Recoverable satellite to be back after 10 days

Sriharikota, Jan 10: The Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE), a recoverable satellite launched for the first time in the PSLV-C7 mission, would be brought back after ten days, ISRO Chairman Madhavan Nair said today.

Addressing a press conference after the successful milti-mission launch by PSLV-C7, Mr Nair said the SRE has to be brought back to earth in a controlled way and expressed confidence that the task would be achieved.

It was for the first time, ISRO has sent a recoverable satellite and the team was confident of succeeding in the mission, he said adding it was a ''technological challenge.'' ''Bringing it back is a technological challenge and we want to achieve it,'' he said. Though SRE could stay in the orbit upto 30 days, we have decided to bring it back after ten days, Mr Nair added.

The scientists would watch various parameters, including atmospheric conditions, to decide when to bring the satellite back.

The satellite would splash down with the help of parachutes in a pre-determined area in Bay of Bengal about 140 km, east of this island and the same would be recovered by Coast Guard personnel, he said.

''For the first time we are making this attempt and we are confident of succeeding in our mission,'' an elated Mr Nair said.

Mr Nair said the SRE would help ISRO test a host of new technologies, including the re-entry and recovery technologies. SRE was also a trial balloon for ISRO to build resuable launch vehicles. It would take atleast ten years to build resuable launch vehicles, he said, adding a lot of complex challenges were involved in it. A jubilant Mr Nair described today's launch as a ''textbook precision'' and something better than it. ''It is a very precisely planned and perfect mission..we can challenge anybody to do better than this,'' he said.

Mr Nair said of the targetted 635 km high polar sun synchronous orbit, the satellites were placed at 637 km high orbit, was almost a ''precision launch.'' The entire system, including the onboard computers functioned very well and the sequence of the flight and injection of the satellites also went on as per schedule, he said.

The sequence of injecting the four satellites into the orbit went on as per schedule. After the crucial separation of the fourth stage, the 680 kg CARTOSAT was first injected into the intended orbit.

After CARTOSAT was released the vehicle was reoriented, using the Dual Launch Adopter (DLA), also a first of its kind in the mission and SRE was despatched into the orbit, followed by Indonesian LAPAN- TUBSAT and Argentinean Pehuensat. The fourth stage was tilted in such a way that the satellites did not collide with each other, while being injected, he added.

Mr Nair said after the failure of GSLV-FO2, few months ago, the PSLV-C7 mission underwent a lot of quality checks. ''All the systems and sub-systems were checked thoroughly for any possible defects to ensure 100 per cent precision. The PSLV-C7 programme was planned two years back and the scientists tirelessly worked towards achieving the target. ''We planned well in advance and there was no problem whatsoever,'' he said.

ISRO's next mission would be launch of INSAT-4B, the almost four tonne heaviest communication satellite from Kourou, French Guyana in March-April.

During the same time, PSLV-C8 would be launched from here. The vehicle would carry ''Agile'', an Italian satellite, Mr Nair added.

UNI