ISRO General News and Updates

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By Spansen
When An Indian Rocket Shot Up Into The Norwegian Sky

To a positively mixed outcome.


In 1997, 4 Scientists from Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] travelled to the Svalbard Rocket Range, in Norway, for a unique mission. The, then, still fledgling Antrix Corporation Ltd. had recently bagged one of its earliest export orders. Setup in 1992, to commercialise ISRO's portfolio of services, it had signed an agreement with the Norwegian Space Centre for the sale of a Rohini RH-300 Mk.II Sounding Rocket. As far as I can tell, it was Antrix's first hardware sale.

Designed to launch a 70 kg payload to an altitude of 120 km, the RH-300 would carry a Langmuir Probe on-board, to undertake Polar Ionospheric studies. The launch was also the first from the newly setup Svalbard range, signalling its inauguration. A big deal it, thus, was for all involved. More used to the tropical climes of Thumba, in Kerala, the Rocket had, therefore, to be qualified afresh for a launch from the Svalbard's perpetually ice-covered surroundings. Thus, after ensuring critical systems like its solid-fuelled Engine, Igniter, Spin Rocket & Pyros were up to the task, the Rocket was shipped off to the range, the northernmost in the world.



M.C. Dathan, M Raveendran, C. Subbaiah & A. Narayanankutty accompanied the Rocket to provide guidance for the mission. Madhavan Chandradathan, later, rose to become the Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre [VSSC]. He, currently, is the Scientific Adviser to the Chief Minister of Kerala. At site, the Norwegians christened it Isbjørn-1, meaning Polar Bear 1. Prior to launch, the Rocket, positioned on the launcher, was covered with a Velostat, to protect it from the harsh Polar weather, where temperatures ranged from -5 to -20 degrees Celsius. At launch it was to tear through the Velostat's fabric, soaring upwards. Quite a sight, I'd imagine.


On November 20, 1997, the Isbjorn-1 took to the skies, reaching, however, an altitude of only 71 km. Its range, too, fell short of the designed 129 km, by 35 km. Post-launch analysis revealed that, instead of launching the Rocket at an angle of 84 degrees, it was incorrectly aligned at 75. In addition, the Spin Rockets too failed to ignite, as electric supply to its igniter got disconnected, likely while covering the Rocket with the Velostat, they concluded.

All wasn't lost, though, it appears, as it provided some unexpected benefits. Thanks to the Rocket's longer dwell time in the lower apogee, the payload was able to gather a lot of data from that region. From those days, when India offered relatively low-tech Sounding Rocket, today, it engages in undertaking record-breaking services. Come a long way. A long way to go.

Godspeed
 

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Kepler Communications satellite payload. Credit: Kepler Communications.
Kepler Communications Will Launch its First Satellite This November on an Indian Rocket
Kepler Communicationsannounced today it has selected Innovative Space Logistics B.V. (ISL), part of the Innovative Solutions in Space (ISIS) group of the Netherlands, as their launch contractor, and that their first satellite will launch on an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket this November.
The Indian PSLV set a record for launching 104 satellites this past Tuesday evening and has become a reliable workhorse for lower cost launches.
SpaceQ contacted Kepler regarding their upcoming launch to get some additional details.
Originally Kepler had planned on launching two satellites in late 2017 but opted to stagger the “launches to mitigate risk of launch failures” according to Jeffrey Osborne, Co Founder & VP Strategy & Business Development.
This first launch “will be purposed as a technology demonstration mission for Kepler’s novel Ku-band SDR and high gain antenna,” according the press release.
As previously reported on SpaceQ, Kepler is seeking approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to operate their new communications sensor for this and future satellites in their constellation.
According to Osborne they are “going through the regulatory process right now to get operational licenses.”

