Indian Space Programme Achieves Unmatched Progress on Global Timeline: ISRO Charirman V. Narayanan

According to media sources, The Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman, Dr. V. Narayanan, today said that the Indian space programme has seen steady progress on a timeline that no other country could achieve. Speaking at the inaugural Aero India International Seminar in Bengaluru today, Dr Narayanan pointed out that the Indian space programme started as late as 1962, and the first rocket launch was only in 1975.

Since then, the Indian space programme has taken an upper trajectory with many milestones in its legacy. He pointed out that from launching a 45-kilo satellite to lower Earth orbit, India has today developed the sixth generation launch vehicles and subsystems. It has indigenously developed the rocket engine along with the cryogenic stage and mastered the use of liquid hydrogen as fuel in a very short span of time. ISRO has today completed 100 launches, and it has taken 433 satellites from 35 countries to its designated orbit in outer space. India was successful in landing on the south pole of the Moon, something that no other country had achieved till then.

The chairman pointed out that ISRO was successful in reducing the speed of Chandrayaan 3 from 6077 km per hour to zero speed in just 90 minutes and achieved the landing without a flaw. He said ISRO is now getting ready for Gaganyaan, Chandrayaan 4 and 5, and the setting up of the Bharatiya Space Station. He said that Indian astronauts will be sent to outer space by 2028 and the space station by 2035.

The Chairman of DRDO, Dr. Samir V. Kamat, who spoke on the occasion, expressed a need to speed up the certification process of designs and platforms developed indigenously. He also stressed that MSMEs must have greater participation in the certification process and a method evolved for quicker validation of the designs and insertion of new technologies.

The two-day seminar is organised by the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, CEMILAC of DRDO, in association with the Aeronautical Society of India, as a prelude to the Aero India show set to begin in Bengaluru on Monday. The theme of the seminar is Futuristic Aerospace Technologies: Challenges in Design Validation and Emerging Trends in Futuristic Aerospace Technologies and Military Airworthiness and Certification: Challenges in Design and Testing.