NASA administrator to make maiden visit to SHAR

Chennai, May 9: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Michael D Griffin will make his maiden visit to India's Spaceport at Sriharikota, 175 km from here, on May 11.

ISRO sources told UNI from Bangalore that Mr Griffin would be the first NASA Administrator to visit the state-of-the-art Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC), at SHAR Range, Sriharikota.

'Though NASA Administrator James Fletcher had visited India in 1974, it was the first time a NASA Administrator would be visiting Sriharikota', the sources added.

Mr Griffin would inspect various facilities at the SDSC, including the state-of-the-art Second Launch Pad (SLP), Vehicle Assembly Building, Mobile Launch Pedestal, Umbilical Tower, Lightning Protection Towers and Propellant Storage and Servicing facilities.

The SLP, built at SHAR, was configured as a Universal Launch Pad, capable of accommodating all ISRO vehicles, including the Advanced Launch Vehicle to be built in the next decade and beyond.

The SLP will help increase the launch frequency by reducing the turnaround time between the integration of fully assembled vehicles.

Mr Griffin would also interact with ISRO scientists at the SHAR centre, from where India's first Lunar mission Chandrayaan-I would be launched in 2008, atop a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The MoU for including two US scientific payloads - Mini-Synthetic Aperture Radar and Moon Mineralogy Mapper - onboard Chandrayaan-I, was signed between ISRO and the NASA at Bangalore earlier today. The payload would join four other payloads from Europe besides Indian instruments that would throw new light on the lunar surface paving way for studies on the evolution of moon.

The sources said Mr Griffin would arrive from Thiruvananthapuram here and proceed to Sriharikota, before leaving for the US.

At Thiruvananthapuram, Mr Griffin would visit the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thumba and watch the launch of the sounding rocket RH-200, meant for middle atmospheric programme.

UNI

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