Indian Space Research Organisation

Coordinates: 12°57′56″N 77°41′53″E / 12.96556°N 77.69806°E / 12.96556; 77.69806
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian(Bharat) Space Research Organisation

ISRO (इसरो) logo (adopted in 2002)[1][2]
Agency overview
Formed15 August 1969; 54 years ago (1969-08-15)
Preceding agency
JurisdictionDepartment of Space, Government of India
HeadquartersBengaluru, Karnataka, India
12°57′56″N 77°41′53″E / 12.96556°N 77.69806°E / 12.96556; 77.69806
Employees16,072 as of 2018[4]
Annual budget11,538.26 crore (US$1.5 billion)(2019–20 est.)[5]
Agency executive
Websitewww.isro.gov.in

The Indian Space Research Organisation is the agency of India that deals with space exploration and astronomy. Also known as ISRO, the organisation has made many successes since its creation in 1969. It built and launched the Mars Orbiter Mission which made India the first country to get to Mars on its first try.

Creation[change | change source]

Organised research about space in India was led by two scientists: Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Bhaba.[7][8] Bhaba was the secretary of the Department of Atomic Energy when it was founded in 1950. He supported Sarabhai in creating India's first rocket launch station.[7] In 1962, the Indian National Committee for Space Research was set up by India's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.[9] In 1969, ISRO was created to follow INCOSPAR.

Space flight programs[change | change source]

Like other space programs, ISRO has had many successes and failures. In the beginning, ISRO built satellites that were then launched by other countries, like the Soviet Union. Later, ISRO built many types of rockets. Some of those rockets are now decommissioned, meaning ISRO does not use them anymore. In the future, India also wants to send people to space and send more missions to other planets.

Comparing Indian carrier rockets. Left to right: SLV, ASLV, PSLV, GSLV, and GSLV III.

Launch vehicles[change | change source]

During the 1960s and 1970s India began its own rocket program. ISRO has had five different types of rockets.

The Satellite Launch Vehicle was a 4-stage solid-propellant light launcher. It was supposed to be 500 kilometres (310 miles) tall and be able to carry 40 kilograms (88 pounds). The first launch was in 1979 and launched every year until 1983. It launched successfully for the first time on July 18, 1980.[10] This means that India is the sixth country to get spaceflight by itself. It is now decomissioned.

The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle was a five-stage solid propellant rocket. It was able to carry 150 kilograms (330 pounds) into low Earth orbit. The design was based on the SLV and the project started in the 1980s. The rocket was tested in 1987, 1988, 1992, and 1994 and only two of them were successful. It is now decommissioned.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle uses an expendable launch system to carry things into space. It is still in use.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle also uses an expendable launch system, this time to launch INSAT-type satellites. Currently it is India's second-heaviest launch vehicle and can launch up to 5,000 kilograms (11,000 pounds) into low Earth orbit. There are multiple marks, or versions of this rocket. It is still in use.

Satellites[change | change source]

India's first satellite, which was called the Aryabhata, was launched by the Soviet Union. Since then India has built and launched many different satellites.

Rohini series[change | change source]

Rohini is a series of four satellites. These satellites were launched by the Satellite Launch Vehicle, and three of them were able to make it into orbit.[11]

INSAT series[change | change source]

The Indian National Satellite System (INSAT) is a series of satellites built and launched by ISRO. These help India with telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search-and-rescue.

IRS series[change | change source]

The Indian Remote Sensing satellites (IRS) are a series of satellites built and launched by ISRO. It is the largest series of remote sensing satellites for regular people in the world.

Radar Imagine Satellites[change | change source]

India(Bharat) has two Radar Imaging Satellites (RISAT).

South Asia Satellite[change | change source]

The South Asia Satellite is a communications satellite launched in 2017 as a gift to the other countries in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation satellite system[change | change source]

Also known as GAGAN, this is a national plan for satellite navigation.