Kepler CEO Mina Mitry holding the CubeSat bus before assembly. Credit: Kepler Communications.
Kepler CEO Mina Mitry said “any mission is important, but doubly-so for the inaugural flight. We are taking all measures to ensure a successful mission and ISSI, through ISL, offered the best solutions for achieving success. We are more than excited to work with ISL and their outstanding team as we prepare for flight.”
“This flight will be the first commercial LEO communications satellite to operate in Ku-band, a coveted band within the communications service provider world. With the increasing interest in mega LEO constellations, being the first company to actually bring this spectrum into use is a major step forward for Kepler.”
ISL has procured launches for 75 satellites since it was founded in 2006.
“We love being able to partner and work with these early-stage and rapidly growing startup space companies”, says Jeroen Rotteveel, CEO of ISL. He continues, “we take a tremendous amount of pride in ensuring we can share our expertise for these new companies and create successful missions together.”
 

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Reaching for the stars
Last week, ISRO launched a record 104 satellites on a single launch vehicle. The bar will be raised further when India fires its most powerful rocket ever, the GSLV Mark-III.

Last Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) opened its launch activities for 2017 by deploying an eye-popping 104 satellites on a single Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), making it seem easy to accomplish. There’s more to come.
The space agency is now gearing up to send the “Satellite for South Asia” on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) next month. This is a satellite that Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed ISRO to produce three years back. The GSAT-9, as it is also known, is intended to provide a range of communication and broadcasting services to neighbouring countries. (Pakistan, however, decided to opt out.)
Far more momentous will be the first developmental flight of the country’s most powerful launch vehicle thus far, the GSLV Mark-III, which is currently expected to take place in the second half of April. This is a massive rocket that weighs one and a half times as much as its predecessor, the GSLV, and, more importantly, will have twice its heft in terms of payload capacity. So it will be able to carry communication satellites that are too heavy for the latter and which ISRO must at present launch abroad at a cost of hundreds of crores of rupees each.
Just two days after the 104-satellite launch, a major milestone was crossed. The final ground test of the Mark-III’s cryogenic stage was successfully completed at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. A cryogenic engine burns a highly-efficient propellant combination, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. But their ultra-low temperature, particularly of liquid hydrogen, creates enormous problems when using them in rockets. A cryogenic stage holds the engine as well as insulated tanks for the propellants and all the pipes, valves and other components need to control their flow to the engine.
It is difficult technology to master. In 1991, India had signed a contract with Russia to acquire its technology for a cryogenic engine and stage. But, under pressure from the United States, the Russians backed out of the deal two years later and ISRO was left to develop that capability on its own. The Russians did supply seven flightworthy stages, six of which have flown as the upper stage of GSLV rockets, with the first such flight carried out in 2001. It took ISRO 20 years to produce indigenous equivalents of the Russian engine and stage. The first successful flight of a GSLV equipped with an indigenous “Cryogenic Upper Stage” (CUS) took place just three years back, making India only the sixth nation to possess cryogenic technology.
The GSLV Mark-III’s CE-20 cryogenic engine and C25 cryogenic stage, on the other hand, are based on a wholly Indian design that is considerably simpler, though a bit less efficient in terms of propellant consumption, than the CUS. Moreover, the CE-20, producing, as its name suggests, 20 tonnes of thrust, is two and a half times more powerful than the CUS engine. It also ranks, according to ISRO, as one of the most powerful upper stage cryogenic engines in the world. Experience with the CUS had greatly aided development of the Mark-III’s cryogenic engine and stage, remarked S. Somanath, director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), which has its headquarters near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
Some elements of the CUS engine and its manufacturing process had, for instance, gone into the Mark-III’s CE-20 engine. Stage development, too, had benefited. In the case of the GSLV, after the Russian engine was indigenised and qualified, a flightworthy CUS took eight years to develop, he pointed out. But for the Mark-III, “the [cryogenic] engine was qualified just six months back and we have tested the stage now,” he said.
The Mark-III’s C25 stage was test fired for 640 seconds, the duration for which it is expected to operate in flight, at Mahendragiri last Friday (February 17). The successful completion of all ground tests means the CE-20 engine and the C25 are now ready to take wing. That in itself is a hugely significant event, further underscoring India’s mastery of cryogenic technology. Assembly of the cryogenic stage for the Mark-III’s first development flight is in progress, according to P.V. Venkitakrishnan, the IPRC director. The stage would be ready for transportation to Sriharikota by the middle of March. The Mark-III’s core stage is powered by twin Vikas liquid propellant engines that are used in the PSLV and GSLV as well. On either side is one of the world’s largest solid propellant boosters loaded with 200 tonnes of propellant. The C25 cryogenic stage goes on top of the core stage.
ISRO flight tested the GSLV Mark-III on an experimental mission in December 2014, using a dummy cryogenic stage. The mission had been carried out to address a number of important questions about the rocket’s performance in actual flight, according to Somanath, who was the Mark-III project director at the time. He claimed that all those questions are answered. “I think we had a beautiful flight,” he said. Now, “we are sure that all the lower stages are going to perform” and so there was greater confidence in the success of the upcoming mission with the actual cryogenic stage.
The GSLV is currently capable of accommodating a communication satellite weighing up to about 2.2 tonnes. However, since 2002, ISRO has launched 11 INSAT and GSAT communication satellites that exceeded that capacity. These satellites, weighing between 2.7 tonnes and 3.4 tonnes, went into space aboard Europe’s Ariane rockets. The cost of launching just one of those satellites, the 3.4-tonne GSAT-18 that flew on the Ariane 5 last October, came to Rs 459 crore.
On its forthcoming flight, the GSLV Mark-III will be carrying a 3.3-tonne communication satellite, GSAT-19. The payload capacity of the rocket could be enhanced in various ways to about 4.5 tonnes, according to K. Sivan, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, the lead institution for launch vehicle development. ISRO is currently working on a 200-tonne thrust semi-cryogenic engine, running on liquid oxygen and kerosene. A core stage with one such engine would raise the Mark-III’s capacity to 6 tonnes.
 

