Byalalu, near Kumbalgodu on the outskirts of the city, is all set to become the hub of the country’s space programme in the coming months as two of India’s most important missions will be controlled from here.
On Tuesday, the ISRO centre at Byalalu, also known as the Indian Deep Space Network Centre, which was the nerve centre of the Chandrayaan-1 mission, got another addition to its impressive range of facilities. The ISRO Navigation Centre (INC), which will handle the upcoming Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) mission and the Mars Orbiter Mission, was inaugurated on Tuesday.The INC will be responsible for time reference, generation of navigation messages and monitoring of ground facilities for the IRNSS mission. The centre is equipped with a high precision timing facility with atomic clocks which will coordinate between 21 ranging stations across the country.
“The IRNSS 1A satellite will be launched in the early hours of June 12 from Sriharikota on the PSLV launch vehicle. Byalalu (INC) will synthesise all the data generated from the IRNSS system,” ISRO Chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan announced at the launch. Another important role for the INC will be during the Mars Orbiter mission slated for launch. “The orbiter will travel a distance of 55 million km in 365 days. Commands for the orbiter will be transmitted from here,” Radhakrishnan further added.
The Mars Orbiter will have 20kw of power for the mission. The orbiter has to exit Earth’s orbit, latest by November 26 and Radhakrishnan said ISRO was prepared for the mission. The Astronautical Society of India also presented 29 awards for achievements in the fields of space science and defence research. The Aryabhatta lifetime achievement awards were presented to Dr A E Muthunayagam, former Founder-Director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), Thirivunanthapuram, for the year 2010 and to Dr V K Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the defence minister for the year 2011.Speaking at the MoS in the PMO, V Narayanasamy said the government was committed to providing all required support for the country’s space mission.
