ISRO lines up SARAL for February, restored GSLV for April

[arp2041]

SARAL will study sea surface heights and have an altimeter

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has slated its first launch of the year — ocean study spacecraft SARAL — for February 14.

It will herald the 8 to 10 missions, including satellites and launch vehicles, which ISRO has planned this year,

Flights of the GSLV rocket would be resumed and the first of the navigational spacecraft would be sent up, an ISRO official told The Hindu.

Along with the 450-kg Indo-French SARAL, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit six small experimental satellites built by western universities for a fee.

SARAL would be one of the very few such ocean-centric satellites and a vital cog in studying sea surface heights and other aspects, the official said.

It would be similar to ISRO’s Oceansat-2, but with an altimeter (named ‘Argos’ here) to measure heights.

In October 2012, NASA relied on Oceansat-2 to get finer details of Hurricane ‘Sandy’ that wreaked havoc on the eastern U.S.

SARAL is short for Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa, the two main devices on it which have been provided by French space agency CNES. Besides building the spacecraft, ISRO will launch and operate it through its life.

SARAL will come up two months later than the earlier planned fancy date of 12-12-12.

The December launch was put off to complete a few tests and validations, the official said.

Around April this year, ISRO expects to resume flying the GSLV rocket. The GSLV-D5 will lift the communications satellite GSAT-14 into orbit.

ISRO had put the GSLV programme on hold after it suffered two successive failures in April and December 2010. The lapses were analysed and corrections made, the official said.

NAVIGATIONAL SATELLITE

May will see the first of the national navigational satellites or navsats — the IRNSS-1 — which will fly on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. IRNSS or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System with its seven satellites is tipped to be India’s own regional Global Positioning System.

“We hope to complete the navigation constellation during 2015-16,” by following this up with two more navsats in 2014 and the remaining a year later, the official said.

“For all these launches from the Sriharikota launch centre, we normally need an interval of 45 days between two launches since we have two launch pads,” he said.

GSAT-7, a dedicated satellite for the Navy, is also set to be launched around May on a European Ariane rocket. Two other larger satellites, INSAT-3D and GSAT-10, will also use ‘procured’ or foreign launches on separate Ariane vehicles in the second half of this year.

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : ISRO lines up SARAL for February, restored GSLV for April

 

[arp2041]

SOME INFO ON SARAL SATELLITE:

An ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) satellite, SARAL (Satellite with ARgos and ALtika), will embark the AltiKa altimeter (working in Ka-band, 35 GHz), built by CNES, as well as a Doris instrument. Signal frequencies in the Ka-band will enable better observation of ice, rain, coastal zones, land masses (forests, etc.), and wave heights.

The Saral mission is complementary to Jason-2. Its objectives are:

To realize precise, repetitive global measurements of sea surface height, significant wave heights and wind speed for developping operational oceanography;

understanding of climate and developing forecasting capabilities;

operational meteorology.

To ensure, from 2009, in association with Jason-2, the continuity of the service given today by the altimeters onboard Envisat and Jason-1,

To answer the need expressed by the ocean and climate study international programs, and contribute to the building of a global ocean observing system.

The proposed payload integrates :

a high-resolution AltiKa altimeter, that includes a bi-frequency radiometric function, the Doris precise orbitography system, in association with a laser retroflector (LRA).

The launch of this mission is planned for the end of 2009, with a life of 3 years (2 year for the nominal phase, and one year for the extended phase). This mission is a cooperation between CNES and ISRO.

SARAL payload is being planned to be accommodated in the mini-satellite bus in the 400-450 kg class, named as SSB-1. The bus is being developed miniaturising the currently proven operational mainframe subsystems. SARAL satellite mission is planned to be launched during late-2009 into a sun-synchronous, 6 am-6 pm orbit at an altitude of around 800 km. SARAL will provide Data Products to the operational and research user communities, in support of Marine meteorology and sea state forecasting; Operational oceanography; Seasonal forecasting; Climate monitoring; and Ocean, Earth system and climate research.

Nation: India, France
Type / Application: Earth Science
Operator: ISRO, CNES
Contractors: ISRO, CNES
Equipment: ARGOS, ALTIKA
Configuration: Minisatellite-SSB (SSB-1)
Propulsion:
Power: 2 deployable solar arrays, batteries
Lifetime: 3 years
Mass: 346 kg
Orbit: 800 km

SARAL

 

[RPK]

^^ good tamil name SARAL means drizzle

 

[IND151]

SARAL will study sea surface heights and have an altimeter

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has slated its first launch of the year — ocean study spacecraft SARAL — for February 14.

It will herald the 8 to 10 missions, including satellites and launch vehicles, which ISRO has planned this year,

Flights of the GSLV rocket would be resumed and the first of the navigational spacecraft would be sent up, an ISRO official told The Hindu.

Along with the 450-kg Indo-French SARAL, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will put into orbit six small experimental satellites built by western universities for a fee.

SARAL would be one of the very few such ocean-centric satellites and a vital cog in studying sea surface heights and other aspects, the official said.

