Isro's second satellite system soon

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) could soon launch the country’s second Indian Regional Navigation Satellite system (IRNSS-1B) in March or April this year after a launch readiness review meeting is conducted in Bangalore on Saturday.

“The launch of IRNSS-1B using the PSLV-C24 should take place any day after March after the launch readiness review meeting in Bangalore tomorrow (on Saturday),” Isro Chief K Radhakrishnan said.

Radhakrishnan said that the satellite would be moved from Bangalore to Sriharikota on March 3 subject to clearances during Saturday’s meeting.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a “Research Day” function at SRM University, he said, “The launch is likely to be any day after March 31. It might be in the first week of April.”

IRNSS-1B is the second out of seven satellites in the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS) series after IRNSS-1A.

The applications of IRNSS includes terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation; disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management; integration with mobile phones, precise timing, mapping and geodetic data capture, terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers and visual and voice navigation for drivers.

Radhakrishnan said that Isro is gearing up for the more challenging experimental GSLV Mark III mission, that would carry a crew module to test the atmospheric phase of the flight.

He said that the mission, which is to take place by the end of May or the first week of June, would carry the passive cryogenic stage and would not ignite during the flight.

The Isro chief said the purpose of this mission was to prove the characterisation of GSLV-Mark III in the atmospheric phase of the flight.

“The experimental flight is getting ready now and it will carry a crew module. It will have solid strap-ons and the liquid core stage functioning and give a velocity of nearly five km per second, whereas the upper cryogenic stage will not be igniting which is called the passive cryogenic stage,” he added.

Target: 12 new missions by 2020

Making big plans for the future, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has charted out over a dozen missions, which are to be completed by the end of this decade, including its first exploration of the sun and enhancing its capacity to launch vehicles.