ISRO schedules SSLV-D2 launch on Friday

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The Indian Space Research Organisation will undertake the second developmental flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) on Friday from Sriharikota, the space agency announced on Wednesday.

The SSLV-D2 will soar into the skies at 9:18 am from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and attempt to put three satellites into a 450 km circular orbit during its 15 minute flight, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The three satellites are ISRO's EOS-07, US-based firm Antaris' Janus-1 and Chennai-based space start up SpaceKidz's AzaadiSAT-2.

SSLV caters to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to low earth orbits 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. It is configured with three solid propulsion stages and a velocity terminal module. It is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter vehicle having a lift-off mass of 120 tonnes.

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. While, Janus-1, a 10.2 kg satellite, belongs to Antaris, USA. A 8.7 kg satellite, AzaadiSAT-2, is a combined effort of about 750 girl students across India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai. An investigation into the failure of SSLV-D1 by ISRO revealed that the mission failed after the upper stage of the launch vehicle injected the satellite into a highly elliptical unstable orbit due to a shortfall in velocity.

It also revealed that there was a vibration disturbance for a short duration on the Equipment Bay (EB) deck during the second stage separation. The vibration affected the Inertial Navigation System (INS), resulting in declaring the sensors faulty by the logic in the Fault Detection & Isolation (FDI) software.

The failure detection logic identified a degraded accelerometer and isolated it for improved mission performance.

During the second stage separation, all six accelerometers experienced measurement saturation due to high vibration levels for a short duration. This malfunction initiated a salvage mode with the purpose of saving the mission, but it could not inject the satellite into a safe orbit.

ISRO schedules SSLV-D2 launch on Friday

The SSLV-D2 will soar into the skies at 9:18 am from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and attempt to put three satellites into a 450 km circular orbit during its 15 minute flight, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

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ISRO Successfully Tests Throttleable Vikas Engine, To Enable Booster Stage Recovery In Space Launch Vehicles​

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a major milestone with the successful testing of its throttleable Vikas engine.
The liquid fuelled Vikas engine, with a nominal thrust of 80 tonnes, has been the workhorse engine powering the second stages of PSLV and GSLV, liquid strapons of GSLV, and the core liquid stage of LVM3.
Liquid engines that support throttling of the engine thrust facilitate booster stage recovery in launch vehicles, the ISRO said in a statement.
The recent test, which took place in the end of January, demonstrated the Vikas engine's ability to throttle its thrust level to enable the recovery of booster stages in future launch vehicles. This is a significant development in the field of space exploration and will allow for more cost-effective and sustainable launches.
The throttleable Vikas engine was tested for a duration of 43 seconds and achieved a targeted 67 per cent thrust level.
"In order to enable booster stage recovery in future launch vehicle configurations, the first Throttling demonstration hot test of the Vikas engine was successfully accomplished on January 30, 2023 for a targeted 67 per cent thrust level throttling for a duration of 43 seconds," the ISRO said.
"Throttling of the engine was achieved by a closed loop thrust regulation system and the engine had been successfully throttled from the chamber pressure of 58.5 bar in steps of 50 bar, 45 bar & 40 bar, with dwelling at each pressure level for 7 seconds," it added.
The Vikas engine was also successfully throttled down to 45 per cent for the last 3 seconds before shut down.
"The results of the first hot test of Throttleable Vikas Engine indicate stable combustion and subsystem performed in accordance with the prediction", the Indian space agency said.
The overall performance of engine sub-systems, control systems and test facility systems were as expected, it added.

ISRO Successfully Tests Throttleable Vikas Engine, To Enable Booster Stage Recovery In Space Launch Vehicles

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a major milestone with the successful testing of its throttleable Vikas engine

swarajyamag.com

​

 

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ISRO Begins Recovery Trials Of Gaganyaan Crew Capsule At Navy Facility, Pictures Out​

ISRO, on February 7, began training for recovery of the crew capsule that will be used for the Gaganyaan missions starting later this year. The recovery trials were performed in closed pools at the Water Survival Test Facility (WSTF) of the Indian Navy in Kochi. These pools simulate real-life conditions of the sea and will help validate the Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for recovery of the crew and their spacecraft.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1623295318547927040

"As the safe recovery of the crew is the final step to be accomplished for any successful human spaceflight, it is of paramount importance and it has to be carried out with the minimum lapse of time. Hence the recovery procedures for various scenarios need to be extensively practiced by carrying out a large number of trials", ISRO said in an official release.

