Success has become a way of life at Isro. The space agency has long crossed the frontier to space exploration, and it can soon be the world leader in the $300-billion global satellite launch market. Its latest success over the GSLV-F05 rocket using indigenous cryogenic upper stage engine to lift the heavy weathersat Insat-3DR will give India an edge in international space commerce in future. Two more such GSLV-MkII missions are planned this year, while work continues at Isro to develop a C-25 engine to be twice as powerful as the one used Thursday, capable of lifting satellites weighing 4,000 kg and heavier. The latest mission, Isro’s 74th satellite launch, has given a confidence boost to our space scientists, who now aim at Venus or an asteroid, as Chandrayaan-2 is getting its final touches and a joint project with Nasa is on the cards.
Isro’s success story is all the more remarkable as the GSLV rocket plan faced several impediments in its path over the past two decades. International politics of that era, with nations obsessively secretive about their space programmes, meant even Russia, an early strategic partner in India’s space project, reneged on transferring to this country critical cryogenic technology where liquid oxygen and hydrogen fuel lends greater thrust efficiency. The indigenous programme then began with nationalistic fervour, the fruits of which we see today in three cryo-engine launches so far this decade. Considering how some private US players are struggling with their launches and even witnessing disasters at launch sites, Isro’s success percentage is something to be really proud of.
Quite apart from the fact Isro is accomplishing so much at a considerably lesser cost to give it a heft in the context of the comparative size of the Indian economy in contrast to other major space players. The recent indigenous Scramjet engine test was only the first baby step in futuristic space conquests and perfection in such technology as reusable launch vessels will mean even lesser costs. The argument over the relevance of spending on space research in a country riddled with the privation of poverty, and in which several million people live below acceptable minimum standards, was settled long ago. How much science can take humanity forward is reason enough to persist on the path of scientific inquiry. This specific project of a satellite with a search and rescue payload attuned to picking up signals from distress beacons and helping aviation, ocean-going as well as terrestrial movement embellishes the point of how space science can help us on Earth lead a better, safer life. What lends greater optimism is that Isro seems perfectly capable of being in the space race as a dominant player.
