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India To Offer Cheaper Taxi Rides Into Space With Polar Launcher

India is stacked and ready to join the space age
by Ranjit Devraj
New Delhi (IPS) Sep 16, 2002
In the burgeoning world market for satellite launches and space services, India offers the cheapest taxi rides on its rockets.

On Thursday afternoon , for a mere 15 million U.S. dollars, India launched a meteorological satellite into "geo-synchronous" transfer orbit some 36,000 kilometres above the equator using a modified version of its highly successful space workhorse, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV).

So far, the versatile PSLVs have been limited to injecting satellites, both Indian and foreign, into polar, "sun-synchronous" orbits in a loop around the poles at a modest height of between 800 and 900 km. "If we succeed with this, we can then think of launching communications satellites on the PSLV," said P S Goel, one of the directors of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which has its headquarters in the southern city of Bangalore.

Launching communications satellites is expensive because they have to be positioned 36,000 km out in space and that calls for larger rockets with larger motors using more sophisticated fuels than the PSLV.

In October last year, India used the PSLV to simultaneously inject three satellites into space, the equivalent of cramming more passengers into a taxi. The 'piggyback' riders on the PSLV (called PSLV-C3) included a German satellite and a Belgian one moving along with an Indian passenger.

India collected a million dollars for transporting Germany's 92 kg Bispectral and Infrared Remote Detection (BIRD) satellite and another million dollars from Belgium for its Project for Onboard Autonomy (PROBA) satellite, weighing 94 kilogrammes.

All three were low-orbit, remote-sensing satellites.

Although BIRD and PROBA were almost of equal weight, their owners wanted them placed in different orbits - BIRD in a circular orbit at 569 km and PROBA in a higher elliptical orbit varying in altitude between 568 km and 638 km.

Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of ISRO , marked its entry into commercial launches in 1999 when a PSLV (PSLV-C2) successfully carried into space South Korea's KITSAT satellite and Germany's TUBSAT along with its own OCEANSAT.

With each new mission, the PSLV's lifting capabilities have been enhanced from a 40 kg payload in a 1980 launch until its present capacity to either place a three-tonne satellite in low-earth orbit or put a 1,050 satellite like Wednesday's METSAT into high geo-synchronous orbit.

According to V R Katti , programme director, to help along the PSLV (PSLV-C4), METSAT itself was built lighter using space-age, carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) instead of aluminium. "CFRP met the requirements of being light while still being a good conductor of electricity," he said.

ISRO officials say that when India spent 20 million dollars for a PSLV launch three years ago, China spent 12 times as much for a comparable Long March 3B rocket. The officials expected a rising demand for the launch of low-orbit satellites and the PSLV perfectly fit the bill especially because of its record for reliability.

There are four areas where Antrix Corp. has positioned itself in the space bazaar - launching satellites, supplying sub-systems for satellites made in other countries, and providing services for tracking and monitoring at the master control facility in Hassan town in southern Karnataka state.

Antrix also leases transponders aboard its INSAT series of communication satellites that are built indigenously but launched by the French Arianespace agency. Besides that, it operates a constellation of five remote-sensing satellites.

On average, the Indian Space Research Organisation earns more than 100 million dollars from commercial sales of broadcasting, weather and meteorological data to various agencies such as the EOSAT Corp. in the United States through Antrix Corp.

Besides the earnings, India's satellites have had an enormous impact domestically and helps broadcasters, cellular telephone operators and farmers. The METSAT, for instance, is expected to help more reliable weather forecasting.

Meanwhile, space research organisation reports progress on its bigger Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which uses the controversial cryogenic (super cold) engine technology imported from Russia against opposition from the United States because of its possible use in building inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM)s.

According to an Indian space research official, an indigenous version of the Russian cryogenic engine has been successfully test-fired at a facility in southern Tamil Nadu state earlier this year.

In April last year, India successfully carried out a test flight of its GSLV using Russian engines and once fully operational, it will make India's space programme completely independent and halve the cost of getting its heavier satellites launched by foreign agencies.

For the moment though, each GSLV launch costs 300 million dollars and ISRO's first try in March, last year, ended in an aborted launch, although the vehicle itself was safe.

There has also been criticism of India's satellite programme, particularly that its earth-observation birds as having military capability, but ISR's chairman K Kasturirangan has denied this.

"Whether you call earth observation just that or spying is a matter or interpretation," he said, adding that there was "a policy on how high resolution data should be used consistent with the country's security considerations".

India lays emphasis on international cooperation for its space programme. For example, in March this year the Indian Space Research Organisation signed a memorandum of understanding with the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) that covers cooperation in satellite technology and training programmes.

ISRO and the French National Space Agency (CNES) are jointly studying the climate using the joint satellite mission 'Megha Tropiques', under which a PSLV is due to launch a French satellite in 2005.

Indian Space Research Organization

India Continues To Develop Its Rockets And Motors
Bangalore - Apr 2, 2002
An optimized version of solid motor for third stage of PSLV was successfully ground tested yesterday (March 30, 2002) at ISRO's SHAR Centre, Sriharikota. The performance parameters of the motor during the test were normal.
SPACE.WIRE