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Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Department of Space
02-February-2017 15:23 IST
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has all the requisite facilities for launching satellites using Indian launch vehicles at its launch complex located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. These facilities comprise of (i) two operational satellite launch pads, (ii) Filling Control Centre (FCC) for propellant filling operations and (iii) Mission Control Centre (MCC) & Launch Control Centre (LCC) for coordinating and conducting the launch operations during the countdown phase till the injection of the satellite into orbit.
Currently, the project for the development of Semicryogenic engine has been approved and the Semicryogenic engine is under development. The various activities carried out towards the development of the Semicryogenic engine include- (i) Indigenous realisation of 35 materials and 22 coating processes (ii) Qualification of indigenous bearings for turbo pumps (iii) Fabrication of the first hardware for three engine subsystems including low pressure turbo pumps and one high pressure turbo pump through industry (iv) Design validation of the low pressure turbo pumps through cold flow trials.
An advanced space launcher that can deliver ten-tonne and heavier communication satellites to space requires a booster stage with clustered Semicryogenic engines. After the successful qualification of the Semicryogenic engine, the development of the Semicryogenic booster stage with clustered engines is expected to be initiated.
The spacecrafts that are likely to be launched in the next two years using Indian launch vehicles include - four communication satellites, seven earth observation satellites, one navigation satellite and one space science satellite. Also, two communication satellites are planned to be launched from abroad onboard the Ariane 5 launcher.
This information was provided by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
****​
KSD/NK/PK
 

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Wow 10 tonns sat launching capability:eek1:! Any idea how much time it would take for its first flight? it will be one of the biggest achievement ever for India:clap2:
after 2020 i guess.. ....................................................
 

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Wow 10 tonns sat launching capability:eek1:! Any idea how much time it would take for its first flight? it will be one of the biggest achievement ever for India:clap2:
As soon as SCE-200 matures, most likely near to 2020.
An HLV rocket family has been mentioned earlier to send 10-15 tonnes payloads in GTO.
 

