Indian space research organization (ISRO)

Indian space research organization (ISRO) is currently working on a satellite launch vehicle that will cut the cost of launching the satellite by half of what it is today. The chairman of  Isro Mr.G Madhavan Nair informed that currently Indian satellite lauch services are already cheaper by 20-30% than the similar services provided by other countries. With this new achievement, India will become the favourite place for all the countries of the world to launch their satellites.

This new generation space satellite launch vehicle is called Mark-III (GSLV-Mk III). He said all this while delivering the Silver Jubilee Commemoration lecture organised by the KEB Engineers’ Association. He also said that the much awaited GSLV-MK3 will be opertional by the year 2010. Sources say that this new vehicle will be able to launch a satellite as heavy as four tonne  into geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Red Cross Satellite set-up

used for Red Cross data and voice communication back to their National Headquarters in Washington DC.

CARTOSAT-2A

CARTOSAT-2A is a state-of-the art remote sensing satellite with a spatial resolution of about one metre and swath of 9.6 km. The satellite carries a panchromatic camera (PAN) capable of taking black-and-white pictures in the visible region of electromagnetic spectrum. The highly agile CARTOSAT-2A is steerable along as well as across the direction of its movement to facilitate imaging of any area more frequently.

Soon after separation from PSLV fourth stage, the two solar panels of CARTOSAT-2A were automatically deployed. The satellite’s health is continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of ISTRAC network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard in Norway.

High-resolution data from CARTOSAT-2A will be invaluable in urban and rural development applications calling for large scale mapping.

Indian Mini Satellite (IMS -1)

Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), flown as an auxiliary payload on board PSLV-C9, is developed by ISRO for remote sensing applications. Weighing 83 Kg at lift-off, IMS-1 incorporates many new technologies and has miniaturised subsystems. IMS-1 carries two remote sensing payloads - A Multi-spectral camera (Mx Payload) and a Hyper-spectral camera (HySI Payload), operating in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The spatial resolution of Mx camera is 37 metre with a swath of 151 km while that of HySI is about 506 metre with a swath of about 130 km. The data from this mission will be made available to interested space agencies and student community from developing countries to provide necessary impetus to capacity building in using satellite data. The versatile IMS-1 has been specifically developed to carry different payloads in future without significant changes in it and has a design life time of two years.

Nano Satellites for International Customers

Eight Nanosatellites from abroad are carried as auxiliary payloads besides IMS-1 as well as CARTOSAT-2A. The total weight of these Nanosatellite payloads is about 50 Kg. Six of the eight Nanosatellites are clustered together with the collective name NLS-4. The other two nanosatellites are NLS-5 AND RUBIN-8. NLS-4, developed by University of Toronto, Canada consists of six nano-satellites developed by various universities. Two of them - CUTE 1.7 and SEEDS - are built in Japan, while the other four - CAN-X2, AAUSAT-II, COMPASS-1 and DELPHI-C3 are built in Canada, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands respectively. NLS-5 is also built by University of Toronto and RUBIN-8 is built by Cosmos International, Germany. The eight nanosatellite payloads of PSLV-C9 are built to develop nano technologies for use in satellites as well as for the development of technologies for satellite applications.

In its twelve consecutively successful flights so far, PSLV has repeatedly proved itself as a reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle. It has demonstrated multiple satellite launch capability having launched a total of sixteen satellites for international customers besides thirteen Indian payloads which are for remote sensing, amateur radio communications and Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1). PSLV was used to launch ISRO’s exclusive meteorological satellite, KALPANA-1, into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) in September 2002 and thus proved its versatility. The same vehicle will be used to launch Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, India’s first mission to Moon during this year.

insat satellite

With the successful launch of the Chandrayan 1, with payloads from different countries aboard, India has now the capability of commercially launching satellites from different countries, opening a new source of income for the country in the international space market.

