Singampalli Happenings

Chennai: Cruising towards a historic feat, the Indian space mission to Mars today crossed half the total distance to the red planet from Earth and was very much along the designated helio-centric trajectory.

At exactly 09.50 am (IST), the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft crossed the mid-point of its path to Mars, thereby has travelled 337.5 million km in its elliptical orbit around the sun, ISRO sources said.

It took four minutes and 15 seconds for a message to reach the spacecraft and return, they said.
The mission was very much in track and it was evident with the fact that the second Trajectory Correction Manouvre (TCM) planned on the spacecraft has now been considered not necessary and is expected to be performed only in June, scientists said.
Of the four TCMs planned on the spacecraft, the first was performed on December 10 last year and the remaining are scheduled in June, August and September, respectively.

Indias maiden mission to Mars was successfully launched on board PSLV C 25 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota spaceport, some 100 km from here, on November 5 last year.
Of the total 51 missions undertaken to Mars (excluding MOM), only 21 have been successful.

If all goes well and the satellite orbits around Mars, IndiaҒs national space agency ISRO would be the fourth after agencies in US, Russia and Europe to have undertaken a successful mission to the red planet. Attempts by China and Japan to send missions to Mars have failed.

From: http://www.sify.com/news/india-s-mars-mission-crosses-half-the-distance-news-national-oejqF6icdfc.html?source=sifyhome&slot=c2s1

All of you must have seen the telecasts and photos of the " 25th Successive, Successful launch of PSLV" as stated by Radhakrishnan.
But many of you may not know the humble beginnings. So, here goes----

Humble Beginnings for a Great Success

Though India today is considered as one of the prominent countries conducting many space activities, the Indian space program began in a modest way with the formation of the Indian National Committee on Space Research by the Government of India in

1962.

The program formally began on November 21, 1963 with the launch of a 28 feet long American ‘Nike-Apache’ Sounding Rocket from Thumba, near Thiruvananthapuram. It carried a small French payload (scientific instrument) to study the winds in the upper atmosphere. [Sounding rockets are small research rockets that carry instruments to study upper atmosphere and space. They cannot launch satellites].

The Event

It is 21th November 1963. A beautiful day with clear skies. History is about to be created at the small coastal village of Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram. A bicycle carrying a cone-shaped device trundles onto the sandy beach.

A small team of budding scientists soon gets down to business. Among them a frail young man with long hair. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who later went on to achieve great distinction and become the President of India. Another local boy watches the launch several kilometers away from the terrace of the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram--The future ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair and advisor to various strategic projects.

The newly built rocket launching pad was set on the beach, a clearing in the midst of coconut groves. A local Catholic church, the St Mary Magdalene’s Church served as the main office for the scientists. The small place of worship became the mainstay for the team of rocket scientists, including A P J Abdul Kalam. The first drawings of some of the earliest rockets were made in this church, now a space museum. The bishop’s house was converted into a workshop. A cattle shed became the laboratory in which the young Indian scientists worked on the first sounding rockets. Scientists travelled daily from Thiruvananthapuram in buses, carrying lunch bought at the railway station. Many rocket parts were carried by the scientists on bicycles from one place to another within the sprawling range of Thumba.

WHEN the orange trail lit up the twilight sky over the fishing village of Thumba near Thiruvananthapuram on November 21, 1963, there was excitement in Kerala and the neighboring districts in Tamil Nadu. The Kerala Legislative Assembly was adjourned for a few minutes so that the members could watch the glorious spectacle left behind in the western sky by the Nike Apache rocket, which was imported from the United States. The two-stage rocket, weighing 715 kg and powered by solid propellants, climbed to an altitude of 208 km, releasing sodium vapor that lit up the sky. The seeds of India's modern rocketry program had been sown.

NEXT

The first experimental flight of SLV-3, in August 1979, was only partially successful.

Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3), India's first experimental satellite launch vehicle was successfully launched on July 18, 1980 from SHAR Centre Sriharikota, when Rohini satellite, RS-1, was placed in orbit. SLV-3 was a 22 m long, all solid, four stage vehicle weighing 17 tonnes capable of placing 40 kg class payloads in low earth orbit.
It employed an open loop guidance (with stored pitch program) to steer the vehicle in flight along pre-determined trajectory.

Apart from the July 1980 launch, there were two more launches held in May 1981 and April 1983, orbiting Rohini satellites carrying remote sensing sensors.

Finally the workhorse PSLV:

Typical Parameters of PSLV

Lift-off weight 295 tonnes

Pay Load 1600 kg in to 620 km Polar Orbit,

1060 kg in to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)

Height 44 meters

PSLV Milestones

PSLV-C24 launched IRNSS-1B on April 04, 2014

PSLV-C25 launched Mars Orbiter Mission Spacecraft on November 05, 2013

PSLV-C22 launched IRNSS-1A on July 01, 2013

PSLV-C20 launched SARAL and six commercial payloads February 25, 2013

PSLV-C21 launched SPOT 6 and PROITERES September 09, 2012

PSLV-C19 launched RISAT-1 April 26, 2012

PSLV-C18 launched Megha-Tropiques, SRMSat,

VesselSat-1 and Jugnu October 12, 2011

PSLV-C17 launched GSAT - 12 July 15, 2011

PSLV-C16 launched RESOURCESAT-2,YOUTHSAT&X-SAT April 20, 2011

PSLV-C15 launched CARTOSAT-2B, ALSAT-2A,

NLS 6.1 & 6.2 and STUDSAT July 12, 2010

PSLV-C14 launched Oceansat - 2 and Six Nanosatellites September 23, 2009

PSLV-C12 launched RISAT-2 and ANUSAT April 20, 2009

PSLV-C11 launched CHANDRAYAAN-I, October 22, 2008

PSLV-C9 launched CARTOSAT-2A, IMS-1

and eight nano-satellites April 28, 2008

PSLV-C10 launched TECSAR January 23, 2008

PSLV-C8 launched AGILE April 23, 2007

PSLV-C7 launched CARTOSAT-2, SRE-1, LAPAN-TUBSAT

and PEHUENSAT-1 January 10, 2007

PSLV-C6 launched CARTOSAT-1 and HAMSAT May 5, 2005

PSLV-C5 launched RESOURCESAT-1(IRS-P6) October 17, 2003

PSLV-C4 launched KALPANA-1(METSAT) September 12, 2002

PSLV-C3 launched TES October 22, 2001

PSLV-C2 launched OCEANSAT(IRS-P4), KITSAT-3

and DLR-TUBSAT May 26, 1999

PSLV-C1 launched IRS-1D September 29, 1997

Successful but a lower altitude was achieved

PSLV-D3 launched IRS-P3 March 21, 1996

PSLV-D2 launched IRS-P2 October 15, 1994

PSLV-D1 launched IRS-1E September 20, 1993 (Unsuccessful)

The Failure and the partial Success (failure)

IRS 1E on board PSLV-D1

On September 20, 1993 a PSLV-D1, the first developmental flight, rocket failed during launch. A significant attitude disturbance occurred during second to third-stage separation, causing the attitude control command to exceed its maximum value. The vehicle crashed into the Bay of Bengal 700 seconds after takeoff.

IRS 1D on board PSLV-C1

On September 29, 1997 a PSLV-C1 rocket has failed during launch.

The fourth stage was shut down by a software override timer after burning 435 s, before reaching the target orbit or depleting propellant. The injection velocity was 140 m/s low, resulting in orbit 301x823 km instead of the planned 817 km circular SSO. Initially, a leak of helium gas from one of the components in the fourth stage was suspected, similar to recent Long March 3 launch failure, but later ruled out. Resulted orbit was partially corrected using satellite on-board thrusters, thereby raising the perigee to 737 km, while the apogee remained at 821 km.

GSLV and What Have You: WE still are finding our feet on GSLV and MOM, Chandrayaan