ISRO's 'Matured boy' GSLV rocket successfully injects ISRO's meteorological satellite into orbit
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Feb 17: Moving ahead on its mission to study the Earth and ocean surfaces, ISRO on Saturday successfully launched its next generation weather observation satellite INSAT-3DS onboard a GSLV rocket into a precise orbit.
The flawless mission prompted the ISRO to virtually heave a sigh of relief over the challenging GSLV rocket technology, as the director of today's mission said the "naughty boy has matured into an obedient, disciplined boy," apparently referring to its past unsuccessful missions.
ISRO Chairman S Somanath said the success gave the space agency "greater confidence," as the GSLV will be next deployed in the NISAR mission, a collaborative effort with the US' NASA.
The INSAT-3DS satellite, weighing 2274 kg is a follow-on mission of the third generation meteorological satellite to be placed in a geostationary orbit and is funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The objective of the mission is to provide continuity of services to existing operational INSAT-3D (launched in 2013) and INSAT-3DR (September 2016) for enhanced meteorological observations, monitoring of land and ocean surfaces, weather forecast and disaster warning, as well as to provide satellite aided Search and Rescue Services (SAR) among others.
At the end of the 27.5 hour countdown, the nearly 52 metre tall GSLV-F14 lifted-off majestically from the second launch pad at this spaceport here, at a pre-fixed time of 5.35 pm.
The three stage rocket with a cryogenic upper stage, after a flight of about 20 minutes, got separated from the vehicle as planned and placed the satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
Later, scientists at ISRO would undertake a series of manoeuvres to place the satellite into the Geo-stationary orbit in the coming days.
The rocket carries imager and sounder payloads, data relay transponders, satellite aidedR transponders which would be used to study cloud properties, fog, rainfall, snow cover and depth, fire, smoke, land and ocean among others.
The imager and sounder payloads incorporated in today's mission are similar to those carried by INSAT-3D and INSAT-3DR, with significant improvements in radiometric performances, the space agency said.
INSAT stands for Indian National Satellite System.
Somanath, also Secretary, Department of Space announced the successful accomplishment of the mission.
"The spacecraft has been injected into a very good orbit. The injection conditions were as expected and the vehicle has performed very very well...INSAT-3DS is the next generation weather satellite with improved capability over the existing INSAT series. This will augment the capability of observation of various atmospheric parameters that leads to information related to weather and climate," he said from the Mission Control Center here.
Mission Director Tomy Joseph, referring to the GSLV said, "the naughty boy has matured as a very obedient and disciplined boy."
"Like PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle), GSLV has also become a robust vehicle for ISRO," he said, with his remarks prompting cheers and applause.
Somanath added that with today's mission, ISRO's confidence on GSLV was "further high."
"As all of you know, the next mission of the GSLV is going to be the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite and this gives greater confidence," for the next mission, he said.
According to ISRO, NISAR is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being jointly developed by NASA and the Indian space agency.
NISAR will map the entire globe in 12 days and provide spatially and temporally consistent data for understanding changes in Earth's ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, ground water and natural hazards including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides.
Addressing reporters later, Somanath said the data from the INSAT-3D satellite would be available "every 25 minutes" to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, once it becomes operational.
On GSLV, he said its earlier unsuccessful performances have "become a thing of the past".
"With that confidence, we have to go for the future without any worry on the configuration of the launch vehicle. Of course, everybody knows that every mission of a rocket has its own uncertainty and worries, but we have to overcome that by design and analysis of many of our systems including our cryogenic stage and also payload fairing", he said.
Imteyaz Ahamed, Satellite Director of Saturday's mission said the payloads of INSAT-3DS have been significantly enhanced and the enhancements are in terms of configuration, content and capability resulting in increased imaging throughput.
The satellite was on its way to the destination, with the solar panels having been deployed. A series of orbit raising manoeuvres will be performed in the next few days followed by in orbit testing and commissioning of the spacecraft, Ahamed added.
Various departments of Ministry of Earth Sciences such as India Meteorological Department, National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, National Institute of Ocean Technology, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and various agencies and institutes would benefit from the data provided by INSAT-3DS to provide improved weather forecasts and meteorological services, ISRO said.
The life of the INSAT-3DS mission is expected to be around 10 years.
GSLV-F14/INSAT-3DS Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) February 17, 2024
The vehicle has successfully placed the satellite into the intended geosynchronous transfer orbit. @moesgoi #INSAT3DS
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