As if this is not enough, an ISRO space official has also stated that India can become a major player in the global small satellite manufacturing industry. ISRO estimates that a market potential of 50 satellites over the next decade and this amounts to a whopping $1.5 billion. ISRO has already formed a special team for this purpose and will launch two such small indigenously manufactured satellites in 2009 and 2010, along with overseas payloads.

The advantages of small satellites are that their mass and volume are low, and they are therefore less expensive to be carried to their orbits. Also, they take less time to build and the money required is also far lesser than large satellites. D.V. Raghave Murthy, ISRO's small satellite projects directors told IANS "The satellites give a good performance owing to miniaturization, and simultaneous launch of several satellites is possible if the orbit is same."

The small satellites will have two variants according to ISRO - micro and mini. Micro satellites will weigh 100 kg, with a payload capacity of 30-40 kg, while mini satellites would weigh 400 kg, with a payload capacity of 200 kg. ISRO also makes communication satellites of the INSAT series; the INSAT-4 weighs around four tones and costs about Rs.3 billion.

ISRO launched its first mini satellite - Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), weighing 85 kg using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - PSLV-C9, in April this year. Mr. Murthy said of the IMS-1 "The cost of IMS-1 was around Rs.500 million. The value of each satellite would vary depending on its payload - the instruments it would carry. The mini satellite has two high performance payloads - multi-spectral camera and hyper-spectral camera. Injected into polar sun-synchronous orbit, the satellite is providing good data."

Even though it is small in size, the mini satellite has advanced features too. Murthy said "The miniaturization technologies, developed for small satellites, can be transplanted to bigger ones, thereby reducing their weight." The second micro satellite - YOUTHSAT, will be launched next year, with two Indian and one Russian payload from Moscow University. Murthy added "We will also launch SARAL, a mini satellite with French payload some time in 2010."

Speaking of the application potential of small satellites, he added: "It is mind-boggling. They can be used in remote sensing, atmospheric monitoring, gas detection, pollution monitoring, ionospheric tomography, ocean monitoring and studies, low earth orbit communications, Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)," added Murthy, about the application potential of small satellites. He said that many space agencies are now involved in making small satellites.

ISRO has become a serious challenger and competitor to the Britain-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, OHB Germany, Canada's MDA and Comdev, Israel Aerospace Industries, Orbital Sciences in the US, Thales Alenia in Europe among others.

Since it already has the necessary expertise in making big communication satellites, ISRO hopes to make big in this market and will supply satellites to overseas clients. K.R. Sridhara Murthi, executive director of Antrix, the commercial arm of ISRO said "We are targeting a revenue of around $60 million from manufacturing satellites for others."

It would be interesting to note that ISRO has built and delivered a 32 transponder satellite, W2M, weighing 3,200 kg for the Paris-based Eutelsat Communications. This order is from EADS Astrium, which is Europe's leading satellite system specialist. Transponders supplied by a European manufacturer were assembled at the ISRO satellite center in Bangalore.

ISRO has also grabbed a contract through EADS Astrium for Avanti Screen Media, to manufacture a highly adoptable satellite. What could be better news for India, than India making it big time in the lucrative space industry at times, when most countries are getting sucked into the vortex of economic recession?

sputnik

Sputnik means "traveling companion". Despite the innocuous sounding name, the launch of the Earth's first "artificial moon", Sputnik 1, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957 shocked the free world, setting in motion events which resulted in the creation of NASA, the race to the Moon, the formation of the Internet, and the beginning of a renaissance in science and mathematics learning. Sputnik 1 was a 184 pound, 22 inch diameter sphere with four whip antennas connected to battery powered transmitters. The transmitters broadcast a continuous "beeping" signal to an astounded earthbound audience for 23 days. A short month later, on November 3, the Soviet Union followed this success by launching a dog into orbit aboard Sputnik 2. My birthday falls between these two launches, allowing me to claim that I was born at the beginning of the Digital Revolution.

indian satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon.