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By New Indian Express
GSLV Mk-III to put India on top
It’s been two decades of roller-coaster ride for India in mastering the critical but complex cryogenic technology. After Russians cancelled cryogenic technology transfer agreement in 1993, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has now completed long duration stage test for 640 seconds earlier this month and is inching towards the historic launch of first developmental flight of GSLV Mk-III, the third generation launcher that has greater load carrying capability, on April 20.
Express spoke to S Ramakrishnan, who guided the ‘game changing’ project from cradle stage to adulthood. As its director, Ramakrishnan steered the GSLV Mk-III project during the crucial phase of design, engineering and realisation of first-off hardware for development test from 2002 to 2006. He also played a lead role in the formulation of Indian Human Spaceflight (HSP) project and completion of system concept reviews.

Excerpts from the interview

How motivated where you when you took charge as GSLV Mk-III project director, since cryogenic stage was coming from April 2010 failure?
GSLV Mk-III or LVM3 project began in 2002, and when I took charge as the first project director, indigenous cryo stage was yet to be realised. It was decided early on that the cryogenic upper stage would be fully indigenous.

All through the project, a deliberate decision was taken to avoid shortcuts such as clustering already indigenised cryo engine when a heavier thrust engine was required. Instead, a totally indigenous engine was built from scratch — CE20. The then chairman, G Madhavan Nair, was firm that we have to take this route to master the technology and become fully self-reliant.

Could you elaborate on the difficulties to undertake this, from drawing to design to fabrication of sub-systems?


This 20-tonne thrust engine (CE20) is not only bigger, but also adopts a different operating cycle. We did not have any engine design or drawings to refer to. We started from scratch, first drawing up the specifications and sizing the subsystems.

The engineering and fabrication drawings were all conceived in-house.We carried out well planned subsystem level tests to validate the components before attempting the integrated engine test, which required planning and commissioning of test facilities at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC), Mahendragiri.

Some unique facilities were established for the cryo stage development. The recent accomplishment of integrating the cryo stage and carrying out ground qualification firing was a stupendous task. Realising a cryogenic turbo-pump fed rocket engine and stage is a most challenging area in the field of chemical rockets.


Why did it take 15 years for ISRO to develop desi cryogenic stage?
The failure of GSLV-D3 in 2010, where the first indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) was flight-tested, impacted the C25 stage programme due to the priority assigned for the additional investigation tests and added qualification tests demanded on CUS engine systems. Still the C25 Project crossed many milestones.

As the propulsive stages were being developed, the vehicle systems were also undergoing design finalisation. Being a new vehicle, several configuration changes and course corrections were part of maturing process in vehicle engineering area. Remember, development of a turbo-pump fed rocket engine of 20 tonne thrust is indeed a breakthrough accomplishment.

How difficult was it for ISRO to realise sub-scale cryo engine and later flight version after US pressured Russia not to transfer cryogenic tech to India?


Russia’s decision to cancel cryogenic technology transfer agreement motivated the ISRO to constitute the CUS development project in 1995 to sustain the GSLV operational flights after the Russian-supplied cryo stages were used up. It was extremely difficult because Russians stopped sharing information on further modifications they were carrying out in their cryo engine/stage, and flatly refused to give clarifications on specific critical elements. However, that paved way or forced us to launch our own fully indigenous cryo project. So, no regrets.

How crucial was the industry contribution?
The engine and cryo stage hardware were all fabricated at Indian industries. For this programme, indigenous materials and processes were adopted and industries contributed in establishing unique facilities at Mahendragiri for integrating and testing the new engine and stage.

About the key members and how you built the team in initial years
I took charge as the first project director of LVM3 programme in October 2002 from PSLV Continuation Programme, which I was steering till that time. I had very competent handpicked team with me, a mix of veterans and youth with proven record.

What future holds for GSLV Mk-III?
The GSLV Mk-III has the mandate to meet the requirement of deploying 4 tonne to the orbit. The avenues for further enhancement beyond 4 tonnes will definitely be explored once the vehicle stabilises after a few successful missions. However, without touching the lower propulsive stages and the overall vehicle architecture, the payload may not go beyond 5 tonne.

