ISRO scripts history with successful commercial mission LVM3-M2
Sriharikota (PTI): Indian Space Research Organisations' heaviest rocket LVM3-M2 on its maiden commercial mission on Sunday successfully placed 36 broadband communication satellites of a UK-based customer into the intended orbits, the space agency said, describing the mission as 'historic'.
OneWeb Ltd is the UK-based customer of NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), ISRO's commercial arm, and a global communication network powered from space, enabling internet connectivity for governments and businesses. Bharti Enterprises is one of the major investors in OneWeb.
With Sunday's success, ISRO put behind the anomaly experienced in its August 7 Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) mission, that had then made the satellites unusable.
Early on Sunday, a beaming ISRO Chairman S Somanath announced Deepavali had started early for the scientists at the space agency.
"LVM3 M2/OneWeb India-1 mission is completed successfully. All the 36 satellites have been placed into intended orbits. @NSIL_India @OneWeb," ISRO said in a tweet, minutes after Somanath announced that 16 satellites have been placed in the desired orbits while the rest would take some more time.
All the 36 satellites were injected into the orbits around 75 minutes after the rocket blasted off from the spaceport here.
Addressing the gathering at the Mission Control Centre, Somanath said the festival celebrations started at Satish Dhawan Space Centre as LVM3 and its very first commercial mission have accomplished the orbit very accurately.
"Now the rocket has entered into the orbit, 16 satellites out of the 36 satellites have been already injected. I wanted to tell you that this is a slow process of separating the satellites. The data of the separation of the remaining 20 satellites will come little later and mission operations of observing this separation is continuing", he said earlier. ISRO later confirmed the desired objective of the mission has been met.
Former ISRO chiefs K Sivan and A S Kiran Kumar and Bharti Enterprises founder-chairman Sunil Mittal among others witnessed the launch from the Mission Control Centre.
Terming the mission as 'historic', Somanath, also the Secretary, Department of Space credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi's support for the mission's success.
"Congratulations to the entire launch vehicle team for grabbing the opportunity and making it ready today for the historic mission. I also want to thank the OneWeb team for having confidence in us to host the LVM3...we are very hopeful that the next mission of LVM3 will do the same to place the remaining 36 satellites it has been contracted by NSIL", he said.
NSIL Chairman and Managing Director D Radhakrishnan, complementing the ISRO team for a 'commendable' mission of LVM3 said, "the three major stakeholders to this particular mission the NSIL, ISRO and OneWeb India, have shown the entire world how to contract and execute the mission in less than 3-4 months."
Earlier, at the end of 24-hour countdown, the 43.5 metre tall rocket soared majestically in a prefixed time at 12.07 am on Sunday from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.
The vehicle is also dubbed as one of the heaviest for its ability to carry satellites up to 8,000 kg.
The entire mission to place 36 satellites took around 75 minutes from the lift off as it required scientists to turn off the engine to place the satellites into their respective orbits.
Sunday's mission marks several key milestones as the LVM3-M2 mission is the maiden dedicated commercial mission for the launch vehicle.
According to ISRO, the vehicle carried the heaviest payloads with 36 satellites of OneWeb, becoming the first Indian rocket with a payload of 5,796 kg.
Mission Director Thaddeus Baskar said, "the mission was a demand given to this team by ISRO Chairman to execute the mission in a very short time of less than three months."
"Once the requirement was defined the entire team ISRO rose to the occasion, worked with full vigour. During the entire schedule, there was no room for sleep and everything has to be done right at the first time itself", he said.
The launch is also first for LVM3-M2 to place the satellites in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO-up to 1,200 kms above the Earth) unlike Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
ISRO scientists had renamed the launch vehicle as LVM3-M2 from GSLV-Mk III as the newest rocket is capable of launching 4,000 kilograms class of satellites into GTO and 8,000 kg of payloads into LEO.
The LVM3-M2 mission would give a fillip to the space agency with the new launch vehicle set to place satellites into the low earth orbit, along with ISRO's trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The rocket is a three-stage launch vehicle consisting of two solid propellant S200 strap-ons on its sides and core stage comprising L110 liquid stage and C25 cryogenic stage.
OneWeb is implementing a constellation of 648 satellites in the Low Earth Orbit. While 36 satellites were launched on Sunday, another batch of satellites was expected to be placed in the orbit by early 2023, ISRO said.
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BJP chief Vijayendra targets Siddaramaiah govt on law and order situation in Karnataka
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Saturday targeted the Congress government in the state alleging the collapse of the law and order situation and raised concerns about the safety of women, while urging the Siddaramaiah-led administration to "wake up" and take immediate measures in this regard.
He also reiterated the party's demand that the state government hand over the probe relating to cases of sexual abuse of women against Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna to the CBI.
"From the time Congress came to power in the state, the law and order situation has completely deteriorated. Murders and extortions are taking place everywhere. There is rise in rape and love jihad cases. There are questions about women's security," Vijayendra said.
While speaking to reporters here, he said, the deteriorating law and order situation is bringing disrepute to the state.
"There is a sense as though there is no government here and the police system is not functioning. As the government is not taking stringent measures, murders are on a rise in Karnataka. So we have held a protest across the state.
"It is already late now, we urge that the government should wake up at least now and discharge its duty of maintaining law and order, and take measures to give protection to women," he added.
Protests were held by the mahila morcha (women's wing) of BJP across the state today and memorandums were submitted to Deputy Commissioners in all districts. In Bengaluru a delegation led by senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda submitted a memorandum to Director General of Police (DGP) Alok Mohan.
The BJP's stand is very clear regarding cases involving Prajwal Revanna and charges of sexual abuse of women against him, Vijayendra, in response to a question, said and added that the state government has to take the issue seriously and handover the probe to the CBI.
"Every day new things are coming forward in this case. So I demand that without any delay the Hassan's Prajwal Revanna cases should be given to the CBI probe. Why is the government hesitant? Names of several senior leaders are also being heard in connection with the cases, and leak of alleged explicit videos. There cannot be fair probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT)," he said.
The BJP is not supporting anyone in connection with these cases and only wants justice for women victims, Vijayendra said, adding that "Instead of using the cases politically, government should immediately hand over them to the CBI aimed at providing justice for women victims...there is no question of any party here, it (alleged sexual abuse) was a henious crime, whoever is guilty, however big they are, they should be punished."
The state BJP chief was responding to party leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda, who is in custody after being arrested in a sexual abuse case and is also facing charges of video leak, on Friday alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and four other ministers are behind the circulation of pen drives containing explicit videos involving Prajwal Revanna, and that he was being fixed in false cases as he did not agree to be part of their plan.
Gowda has even alleged that he was offered Rs 100 crore by Shivakumar to "bring a bad name" to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and to tarnish the image of JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy in Prajwal Revanna's obscene video case.