Aryabhatta Satellite

 (First Indian Experimental Satellite)

Launch Date : April 19, 1975

Weight : 360 kg

Orbit : 619 x 562 km inclined at 50.7 deg

Lauched by : Soviet Intercosmos rocket.

Bhaskara-I Satellite

(First Indian low orbit Earth Observation Satellite)

Launch Date : June 7, 1979

Weight : 444 Kg

Orbit : 619 x 562 km inclined at 50.7 deg

Lauched by : Soviet Intercosmos rocket.

Bhaskara-II Satellite  

(First Indian low orbit Earth Observation Satellite)

Launch Date : Nov. 20, 1981

Weight : 444 Kg

Orbit : 619 x 562 km inclined at 50.7 deg

Lauched by : Soviet Intercosmos rocket.

Rohini Satellite (RS-1)Series

 

(Launched by Indian launch vehicle SLV-3 )

First RS-1

Launch Date : July 18, 1980

Weight : 35 kg

Orbit : 300 km x 900 km elliptical orbit (97 minutes period)

Lauched by : India, SLV-3 rocket

Second RS-1

Launch Date : May 30, 1981

Weight : 35 kg

Lauched by : India, SLV-3 (D-1) rocket

Orbit : 300 km x 900 km elliptical orbit (97 minutes period)

Third RS-1

Launch Date : April 17, 1983

Weight : 35 kg

Lauched by : India, SLV-3 (D-2)rocket

Orbit : 300 km x 900 km elliptical orbit (97 minutes period)

Aryabhatta Satellite

Launch Date : April 19, 1975

Weight : 360 kg

Orbit : 619 x 562 km inclined at 50.7 deg

Lauched by : Soviet Intercosmos rocket.

Objectives : The objectives of this project were to indigenously design and fabricate a space-worthy satellite system and evaluate its perfromance in orbitr.

* to evolve the methodology of conducting a series of complex operations on the satellite in its orbital phasei.

* to set up ground-based receiving, transmitting and tracking systems

and to establish infrastructure for the fabrication of spacecraft systems.

The exercise also provided an opportunity to conduct investigations in the area of spcae sciences. The satellite carried three experiments, one each in X-Ray Astronomy, Solar Physics and Aeronomy.

yuri gagarin

Early life

Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast, Russia), on 9 March 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honour. His parents, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm.^[1] While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants", this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents — his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II. His two elder siblings were deported to Nazi Germany for slave labour in 1943, and did not return until after the war. While a youth, Yuri became interested in space and planets, and began to dream about his space tour which would one day become a reality.^[2] Yuri was described by his teachers in the Moscow satellite town of Lyubertsy as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics and science teacher had flown in the Soviet Air Forces during the war, which presumably made some substantial impression on young Gagarin.

After starting an apprenticeship in a metalworks as a foundryman, Gagarin was selected for further training at a technical high school in Saratov. While there, he joined the "AeroClub", and learned to fly a light aircraft, a hobby that would take up an increasing proportion of his time. By dint of effort, rather than brilliance, he reportedly mastered both; in 1955, after completing his technical schooling, he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot's School. While there he met Valentina Goryacheva, whom he married in 1957, after gaining his pilot's wings in a MiG-15. Post-graduation, he was assigned to Luostari airbase in Murmansk Oblast, close to the Norwegian border, where terrible weather made flying risky. As a full-grown man, Gagarin was 1.57 metres (5 ft 2 in) tall, which was an advantage in the small Vostok cockpit.^[1] He became Lieutenant of the Soviet Air Force on 5 November 1957 and on 6 November 1959 he received the rank of Senior Lieutenant.^[3]

Selection and training

In 1960, after the search and selection process, Yuri Gagarin was selected with 19 other cosmonauts for the Soviet space program. Along with the other prospective cosmonauts, he was subjected to experiments designed to test his physical and psychological endurance; he also underwent training for the upcoming flight. Out of the twenty selected, the eventual choices for the first launch were Gagarin and Gherman Titov because of their performance in training, as well as their physical characteristics — space was at a premium in the small Vostok cockpit and both men were rather short.

