, 2013) placed the second Indo-French satellite 'SARAL' and six other co-passengers or small satellites from Canada, Austria, Denmark and the UK in orbit.

• The PSLV-C20, which was earlier slated for blast-off at around 6 pm local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, was delayed by five minutes.
• President Pranab Mukherjee witnessed the launch, the first of the 10 planned events of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) this year. Mr. Mukherjee is the second President after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to witness a PSLV launch; Dr Kalam was present in Sriharikota during one such launch on May 5, 2005.
• It is the 23rd consecutive launch for the 44-metre-tall rocket; it sequentially dropped off the satellites in space in less than half an hour after the lift-off. Later this year, a similar rocket will ferry India's maiden mission to Mars, Mangalyaan.
• PSLV has an impeccable record of 21 consecutive successful flights. The successful launch takes ISRO's tally of launching foreign satellites to 35.
• The ISRO-built SARAL is a 410-kg satellite with payloads - Argos and Altika - from French space agency CNES for enhancing the understanding of the ocean state conditions.
• Altimetre (Altika) would help study the sea surface heights while Argos payload is a satellite-based data collection platform. The satellite will also be useful in tracking resident space objects, including space debris.
• ISRO started putting into space third-party satellites for a fee in 1999 on its PSLV-C2 rocket. Since then India has been successful in launching medium-weight satellites for overseas agencies.
• Initially, ISRO started carrying third-party satellites atop its rockets as co-passengers of its own remote sensing/earth observation satellites.
• Later in 2007, ISRO launched an Italian satellite Agile as a standalone luggage for a fee.
• India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta using a Russian rocket and till date, it has completed 100 missions.

PSLV-C20 & their Satellites
Satellite	Weight (in Kg)	Country
SARAL	407	India-France
SAPHIRE	148	Canada
NEOSSAT	082	Canada
BRITE	014	Austria
UniBRITE	014	Austria
STRand	006.5	UK
AAUSAT	003	Denmark

ISRO plans more satellites this year