NASA hires ISRO to launch US satellite

Chennai:

In what could be mastery of space technology by India, the country

would be helping United States launch a satellite from Sriharikota soon.

Speaking to Express on the sidelines of Fifth Convocation of AMET

University here on Monday, chairman of Indian Space Research

Organisation A S Kiran Kumar said that US will be the 20th country

which will be signing up with India to launch its satellite from

Sriharikota.

To a query on why US is keen on launching its satellite from India,

Kumar said that it is due to the cost effective technology.

He said that US will be using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which

continues to support Indian and foreign satellite launches especially

for low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites.

Interestingly, this year 28 foreign satellites would be launched from

Sriharikota. “We have till now launched 45 foreign satellites and the

need of the hour is to increase our capacity,” said the ISRO chairman.

Interestingly, Indian Space Research is going to launch  GSLV-Mark-II

by the end of this month. “ We will be launching the 2.2 tonne

Satellite has already reached Sriharikota and is going through final

tests. We plan to make the next launch in August,” said Kumar.

The launch of GSLV-Mark-II is significant as this will put to test

India’s indigenously developed cryogenic engine CE-7.5 with a capacity

of 2.2 tonnes. The GSLV Mark I used cryogenic engine developed by

Russians. The success will also pave way for GSLV Mark III, which is

likely to be tested by the end of next year.

To a query, he said that the endurance hot test of high thrust

indigenous cryogenic engine of GSLV Mk III has been successfully

conducted for duration of 800 seconds. He said that GSLV-MK-III will

have the capability to launch up to four ton class of satellites.

Interestingly, success of GSLV MK III is crucial for human space

missions.

He also said that by March 2016, ISRO would be launching seven new

satellites, including GSLV-Mark-II.

Kumar also said that India is considering a mission to Venus. “It is

in the initial discussion stage. We are considering a mission to

Venus,” the space scientist said.

On the possibility of setting up a launch site at Kulasekarapattinam

in south Tamil Nadu, he said, ISRO has not yet decided.