ISRO’s calendar for 2011 chock-a-block with launches
20 Jun 2011
Tirunelveli: The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) space launch calendar for 2011 is full up, including inauguration of some impressive test facilities for critical programmes.
A facility intended for static tests of a cryogenic engine would be ready in another two months at ISRO's Liquid Propulsions Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri in this district, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said.
The new thrust chamber facility for static testing would be a big boon for the LPSC, Radhakrishnan told reporters at the LPSC yesterday after inaugurating a two-day national conference on "Expanding Frontiers in Propulsion Technology.
India will also undertake the flight test of its indigenous cryogenic stage on-board the indigenously developed home-grown rocket, GSLV-D5, which will launch the satellite GSAT-14 by the middle of 2012, a top ISRO official has said.
The maiden flight test of the indigenous cryogenic stage by ISRO onboard Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-D3 ended in a failure in May 2010 after the rocket developed a snag and plunged into the sea minutes after lift-off.
Radhakrishnan also said India's advanced communication satellite GSAT-8, launched from Kourou in French Guiana on 21 May onboard a European Arianspace rocket, would become operational by the month end.
.webp)
.webp)
