Thiruvananthapuram: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will carry out the first ground test of its indigenously fabricated cryogenic stage for the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in October.
Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Station (VSSC) B.N. Suresh told mediapersons that integration of the stage was under way. The cryogenic engine for the stage had been test-fired several times. A successful ground test would be followed by a test flight of the Vehicle, he said.
Mr. Suresh said that the next launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle would take place in the last quarter of this year. It would put the satellite, Cartosat II, into orbit. A space recovery experiment (for reuse of the vehicle) was also planned for the quarter. ISRO had no plans to
develop nuclear propulsion or undertake manned missions, he said.
Mr. Suresh announced that a `break monsoon programme' involving the launch of 15 sounding rockets would take off on July 18 to coincide with the silver jubilee of the first successful launch of Satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3. One rocket each would be launched every day at 2 p.m. to study the wind movements and measure temperatures at different layers of the atmosphere.
President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who is arriving here on July 27 to participate in the jubilee celebrations, will witness a symbolic launching of a sounding rocket at VSSC on July 28.
Dr. Kalam would spend the evening on his arrival here with about 50 serving and retired engineers who were with him during the SLV-3 test flights, Mr. Suresh said.
He recalled that the first successful launch of SLV-3 had taken place at 8:03:45 hours on July 18, 1980. The vehicle had put the Rohini satellite, RS-1, into a nearer orbit of 308×915 km.
India had thus achieved a major landmark in the launch vehicle technology. The satellite remained in orbit for 371 days.
The Director said that the VSSC would organise a symposium on Launch Vehicles: Past, Present and the Way Ahead, on July 28 to mark the jubilee of the launch.
The President would inaugurate the symposium. Former chairman of ISRO U.R. Rao, the former Director of VSSC S.C. Gupta and chairman of ISRO G. Madhavan Nair would be among those presenting papers.
