ISRO on new high: Space capsule back

In a crucial operation that lasted barely an hour, scientists of the Indian Space Research organization today successfully guided an orbiting 550 kg space capsule

In a crucial operation that lasted barely an hour, scientists of the Indian Space Research organization ISRO today successfully guided an orbiting 550 kg space capsule, SRE-1 Space Capsule Recovery Experiment-1, back to earth. The re-entry of the SRE-1 and its splashdown into the Bay of Bengal, 140 km East of Sriharikota, at 9.46 am marks a new milestone in India8217;s space programme and sets the stage for future launches with reusable vehicles and manned missions to space.

8220;It is an historic moment for ISRO, a thrilling moment,8221; a beaming ISRO chairman, Madhavan Nair, told reporters at the Ennore Port, after receiving the SRE-1 from the Coast Guard ship Sarang, which recovered it from the sea. While the splashdown operation 8220;had its tense moments8221;, Nair described it as a 8220;precise operation8221;.

8220;We had some tense moments because fixing the trajectory before the capsule entered the earth8217;s atmosphere is a herculean task. But it was a precise operation as the deviation was only 20 nautical miles,8221; Nair said, adding that the module travelled half the world8217;s distance before landing 80 km off Ennore coast. The capsule, which arrived at the Ennore Port at 5.30 pm, was later taken to the space port at Sriharikota, about 100 km from Chennai.

The SRE-1, which was launched into space by the PSLV C-7 rocket on January 10 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, had been going round the earth in a circular polar orbit at an altitude of 637 km. On January 19, commands issued from the Spacecraft Control Centre SCC at Bangalore got the SRE-1 ready for re-entry, putting it into an elliptical orbit with a perigee nearest point to earth of 485 km and an apogee farthest point to earth of 639 km.

The critical de-boost operations were executed from SCC supported by a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Sriharikota, Biak in Indonesia, Saskatoon in Canada, Svalbard in Norway besides shipborne and airborne terminals, said an ISRO release.

The successful launch, in-orbit operation of the on board experiments and re-entry and recovery of SRE-1 has demonstrated India8217;s capability in technologies like aero-thermo structures, deceleration and flotation systems, navigation, guidance and control. It was also 8220;an important beginning for providing a low cost platform for micro-gravity experiments in space science and technology and return specimen from space8221;.

The re-orientation of SRE-1 capsule for de-boost operations began at 8.42 am IST. The de-boost started at 9 am with the firing of on-board rocket motors. At 9.17 am, the capsule was reoriented for re-entry into the dense atmosphere. It made its re-entry at 9.37 am at an altitude of 100 km with a velocity of 8 km/sec.

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Ensuring that the capsule, protected by 8216;carbon phenolic ablative8217; material and silica tiles on its outer surface, withstood the intense heat on re-entry into the earth8217;s atmosphere, was one of the biggest challenges for ISRO scientists.

According to ISRO, during its stay in orbit for the last 12 days, the two experiments on board SRE-1 were successfully conducted under micro gravity conditions.

Delighted to follow exciting trajectory, says Kalam

NEW DELHI: President A P J Abdul Kalam was among the first to congratulate the scientists for bringing back the spacecraft to earth.8216;8216;I am extremely delighted to follow this morning the exciting recovery trajectory of Space Capsule Recovery Experiment SRE from orbit to splash down in the intended location in the Bay of Bengal executed through a series of complex manoeuvres,8217;8217; Kalam said in a letter to ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair.