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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Kerala court sentences man to life imprisonment for doc's murder in hospital
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Kollam (PTI): A teacher convicted in the sensational murder of Dr Vandana Das inside a hospital here was sentenced to life term on Saturday, and the prosecution said it will move an appeal seeking death penalty for the accused. The victim's family also batted for "maximum punishment".
Dr Das was brutally killed inside a taluk hospital in May 2023 by G Sandeep.
Kollam Additional District and Sessions judge P N Vinod sentenced Sandeep to a total of 30 years for various offences under the then Indian Penal Code (IPC) and said that after he serves that period, his life imprisonment for Das' murder will commence.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.35 lakh on the convict.
Though the prosecution had sought death penalty for the accused during the arguments on sentence, the court was of the view that the case does not fall under the rarest-of-rare category to warrant the maximum punishment.
It was also of the view that there was a chance of the convict getting reformed as he told the court that the rest of his life would be one of repentance, the order on sentence said.
"At the same time, I agree with the stand of the prosecution to the effect that the sentence should commensurate with the gravity of the crime and the sentence should not only be reformative, but should also have a deterrent effect."
"In my view, the said objective can be achieved by directing that the term sentences that will be imposed will run consecutively and life sentence that has to be imposed will commence only after the expiration of terms sentences," the judge said.
After the verdict, special public prosecutor (SPP) Prathap G Padickal told reporters outside the court that he will recommend to the prosecution to file an appeal seeking enhancement of the life imprisonment to death penalty.
The victim's father said that the verdict has come as a relief for the family, but that he cannot authoritatively say whether his late daughter has got justice. He indicated his dissatisfaction with the punishment, saying that steps will be taken to seek its enhancement after discussions with the public prosecutor.
Dr Das' mother said that the family can only wish for the maximum punishment and it was up to the court to decide what sentence should be given. She said that the family will go in appeal, but declined to comment on whether her daughter got justice.
She tearfully said that she wants the convict to suffer the same pain that her daughter underwent "as he stabbed her 27 times".
The court on March 17 had convicted Sandeep for various offences under the IPC, including murder, destruction of evidence and wrongful restraint.
It had also held him guilty under the provisions of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of violence and damage to property) Act 2012.
Sandeep was brought to the taluk hospital by the police for medical treatment during the small hours of May 10, 2023 and he went on a sudden attacking spree using a pair of surgical scissors kept in the room where his leg injury was being dressed.
A school teacher by profession, he had initially attacked the police officers and another person who had accompanied him to the hospital and then turned on the young Dr Das, who could not escape to safety.
She was stabbed several times and later succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where she was rushed following the attack.
Dr Das was a native of the Kaduthuruthy area of Kottayam district and the only child of her parents.
She was a house surgeon at Azeezia Medical College Hospital and was working at the Kottarakkara taluk hospital as part of her training.
Sandeep had called the emergency number 112, claiming that his life was in danger. When local police located him, he was standing close by his home, surrounded by local residents and his relatives, and had a wound on his leg following an alleged quarrel.
He was then taken to the hospital for dressing the wound.
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