"The Standard Operating Procedures (SoP) for recovery of Crew and Crew Module need to be finalized. The recovery trials will be initially carried out in a closed pool followed by trials in a harbor and in the open sea", it further said.

The recovery trials were performed at the WSTF under conditions simulating the mass, center of gravity, outer dimensions and externals of the actual crew module that will be experienced during the splashdown in Indian waters. The state-of-the-art training facility, which can copy the sea environment in both day and night, is capable of providing realistic training of aircrew for escape from a ditched spacecraft under varied simulated conditions and crash scenarios, said ISRO. The final recovery operations will see participation of several government agencies that will be led by the Indian Navy.

Launch of Gaganyaan​

The Gaganyaan program will begin with the launch of a test mission in the fourth quarter of 2023. The program consists of three missions; first two will be unmanned and the third will see three Indian astronauts launch to 400 kilometres in space aboard the LVM3 rocket and splash down after spending three days in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The third mission, however, is targeted for launch no earlier than late 2024 as ISRO is putting in additional work in crew protection systems.

A few undisclosed Indian Military officers have been trained for the crewed Gaganyaan mission first at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Moscow and then at the Astronaut Training Facility in Bengaluru. On February 6, IIT Madras announced that it has will develop a training module for training ISRO astronauts through augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR).

https://twitter.com/x/status/1622494636949508096

ISRO begins recovery trials of Gaganyaan crew capsule at Navy facility, pictures out

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[STREANH]

ISRO Successfully Tests Throttleable Vikas Engine, To Enable Booster Stage Recovery In Space Launch Vehicles​

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a major milestone with the successful testing of its throttleable Vikas engine.
The liquid fuelled Vikas engine, with a nominal thrust of 80 tonnes, has been the workhorse engine powering the second stages of PSLV and GSLV, liquid strapons of GSLV, and the core liquid stage of LVM3.
Liquid engines that support throttling of the engine thrust facilitate booster stage recovery in launch vehicles, the ISRO said in a statement.
The recent test, which took place in the end of January, demonstrated the Vikas engine's ability to throttle its thrust level to enable the recovery of booster stages in future launch vehicles. This is a significant development in the field of space exploration and will allow for more cost-effective and sustainable launches.
The throttleable Vikas engine was tested for a duration of 43 seconds and achieved a targeted 67 per cent thrust level.
"In order to enable booster stage recovery in future launch vehicle configurations, the first Throttling demonstration hot test of the Vikas engine was successfully accomplished on January 30, 2023 for a targeted 67 per cent thrust level throttling for a duration of 43 seconds," the ISRO said.
"Throttling of the engine was achieved by a closed loop thrust regulation system and the engine had been successfully throttled from the chamber pressure of 58.5 bar in steps of 50 bar, 45 bar & 40 bar, with dwelling at each pressure level for 7 seconds," it added.
The Vikas engine was also successfully throttled down to 45 per cent for the last 3 seconds before shut down.
"The results of the first hot test of Throttleable Vikas Engine indicate stable combustion and subsystem performed in accordance with the prediction", the Indian space agency said.
The overall performance of engine sub-systems, control systems and test facility systems were as expected, it added.

ISRO Successfully Tests Throttleable Vikas Engine, To Enable Booster Stage Recovery In Space Launch Vehicles

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved a major milestone with the successful testing of its throttleable Vikas engine

swarajyamag.com

​

This will be a very long journey for ISRO with the funds allocated to them. Even after developing the engine, it is still a tough task to nail the booster landing.

Spacex took over 20 attempts for their first booster landing.

I hope the government allocates more resources towards our space agencies so that they can take more risks and not be afraid of failures.