India's next moon mission depends on Russia: ISRO chief

Sriharikota: India's second moon mission will depend on Russia's decision after a failed inter-planetary mission with China, ISRO chairman said on Sunday, a day when the Indian space agency launched its 100th mission.

"Russia is reviewing its inter-planetary missions after a failed joint mission with China. For Chandrayaan-2, Russia has to provide the lander.

"India will build the lunar orbiter and rover. Russia has said they would come to us with a decision after their review," K. Radhakrishnan told reporters.

The Chandrayaan 2 is planned for 2014 with India's heavier rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

Mr Radhakrishnan said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will ready the rocket and also the lunar orbiter and rover.

While reports are there that the Chandrayaan 2 project may get delayed to 2016, Mr Radhakrishnan did not comment on it.

For its 100th mission, ISRO on Sunday launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C21 carrying SPOT 6, a 712-kg French earth observation satellite, and Proiteres, a 15-kg Japanese micro satellite, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO is now eagerly looking forward to its Mars mission planned for next year.

Ruling out that India was in race with China for the Mars mission, Mr Radhakrishnan said: "Mars mission is a challenging one where we will develop new technologies."

He said ISRO was studying the Mars mission since August 2010 and the union cabinet had recently approved the project.

He said the Mars mission was much more challenging than Chandrayaan 1 mission since it required taking the orbiter from the initial orbit into the Mars orbit as the distance to be covered was huge.

Mr Radhakrishnan said the other major challenge was tracking the satellite with deep space network.

He said to realise the Mars mission next year, ISRO centres were working hard to perfect the GSLV rocket technology including the cryogenic engine technology.

On the expansion of facilities at the space port Sriharikota, Mr Radhakrishnan said ISRO had decided to set up a Multi Object Tracking Radar to track the space debris and to time its rocket launches precisely.

He said ISRO was also planning to have a second vehicle (rocket) assembly building to facilitate increasing launch frequency.

He said ISRO would build two more communication satellites - GSAT 15 and GSAT 16 - to augment its transponder (transmitters that receive and send signals) capacity.

From: NDTV

Countdown begins for India's 100th space mission

Chennai: The countdown for the 100th mission of the Indian space agency, slated for September 9, began today at the Sriharikota satellite launch centre in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from Chennai. Carrying French and Japanese satellites, an Indian rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - will blast off at 9.51 am on Sunday.

"The countdown started at 6.51 am and is progressing normally. Everything normal now," an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official told IANS.

During the countdown, liquid fuel in the fourth stage/engine and also in the control systems would be filled. On Saturday the fuel for the second stage/engine will be filled, the official said.

The 715-kg French satellite, SPOT 6, which is an earth observation satellite, will be the heaviest foreign satellite to be launched so far by PSLV.

The Japanese satellite weighing 15 kg is called Proiteres.

ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation and French company Astrium SAS compete in the global market for vending remote sensing satellite imageries.

The SPOT and Indian remote sensing satellites are the two leading earth observation satellite series.

According to ISRO, the satellite launch agreement between Antrix and Astrium is part of a long-term agreement signed between the two agencies September 2008.

In November 2010, a communication satellite HYLAS was built for a European customer under an agreement between Antrix and Astrium.

The PSLV rocket has successfully launched a total of 53 satellites out of 54 it has carried; ISRO has launched all its 27 foreign satellites successfully.

According to ISRO, India has built 62 satellites and launched 37 rockets, starting from its first satellite Aryabhatta and rocket satellite launch vehicle (SLV).

"ISRO counts each of its rocket flights as a single mission. If our satellite is launched by a foreign rocket then it is counted as single mission. Whereas if an Indian rocket (PSLV) launches multiple satellites built and owned by ISRO then each satellite is counted individually as a mission," an ISRO official said.

Launching foreign satellites or those owned by other Indian organisations are not counted as a mission.

The Sunday flight of PSLV will be counted as single mission.

According to ISRO officials, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to witness the 100th mission at Sriharikota. He will reach the launch centre Saturday evening.

India began its space journey in 1975 with the launch of Aryabhatta satellite using a Russian rocket.

From: NDTV