THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was business as usual at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here on Thursday after the success of the Mars Orbiter Mission on Wednesday. The employees got a pat on their back from VSSC director M. C. Dathan through an intranet email saying, “I wholeheartedly congratulate all my colleagues on the maiden success of Mangalyaan.” Mr Dathan told DC that his team had started working on future projects which include the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) and GSLV Mark-3.
Mr Dathan, who reached the office on the dot at 8.30 a.m. as usual, was inundated with phone calls, and dozens of visitors called on him, including senior BJP leader O. Rajagopal and teachers and students from various schools. Mr Dathan did not address the staff as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already spoken to the ISRO employees in Bengaluru. He said that IRNSS, a navigational global positioning system satellite, would be launched from Sriharikota on October 9 and GSLV Mark-3 during the first week of November.
“We have talked to the MOM team in Bengaluru and the orbit is stable. From Friday or Saturday, the team will switch on the five instruments one after the other. The analysis of the data will take some time. But now we are more concerned about the future projects on the anvil which are crucial for the ISRO team,” he said. The ISRO has a wing called Attitude and Orbit Control System Correction (AOCSC) where the data from the Red Planet would be analysed. After two to three weeks, ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad where three instruments were manufactured and MENCA (Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer) at VSSC for MOM would do the analysis.