Space flight

On 12 April 1961, Gagarin became the first man to travel into space, launching to orbit aboard the Vostok 3KA-3 (Vostok 1). His call sign in this flight was Kedr (Cedar; Russian: Кедр).^[4] During his flight, Gagarin famously whistled the tune "The Motherland Hears, The Motherland Knows" (Russian: "Родина слышит, Родина знает").^[5][6] The first two lines of the song are: "The Motherland hears, the Motherland knows/Where her son flies in the sky".^[7] This patriotic song was written by Dmitri Shostakovich in 1951 (opus 86), with words by Yevgeniy Dolmatovsky.

Around the same time, some Western sources claimed that Gagarin, during his space flight, had made the comment, "I don't see any God up here." However, no such words appear in the verbatim record of Gagarin's conversations with the Earth during the spaceflight.^[8] In a 2006 interview a close friend of Gagarin, Colonel Valentin Petrov, stated that Gagarin never said such words, and that the phrase originated from Nikita Khrushchev's speech at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, where the anti-religious propaganda was discussed. In a certain context Khrushchev said, "Gagarin flew into space, but didn't see any God there".^[9] Colonel Petrov also said that Gagarin had been baptised into the Orthodox Church as a child.

Fame and later life

After the flight, Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity, touring widely with appearances in Italy, Great Britain,^[11] Germany, Canada, and Japan to promote the Soviet achievement.

In 1962, he began serving as a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He later returned to Star City, the cosmonaut facility, where he worked on designs for a reusable spacecraft. Gagarin worked on these designs in Star City for 7 years. He became Lieutenant Colonel (or Podpolkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force on 12 June 1962 and on 6 November 1963 he received the rank of Colonel (Polkovnik) of the Soviet Air Force.^[3] Soviet officials tried to keep him away from any flights, being worried of losing their hero in an accident. Gagarin was backup pilot for Vladimir Komarov in the Soyuz 1 flight. As Komarov's flight ended in a fatal crash, Gagarin was ultimately banned from training for and participating in further spaceflights.

Photo Gallery: Space Shuttle

U.S. space shuttle Discovery blasts off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, heading for the International Space Station. The world's first reusable spacecraft, the space shuttle launches like a rocket, maneuvers in orbit like a spacecraft, and lands like an airplane. There are three shuttles now in operation: Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour.

If weather conditions are favorable, returning space shuttles land at Kennedy Space Center. Florida storms, however, frequently divert the shuttle to Edwards Air Force Base in California. The shuttle then hitches a ride back to Florida on one of two commercial Boeing 747 airplanes modified for space shuttle piggybacking. Officially called shuttle carrier aircraft, the planes are bolstered with struts, stabilizers, and electronic monitors.

Observers watch as space shuttle Atlantis launches on a mission to deliver a new segment of the International Space Station's backbone, known as the truss, to the orbiting laboratory. The shuttle has the most reliable launch record of any rocket now in operation. Since 1981, it has boosted more than 3 million pounds (1.36 million kilograms) of cargo into orbit.

Space shuttle Atlantis takes flight on December 2, 1988, reaching a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour (27,000 kilometers an hour) in just 8.5 minutes. It will need such a velocity to defeat gravity and stay within the launch window—the time or set of times during a given day that the shuttle can launch, still meet mission objectives, and stay within safety guidelines.

On January 28, 1986, about 76 seconds into its launch, fragments of space shuttle Challenger are seen tumbling against a background of fire, smoke, and vaporized propellants. The left solid rocket booster continues to fly, still thrusting. Later investigations found that faulty O-rings were to blame for the accident, in which all seven crew members died. It was the first such tragedy in shuttle history.

