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The Government of India set up the Space Commission and Department of Space (DOS) in June 1972. The Department of Space (DOS) has, over the years, built up a strong research and development and technology base with necessary infrastructure and manpower for implementing the space programme. The main objective of space programme includes development of satellites, launch vehicles, Sounding Rockets and associated ground systems.

India's Space Program Becoming an International Player

The year 2004 was quite eventful for the Indian space programme. The successful launch of EDUSAT by India's own launch vehicle, GSLV, on September 20, 2004, was an important landmark. It was the first operational flight of GSLV and its success demonstrated the reliability of the vehicle. The launch of EDUSAT, India's first thematic satellite dedicated for educational services, the inauguration of the first cluster of Village Resource Centres and further expansion of Telemedicine network reiterated India's commitment to use space technology for societal applications. The India-US Conference on Space Science, Applications and Commerce marked a new beginning in the India US space cooperation.

Following on the heels of the first successful launch of its Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) in 1992, India tested the more capable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) during 1993-1994, achieving success on the second attempt. Coupled with another ASLV mission in 1994, India's three launch attempts in the two-year period represented its most active campaign since its indigenous space program began in 1979 (Figure 2.10).

All Indian space launches are conducted from the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) on Sritharikota Island off the east coast of India in the Bay of Bengal. The original SLV-3 launch complex was converted to support the ASLV. Two new complexes with one pad each to the south were selected to support the PSLV and GSLV. The Vikran Sarabhai Space Center at the southern tip of India is the site of most launch vehicle stage development.

SLV India's capability in the launch vehicle technology was first demonstrated through the successful launch of SLV-3 in July 1980, which placed a 40 kg Rohini satellite into a near-earth orbit. Two more launches of SLV-3 were conducted in May 1981 and April 1983 with the Rohini satellites.

ASLV The original Indian SLV-3 launch vehicle was a four-stage, solid-propellant booster with a LEO payload capacity of less than 50 kg into an orbit with a mean altitude of 600 km at an inclination of 47 degrees. Following an initial failure, the SLV-3 successfully orbited three Rohini Satellites in 1980, 1981, and 1983, respectively (Reference 69). The ASLV was created by adding two additional boosters modified from the SLV-3's first stage and by making other general improvements to the basic SLV-3 4 stage stack. The ASLV is actually a five-stage vehicle since the core first stage does not ignite until just before the booster rockets burn out. The payload capacity of the ASLV is approximately 150 kg to an orbit of 400 km with a 47 degree inclination (Reference 70).

The first launch of the ASLV on 24 March 1987 failed when the bottom stage of the core vehicle did not ignite after booster burn-out. The second attempt ended with the Rohini payload falling into the Bay of Bengal on 13 July 1988 when the vehicle became unstable and broke up soon after release of the booster rockets. Finally, on 20 May 1992 the SROSS 3 (Stretched Rohini Satellite Series) was inserted into LEO by the third ASLV. However, instead of obtaining a circular orbit near 400 km, the ASLV only achieved a short-lived orbit of 256 km by 435 km, not unlike the degraded performance of the SLV-3 launch of 31 May 1981 (Reference 71).

The fourth ASLV mission in May, 1994 successfully reached its programmed orbit of 434 km by 921 km with the SROSS C2 payload. The vehicle is likely to be phased out shortly in favor of the PSLV and due to a desire to deploy larger, more complex spacecraft than can be lifted by the ASLV.

First Launch: March 1987 (Launch Failure)
Flight Rate: per year (Intended)
Launch Site: Shar Launch Center (Sriharikota, India)
Capability: 330 lb to 215 nm circular orbit, 46 degree inclination

History

• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) established in 1969 to develop launch systems.
• Rohini sounding rockets provided basis for development of satellite launch vehicle (SLV)
• ASLV developed as follow-on to SLV

Description

• Four-stage, solid propellant booster
• Stage 1 burns HTPB solid propellant providing 113,000 lb of thrust
• Stage 2 burns HTPB solid propellant providing 49,000 lb of thrust
• Stage 3 burns HEF-20 solid propellant providing 14,400 lb of thrust
• Stage 4 burns HEF-20 solid propellant providing 4,700 lb of thrust
• Two solid strap-ons burn HTPB solid propellant providing 98,900 lb of thrust each

Profile

Length: 77.4 ft
Launch Weight: 85,800 lb
Diameter: 3.3 ft
Liftoff Thrust: 310,800 lb
Payload Fairing: 16.4 ft x 3.3 ft (14 ft diameter fairing available)

PSLV The PSLV (Polar Space Launch Vehicle) was developed to permit India to launch its own IRS-class satellites into sun-synchronous orbits, a service until recently procured commercially via the USSR/CIS. The design orbital capacity for the PSLV is one metric ton into a 900 km, 99 degree inclination orbit. This significant increase in lift is achieved using a 5-stage design similar to the ASLV: a 4-stagecore vehicle surrounded by six strap-on boosters of the type developed for the ASLV. At lift-off only two of the strap-ons and the bottom stage of the core vehicle are ignited. The other four boosters are fired at an altitude of 3 km.

