ISRO Tests Scramjet Rocket Engine That Could Make Launches 10 Times Cheaper

The space agency of India today successfully tested its own scramjet or the air breathing engine with the launch of a big sounding rocket, said a senior official of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). “The mission was successful. Two scramjet engines were tested during the flight. The finer details about the test will be known later,” the official not wanting to be quoted told IANS. He said that as scheduled the two stage/engine RH-560 sounding rocket took off from the rocket port located at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

He said the two air breathing engines were like hugging the rocket on its sides and normally when the rocket reaches a height of 11 km the scramjet engines would start breathing air. “The scramjet engines were ignited 55 seconds into the rocket’s flight. The engines were tested for six seconds,” he added. The scramjet engine, used only during the atmospheric phase of the rocket’s flight, will help in bringing down the launch cost by reducing the amount of oxidiser to be carried along with the fuel. Later, the ISRO in a statement said: “With this flight, critical technologies such as ignition of air breathing engines at supersonic speed, holding the flame at supersonic speed, air intake mechanism and fuel injection systems have been successfully demonstrated.”

The scramjet engine designed by ISRO uses hydrogen as fuel and the oxygen from the atmospheric air as the oxidiser. The test flight was the maiden short duration experimental test of ISRO’s scramjet engine with a hypersonic flight at Mach 6. ISRO’s Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATV), which is an advanced sounding rocket, was the solid rocket booster used for testing the air breathing engine. The rocket weighed 3,277 kg during lift-off.

According to ISRO, some of the technological challenges handled by ISRO during the development of scramjet engine include the design and development of hypersonic engine air intake, the supersonic combustor, development of materials withstanding very high temperatures, computational tools to simulate hypersonic flow, ensuring performance and operability of the engine across a wide range of flight speeds, proper thermal management and ground testing of the engines.

“India is the fourth country to demonstrate the flight testing of scramjet engine. The successful technology demonstration of air-breathing scramjet engines in flight by ISRO is a modest yet important milestone in its endeavour to design and develop advanced air breathing engines including engines for ISRO’s future space transportation system,” the space agency added.

ISRO starts countdown for launch of 20 satellites

The 48-hour countdown for the launch of India’s Cartosat-2 series and 19 other satellites slated for Wednesday, began on Monday morning, the Indian space agency said. According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on Wednesday at 9.25 a.m., Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will lift off from the rocket port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with 20 satellites.

The rocket's main cargo will be India's 725.5 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation. The other 19 satellites weighing totally around 560 kg are from US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia as well as one satellite each from Chennai's Sathyabama University and College of Engineering, Pune. The rocket will blast off from the second launch pad with a total payload of 1,288 kg. The whole mission will get over in around 26 minutes.

The images sent by Cartosat satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications. On the other hand, the 1.5 kg Sathyabamasat from Sathyabama University will collect data on green house gases while the 1 kg Swayam satellite from College of Engineering, Pune will provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community. 

Wednesday's mission will be the first time the ISRO will be launching more the 10 satellites with a single rocket. In 2008, the ISRO had launched 10 satellites with the PSLV rocket.

ISRO Begins Countdown for launch of India's Final Navigation Satellite IRNSS-1G on April 18

The satellite IRNSS-1G (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1G) is part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500km. Till date, India has launched six regional navigational satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID, 1E and 1F).

The 51.30 hour countdown for the launch of India's seventh and final navigation satellite on April 28 afternoon begun at 9:20am on Tuesday at Sriharikota rocket port of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), said a senior official.

"The countdown started at 9:20am. The rocket PSLV-XL will blast off from the first launch pad at 12:50pm on April 28," P. Kunhikrishnan, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota told IANS over phone.

Though the full system comprises nine satellites - seven in orbit and two on the ground as stand-by, the navigation services could be made operational with four satellites, Isro officials said earlier. Each satellite costs about Rs. 150 crores while the PSLV-XL version rocket costs about Rs. 130 crores. The seven rockets would entail an outlay of about Rs. 910 crores. The first satellite, IRNSS-1A, was launched in July 2013, the second in April 2014, the third on October 2014, the fourth in March 2015, and the fifth and sixth on January 20 and March 10 this year. Once the regional navigation system is in place, India needs not depend upon other platforms.

The IRNSS is similar to the global positioning system (GPS) of the US (24 satellites), Glonass of Russia, and Galileo of Europe as well as China's Beidou.

While GPS and Glonass are fully functional global systems, the Chinese and the Japanese systems are offering regional coverage and Europe's Galileo is yet to be operational. The IRNSS will provide two types of services - standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is provided to all users and the latter is an encrypted service for authorised users.

