ISRO forays into small satellite launch market with SSLV success
Sriharikota (AP) (PTI): ISRO on Friday tasted maiden success in the small satellite launch vehicle segment, with its SSLV D2 rocket injecting three satellites into an intended circular orbit, months after the maiden mission failed to bring in the desired results.
The satellites included ISRO's earth observation satellite EOS-07.
ISRO's first mission in 2023 and SSLV's sequel saw a strange coincidence--it was launched at 9.18 AM, the same time its predecessor lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on August 7, 2022 but could not deliver due to orbit anomaly and flight path deviation.
With the earlier SSLV not living up to the expectations, 'corrective measures' were put in its successor.
A visibly relieved Chairman of the Indian Space Research Oragnisation (ISRO), S Somanath said SSLV in its second flight put the three satellites in the intended orbit with precision.
"Congratulations to the space community of India...we have a new launch vehicle, the small satellite SSLV. In its second attempt, SSLV D2 has placed the satellites in the intended orbit precisely. Congrats to all three satellite teams," he said from the Mission Control Centre (MCC) soon after the successful launch that brought all round smiles.
All the problems related to the previous SSLV launch have been identified, corrective action taken and implemented in good time, Somanath added.
Mission Director S Vinod said the ISRO team made a "comeback" is short time soon after the August 7, 2022 failure.
ISRO now has a "new launch vehicle" on offer for the launch vehicle community, he added.
Earlier, the 34-metre tall SSLV soared into majestically into clear skies at 9.18 AM, after a six and a half hour countdown, carrying with it the EOS-07, besides Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 satellites. The rocket placed the satellites into the intended 450-km circular orbit after a 15-odd minute flight.
EOS-07 is a 156.3 kg satellite which has been designed, developed and realised by ISRO. New experiments include mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload.
Janus-1, a 10.2 kg satellite, built by Antaris, USA is a technology demonstrator, smart satellite mission, ISRO said.
AzaadiSAT-2, weighing about 8.2 kg is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai. It aims to demonstrate amateur radio communication capabilities, measure radiation, among others, the space agency added.
According to ISRO, SSLV is capable of launching mini, micro or nano satellites in the 10-500 kg segment into the 500 km planar orbit. It caters to the launch of satellites to Low Earth Orbits (LEO) on "launch-on-demand" basis. It provides low-cost access to Space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and demands minimal launch infrastructure, ISRO added.
It is configured with three solid propulsion stages and a velocity terminal module.
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Congress slams Modi govt over Manipur unrest
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday attacked the Modi government over the situation in Manipur, accusing it of being apathetic and remorseless.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge noted that Manipur started burning exactly a year ago on May 3, 2023.
"Humanity perished in Manipur The cruel combination of an apathetic Modi Government and an inept BJP State Government have virtually divided the state into two halves.
"A remorseless PM Modi has not set foot in this border state, for it exposes his rank incompetency and absolute indifference. His ego has damaged the social fabric of a beautiful state," he charged in a post on X.
Kharge noted that the people of Manipur, from all communities now know how the BJP made their lives miserable.
"People of Northeast, now know that Modi Government's shameless drumbeating about so called development drowned the voices of humanity in the region. People of India, now know that PM Modi and his Government has no iota of sympathy for the countless lives they destroyed in Manipur," the Congress chief said.
He claimed that more than 220 people have been killed, 60,000 people have been displaced and thousands, including women and children, still continue to languish in camps.
"Women were raped, paraded and horrific violence took place, but the PM kept quiet. Only after outrage, that the PM bothered to pay lip-service in August 2023, which now reverberates hollow," he alleged.
Our security personnel are getting martyred. Police trainees of two communities shot at each other and arms and ammunition were looted, he claimed.
In January, we witnessed, how an armed group coerced MPs/MLAs to attend a meeting at the heavily guarded Kangla Fort, where @INCManipur President was brutally assaulted and tortured, he said.
Kharge claimed that there is no semblance of governance in Manipur and that law and order has collapsed.
"With deep sense of sadness, we pay our tribute to the countless innocent lives who suffered this unimaginable violence and who are still suffering, searching for a glimmer of hope for peace to return.
"Due to the BJP, normalcy and peace evades Manipur," the Congress president alleged questioning the silence of the Modi government and the prime minister on the situation in the north eastern state.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the prime minister of abandoning the people of Manipur and outsourcing the management of the state to the Home Minister, who, he charged, has proved to be "hopelessly inadequate, insensitive, and incompetent".
"Exactly a year ago today, Manipur erupted - or more accurately, was made to erupt by the cynical and divisive politics of the ruling BJP," he alleged.
"Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands have been displaced, and Manipur’s communities now live in a deep-rooted suspicion of each other.Security forces themselves are routinely attacked and armed militias enjoying official patronage rule the roost...What is astounding is that just fifteen months earlier in the assembly elections the BJP and its allies had received a thundering mandate. That mandate evaporated on May 3rd 2023 entirely because of the BJP's own (mis)calculations and manipulations," he said.
Even amidst this "civil war-like situation", the prime minister has been eloquent in his silence, Ramesh said criticising Modi for not visiting Manipur even for a few minutes, even though he has been to Assam, Tripura, and Arunachal Pradesh for his campaign.
The Congress leader charged that the situation in Manipur today is the doing of the Modi Sarkar’s policy of ‘Bluff and Rule,’ which has characterised its actions in the Northeast.
"It is a shortsighted policy that prioritises stringing communities and stakeholders along for as long as possible, without meaningfully addressing their concerns. It has blown apart the social fabric of Manipur, and it is now blowing apart Nagaland as well. The voter turnout in six districts of Eastern Nagaland, which went to polls in Phase I of the Lok Sabha elections, was a very high zero - which even the Election Commission could not revise to a higher number. The PM has talked of trailers: Manipur is itself a trailer of what the BJP will do to our wonderful diversity, he said.
"The pain and agony of the people of Manipur is the pain and agony of the people of India. RahulGandhi has visited Manipur twice in the last year, and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra began in Imphal on the 14th of January, 2024. Today is a day when we empathise with the people of all sections of Manipur society and hope that peace and social harmony will once again return soon," he added.
