Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar on Friday said the constellation of seven satellites under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) would be ready for operation in 2016. Four satellites had already been placed in the orbit.
Speaking on the topic ‘India in Space’ at the first centenary lecture series of the University of Mysore here, Prof. Kumar, while chronicling the journey of ISRO since its inception, said the premier space agency had taken part in 126 space missions since its beginning.
A total of 75 satellites, including Chandrayaan and the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), had been launched and 49 satellite launch vehicles had been developed.
Reliable launch vehicle
The PSLV has been a reliable launch vehicle and 51 satellites of 20 countries have been launched by it, he said.
Sharing the achievements and successes of ISRO since the time of Vikram Sarabhai, the father of India’s space programme, he explained how the space agency played a key role in the launch of television broadcast, which was earlier restricted only to four metros, across the country using the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).
During his one-hour talk, Prof. Kumar spoke about communication satellites, , Bhuvan portal for ground water prospects, remote sensing satellites, climate change, surface water resources, etc. The space scientist said the world complimented India as Chandrayaan was the first mission to find water on the moon. “The recently launched Astrosat, a space observatory, had been given excellent results,” he said.
Prof. Kumar said ISRO had tied-up with 36 countries for various joint space programmes in view of financial constraints for such programmes.
While thanking the Union government for recognising ISRO’s achievements, the ISRO chairman said the agency had taken up various spin-off technologies like the development of artificial foot.
He also spoke about the collaborative experiments by the Indian space and NASA’s scientists.
Prof. Kumar said ISRO had laid emphasis on developing interest about space among people in rural areas by highlighting the achievements and contributions of the space agency. He cited the example of an expo by ISRO at Tiptur to develop interest about space among schoolchildren.
The space scientist mentioned a new initiative called ‘Space-based information support for decentralised planning’, which is aimed at capacity building of panchayat members, besides watershed development under Sujala project.
Registrar C. Basavaraj presided and introduced the guest. Prasaranga director C. Naganna compered.
