Sun mission and climate satellite: ISRO’s launch plan after the moon mission Chandrayaan-3

A mission to explore the sun and the launch of a climate observation satellite, a test vehicle under the Gaganyaan space program and an Indo-American synthetic aperture radar – ISRO has a busy schedule ahead of it. In addition, XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite), the country’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources under extreme conditions, is also ready for launch, an ISRO official said Tuesday.

Aditya-L1, India’s first space-based solar observatory, is preparing for launch, expected in the first week of September.

According to ISRO Chairman Somanath S, the space agency also has plans to launch an INSAT-3DS climate observation satellite.

The launch of a test vehicle mission to validate the crew escape system for Gaganyaan, the country’s first manned space mission, is also expected soon.

“(Then) we need to launch NISAR, the Indian-US-built synthetic aperture radar,” Somanath said in his Independence Day speech here Aug. 15 at ISRO headquarters. “So we have our hands full.” “We will also build a large number of satellites for our security purposes in the coming days,” Somanath had said.

According to ISRO officials, NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) observatory being developed jointly by the US Space Agency NASA and ISRO.

In 12 days, NISAR will map the entire globe and provide spatially and temporally consistent data to understand changes in the Earth’s ecosystems, ice mass, vegetation biomass, sea level rise, groundwater and natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes and landslides , it was said.

“It features L and S dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that uses Sweep SAR technique to provide large swaths of high-resolution data. The SAR payloads mounted on the Integrated Radar Instrument Structure (IRIS) and the spacecraft bus are collectively called an observatory,” an ISRO official noted.

Before conducting the Gaganyaan manned spaceflight mission, ISRO planned two unmanned missions. “We are preparing for the (first of two) unmanned crew module mission early next year,” said an ISRO official. The objective of the Gaganyaan mission is to demonstrate the capability of conducting a manned space mission to LEO aboard an Indian launch vehicle. The orbital module consists of a crew module and a service module.

The crew module, a pressure module, serves as living quarters for the crew. The orbital module will be positioned in a circular orbit of approximately 400 km around the Earth for one to three days and the crew module will return to its intended location at sea.