Major Achievements, Policies and Schemes during 2006 - Year End Review 2006,Deptt. of Space
Indian Space Programme - Major Events
During 2006 The Indian
space programme continued to make forays in development of new technologies
during the year 2006 with the successful ground testing of the indigenous
cryogenic stage for GSLV, good progress made in the GSLV-Mk III project and
demonstration of Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (SCRAMJET). The Commercial activities
picked up momentum with the winning of two contracts for building communications
satellites for European customers jointly with EADS, France. Space exploration
mission got further fillip with Chandrayaan-1 mission making substantial progress
and ISRO agreeing to carry two US-NASA instruments on board the spacecraft
in addition to its own five primary instruments and three instruments of European
Space Agency and one from Bulgaria. As an important strategy for establishing
an indigenous and independent satellite navigation system, the government
approved in May 2006, the establishment of Indian Regional Navigational Satellite
System (IRNSS).
Space
applications continued to expand reaching the benefits of space technology to a
wider cross section of the society. The EDISAT network has expanded to 33 nodes
connecting about 10.000 classrooms. ISRO’s satellite based telemedicine network
has expanded to connect 182 hospitals – 148 remote and rural hospitals
including those in J & K, NE region and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and 34
super specialty hospitals in major cities. So far, 130 Village Resource Centres (VRCs) have been established to
facilitate access to spatial information on important aspects like land
use/land cover, soil and ground water prospects and enable the farmers in
taking important decisions based on their query.
The year 2006 also saw a setback
when GSLV-F02 mission did not succeed.
However, the space programme continued to look towards even more challenging
missions and the studies conducted by ISRO for a manned space mission was
discussed by scientists in November 2006.
Some of the important events during 2006 are as follows:
January,
2006. ISRO Achieves Breakthrough in Supersonic Combustion Technology: As part of advanced technology initiatives,
ISRO demonstrated Supersonic Combustion Ramjet (SCRAMJET) through a series
of ground tests achieving a stable supersonic combustion for nearly 7 seconds
with an inlet Mach number of 6 (i.e., six times the speed of sound).
February
2006. Contract Won to Build Communication
Satellites for European Customers:
Antrix/ISRO
and EADS Astrium, Paris, Memorandum of Agreement, signed in June 2005 to jointly
address the commercial market for communications satellites, achieved the
first success with the award of W2M satellite contract by Eutelsat Communications.
One more contract was won during the year under this MOA to build Highly Adoptable
Satellite, HYLAS, for Avanti Screen Media. The satellites will be built by
ISRO while EADS, Astrium, will build the communication payloads.
May 9, 2006. ISRO-NASA MOU on Chandrayaan-1: ISRO and
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of USA signed Memoranda
of Understanding (MOU) according to which India will include two US Scientific
instruments on board Chandrayaan-1. These are in addition to three instruments
from European Space Agency and one from Bulgaria. The primary Indian scientific
instruments on board Chandrayaan-1 include: Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC),
Hyper Spectral Imager (HySI), High-Energy X-ray spectrometer (HEX), Lunar
Laser Ranging Instrument (LLRI) and Moon Impact Probe (MIP). Chandrayaan-1
is India’s first mission to moon, planned in early 2008.
May 2006. Government Approves Establishment
of Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS): The Government approved the establishment of an “Indian Regional
Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS)” with a constellation of seven satellites
to be realised over 6-7 years to provide navigation and timing services over
the Indian subcontinent. The satellites are to be launched using Indian launch
vehicles. IRNSS is an important component of the Indian strategy for establishing
an indigenous and independent satellite navigation system.
October 28, 2006. Testing of Indigenous
Cryogenic Stage: ISRO achieved a major milestone in
the development of indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage for GSLV when the stage
was tested for duration of 50 sec. The
indigenous cryogenic stage is planned to be flight tested in GSLV- D3 mission
in 2007-08.
November 7, 2006. Scientists Discuss
Indian Manned Space Mission: About 80 senior scientists from across the country discusses
the studies conducted by ISRO related to Indian Manned Space Mission at Bangalore.
The scientists are unanimous in suggesting that the time is appropriate for
India to undertake a manned mission.
AT:NC
(Release ID :23752)