Meanwhile Isro is in the process of developing the front-end radio frequency chips for the satellite navigation system. The initial version is expected to be ready this year, Isro chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar told IANS earlier.

Today, ISRO To Launch Sixth Navigation Satellite at 4 pm (IST)

Indian Space agency ISRO‘s sixth navigation satellite IRNSS-1F is all set to be launched on board trusted workhorse PSLV C32 today at 4 pm (IST). The 54 and half hour countdown began yesterday soon after the Mission Readiness Review Committee and Launch Authorisation Board cleared it and currently, it was “progressing normal”, ISRO officials said. PSLV-C32 on its 34th mission would launch the IRNSS-1F, aimed at providing navigation accurately on par with the US-based GPS, from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at the spaceport of Sriharikota about 110 km from.

ISRO to provide independent regional navigation satellite system on par with GPS, had launched five navigation satellites under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). While four satellites would be sufficient to start operations of the IRNSS system, the remaining three would make it more “accurate and efficient”, an ISRO official said.

While four satellites would be sufficient to start operations of the IRNSS system, the remaining three would make it more "accurate and efficient", an ISRO official said. "With the launch of four satellites, we were able to provide navigation for 18 hours. But after fifth launch we increased the capacity to 24 hours with an accuracy of 20 metres. The sixth IRNSS-1F and seventh launch (IRNSS-1G) will be accurate and more efficient," an ISRO official told PTI.

The five satellites already launched are IRNSS-1A on July 1, 2013, IRNSS-1B on April 4, 2014, IRNSS-1C on October 16, 2014, IRNSS-1D on March 28, 2015 and IRNSS-1E on January 20, 2016. ISRO scientists plan to put all seven navigation satellites into orbit by March 2016. The last in the series is expected to be launched by month end.

For the IRNSS-1F launch, scientists have used the "XL" variant used in previous launches of IRNSS satellites, given its capacity to carry load. Similar occasions where rocket with XL configuration were used were during launch of Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission, ASTROSAT besides the five IRNSS satellites. Along with the navigation payload and ranging payload, the satellite also carries a "highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock" with it. The payload will transmit navigation service signals to the users. The 44.4 metre tall IRNSS-1F has a liftoff mass of 1,425 kg and would be launched in sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (sub GTO). It has a 12 years mission life.

Countdown Start to ISRO PSLV-C30 launch

The 50-hour countdown for the September 28 launch of PSLV-C30 carrying ASTROSAT satellite for the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial objects has begun, ISRO said. The countdown activity of PSLV-C30/ASTROSAT Mission started at 8 am on Saturday, ISRO said.

PSLV-C30 carrying ASTROSAT along with six other co-passengers, one satellite each from Indonesia and Canada, and four nano satellites from the US is scheduled for launch on September 28,2015(Monday) at 10 am from the space port of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) that met on Friday had cleared the launch of PSLV-C30.

Commenting on the launch, ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar had recently said, "What it means for India is this: it is one of the first scientific missions which will be available to the Indian researcher community as an observation opportunity.

This is a starting point for such things." ASTROSAT is India's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. This scientific satellite mission endeavors for a more detailed understanding of our universe.

India will cross the half-century milestone on Monday once it successfully injects the six foreign satellites into their intended orbit. India has so far launched 45 foreign satellites for a fee. 

In 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go including India’s Cartosate-2A satellite. Now, ISRO will be launching seven satellites for the third time in its history. 

The PSLV will carry a total payload of 1,631 kg during this mission. Just over 22 minutes into the flight, the rocket will eject ASTROSAT at an altitude of 650 kms above the earth. Soon after, six other satellites will be put into orbit and the whole mission will come to an end in just over 25 minutes. ASTROSAT, with a life span of five years, will observe the universe through optical, ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray components of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing through a narrow wavelength band, the agency said.

The Indonesian 76 kg LAPAN-A2 is a micro-satellite from the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, meant for providing maritime surveillance using automatic identification system (AIS), supporting Indonesian radio amateur communities for disaster mitigation and carrying out earth surveillance using video and digital camera. 

The 14-kg NLS-14 (Ev9) of Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto Institute for Advanced Studies, is also a maritime monitoring Canadian nano satellite using the next generation AIS. The remaining four LEMUR nano satellites from Spire Global Inc., San Francisco, US, are non-visual remote sensing satellites, focusing primarily on global maritime intelligence through vessel tracking via AIS and high fidelity weather forecasting using GPS radio occultation technology, the ISRO said.