On June 29, 1995, Atlantis became the first space shuttle to dock at Russia's Mir space station. A Russian Mir-19 cosmonaut snapped this photo on July 4 after a brief scientific joyride on the Soyuz spacecraft. This mission, STS-71, had a number of additional historic firsts: It was the hundredth U.S. human space launch conducted from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and it included the largest spacewalk ever undertaken in orbit and the first on-orbit change of shuttle crew.

Carrying Discovery, NASA's crawler transporter creeps along at 1 mile an hour (1.6 kilometers an hour). The trip from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launchpad takes about five hours, and the crawler burns about 150 gallons (570 liters) of diesel fuel every mile.

Space shuttle Discovery touches down at the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The runway is 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) long and 300 feet (90 meters) wide, about twice the size of the average commercial runway. The pavement is made of 16-inch-thick (41-centimeter-thick), high-friction concrete grooved to drain water and add extra friction. Scientists went a little overboard with the friction at first and had to grind down the pavement a bit after several complicated landings.

Space shuttle Columbia, seen here launching in 1993, paved a brilliant legacy before its tragic end. The shuttle disintegrated over east Texas on its landing descent to Kennedy Space Center on February 1, 2003, at the conclusion of a microgravity research mission. Columbia was the oldest orbiter in the fleet and the first shuttle to orbit Earth. It was also the heaviest, weighing 178,000 pounds (80,800 kilograms).

Framed by billowing clouds of smoke, the space shuttle Endeavour launches at night on March 11, 2008, headed for the International Space Station. During the more than two-week trip, astronauts conducted spacewalks and started the installation of a modular laboratory. The mission, STS-123, was NASA's 122nd space shuttle mission.

Photograph courtesy NASA

All About Astronauts

There are few among us that did not wonder in awe about what it would be like to be an astronaut a child. Space exploration will forever peak humanity’s interest and curiosity. The prestige of visiting outer space belongs to a proud few, but as technology develops, more and more people will have the opportunity.

The Federation Aeronautique Internationale states that a man or woman officially becomes an astronaut upon reaching an altitude of over 100 miles. As of March 30, 2006, 443 people have crossed this imaginary line. Efforts to learn more about space are widespread. Since the astronaut Yuri Gagarin made his pioneering exit out of our atmosphere, men and women from 35 countries have joined his notoriety.

During the race to space in the early 1960s, The United States began Project Apollo, a campaign launched to compete with the efforts of Russian scientists and future cosmonauts. With resources going into the Apollo spacecraft, Saturn Launch Vehicle, and details like mission-specific astronaut suits, the U.S. was finally successful when the Apollo astronauts reached the moon and safely returned in July of 1969.

Since the infancy of human presence in space, 18 astronauts have died on missions, and 10 more from launches. Despite this, our interests remain strong and our minds stay determined. Find out more about astronauts, and space-related news in our archive of astronaut pictures, articles and interactive features below.

Neil A. Armstrong NASA Astronaut (former)

PERSONAL DATA: Born August 5, 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. Married. Two sons.

EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue University; Master of Science degree in aerospace engineering from University of Southern California. He holds honorary doctorates from a number of universities.

SPECIAL HONORS: He is the recipient of many special honors, including the Presidential Medal for Freedom in 1969; the Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy in 1970; the Robert J. Collier Trophy in 1969; and the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, 1978.

EXPERIENCE: From 1949 to 1952, he served as a naval aviator; he flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War. During 1971-1979, Armstrong was professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he was involved in both teaching and research. Currently serves as Chairman, AIL Systems, Inc. Deer Park, N.Y.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Armstrong joined NACA, (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics), NASA's predecessor, as a research pilot at the Lewis Laboratory in Cleveland and later transferred to the NACA High Speed Flight Station at Edwards AFB, California. He was a project pilot on many pioneering high speed aircraft, including the 4,000 mph X-15. He has flown over 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, rockets, helicopters and gliders.

In 1962, Armstrong was transferred to astronaut status. He served as command pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, launched March 16, 1966, and performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space.

In 1969, Armstrong was commander of Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing mission, and gained the distinction of being the first man to land a craft on the Moon and the first man to step on its surface.