IRNSS satellite navigation system[change | change source]

The Independent Regional Navigation Satellite System is made to have accurate position information to people in India as well as 1500 km from its borders. It is made like this because in bad situations, people cannot rely on GPS. ISRO first planned to launch the satellites between 2012 and 2014, but it had to be moved to later years.

Human spaceflight[change | change source]

The first Indian cosmonaut is Rakesh Sharma, who flew with two Russians in Salyut 7 in 1984.[10] The first female Indian astronaut was Kalpana Chawla. She died in Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003. The second female Indian astronaut, Sunita Williams, spent 321 days 17 hours 15 minutes in space.

Exploring other planets[change | change source]

In 2008 ISRO sent Chandrayaan-1 to the moon.[10] It helped discover evidence of water on the moon. ISRO flew the Mars Orbiter Mission in 2013 and it reached Mars in 2014, making India the 4th country to put a spacecraft in orbit around Mars.

Chandrayaan-2 was India's second moon mission. It was launched on 22 July 2019 at 2:43 PM IST (09:13 UTC) to the Moon by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III).[12][13] It includes an orbiter, lander, and rover that would study the moon both on and above the surface. The mission spent some time orbiting Earth before going to the moon. The lander failed to reach the lunar south pole on 6 September 2019 due to a software glitch.[14][15]

Future[change | change source]

India plans to repeat Chandrayaan-3 by 2023.

The next Mars mission will be the Mars Orbiter Mission 2, and will be launched in 2024.

The first mission to the Sun will be a probe called Aditya-L1. It was originally planned for 2012, but was delayed to 2021 and then January 2023. It will study solar wind and space weather.

The first mission to Venus will be an orbiter mission called Shukrayaan-1, that will launch in 2024.

In 2018, prime minister Narendra Modi said that India will send astronauts into space by 2022.[16]

References[change | change source]

  1. "ISRO gets new identity". Indian Space Research Organisation. Archived from the original on 20 August 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  2. "A 'vibrant' new logo for ISRO". Times of India. 19 August 2002. Retrieved 19 August 2018.
  3. Spaceflight, Adam Mann 2019-03-01T22:51:45Z (March 2019). "ISRO: The Indian Space Research Organization". Space.com. Retrieved 2019-06-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "Annual Report 2017-18". ISRO.gov.in. Archived from the original on 24 February 2019. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  5. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-02-24. Retrieved 2019-06-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. "Chairman ISRO, Secretary DOS". Department of Space, Government of India. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
  7. 7.0 7.1 "Dr. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai (1963-1971) - ISRO". www.isro.gov.in. Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  8. "Homi J. Bhabha". Atomic Heritage Foundation. Retrieved 2019-06-18.
  9. Pushpa M. Bhargava; Chandana Chakrabarti (2003). The Saga of Indian Science Since Independence: In a Nutshell. Universities Press. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-81-7371-435-1.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Spaceflight, Adam Mann 2019-03-01T22:51:45Z (March 2019). "ISRO: The Indian Space Research Organization". Space.com. Retrieved 2019-06-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. "Rohini Satellite RS-1 - ISRO". www.isro.gov.in. Archived from the original on 2019-06-30. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
  12. "Chandrayaan-2 Launch Mission: Bahubali rocket set to take-off at 2:43 pm today".
  13. Singh, Surendra (5 August 2018). "Chandrayaan-2 launch put off: India, Israel in lunar race for 4th position". The Times of India. Times News Network. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  14. "ISRO aims for Chandrayaan-2 landing at 1.55 AM on September 07, says Dr K. Sivan". Retrieved 24 August 2019.
  15. "GSLV-Mk III – M1 / Chandrayaan-2 Mission". ISRO.gov.in. Archived from the original on 12 September 2019. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  16. "Gaganyaan mission to take Indian astronaut to space by 2022: PM Modi". The Hindu. PTI. 2018-08-15. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2019-06-30.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)