ISRO’s second satellite launch pad to come up in Tamil Nadu

In the next couple of years, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will get its second launchpad in Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi district with the Tamil Nadu government almost completing the land acquisition process for the ambitious project.

A spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam will provide a strategic advantage to ISRO as small satellites launched from the coastal hamlet can fly straight to the south pole without having to go to the southeast side first to avoid Sri Lanka, which is currently the case from Sriharikota.

The new launchpad will help ISRO save fuel and have a dedicated space for launching Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLV).

Once completed, Kulasekarapattinam, located 50 km from the port city of Thoothukudi, will be the country’s second spaceport after Sriharikota, 100 km from Chennai, in Andhra Pradesh. The Sathish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota has two launchpads.

Work on the Kulasekarapattinam spaceport is likely to begin soon with the process of acquiring land for the project almost completed. “The requirement is 2,376 acres and we have completed 95 to 97 per cent of the process. The remaining land will also be acquired soon and handed over to ISRO. Our jobs end with land acquisition and the rest will be done by ISRO,” a senior state government official told DH.

A high-level team from ISRO led by its chief S Somnath visited the hamlet on Thursday to inspect the land parcels over which the spaceport will come up. Thoothukudi district collector K Senthil Raj and other government officials also accompanied Somnath and briefed him about the status of the land acquisition.

“It (Kulasekarapattinam) is a super location. Satellites launched from here can go directly to the South Pole,” Somnath told reporters in a brief interaction. He said work on the construction of the new spaceport will begin once the Union Government formally approves the proposal.

Though the ISRO had plans to build its second spaceport and Kulasekarapattinam was speculated to be the choice for long, the land acquisition process began only in 2019. The new spaceport is expected to provide job opportunities to locals and infuse development in and around the coastal town, known for its Dussehra celebrations.

The new spaceport will be used to launch small satellites that weigh less than 500 kilos – the ISRO had earlier this week made its debut in SSLV though the mission ended in a failure. The two launchpads in Sriharikota are used for GSLVs and PSLVs.

Officials and experts said satellites launched from Sriharikota fly in the southeast direction after liftoff from the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre to avoid flying over Sri Lanka and take a sharp manoeuvre towards the South Pole.

“This disadvantage won’t be there anymore if we launch satellites from Kulasekarapattinam. Satellites can directly travel towards the south from Kulasekarapattinam and this will help save fuel,” an official said.