Armstrong subsequently held the position of Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, NASA Headquarters Office of Advanced Research and Technology, from 1970 to 1971. He resigned from NASA in 1971.

DECEMBER 1993

Space Shuttle Pathfinder

Pathfinder (Honorary Designation: OV-098)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Pathfinder is a 75 ton Orbiter simulator that was created to work out the procedures for moving and handling the shuttle. It was a steel structure roughly the size, weight and shape of an orbiter. It was constructed at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in 1977 and was used as a stand in for Enterprise to test roads and cranes. Pathfinder was shipped by barge to KSC and was used for ground crew testing in the VAB , OPF and SLF. It was then returned to MSFC.

Pathfinder sat in storage for many years until a group of Japanese businessmen offered to spend $1,000,000 to modify the vehicle to more closely resemble a real orbiter. They used it at the “Great Space Shuttle Exposition in Tokyo, Japan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

After the expo, it was returned to MSFC and now is on permanent display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville Alabama. It is on a specal platform and mounted to the Main Propulsion Test Article (MPTA) External Tank used for early tanking tests.

USA Spacecraft Space Shuttle Rocket

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla was born in Karnal, Haryana on 1^st July, 1961. Her father Banarsi Lal Chawla was then a leading industrialist of Karnal and owned a Tire factory. Her mother Sanyogita Chawla, a housewife, expected a boy as her last child, when Kalpana was born. In 1976, she did her schooling from Tagore Bal Niketan school, Karnal. She did her pre-university and pre-engineering from Dayal Singh College, Karnal. She then graduated with BSc (Engg) degree in Aeronautics from Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh. Master of science degree in aerospace engineering in 1984 from University of Texas. Doctorate of philosophy in aerospace engineering from University of Colorado, 1988.

Family: Her elder sister Sunita Chaudhary and her sister in law, Anjali Chawla are ardent bird watchers in Delhi. Her brother Sanjay is a businessman. Kalpana got married to Jean Pierre Harrison, a flying instructor in 1984.

Hobbies: Kalpana Chawla enjoyed flying, hiking, back-packing, and reading. She held Certificated Flight Instructor's license with airplane and glider ratings, Commercial Pilot's licenses for single- and multi-engine land and seaplanes, and Gliders, and instrument rating for airplanes. She enjoyed flying aerobatics and tail-wheel airplanes.

Career: In 1988, Kalpana Chawla started work at NASA Ames Research Center in the area of powered-lift computational fluid dynamics. Her research concentrated on simulation of complex air flows encountered around aircraft such as the Harrier in "ground-effect." Following completion of this project she supported research in mapping of flow solvers to parallel computers, and testing of these solvers by carrying out powered lift computations. In 1993 Kalpana Chawla joined Overset Methods Inc., Los Altos, California, as Vice President and Research Scientist to form a team with other researchers specializing in simulation of moving multiple body problems. She was responsible for development and implementation of efficient techniques to perform aerodynamic optimization. Results of various projects that Kalpana Chawla participated in are documented in technical conference papers and journals.

Astronaut: Kalpana was selected by NASA in December 1994, as an astronaut candidate in the 15th Group of Astronauts. She reported to the Johnson Space Center in March 1995. After completing a year of training and evaluation, she was assigned as crew representative to work technical issues for the Astronaut Office EVA/Robotics and Computer Branches. Her assignments included work on development of Robotic Situational Awareness Displays and testing space shuttle control software in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory.

First Mission: Kalpana Chawla was mission specialist and prime robotic arm operator on Space shuttle mission STS-87. This mission from 19/11/97 to 05/12/97 lasted 15 days, 16 hours, 34 minutes. In completing her first mission, Kalpana Chawla traveled 6.5 million miles in 252 orbits of the Earth and logged 376 hours and 34 minutes in space. In January, 1998, Kalpana Chawla was assigned as crew representative for shuttle and station flight crew equipment. Subsequently, she was assigned as the lead for Astronaut Office’s Crew Systems and Habitability section.

