Tag: Spacecraft

Chandrayaan-3 launch

Chandrayaan-3: Spacecraft Lifts Off Successfully From Sriharikota

By LokMarg

The wait is over as Chandrayaan-3 was launched on GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota as per scheduled launch time.

The journey from Earth to the moon for the spacecraft is estimated to take about a month and the landing is expected on August 23. Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. One day on the Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth.
Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country after US, China, and Russia, to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country’s abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3 is the ISRO’s follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its core mission objectives.

Chandrayaan-3 will be inserted into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory after the orbit raising maneuvers. Covering a distance of over 300,000 km, it will reach the Moon in the coming weeks. Scientific instruments onboard will study the Moon’s surface and enhance our knowledge.

Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with a lander, a rover and a propulsion module. It weighs around 3,900 kilograms.

Moon serves as a repository of the Earth’s past and a successful lunar mission by India will help enhance life on Earth while also enabling it explore the rest of the solar system and beyond.

July 14, 2023 will always be etched in golden letters in the annals of India’s space sector history, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ahead of the launch of much-awaited Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission.

“This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation,” PM Modi had tweeted earlier.

“Thanks to our scientists, India has a very rich history in the space sector. Chandrayaan-1 is considered to be a path breaker among global lunar missions as it confirmed the presence of water molecules on the moon. It featured in over 200 scientific publications around the world,” PM Modi wrote on Twitter.

“Till Chandrayaan-1, the moon was believed to be a bone-dry, geologically inactive and uninhabitable celestial body. Now, it is seen as a dynamic and geologically active body with the presence of water and sub-surface ice,” he added, asserting it might be potentially inhabited in the future.

Chandrayaan-2 was equally pathbreaking because data from the Orbiter associated with it detected the presence of chromium, manganese and sodium for the first time through remote sensing. This will also provide more insights into the moon’s magmatic evolution, PM Modi stated.

The key scientific outcomes from Chandrayaan-2 include the first ever global map for lunar sodium, enhancing knowledge on crater size distribution, unambiguous detection of lunar surface water ice with IIRS instrument and more. The mission has featured in almost 50 publications.

Extending best wishes for the Chandrayaan-3 mission, PM Modi urged people to know more about this lunar mission and the strides India has made in space, science and innovation. “It will make you all very proud,” he added.

Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission’s progress.

K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told ANI that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programmes like Gaganyan, India’s first manned space mission.

Former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan, who has been instrumental in the country’s space sector innovation, said on Thursday the Chandrayaan-3 mission is going to be successful and a game-changer event for India.

”Chandrayaan-3 will definitely be a game changer for India and I hope it will be successful. India will become an inspiration to the entire world. Let’s wait for the launch and pray for the best,” Nambi Narayanan told ANI.

“I’m assuming, and I hope that it will be a successful mission. Because whatever the problem in Chandrayaan-2, actually, we corrected the whole thing. From the failure, we have understood all mistakes (on our part),” Narayanan, the recipient of India’s third highest civilian honour, ‘Padma Bhushan’, told ANI.(ANI)

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Vikram-S India's First PVT Rocket

Vikram-S, India’s First PVT Rocket Successfully Lifts Off From Sriharikota

By LokMarg

Vikram-S, India’s first-ever privately developed rocket successfully lifted off from the Sriharikota spaceport on Friday morning.

The lift-off of the Vikram Suborbital rocket took place at 11:30 am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
“Mission Prarambh is successfully accomplished. Congratulations” tweeted the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO and tagged @SkyrootA Congratulations India! @INSPACeIND

The ‘Prarambh’ mission and the Vikram-S rocket have been developed by Skyroot Aerospace start-up in Hyderabad with support from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre). The rocket is carrying payloads of two Indian and one international customers into space.

“89.5 Kms peak altitude achieved. Vikram-S rocket meets all flight parameters. It’s history in the making for India. Keep watching,” Skyroot Aerospace tweeted attaching a YouTube link of the flight

Union Minister Jitendra Singh, on Friday, arrived at Sriharikota for the grand launch of ‘Vikram S’.

Taking to Twitter, Jitendra Singh shared a picture with the team members of Skyroot Aerospace which he captioned, “With #StartUp Team “Skyroot Aerospace” at #Sriharikota, minutes before the launch of the first-ever private Rocket, Vikram-S, named after Vikram Sarabhai, the founding father of India’s Space program. Countdown begins!.”

‘Vikram-S’ is named after Vikram Sarabhai, the founding father of India’s Space Program.

The ‘Prarambh’ mission and the Vikram-S rocket have been developed by Skyroot Aerospace in Hyderabad with support from ISRO and IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre). The rocket is carrying payloads of two Indian and one international customers into space.

With the groundwork starting around late 2020, Vikram-S has been developed within a record time of two years which is powered by solid fuelled propulsion, cutting-edge avionics, and all carbon fiber core structure, as per Skyroot Aerospace.

The Vikram-S will help test and validate the majority of the technologies in the Vikram series of orbital class space launch vehicles, including many sub-systems and technologies that will be tested across the pre-lift off and post-lift off phases of the launch, according to Skyroot Aerospace.

Vikram S is among one of the first few all-composite space launch vehicles, which is made up of 3D-printed solid thrusters for its spin stability.

As per Skyroot Aerospace, with a body mass of 545 kgs, length of 6m, and diameter of 0.375 meters, Vikram-S is the quickest and most affordable ride to space. (ANI)

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