MoS, Department of Space Dr. Jitendra Singh holds review meeting with senior officers of ISRO
By R Anil Kumar
Bengaluru, January 11. Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science and Technology; Earth Sciences, Minister of State in the Department of Space Dr. Jitendra Singh held a review meeting in Bengaluru with the senior Officers of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
Outgoing Chairman of ISRO Dr. S. Somnath, Incoming Chairman of ISRO Dr. V. Narayanan, Mission Directors, ISRO were present in this review meeting chaired by Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Jitendra Singh was apprised of ISRO’s major upcoming space missions by the senior officers.
ISRO has major space missions scheduled in the first half of 2025 including two GSLV missions, one commercial mission of LVM3 for a global customer apart from the first uncrewed orbital mission of Gaganyaan.
The first mission of the year, GSLV-F15/ NVS-02 will launch the second navigation satellite, NVS-02 in the NVS series. This satellite will augment the NavIC constellation in providing Position, Navigation & Timing services. In addition to the induction of indigenously developed Atomic clock, the NVS series also features signals in the L1 band.
The integration of the launch vehicle is in the advanced stage at the launch complex in Sriharikota and the launch is scheduled during the last week of January 2025.
The launch of the ISRO-NASA joint mission, NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture RADAR) is planned in the GSLV-F16 mission. NISAR is an advanced microwave remote sensing satellite with dual band synthetic aperture radar featuring sweep-SAR technology.
This satellite will map the entire globe in 12 days. NISAR features advanced RADAR imaging that will provide unique data in regard to Earth Observations related to Agriculture, likelihood of earthquakes, landslides etc., GSLV vehicle systems are getting ready for the final integration at Sriharikota and the NISAR satellite is undergoing the final phase of testing.
LVM3-M5 launch is for a dedicated commercial mission to launch Blue-Bird Block-2 satellites under a commercial agreement between NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) and M/s AST SpaceMobile Inc., USA. LVM3 vehicle systems are available at Sriharikota and the vehicle integration has commenced for a proposed launch in March 2025.
This year will also witness the first uncrewed orbital mission under the Gaganyaan programme wherein a human-rated LVM3 vehicle (HLVM3) will launch the Orbital Module to a low-earth orbit to validate the end-to-end human spaceflight mission.
The Crew Module will be separated from the Orbital Module, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, perform controlled descent and splash down at designated point in the sea from where it will be recovered.
For this mission, the launch vehicle integration has been commenced at Sriharikota and the Orbital Module is undergoing final phase of preparations.
