ISRO to develop rocket that can be assembled in just 3 days

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to develop a small launch vehicle that could be assembled in just 3 days, much less than the PSLV which takes up to 30-40 days.

While a normal-sized PSLV takes 30-40 days to be assembled and costs between Rs 150-500 crore, ISRO's upcoming launch vehicle will take just a few days to be built and will cost lesser than PSLV.

The launch vehicles will cost one, a tenth of the cost of conventional launch vehicles and will be much lighter.

"Isro is busy developing a small launch vehicle which is likely to be ready for launch probably by 2018-end or early-2019. The cost of this vehicle will get drastically reduced by one-tenth of the manufacturing cost of a normal PSLV. However, this rocket will have the total payload capacity of 500 to 700 kg and can launch satellites only up to the polar sun-synchronous orbit or near-earth orbit (500-700 km in altitude)," K Sivan, director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC),' told TOI.

The weight of these rockets will three times lesser than the conventional launch vehicle it will weigh just 100 tonnes.

Explaining the advantage, the scientist said that the money saved could be used to manufacture more such launch vehicles and put more satellites in orbits around the globe.

ISRO is betting on a smaller rocket as it sees a global shortage of small launchers and a growing demand for vehicles to take small satellites into space.

In February, PSLV launched 104 satellites in one mission, including 88 nanosatellites of US satellite-maker Planet Labs, creating a world record for hurling the maximum satellites in one launch.

OneIndia News