The core vehicle possesses an unusual design consisting of two solid-propellant stages (1 and 3) and two liquid, hypergolic stages (2 and 4). The first stage also carries two cylindrical tanks which are part of the Secondary Injection Thrust Vector Control System (STIVC). The large liquid engine of the Record stage is designated Vikas and is essentially an Indian-manufactured Viking engine used by ESA's Ariane. During 1992 all four stages were certified for flight in 1993, and full vehicle integration tests were performed (References 70 and 72).

After some delays the maiden flight of the PSLV with the IRS-I E Earth observation spacecraft occurred on 20 September 1993. Although all strap-ons and main engines performed as expected, an attitude control problem arose after separation of the second and third stages. Consequently, the vehicle and its payload failed to reach Earth orbit. A little more than a year later, on 15 October 1994, the IRS-P2 spacecraft was inserted into the prescribed sun-synchronous orbit by PSLV no. 2. Almost immediately afterwards, Indian officials announced plans for the manufacture of three additional PSLVs and initial construction for three more. Commercial space transportation services could be available by 1996 (References 73-80).

First Launch: September 1993
Flight Rate: 1 per year
Launch Site: Shar Launch Center (Sriharikota, India)
Capability: 6,610 lb to 215 nm circular orbit, 43 degrees inclination
2,200 lb ot 490 nm sun-synchronous orbit
990 lb to Geotransfer orbit, 43 degree inclination

History

• Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) established in 1969 to develop space launch systems
• Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) developed as third generation follow-on to Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV)
• Designed for delivery of 2,200 lb Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites to polar sun-syschronous orbit

Description

• Four-stage vehicle
• Stage 1 burns HTPB solid propellant providing 806,000 lb of thrust
• Stage 2 uses one Vikas engine that burns UDMH/N2O4 providing 163,000 lb of thrust
• Stage 3 burns HTPB solid propellant providing 73,900 lb of thrust
• Stage 4 uses two liquid rocket engines that burn MMH/N2O4 providing 1,700 lb of thrust each
• Six solid strap-ons burn HTPB solid propellant providing 98,900 lb of thrust each (two are air lit)

Profile

Length: 145.1 ft
Launch Weight: 606,000 lb
Diameter: 9.2 ft
Liftoff Thrust: 1,200,000 lb
Payload Fairing: 27.2 ft x 10.5 ft

GSLV In the 1980's India began designing the GSLV, a Delta-II class medium launch vehicle, with an objective of placing 2.5 metric ton payloads into GTO. The development and launch of the GSLV rocket is a priority item in the 20-year Indian national space programme aimed at creating a dense satellite network to meet the country's requirements for telecommunications, Earth sounding, environmental monitoring and other systems, as well as India's entrance to the international market of space. The task set for Indian designers for the near future is to ensure launching at least one satellite a year.

Drawing heavily on the PSLV, early concepts for the GSLV borrowed the six strap-on boosters and first two stages of the PSLV's core vehicle. A later design suggested replacing the solid strap-on boosters with four liquid units similar to the second stage of the core vehicle. The third stage was to incorporate an indigenous liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine with a thrust of approximately 12 metric tons. Component development for this engine was already underway in the late 1980's, and subscale development was still on-going in 1992 (References 70, 81, and 82).

However, in an attempt to maintain the GSLV development schedule which called for a first flight as early as 1997, India in 1992 contracted with Russia to buy a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine (KVD-1/KVD-7.5) developed in the 1970's for the heavy-lift N-1 launch vehicle. The plan, which had been in negotiations since 1988 came under fire from the US which considered the transfer of such technology a violation of the Missile Technology Control Regime. Eventually, a compromise was reached which allowed the Russian Federation to supply a limited number of engines to India (seven) without the transfer of critical technologies. The first engine was delivered in 1996 for the planned inaugural GSLV mission in late 1997 or early 1998. Test firings of lower stage GSLV motors were underway in 1994 (References 83-96).

