Space travel of India
The space activities of India began, like most space nations , on the basis of the development of military launch vehicles. The space agency ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) has been responsible for space activities since the 1970s .
Powerful sounding rockets were launched from 1963. The rocket launches took place at Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) near Thumba . Because of their location between the Arabian Sea and Ceylon , the launch of earth satellites was not possible there. A launch site was built for this on the island of Sriharikota in 1969 . In addition to convenient transport links, this base is close to the equator and large expanses of water to the east, in the direction of which most of the satellite launches take place.
First satellite launches
A suborbital flight of the sounding rocket RH-125 was first carried out from Sriharikota in 1971 . The first orbit was scheduled for August 1979, but the Rohini 1A satellite did not reach the intended orbit. However, the launch of Rohini 1B on July 18, 1980 with the so-called SLV rocket was successful , making India the 7th state to launch a satellite.
Indian launch vehicles have been used for numerous such launches since the 1990s , including for communications and small satellites operated by ESA and NASA. The rockets are now relatively reliable and the launches are inexpensive.
They are therefore a good opportunity for countries without their own space program to launch their own satellites. The first small satellites in Switzerland ( SwissCube 2009), Austria ( BRITE 2012) and Argentina ( Pehuensat-1 , 2007) were brought into orbit from southern India. But larger countries such as Germany (from 2001), France and Canada have India carry out satellite launches.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which can bring up to 1,800 kg into a sun-synchronous earth orbit , is particularly successful .
See also: List of PSLV rocket launches
Manned space travel
The first steps in manned space travel were taken in 1982 through cooperation with the Soviet Union . The two Indian cosmonauts Ravish Malhotra and Rakesh Sharma began their training in Russia and Sharma participated in the Soviet-Indian space flight Soyuz T-11 in April 1984.
For flights to the space shuttle of the NASA test pilots Nagapathi Bhat and Radhakrishnan Nair were trained from 1984, but the planned for 1986 flight was STS-61-I canceled Challenger disaster after. In the meantime India participated in some space flights of the ISS .
A separate program for human spaceflight - known today as the Gaganyaan program - has been pursued since a conference in 2006. The first manned flights with the Gangayaan spacecraft are expected to take place in the early 2020s .
Flights to other celestial bodies
A first success was the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe on October 22, 2008 as part of the Chandrayaan program . It circled the earth's satellite as a lunar orbit more than 3,400 times and sent numerous measurement data and photos to earth. At the end of August 2009, however, radio contact broke off.
On November 5, 2013, the Mars orbiter Mars Orbiter Mission launched with a PSLV-XL rocket and reached Mars on September 24, 2014.
Further missions to the moon, Mars and Venus are planned or considered (see timeline of space exploration #Planed Missions ).
further activities
At the end of 2005, ISRO started ground tests on newly developed cryogenic launch vehicles (with liquid oxygen and hydrogen). The focus was initially on the upper stage of the GSLV rocket for launches in geostationary orbit . The first start of a GSLV had already taken place in 2001, but still with the Russian upper level 12KRB . India now has cryogenic missile technology after the US, Europe, China, Russia and Japan.
The launches of communications satellites for other countries as well as the further development of the research satellites Cartosat-2 , Cartosat-2A and Cartosat-2B (after the successful CartoSat 1 in 2005) were also increased.
Failures
A serious setback occurred on December 25, 2010. When the GSAT-5P satellite was launched , the GSLV launcher broke after deviating from its orbit.
The second lunar probe Chandrayaan-2 crash-landed on September 6, 2019.
Military missiles
An overview of the military medium and long-range missiles is given below . The latter have been developed for nuclear deterrence since 1998 (the first Indian atomic bomb ) . But they are also used in part or as individual rocket stages for space launch vehicles. In 1983 the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) was founded under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to develop four military missiles of different ranges .
- Prithvi ("Earth") since 1987, based on the propulsion of the Russian anti-aircraft missile S-75 . Single-stage liquid rocket in 3 variants with a range of up to 350 km, and from around 2003 the sea-based variant Dhanush .
- Agni ("fire): Agni I since 1989, two-stage medium-range missile up to 1500 km, from 2002 up to 2500 km. First stage as a solid rocket based on the US Scout, has served as the SLV-3 satellite carrier since 1992. Theupper stage is the Prithvi liquid rocket. Further development of Agni II since 2002, payload 1000 kg up to 3,000 km, and Agni III since 2005, up to ~ 4,000 km.
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Agni IV : long-range rocket 20 meters, 17,000 kg, tests 2011. Control with laser gyroscopes. Range 4–5000 km, conventional or nuclear payload.
Further development of Agni V since 2012, ICBM . - Combination to satellite carriers:
- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) 1996, four-stage, up to 1 t payload in earth orbit
- Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) 2001, four-stage, up to 2.5 t in geostationary orbit.
See also
- Agni V , long-range missile
Literature and Sources
- G. Neuneck: The missile programs of China, India and Pakistan . Working Paper, University of Hamburg 2002
- Wikinews (April 2010): India's space travel between setbacks and visions