India developing next-gen rocket for heavy satellite launches

Sagar Kulkarni

New Delhi, Jan 1 (PTI) After an eventful year capped by
the mission to moon, Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO)
scientists are now developing the next generation launch
vehicle to cut by half the cost of putting satellites in
orbit.

The new year will see a series of tests in the
development of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
(GSLV) Mark III, which is expected to take to the skies in
2010-11 period.

The new rocket, which can put a four tonne satellite in
orbit, will help Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, to
offer cheapest space launches in the niche market. The regular
GSLV can put 2.2 tonne satellites in orbit.

"The new year will see solid booster testing for the Mark
III, followed by the liquid stage after which we will test the
cryogenic engine stage," K Radhakrishnan, Director, Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre told PTI.

"We are planning to have flight testing during 2010-11
period," he said.

Radhakrishnan said ISRO will be able to pack more
transponders in one space flight. "This makes it a cost
effective solution and will give us a niche in the world in
launching four tonne satellites," he said.

The GSLV Mark III will also help ISRO put more Indians in
space at one go. As per the current plans, the agency plans to
send two Indians on a week-long space sojourn in 2015.

"The regular GSLV will be used for the human spaceflight.
In case we use Mark III, we can send three persons instead of
two," Radhakrishnan said.

With GSLV Mark III, ISRO can think of sending more
meaningful probes to Mars and other inter-planetary missions
which it plans to undertake in the future.

ISRO has announced that it will launch a mission to Mars
in 2013 using the regular GSLV which is capable of carrying a
500 kg payload to the Red planet.

"For the Mars expedition, you can use a PSLV or the
regular GSLV or even the Mark III but if you have to have a
meaningful mission the instrument has to be large enough to
carry out many experiments," Radhakrishnan said.

He said the agency also plans to build in more
reliability into the new rocket to make is usable for
undertaking human space mission.

According to ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair, Antrix
Corporation made Rs 1,000 crore this year by launching and
building satellites for foreign firms and institutions.

"We hope to grow at the rate of 20 per cent every year,"
Nair said.

A major chunk of it came through the development of W2M
communications satellite ISRO built for Eutelsat. The 3.5
tonne satellite was launched by Ariane rocket from Kourou in
French Guiana.

ISRO crossed key milestones last year with the successful
launch of Chandrayaan-I in October and earlier in April when
it put into orbit 10 satellites on a single Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV), becoming the first country to
achieve the feat.

Of the 10 satellites, two -- Cartosat-2 and Indian Mini
Satellite -- were developed indigenously, while eight nano
satellites belonged to international customers. PTI SKU