The GSLV is a three stage vehicle. The first stage is a 129 tonne solid propellant core motor with four liquid propellant strap-ons with 40 tonne propellant each. The second stage is a liquid propulsion system with 37.5 tonnes of propellant. The cryogenic upper stage has 12 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.

The first flight of the GSLV in mid-2000 will carry the experimental GSAT-1, that is aimed at demonstrating advanced communication technologies. Even though the initial flight of the GSLV would be using a Russian cryogenic engine, the second or the third flight in 2001 or in 2002 would use the Indian-built CUSP (Cryogenic Upper Stage Project) engine.

The delivery to India of Russian cryogenic acceleration blocks (CAB) (the so-called cryogenic engines) and preparations for launching a GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) equipped with a CAB is a major joint project between India and Russia. It is expected in India that with the help of CABs they would be able to launch into a geosynchronous orbit effective loads of up to 2.5 tons and thereby join the narrow group of states (Russia, the US, France and China) with a similar potential in this field.

Under the initial contract signed in January 1991 the Soviet Union was not only to supply CAB to India as ready-made units, but also the know-how for their production in India. The second Russian-Indian contract concerning the GSLV project, signed in April 1992, provides for the delivery of equipment, assembly and testing of CAB ground support systems by Russia.

However, at the end of 1993, as Russia joined the Missile Technology Control Regime, the terms of the contract were revised and now it provides for the delivery to India of 7 operating CAB specimens without transferring the know-how for their production.

The contracts signed by the Russian State Committee for Space Exploration and the Indian Space Research Organisation [ISRO] were to be performed on the Russian side by the Salyut Design Bureau of the Khrunichev Research and Production Centre. Salyut opened its representative office in Madras, 100 km from the SHAR space launch grounds (Sriharikota Peninsula, Andhra-Pradesh), because the assembly, autonomous systems tests and comprehensive tests of CAB demanded permanent presence of Russian specialists, from 6 to 50 persons at a time.

For this project, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen and other compressed gases supply systems, an automated control system for the preparation and fuelling of CABs were developed and made in Russia. More than 80 railway freight cars of equipment were delivered to the SHAR Centre space-launch grounds by sea. In 1996 a CAB model was delivered; its transportation of which by air (AN-124) cost to India US$200,000. In 1998 the fuelling CAB model and the first of the seven flying blocks were delivered. Compressed gases supply and hydrogen purification systems were adjusted and subjected to autonomous testing, as well as fuelling and other automated control systems were adjusted both at the launching grounds and at the Centre for Liquid-Propelled Engine Systems (Mahendraghiri, Tamilnadu). For this purpose almost 160 Russian specialists were sent to India during 1998 for a term of up to 2 months and some 50 specialists for shorter terms.

At the SHAR launching grounds, autonomous systems tests were completed and the automated control system was adjusted. Comprehensive tests in mid-1999 were the final stage of preparatory work.

The repeatedly postponed launching of the GSLV with a cryogenic accelerating block was scheduled for September 1999. The launch was delayed through the fault of both parties: the Indians were unable to fulfil their part of work in time, while the Russian side had to face financial and economic difficulties.

Ground equipment delivered to the SHAR space center will be maintained for 20 years under the designer's supervision to be exercised by Salyut which is to provide additional supplies of units and systems under new contracts.

For the purpose of expanding satellite launch potentiality the Indian leadership resolved to build another launching complex on Sriharikota Peninsula which would cost several billion dollars. Leading Indian companies are competing to obtain a contract under this state order. The degree of possible participation of Russian enterprises in this project has not yet been defined and will depend on the success of the CAB contracts.

India would not be able to develop their own cryogenic engine before 2005. In the opinion of Indian scientists, necessary conditions for the successful implementation of the project are available. According to the director of the Centre for Liquid-Propelled Engine Systems (Indian CAB development head organisation), they have completed design of a 7.5 ton engine and signed a contract for its manufacture with Indian companies, Godrej and Machine Tools and Reconditioning (MTAR).

In addition, the work is in progress on the creation of an infrastructure for servicing cryogenic engine-propelled rocket launches. For instance, since August 1996, ISRO has been producing cryogenic rocket fuel at a plant built with the assistance of Germany in Mahendraghiri (Tamilnadu), with a capacity of up to 8,000 litres of liquid oxygen, 5,500 litres of hydrogen and 2,500 litres of nitrogen; construction of testing grounds has been started there also. Furthermore, India has already built basic facilities for testing the turbine pump and engine control system. In the opinion of ISRO specialists, their CAB will be similar to Russian engines in terms of technical characteristics, but will be lighter and more powerful.