Second Mission: She was one of the seven members of the crew of STS-107 as Mission Specialist. This mission from 16/01/03 to 01/02/03 lasted 15 days, 22 hours, 21 minutes and resulted in her tragic death. The space shuttle Columbia, while returning to Earth, disintegrated in air on 1st Feb, 03 about 16 minutes before it was scheduled to touch down, killing all seven crew members.

India plans manned space mission by 2015

That will be preceded by an unmanned moon mission in April 2008

HYDERABAD, India - India plans a manned space mission by 2015, using indigenous systems and technology, a top scientist said Thursday.

That will be preceded by an unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, in April 2008, G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of state-run Indian Space Research Organization, told reporters.

However, there was no immediate plan to send a manned mission to the moon as that required a very powerful rocket system, Nair said on the sidelines of an international astronautical conference being held in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

 

India plans to launch first space shuttle in 2010 - space official

BANGALORE, August 13 (RIA Novosti) - India is planning to launch a reusable spacecraft for the first time in 2010 and to send a mission to Mars as early as 2012, a senior space official said Monday.

India has been successfully developing its space program in recent years, regularly launching satellites using its own booster rockets.

"Our target [for the first launch] is before 2010," the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Madhavan Nair as saying.

Indian scientists have already designed a prototype of the space shuttle to measure parameters of the vehicle and determine future work on the project, the official said.

"The launch vehicle will use a rocket to boost it up to Mach 5 or so," Nair said, adding that air-breathing modules could be integrated into the reusable delivery vehicle.

The news agency said the ISRO is also focusing its attention on an unmanned mission to Mars to study chemical attributes of the Martian atmosphere, and the planet's sub-soil and terrain. The mission could take place as early as in 2012.

India earlier announced plans to launch 15 telecommunications satellites and 8-10 earth remote sensing satellites by March 2012, when the 11th five-year plan has been completed.

Russia, India may jointly develop new space shuttle

MOSCOW: India and Russia could jointly develop a new generation space shuttle for manned space flights and negotiations for the project are expected to begin in January, according to a top space official.

"India has expressed desire to participate in the development of a new reusable manned spaceship and from January next we will discuss this issue with the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation," Chief of Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov said.

Although Perminov did not identify the project, but 'Energia' Corporation is reportedly developing reusable spacecraft 'Clipper', which is expected to replace Soviet-designed Soyuz spaceships in Russia's national space programme.

Perminov said India was Russia's privileged space partner with which it was working in different directions and has granted Indian space experts access to many of its ground control facilities.

"With India we are interacting in carrier rockets, their components, dual use systems, global positioning system GLONASS and mission control and ground tracking equipment," Perminov said here at an year-end news conference.

Russia, which launched three satellites on Christmas to commercially operationalise Soviet developed global navigation satellite system (GLONASS), has taken India onboard in further developing of the system to end dependence on the Pentagon controlled Global Positioning System (GPS), which was twice switched off to enable US strikes during the Balkan and Iraq wars.

Russia, India may jointly develop new space shuttle-Rest of World-World-The Times of India

India plans to test space shuttle in next 12 months

[ISRO] hopes the shuttle will enable India to offer cut-price satellite launches and become a dominant player in the industry. Last night officials said if successful the shuttle may, in time, be used for other transport uses, but its main purpose now is to “reduce the cost of access to space.”

The Indian shuttle, currently known by its technical name, Reusable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator – will now undergo a number of structure and load tests before it takes its first test flight early next year.

It bears a strong resemblance to the American Challenger shuttle, with a tube-shaped body and triangular wings, and sits vertically, nose up, on top of its launch rocket.

ISRO spokesman Mr S. Satish on Thursday night said that, if successful, the demonstrator would “prove the technology for the development of a space shuttle,” but it would be a further four or five years before the country would be ready for a commercial launch.