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Sunday, September 11, 2016

GSLV-F05 places India's Advanced Weather Satellite INSAT-3DR into orbit on 8th September, 2016

The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO ) on thursday, 8th September, 2016 successfully placed its advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR using the GSLV-F05 Launch Vehicle.

This is the maiden operational flight of the heavy-duty Rocket GSLV-F05 of India fitted with indigenous cryogenic upper stage.  The advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR was successfully placed into the intended orbit by GSLV-F05 on thursday, 8th September, 2016 at exactly 16:50 hrs IST from the space port of India, Sriharikota.

The 49 meter GSLV-F05 lifted off from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota at 4:50 PM and injected the 2,211 Kg INSAT-3DR satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit about 17 minutes later.  It was origninally scheduled to lift off at 4:10 PM IST but due to a delay in Cryo stage filling operations, it was rescheduled to 4:50 PM.

The INSAT-3DR has a mission life of 10 years and will provide service continuity to earlier meterological satellites and further augment the capability to provide various meteorological, search and rescue services.    This is the 10th GSLV flight and assumes significance because this is the first operational flight of GSLV fitted with Indian Cryo stage.  Earlier GSLV launches were under developmental phase.  GSLV-F05 marked a hat-trick of success for the indigenously developed Cryo stage after GSLV-D5 ( January, 2014) and GSLV-D6 ( August, 2015 ) missions which launched GSAT-14 and GSAT-6 satellites into space.

The orbit raising operations from Master Control Facility at Hasan were also successful.  INSAT-3DR would supplement the services of INSAT-3D launched from French Guiana on 26th July, 2013.  The payloads of this satellite are Imager, Sounder, Data-Relay Transponder and Satellite aided search and rescue transponder.  The images would generate the images of Earth every 26 minutes and provide information about various parameters, sea surface temperature, snow cover, cloud motion winds.  The sounder would provide informatio about temperature and humidity.  The data relay transponder will be used for receiving meteorological, hydrological and coeanographic data.  The satellite aided search and rescue transponder would pick up and relay alert signals originating from distress beacon of maritime, aviation, among others.

Here is a video of the live launch.....

India successfully tests its ScramJet Engine technology - ATV D02

An ATV rocket, fitted with two scramjet engines, lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota on Aug. 28, 2016.In an attempt to make the rockets lighter and carry heavier payloads, ISRO has planned to flight test the air-breathing rocket which will use atmospheric oxygen as fuel.  Air breathing engines use atmospheric oxygen and burn it with the stored on-board fuel to generate the upward thrust.  Conventional rockets carry both oxygen and fuel on board.

ISRO on 28th August, 2016 has successfully tested a pair of its scramjet engines - an air breathing ramjet in which combustion takes in a super sonic air flow.  The engines were tested during a sub-orbital flight of Advanced Technology Vehicle ( ATV D02).

The total weight of the ATV rocket was 3270 Kgs and is based on Rohini-560 lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota at 06:00 AM IST on 28th August, 2016.  The total flight duration lasted about 5 minutes is the India's first experimental mission of the scramjet engine technology to develop indigenous air-breathing propulsion system..

During the flight, ISRO has tested the scramjet engines for five seconds.  Once the second stage reached the desired conditions for start-up of the engine, the scramjet engines ignited and worked for about 5 seconds.  The total mission of ATV-D02 ended with a planned touch down of the rocket in Bay of Bengal at about 320 Kilometers from Sriharikota.  All the tests were conducted successfully as per ISRO statement.

The scramjet engines which use atmospheric oxygen can cut the costs of rocket launches by reducing the amount of oxidizer needed to be carried along with the fuel.  With this flight,  India became the fourth country in the world to flight test a scramjet engine.  This launch marks an important mile stone in Indian space programme.

The mission which was earlier scheduled in July, 2016 was delayed due to the disappearance of Indian Air Force AN 32 plane on July 22, 2016 as many ships and aircrafts were patrolling the sea looking for the missing plane and people.

Here is a video about ATV-D02 Mission.