At the same time, CAB manufacturers faced certain difficulties. In particular, the low quality and insufficient supplies of the necessary aluminum and scandium alloys and of other special alloys will bring the engine's load capacity down to 1,000 kg instead of the planned 2,500 kg. In the absence of know-how for the so-called "wafer structure" and special equipment for large-diameter casing welding, the Indian side has to purchase containers for CABs from the French company Arianespace.

GSLV is under development for launching 2500 kg INSAT class of satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. While the initial flights will have cryogenic upper stage supplied by Russia, ISRO is developing indigeneous cryogenic stage for use in subseqent flights.

Lift-off mass: 401t
Height: 49m
Heatshield : Diameter : 3.40m,
Length : 7.8m, Dynamic envelope : 3.05m

From - Aviation Week & Space Technology
India's Space Program Becoming an International Player
By Frank Morring, Jr. and Neelam Mathews
11/23/2004 02:09:29 PM
THIRD WORLD RISING

India's space program, built up on a shoestring during the past 41 years to benefit the poor and the military at home, is poised to take on a larger role beyond the subcontinent. From launchers to spacecraft to lunar orbiters, India is pushing its largely indigenous space industry into the international arena as buyer, seller and potential exploration partner.

The world has held the civilian space program in India at arm's length since the late 1980s, when the solid-fuel core stage from the SLV-3 satellite launch vehicle became the first stage of the Agni intermediate-range ballistic missile. Fearing a nuclear arms race, or worse, in the volatile region, the other spacefaring nations of the world largely left India to fend for itself in space.

And fend it has, driven more by its space pioneers' principles of using space technology to benefit India's huge population than by a desire to build weapons for security in a dangerous neighborhood. Blocked by sanctions and diplomacy from collaborating on space projects, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has developed a sophisticated indigenous space infrastructure to meet its needs. Indeed, sanctions have become a valuable motivator for ISRO.

"At ISRO we have got one principle--if you can 'indigenize,' do it immediately," says Venkatakrishna Jayaraman, who directs India's space-based Earth remote sensing work. "All our electro-optics are indigenized. Cameras are indigenized, reaction wheels, everything is indigenized. Our reaction control system is totally indigenous. I think the motivation came because somebody said 'I'm not going to give [it to] you.' But fine. Today we will start exporting to those countries that didn't give us technologies."

Some of those technologies have been born of necessity, such as the "step-and-stare" approach to high-resolution space imagery developed by Jayaraman's engineers. Rather than use advanced charge coupled devices (CCDs), that were unavailable to them, engineers on the Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) launched in October 2001 worked out a way to increase the exposure time of its panchromatic imager on a single patch of terrain before moving on to the next, giving the imager 1-meter resolution.

"Keeping the data rate small with the linear CCD, we made a new technology," Jayaraman says.

Although large-scale 1-meter images made with the TES imager line Jayaraman's office and many walls around the ISRO headquarters building here, the imagery has not been published. India does not have a dedicated military reconnaissance satellite, per se, but it is clear that TES could play that role, if necessary.

However, India has a highly successful commercial deal with Space Imaging of the U.S. to market lower-resolution imagery from its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) system, which has included several ISRO satellites and sensors since the deal was struck a decade ago. The revenue from that is useful, bringing in about $20 million in 2003-04 (see pp. 48-49). But the sensors that generate it were developed to further the vision offered by the late Vikram Sarabhai, considered the architect of India's space program, to use space for the benefit of 700 million Indians living in villages, and the broader population relying on domestic agriculture for sustenance.

"In India, 45 million hectares is under irrigation," Jayaraman says. "[They] produce 120 million tons of food grain for India. Whereas the 100 million hectares of rainfall agriculture [yields] hardly 80 million tons, 0.8 tons per hectare. That is the problem of India. To improve the production and productivity, India has to concentrate on the rainfall agriculture areas."

Using satellite imagery supplied by ISRO, government experts have raised the success rate for well-drilling to more than 90% from about 50%, he says, improving both irrigation and drinking water safety. On top of that, satellite weather forecasting helps farmers take maximum advantage of rainfall and do what they can to prepare for drought. Satellite data are being used to reclaim wastelands, and in coastal areas have almost doubled the catch in some fisheries.

