The Indian space research organization (ISRO) is one of the many reasons I’m proud of being an Indian and calling India my motherland. ISRO, since its launch in 1969, has made so many remarkable achievements in the history of space exploration and technology. Time and again, ISRO’s achievements have created a standard par excellence for all the other government space agencies out there.
Here are 10 times (in chronological order) ISRO, the most efficient government space agency in the world, has made India and its people feel immense pride.
Aryabhatta, 1975:
I consider Aryabhatta as the country’s first breakthrough in space missions. Aryabhatta is India’s first satellite named after the famous astronomer. It’s the face spacecraft to be entirely built in the country
Indian National Satellite System (INSAT), 1983:
Launched by ISRO, INSAT is a series of 9 multipurpose geostationary satellites. It helped with telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations. The satellites built a communication system all across the Asia Pacific region.
Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), 2007:
An Indian experiment spacecraft was launched using the PSLV-C7 rocket from the base in Sriharikota on January 10, 2007. It was launched along with three other satellites to display the ability to recover an orbiting space capsule and test other things such as the thermal protection system, management of communication blackout, navigation, guidance, and control, and more. Before re-entering the atmosphere of the earth and diving into the Bay of Bengal, the capsule stayed in the orbit for 12 days.
Chandrayaan 1, 2008:
On October 22, 2008, India launched its first mission to the moon – a 312 days unmanned lunar mission. It was a big breakthrough for ISRO as it became one of the only 6 space organizations to do this. The goal of this mission was to understand the entire topography and chemical characteristics. In addition to proudly hoisting the Indian flag on the surface of the moon, data from this mission helped discover frozen water on the moon.
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), 2013-2018:
IRNSS is a group of 7 satellites (with 2 more on standby in the ground station) with the operational name of NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) that will help India build its own navigation system. The navigation covers an area of 15,000 km around our country. IRNSS made India one of the 5 countries with its own navigational system and it is said the NAVIC, if not better, is as good as the US’s GPS.
Mangalyaan (MOM), 2014:
This is one of my favourite ISRO missions. India became the first country to ever reach Mars in its first attempt and this is all thanks to ISRO. Additionally, India entered the elite club alongside the United States, Russia, and Europe to have reached the red mysterious planet. Not only that, MOM had a budget of only Rs. 450 crore (61,660,710 USD) making this the cheapest Mars mission till now!! Hollywood movies have bigger budgets than this (Avengers Endgame had a budget of $356M USD)! Mangalyaan had been launched with the mission to collect more data on the atmosphere of the planet.
GLSV MK3, 2014 to Present Day:
ISRO launched its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV-MK3) on December 2014, which has an Indian made crew capsule that can carry up to three astronauts to space. India will become a part of the exclusive group of space exploring nations that can take humans to space. GSLV-MK3 is one of the heaviest rockets and is capable of carrying 4000 kgs of load.
In 2017 ISRO launched a newer version of GSLV-MK3, also called ‘fat boy’, which weighed 640 tonnes and this humungous rocket carried a satellite weighing more than three tonnes into a high orbit above Earth.
GSLV Mark III is India’s most powerful rocket built to lift satellites weighing up to 4,000 kg into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tons to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
Heaviest Commercial Mission, 2015:
The heaviest commercial mission was taken up by ISRO in 2015 where they launched a total of 1440 kg of load which included five British satellites and three optical earth observation satellites of 447 kg each along with two auxiliary satellites. The satellites were launched using the PSLV-C28 on July 10, 2015, from Sriharikota.
Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), 2016:
These reusable space shuttles were built at a ridiculously low cost of Rs. 95 crores (13041182.95 USD) for the intention to reduce the satellite costs.
Created a world record by launching 104 satellites in a single mission, 2017:
On February 15, 2017, ISRO made history by successfully launched 104 satellites and managed to put them in their respective orbits in one go using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), an Indian rocket, from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. Out of the 104 satellites launched, 101 were foreign satellites. It also included the Cartostat-2 series, India’s earth observation satellite.
The point of view of your article has taught me a lot, and I already know how to improve the paper on gate.oi, thank you. https://www.gate.io/signup/XwNAU