There are programmes ongoing to increase this to 6 tonnes. Mk-III is identified as the launcher for Indian Human Space Flight mission and as such the man rating of this vehicle is the immediate task to be addressed.
 

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Please enter a message with a least 30 characters.

Can anyone tell why GSLV rocket launch nos. are not sequenced but the PSLV launches are sequenced??

I see in pic that GSLV F09 will be launched before F08... and why skip F06 and F07?
 

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PM Modi mentions the accomplishment of the isro during Mannkibaat
 

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G O V E R N M E N T O F I N D I A




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The Unique Triumph of PSLV-C37
On February 15, 2017, PSLV-C37, the 39th mission of the workhorse launch vehicle of ISRO, injected ISRO’s Cartosat-2 Series Satellite weighing 714 kg and two ISRO Nano-satellites namely INS-1A (8.4 kg) & INS-1B (9.7 kg) and 101 Nano-satellites, from six foreign countries into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an orbit of 506 km above earth, with an inclination of 97.46°. The mass of nano-satellites varied from 1 to 10 kg. The total weight of all the 104 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C37 was 1378 kg.

The large number of satellites in this mission demanded adopting innovative approaches in satellite accommodation and mission design.

Apart from conventional satellite adapters, namely, Payload Adapter (PLA) and Multiple Satellite Adapter (MSA), six numbers of custom made adapters were newly configured and used to house the nano satellites. Some of these adapters allowed multi tier mounting of satellites and few of them were accommodated on the Vehicle Equipment Bay itself. This architecture enabled the optimal utilisation of the payload volume as well as capability.

Next requirement was managing safe separation of these large numbers of satellites within the constraints of limited visibility duration of ground stations and maintaining safe distance between the separated satellites over a longer period of time.

This was managed by designing a unique sequencing and timing for separating the satellites and with complex manoeuvering of PS4 stage to which satellites are attached. The separation sequence, direction and timing were finalised based on extensive study to ensure safe distance among the 105 objects (including PS4 stage) in orbit, which renders 5460 number of pairs.

The next major requirement was to ensure reaching separation command from launcher to respective satellites honoring the predefined sequence, which involves a complex electrical wiring scheme. Any error in the wiring may result in release of wrong satellite leading to undesirable situation of collision between them.

Another innovative feature in this mission was capturing all the separation events of vehicle stages and 104 satellites using a comprehensive video imaging system onboard.

Meticulous planning was done at launch complex, SDSC SHAR on assembling and handling of all sub systems and satellite preparation. Apart from launching SSO, sub GTO and multi orbit missions, PSLV has established once again as a workhorse vehicle to undertake very complex missions like PSLV-C37.

Watch PSLV-C37 Lift-Off and Onboard Camera Video



Take-off of PSLV-C37 along with 104 Satellites
 

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Can anyone tell why GSLV rocket launch nos. are not sequenced but the PSLV launches are sequenced??
Because their scheduled has been either shifted ahead or the schedule of after's launch has been shifted now for it's necessity.

This happened to PSLV also in past.

PSLV C30 flew before PSLV C29.
I see in pic that GSLV F09 will be launched before F08... and why skip F06 and F07?
Who told you they will skipped? They will be launched later.
 

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India’s Rocket Women



Think Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), think Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, G. Madhavan Nair, Rodham Narsimha and a host of geniuses. They build on an earlier generation of scientists who worked to push India’s space frontiers, men who came to define the contours of the country’s scientific rediscovery — C.V. Raman and Meghnad Saha. But times are changing.

Two years ago, as Indian scientists successfully put a satellite Mangalyaan into orbit around Mars, history was scripted. Away from the dour image of spectacled and formally suited nerds working on complex diagrams and theories, this snapshot of Indian scientists, who achieved the feat in a record 15 months, was warmly refreshing — women dressed in resplendent saris, chatting gaily as they went about their work.

Given that they have to work hard at home as well, faced as they are with societal discrimination, the ISRO story remains a landmark not just for Indian science, but the women behind it.

