ISRO to launch CMS-03 satellite in November, says Chairman Narayanan
Bengaluru (PTI): ISRO has scheduled two launches of its heavy-lift rocket LVM-3 to place in orbit two satellites -- CMS-03 and private US communications satellite BlueBird--before this year-end, chairman V Narayanan said on Thursday.
Narayanan said the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite, launched on July 30, was currently in the calibration stage and will become operational within 10-15 days.
"The satellite is healthy and both the payloads are working well," he added.
At a press conference to announce the Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave 2025, the ISRO chief listed out future missions of the space agency and asserted that 90 per cent work on the Gaganyaan project was complete.
The Gaganyaan mission is India’s first human spaceflight mission under development.
"Next month beginning, we are going to have the LVM3-M5 lift off to place a CMS-03 satellite," Narayanan said.
According to ISRO officials, the CMS-03 also known as GSAT7-R is likely to be launched on November 2.
BlueBird-6, a 6.5 tonne satellite of a US firm, is expected to be launched by the year-end, Narayanan said.
"We have received the satellite and are working for the launch, and the launch vehicle build-up is going on," the ISRO Chairman told reporters here.
One of the heaviest commercial satellites, BlueBird-6, arrived in India from the United States on October 19.
Asked about the progress of Chandrayaan-4, the ISRO Chairman said the project is in its design phase.
"Right now, we are working on the design phase and its approved projects. Also establishing the infrastructure that is the basic standard," he said.
The Chandrayaan-4 mission includes bringing back moon rocks and soil to earth after a soft landing on the lunar surface, launching a spacecraft from the moon, demonstrating a space docking experiment in lunar orbit and getting the samples back to earth.
Speaking about NavIC, India's indigenous navigation satellite system, Narayanan said, "We have four satellites and are building three more satellites. Yes, there were setbacks, but we're working on it."
"The NavIC navigation constellation, too, will be completed within 18 months with three new satellites," he added.
Responding to a question on the NVS-02 satellite which had a technical glitch, he said, "The satellite has gone to the elliptical orbit and we could not take it to circular orbit because of a valve malfunction."
The failure analysis committee formed to look into it has completed the investigation and zeroed down on the fault, he said.
"The recommendation of the committee will be placed before the government," he added.
Stating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has clearly outlined the space mission 2047, the ISRO chief said today, India has around 56 satellites in the orbit serving the common man of this country.
"In another three to four years timeframe, the number of satellites are going to be increased to something around three times and by 2027, we are going to accomplish the Gaganyaan programme," he said.
"We are going to build our own space station called Bharatiya Antariksh Station by 2035 and first module, we have got the project approval and right now the work is going on and it is going to be placed in the orbit by 2028," Narayanan said.
Speaking on the next generation launcher, he said that the capability of the first launch was only 35 kg which was successfully accomplished in the year 1980.
"Today, we are talking about something around 30,000 kg to low earth orbit through the next generation launcher. Also, PM Modi has given a guideline for building a launcher for enabling the crewed lunar mission," the ISRO chief said.
"We are in the conceiving phase. We have not completed the design but it has to lift off something about 75,000 to 80,000 kg type of mass it has to lift off. That is the type of work that is going on," he added.
According to him, till today, around 433 satellites from 34 countries have been accomplished. Out of that, almost 95 satellites were accomplished during the last ten years.
"That means when the entire launch programme started from 1980, in 45 years, the last 10 years is 95 per cent of the foreign satellite launch. That shows the exponential growth of the space sector," he said.
"Initially, we were going through the experimental phase, gradually we moved to operational phase. Today we have exponential growth," Narayanan said.
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Indigo cancels 67 flights from multiple airports due to bad weather, operational issues
Mumbai (PTI): Domestic carrier IndiGo on Thursday cancelled 67 flights from multiple airports due to "forecasted" bad weather and operational reasons, according to the airline's website.
Of the 67 cancelled flights, only four were for operational reasons, and the rest were due to "forecasted" bad weather at various airports, including Agartala, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Varanasi, Bengaluru, among others, as per the website.
Aviation regulator, DGCA, has announced the period between December 10 and February 10 next year as the official fog window this winter.
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As part of the DGCA fog operations (CAT-IIIB) norms, airlines have to mandatorily roster pilots who are trained to operate in low-visibility conditions, as well as deploy a CAT-IIIB-compliant aircraft fleet for such operations.
Category-III is an advanced navigation system that empowers an aircraft to land under foggy conditions.
Category-III-A is a precision instrument approach and landing that enables a plane to land with a runway visual range (RVR) of 200 metres, while Category-III-B helps in landing with an RVR of under 50 metres.
IndiGo, whose operations are under DGCA monitoring after the cancellations of thousands of flights early this month, is already operating a curtailed schedule in compliance with the government's order.
Under its original winter flight schedule, the airline was permitted to operate 15,014 domestic flights per week, or about 2,144 flights per day, roughly six per cent higher than the 14,158 weekly flights it operated during the summer schedule of 2025.
However, after the massive disruptions, which saw the airline cancelling 1,600 flights on a single day on account of new rest norms for pilots, which allow more rest to the pilots, the government cut down the airline's domestic flight schedule by 10 per cent or 214 flights per day.
As a result of that, IndiGo can't operate more than 1,930 flights per day on domestic routes under its current winter schedule.
The Rahul Bhatia-controlled airline cancelled thousands of flights between December 1 and December 9 on account of a lack of proper planning, and crew shortage in implementing the new set of regulations for pilots' duty period and rest, which were put in place from November 1, thereby causing severe hardships to lakhs of air travellers.
Following this, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) formed a four-member panel, comprising Joint DG Sanjay Brahamane, Deputy Director General Amit Gupta, senior Flight Operations Inspector Kapil Manglik, and FOI Lokesh Rampal, with a mandate to identify the root causes of widespread operational disruptions at the Rahul Bhatia-controlled domestic carrier.
The panel, which has already grilled IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras as part of its probe, is expected to submit its report by this week.
Meanwhile, IndiGo, in a travel advisory on X, said, "Low visibility and fog over Bangalore has impacted flight schedule. We are keeping a close watch on the weather and doing our best where you need to be safely, smoothly".
Reacting to the advisory, an aggrieved passenger, in an X post, said, "My flight on December 20 from Bhubaneswar to Ahmedabad got delayed for more than five hours, and today my return flight from Ahmedabad to Bhubaneswar also got delayed more than three hours with the same excuse as bad weather. I am travelling with my senior citizen parents, and this delay is not acceptable. Need proper explanation, along with compensation".
