100 missions in the next five years? why not, says ISRO

ISRO is part of an exclusive league that has successfully ventured to the Moon and the Sun.
ISRO's PSLV-C37/Cartosat2.
ISRO's PSLV-C37/Cartosat2. PTI File Image
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3 min read

SRIHARIKOTA: ISRO may have taken 46 years to achieve the 100-mission milestone, but the country's space agency is now confident of reaching the next century in a relatively shorter time—within half a decade.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman V. Narayanan, who oversaw its 100th mission on Wednesday the GSLV F-15/NVS-02 navigation satellite launch expressed confidence that the space agency could breach the 200-mark within five years.

When asked if it was possible to achieve 100 launches over the next five years, Narayanan responded affirmatively.

"You are asking the right question. It is possible," he replied, without elaborating.

Scripting history, ISRO has progressed from an era when rocket parts were transported by cycle and bullock cart images that evoke vivid memories to becoming one of the world's premier space agencies, now engaged in commercial launches for foreign clients.

ISRO is part of an exclusive league that has successfully ventured to the Moon and the Sun.

Earlier on Wednesday, ISRO celebrated its 100th mission with the textbook launch of NVS-02, part of the NavIC constellation, which will assist in terrestrial, aerial, and maritime navigation, as well as precision agriculture, among other applications. The GSLV rocket injected the payload into the desired orbit.

So far, ISRO has developed six generations of launch vehicles, the first of which took shape under the guidance of Prof. Satish Dhawan, with former President APJ Abdul Kalam serving as the project director in 1979. The payload was the SLV-3 E1/Rohini Technology payload.

Forty-six years later, ISRO has launched 548 satellites into orbit, delivering 120 tonnes of payload, including 23 tonnes for 433 foreign satellites, while progressing towards its 100th mission, Narayanan noted.

Speaking to reporters after the success of today's mission, Narayanan also discussed future projects.

ISRO's collaborative effort with NASA, the NISAR mission, is expected to be launched in a couple of months.

Other ongoing projects include the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), among others.

Narayanan, Secretary of the Department of Space, said that the NASA-ISRO joint collaboration on the Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite mission (NISAR) was set to launch soon.

"This is a joint collaboration between NASA and ISRO. There are two radars one is the L-band radar (developed by ISRO) and the S-band radar developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The entire system has been integrated and tested at the U R Rao Satellite Centre (in Bengaluru). It is ready to be transported from the U R Rao Satellite Centre to Sriharikota," he added.

When asked how many more navigation satellites are needed for India to have its own constellation, Narayanan explained: "Right now, four satellites are operational. Today's launch is the fifth satellite (onboard the GSLV-F15). We have approvals for three more, and we plan to launch one satellite in the next five to six months."

Regarding proposed rocket launches from Kulasekarapatinam in Tamil Nadu, the Chairman said, "We are currently building the facilities, and within two years, once construction is complete, launches will be conducted regularly from there."

Narayanan also mentioned that ISRO had received approval from the Centre to develop Next Generation Launch Vehicles (NGLV), which can carry payloads weighing 20 tonnes to low Earth orbit or 10 tonnes to the Geostationary Transfer Orbit. He noted there is a huge demand for such vehicles from the industry.

These launch vehicles will be used from the newly announced third launch pad, which will be built at an outlay of Rs 4,000 crore.

He stated that NGLVs would be employed in the Chandrayaan 4 and 5 missions, as well as in deep space missions.

Other future launches by ISRO include a commercial flight of LVM3 by NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) for a foreign customer, and the Technology Demonstration Satellite (TDS01) mission to validate nearly 34 technologies, which will be launched by the first PSLV developed by an industry consortium.

"Simultaneously, we are progressing well with preparations for the uncrewed G1 mission as part of the Gaganyaan programme, and several more experiments are targeted for this year," he said.

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