Sarabhai, a British-trained scientist who died in 1971, set up the rocket launching center at Thumba, on India's west coast near the magnetic Equator, where the first sounding rocket flew on Nov. 21, 1963. Today, ISRO managers and their government sponsors still take very seriously Sarabhai's ideas about bringing space benefits down to Earth.

"It's amazing how [Sarabhai] could think as early as '62, '63 that the application of space technology was most relevant for India, and we should not miss that point during technology development," says Vissa Sundararamaiah, ISRO's scientific secretary. "And it took roughly 30 years for us to realize what he postulated in that time frame. It just shows the vision of that great character."

G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of ISRO and the top manager of India's civil space activities, says he sees his job as sustaining Sarabhai's legacy.

"This will continue to be our first area," Nair says. "Towards this, we have to go in for newer technologies for Earth observation systems, and then, of course, more optimum use of bandwidth in the advanced communications techniques for spacecraft. And we would like to go in for a much heavier and more efficient system by which we can provide large bandwidth services in the country. So that will become our prime focus."

To get the new systems to space, India already has an approved program of launch vehicle development that includes atmospheric drop tests of a planned reusable launch vehicle testbed.

"The initial analysis indicates maybe a two-stage-to-orbit is a near-term goal in the 2020-25 time frame," Nair says. "Both stages may be recovered and reused at least 100 times, so with that the cost could come down to less than $1,000 a kilogram in that time frame."

Unlike space agencies in other countries, which thrive or wither at the whim of whatever government happens to be in power, ISRO has enjoyed steady support from New Delhi over the years. That allows the agency to follow a long-term planning cycle updated every five years and extending at least 20 years into the future. It also gets a lot more for its money, as do high-tech U.S. companies exporting work to the highly skilled but relatively low-paid workers in Bangalore and other Indian versions of California's Silicon Valley.

"I think the real value of the rupee is much higher than the conversion rates," Nair says. "In fact, if I pay $500 for a middle-level scientist, that provides a comfortable living standard to him. Whereas $500 is nothing in the U.S.A. So the cost of technical manpower is much lower in India."

ISRO has a staff of about 16,000, and supports another 20,000 workers in the space industry that has spun off from the government agency. Typically, ISRO engineers develop a technology in-house, and then farm out its production to the private sector. The final integration of a spacecraft or rocket is usually carried out by ISRO.

Over time, India has used what has been available. The first sounding rockets flown from Thumba were U.S.-made Nike Apaches, and India's first satellites were built by Ford Aerospace. It still buys launch services from Arianespace, but Nair sees the trade winds beginning to blow in the other direction.

"Most of the technology which is required for spacecraft is available with us," Nair says. "Similarly, the launch services of the medium class we can provide in an effective manner. So we would like to get into the space markets as much as possible."

In June, India hosted U.S. government and industry space representatives at a conference here designed to explore broadening of space cooperation. Since then there have been indications the sanctions would ease, but in the run-up to the U.S. elections, Indian officials were frustrated at the lack of actual progress.

"We would like to see that the sanctions are removed as quickly as possible," Nair says. "That's going to benefit both countries. One thing is I think the volume of the technology products and the commerce related to that can expand up to more than $100 million a year, whereas today it's hardly $20-25 million. Then, of course, we also benefit because we are spending a lot of money in trying to indigenize many of these products and subsystems, and also trying to look for alternate sources, so that again is more expensive than U.S. sources."

At the Bangalore conference, the most promising areas of potential cooperation to emerge were in scientific spacecraft. India has offered 10 kg. of payload to foreign scientists on its Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, and the two parties identified atmospheric science, space weather and space-based astronomy as potential joint research fields.

Longer term, Nair says India might one day participate with other nations in joint exploration of the solar system beyond Earth orbit. Missions like those to the Moon, Mars and beyond envisioned by NASA would be "prohibitively expensive" and so better undertaken as an international effort. But India's role in such efforts remains problematic, he says.

"At this date, I would say, the ambience is not so good for integrating," Nair says. "There are certain blocked areas in such international cooperation. Probably a mutual trust and confidence has to build up, and the countries have to work together."

With Chandrayaan-1 underway with or without U.S. cooperation, Nair notes that India already has the capability to launch humans into space. But the country is a long way from doing so, and whether it decides to follow its Chinese neighbors into human spaceflight is highly "debatable," he says.

"Today, as far as the launch systems are concerned, we have the capability," Nair reports. "Manned capsules can be designed with our launch vehicles. But basic efforts in life support systems, improved reliability, safety and recovery procedures, all of these need additional development. And it's going to be pretty expensive, so that's another reason we want to go into that area cautiously."