Ritu Karidhal — From Sky Watcher to Scientist



Ritu Karidhal is the Lucknow-born deputy operations director of the Mars Orbiter Mission. As a little girl growing up in Lucknow, Ritu was an avid sky watcher who “used to wonder about the size of the moon, why it increases and decreases. I wanted to know what lay behind the dark spaces,” she says.

A student of science, she scoured newspapers for information about Nasa and ISRO projects, collected news clippings and read every detail about anything related to space science. After getting her PG degree, “I applied for a job at ISRO and that’s how I became a space scientist,” she says.

Eighteen years later, she has worked on several projects at ISRO, including the prestigious Mars mission, which thrust her and her colleagues into the limelight. She told a news portal in 2015 that she had to conceptualize and ensure the execution of the craft’s autonomous brain so that it could function on its own and even overcome malfunctions.

In the final campaign period of 10 months leading to the launch, she would sit with her kids for their homework and then resume her work between midnight and 4 am. Some stamina and perseverance that.

Although women scientists were part of the mission right from the time of conception, Ritu says its success was due to the great team effort. “We used to sit with the engineers, irrespective of the time, we often worked the weekends,” she reminisces. A mother of two young children, she says it was not easy to maintain a work-life balance, but “I got the support I needed from my family, my husband and my siblings".

Nandini Harinath — An Ardent Star Trek and Sci-Fi Fan



Another such peerless example is the deputy director operations, Nandini Harinath, missions system leader ISRO of NISAR, a joint Nasa-ISRO satellite being developed for launch in 2020. Her first exposure to science came from Star Trek, the iconic American science fiction entertainment, which had the world in its thrall when it first hit TV screens decades ago. Says Harinath, “My mother is a maths teacher and my father is an engineer with great liking for physics and as a family we were all so fond of Star Trek and science fiction that we would sit together and watch it on TV.”

At that time, thoughts of becoming a space scientist never crossed her mind. For her, ISRO “just happened”. “It was the first job I applied for and I got through. It’s been 20 years now and there’s been no looking back,” Harinath says with pride. Being part of the Mars mission was the high point of her life. “It was very important for India, not just for ISRO. It put us on a different pedestal, foreign countries are looking at us for collaborations and the importance and attention we got was justified,” she points out.

The ISRO scientist is candid enough to admit that women have to put in “twice the effort to stand on a same platform as men.” Speaking at an event in 2015, Harinath said that there was no gender bias in ISRO, and one of the reasons that women constituted just 24 per cent of the technical workforce is that fewer numbers of women sought jobs there in the 1990s when she joined the organisation. Now, she says, with equal numbers coming to join, the scenario would change drastically, as it should. Harinath points to one key issue confronting women not just in India, but even in developed countries — the cultural stereotype that women are uncomfortable with maths, science and computing. In her remarks, she also cited a McKinsey study showing that men were often promoted on the basis of their potential, while women were judged on their actual accomplishments.

There was something else. “It was also the first time that ISRO allowed the public to look at what was happening inside. We were on social media, we had our own Facebook page and the world took notice. I feel proud of our achievement. Sometimes, I feel honored and flattered, but sometimes I’m also embarrassed,” she says. Fame, it appears, is something that even scientists like. “Now the way people look at you, it’s very different. People recognize you for being a scientist. And I’m enjoying it thoroughly.”

Harinath says she takes “immense pride” in Mangalyaan and was “really thrilled” to see its photograph on the new `2,000 notes. But it was not an easy assignment and working days were long. In the beginning, the scientists worked about 10 hours a day, but as the launch date came closer, it went up to 12 to 14 bruising hours of work. At the time of the actual launch, they barely left office.

“During the launch, I don’t think we went home at all. We’d come in the morning, spend the day and night, probably go home for a short time the next afternoon to eat and sleep for a few hours and come back. But for an important mission like that, which is time bound, we needed to work like that. We spent many sleepless nights. We encountered lots of problems as we progressed, in the design as well as in the mission. But coming up with quick solutions and innovations was the key,” she remembers.