It would be similar to ISRO’s Oceansat-2, but with an altimeter (named ‘Argos’ here) to measure heights.

In October 2012, NASA relied on Oceansat-2 to get finer details of Hurricane ‘Sandy’ that wreaked havoc on the eastern U.S.

SARAL is short for Satellite with ARgos and ALtiKa, the two main devices on it which have been provided by French space agency CNES. Besides building the spacecraft, ISRO will launch and operate it through its life.

SARAL will come up two months later than the earlier planned fancy date of 12-12-12.

The December launch was put off to complete a few tests and validations, the official said.

Around April this year, ISRO expects to resume flying the GSLV rocket. The GSLV-D5 will lift the communications satellite GSAT-14 into orbit.

ISRO had put the GSLV programme on hold after it suffered two successive failures in April and December 2010. The lapses were analysed and corrections made, the official said.

NAVIGATIONAL SATELLITE

May will see the first of the national navigational satellites or navsats — the IRNSS-1 — which will fly on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. IRNSS or the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System with its seven satellites is tipped to be India’s own regional Global Positioning System.

“We hope to complete the navigation constellation during 2015-16,” by following this up with two more navsats in 2014 and the remaining a year later, the official said.

“For all these launches from the Sriharikota launch centre, we normally need an interval of 45 days between two launches since we have two launch pads,” he said.

GSAT-7, a dedicated satellite for the Navy, is also set to be launched around May on a European Ariane rocket. Two other larger satellites, INSAT-3D and GSAT-10, will also use ‘procured’ or foreign launches on separate Ariane vehicles in the second half of this year.

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Science : ISRO lines up SARAL for February, restored GSLV for April

thanks for info

 

[trident2010]

Good news. International cooperation like this increases the reputation of ISRO worldwide.

Any idea when they going to do orbit testing of GSLV-MkIII?

 

[Abingdonboy]

Cool news! Best parts, for me, in the article- IRNSA sats are starting launch this year and the constellation will be cometd in 2-4 years! Also the IN's very on communication sat GSAT-7 will be launched this year! Only 2-3 (if that) navies in the world can claim they have their own communication sat!!

 

[acetophenol]

Launch with PSLV is piece of cake for ISRO,what i want to see is ISRO turning into an expert with GSLV. They will do it this year!

 

[arp2041]

^^ good tamil name SARAL means drizzle

I thought it is a Hindi name for Easy

Cool news! Best parts, for me, in the article- IRNSA sats are starting launch this year and the constellation will be cometd in 2-4 years! Also the IN's very on communication sat GSAT-7 will be launched this year! Only 2-3 (if that) navies in the world can claim they have their own communication sat!!

IRNSS will be a constellation of 7 satellites with 4 in LEO & 3 stationed in GEO, it will only have coverage in the SA region.

As far as Naval satellite is concerned, it is much needed move since IN wants to establish a common communication link b/w all it's ships, subs, ac to it's ground base command center. IN's dedicated satellite will be followed by an IAF's dedicated satellite (maybe next year).

Good news. International cooperation like this increases the reputation of ISRO worldwide.

Any idea when they going to do orbit testing of GSLV-MkIII?

I don't think there will be any GSLV mk3 launch this year, as only one GSLV launch is scheduled this year which will be a mk2 version with indigenous cryogenic engine, if this launch gets successful than we can expect a GSLV mk3 launch early next year.

 

[trident2010]

I don't think there will be any GSLV mk3 launch this year, as only one GSLV launch is scheduled this year which will be a mk2 version with indigenous cryogenic engine, if this launch gets successful than we can expect a GSLV mk3 launch early next year.

I heard that ISRO is going to conduct sub-orbital launch of GSLV-MkIII without cryogenic stage to test first two stages and the related systems. Don't know when they are planning to do it.

 

[RISING SUN]

SARAL launch between February 22 and 25
Satellite will study ocean currents and sea surface heights.
The launch of SARAL satellite that will study the ocean currents and sea surface heights by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-20)) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh will take place any time between February 22 and 25. The vehicle will put six other satellites also into orbit.

As per earlier plans, a PSLV-20, with the seven satellites, was to lift off on February 13/14 from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

“Everything is fine” for the lift-off of the PSLV-C20 between February 22 and 25, said S. Ramakrishnan, Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in Thiruvananthapuram.

The PSLV core-alone version was “fully stacked up” in the launch pad and “the vehicles and the satellites are all right,” he said. All the seven satellites had arrived at Sriharikota but they have not been integrated with the rocket.

It is the VSSC which has built the PSLV-C20. It is the nerve centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
‘Small delays’

Asked whether fresh glitches had arisen during the testing of SARAL, he said there were “no problems.” There were “small delays” but there was always “a cushion” for the launch and so the PSLV-C20’s lift-off had now been rescheduled between February 22 and 25, Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

SARAL stands for Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika. French space agency CNES contributed the two payloads to the 400-kg SARAL: Argos-3 for data collection and Altikameter for measuring the height of the sea surface.

The payloads were integrated into a satellite bus from the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore, where the entire satellite was built.
The Hindu : News / National : SARAL launch between February 22 and 25