Sandwiched in between were travails of the typical Indian woman: Her daughter’s crucial school leaving exams fell right in the middle of the mission. “Those few months were very demanding at work and at home. It looked like a race at the time. I’d wake up at 4 am with my daughter to give her company while she studied. But now, we look back on that time with fondness. She did extremely well in her exams, scoring 100 in maths. Today, she’s in medical school and doing really well, so I think it was worth all the effort,” she says.

Anuradha T.K. — A Role Model For Other Women Scientists



ISRO’s senior-most woman officer, Anuradha T.K., who joined in 1982 when there were just a handful of women engineers, says that gender is no longer an issue in ISRO and that there is no discrimination, just as women do not seek or get any special treatment.

As the Geosat program director at the ISRO Satellite Center, she works in the key area of geo-synchronous satellites, which are parked in the orbit of the sun in such a way that they beam over the same part of the earth at all times. They are vital for telecom and data links. The scientist, who has worked with ISRO for the past 34 years, first thought about space when she was nine.

“It was the Apollo launch, when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. We had no television in those days, so I heard about it from my parents and teachers. It really ignited my imagination. I wrote a poem on a man landing on the moon in Kannada, my native language,” she recalls.

Considered a role model by other women scientists at ISRO, Anuradha disagrees that women and science don’t gel. “I never liked subjects where I needed to remember a lot and science looked logical to me. I don’t believe that Indian girls think science is not meant for them and I think maths is their favourite subject,” she says, turning a well-accepted shibboleth on its head. When Anuradha joined ISRO in 1982, there were only a few women and even fewer in its engineering department.

“In my batch, five-six women engineers joined ISRO. We stood out and everyone knew us. Today, more than 20-25 per cent of ISRO’s over 16,000 employees are women and we no longer feel special,” she points out. At ISRO, she says, gender is not an issue and recruitment and promotional policies are all dependent on “what we know and what we contribute”.

“Sometimes, I say that I forget that I’m a woman here. You don’t get any special treatment because you’re a woman, you’re also not discriminated against because you’re a woman. You’re treated as an equal here.”

Anuradha laughs at the suggestion that her colleagues consider her an inspiration, but agrees that having more women in the workplace can be a motivating factor for other women. Although the numbers of women staff has consistently grown at ISRO, it is still way below the halfway mark. That’s because “we are still carrying cultural loads on our backs and many women think their priorities lie elsewhere, at home,” she points out.

Her advice to women who want to be rocket scientists is simple: make arrangements. “Once I had made up my mind that I needed a purposeful career where my passion lay, I created a good set up at home. My husband and parents-in-law were always cooperative, so I didn’t have to worry much about my children,” she says.

She owes her success to this ‘arrangement’ that she made. “You have to give something to get something. But life is like that. So when there was work to do, when I was needed at the office, I was here, working with passion. And when there was an absolute need for me to be at home, I was there.” Perfect harmony, you could say.

Seetha S. — A PhD in Astronomy



Happily for the country, the list of ISRO women scientists seems to be growing. Seetha S, program Director at ISRO, who joined the technical physics division at ISRO’s Satellite Center (ISAC) Bangalore, after acquiring a Masters Degree in electronics at IIT, Chennai, later secured a PhD at the Indian Institute of Science in astronomy. She believes it has been an exciting and long journey of developing scientific payloads for several satellites. “Now there are lots of opportunities for more scientific payloads, which are more complex but can provide crucial scientific data,” she explains.

What brought her to ISRO? Says Seetha: “I like instrumentation and that is what brought me to ISRO. I did not experience the glass ceiling, as we were allowed to grow at our own pace. There is no reason why women should not pursue a career at ISRO because they have the ability to take up challenging projects, whether in electronics or designing software for different missions or carrying out simulations to test a number of systems.” Seetha has important things to look forward to. There are two key projects ahead for her team: India’s second outing to the moon, the Chandrayaan-II next year and Aditya, a satellite to study the moon.

Minal Rohit – From Ahmadabad To Bangalore



Ditto for Minal Rohit, a scientist/engineer at the Space Applications Center (SAC), Ahmadabad. A B.Tech in electronics and communications from the Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmadabad, she joined ISRO in Bangalore in 1999, inspired by the live telecast of a flawless flight of the PSLV rocket as a student.

Interestingly, she wanted to pursue a career either in medicine or engineering, but missed a seat in the dental course by a single mark and opted for engineering.

Moving from Bangalore to SAC in 2004, Minal had the opportunity to work under the current ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar, when he was her group director in SAC, Ahmadabad. “Looking back, it has been a wonderful experience at ISRO because of discussions and support from everyone in the team,” she says.

Her current engagements include working on the meteorological payload for Insat-3DS satellite, which will replace an ageing Insat satellite soon, and a couple of instruments for Chandrayaan-II.

B Codanayaguy — A Life Dedicated To ISRO

B. Codanayaguy, group head, Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC), Sriharikota Range, too falls into this August category. As a student, she read about the baby steps of ISRO, in the form of the launch of APPLE satellite and the first series of rockets, Satellite Launch Vehicle. It fired her passion to work for India’s premier space organisation. Codanayaguy joined ISRO at Sriharikota Range, the country’s space port, soon after her graduation in engineering (electronics and communications) from the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, in 1984.

She has handled many tough missions — such as the launch of Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) by calibrating a variety of instruments, which ensure that precise amount of fuel is loaded on to complex rockets. Besides, she has been part of an expanding laboratory for testing and qualifying instruments, igniters and other components for rockets at Sriharikota Range.

“We started with small amounts of hazardous chemicals, which form the fuel for solid motors of rockets, but now we handle several hundred tonnes of these chemicals. We also carry out ground tests of these motors, and use our instruments to make sure that precise amount of liquid propellant is loaded to rockets. We also calibrate instruments for the fuel used by Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV),” she adds.

A spinster, whose life has been devoted to ISRO, she says that she has not encountered any gender problems at ISRO. “We are treated on par and that is one of the reasons why I feel proud to work here. Of course, the work culture is unique as we have complete freedom to express our ideas and views,” she says.

Lalithambika V.R. — Winner of several awards

Lalithambika V.R., deputy director at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, has a distinguished background. A Masters Degree in control engineering, she joined VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram in 1988 and now heads control, guidance and simulation entity at the institution.

Her list of awards is impressive. Among the many honors she has bagged are the Space Gold Medal 2001, (Astronautical society of India for excellence in launch vehicle technology), ISRO individual merit award, 2010 and ISRO performance excellence award, 2013.

Her group works on optimizing fuel for all rockets (PSLV, GSLV, even the single flight of Reusable Launch Vehicle or RLV), the autopilot of rockets, development of software for on-board computers of all rockets and the hardware which holds the computer, as well as reviews the design of rockets. The recent launch of 104 satellites — which has won great international acclaim bringing accolades for the country — during a single flight of PSLV, was her team’s most challenging mission as an end-to-end test of all systems.

It was carried out to ensure that the satellites are placed in the right orbit without colliding against each other. No easy task that. The launch and flight of PSLV for this critical mission was simulated on the computer several times, including for rough weather conditions, to ensure that the mission was accomplished without a glitch. And that is the way it worked out.

“It is extremely satisfying to work in this organisation because even juniors are allowed to voice their ideas and concerns and every mission is achieved through team work so that nobody’s ego comes in the way. We have set an example for all organisations, private or government, that team work matters most to achieve the most challenging goal,” she points out. Lalithambika has now discovered that most young people want to join ISRO, to become proud members of teams working on future missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond.

There are other names too, which have cropped up in recent years. Pramodha Hegde and Anuradha Prakasham, who worked with Anuradha TK on the launch of the GSAT 12 and N. Valarmathi, who led the launch of Risat-I.

Sadly, organisations like the Department of Atomic Energy (DEA) and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have long clouded the achievements of ISRO. That, happily, appears to be changing.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/science/science/260217/indias-rocket-women.html
 

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