Williams, whose father Deepak Pandya hails from Gujarat, said she was looking forward to visiting her father’s home country. She also expressed excitement about the future of Indian astronauts, particularly those who will be part of ISRO’s upcoming space missions.
Noting that these thrusters use Xenon as the propellant, the ISRO said the Specific Impulse of the Electric Propulsion System, which is a major performance indicator of a space propulsion system, is at least 6 times that of the conventional propulsion system.
The satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass.
With the successful docking of satellites, India has become the fourth country after US, Russia and China to accomplish the feat.
Narayanan played a vital role in India’s lunar missions. For Chandryaan-2 and 3, he led the development of the L110 Liquid Stage, the C25 Cryogenic Stage, and propulsion systems that enabled the spacecraft to reach the Moon’s orbit and achieve a soft landing.
Secretary, Department of Space, also holds the charge of chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Somanath had assumed charge as the Secretary, Department of Space, on January 14, 2022, for a three-year term.
India’s ISRO launches SpaDeX mission
A cost-effective technology demonstrator mission for in-space docking, it would make India join an elite list featuring China, Russia and the US.
The launch was rescheduled to 4:04 pm today and a revised countdown was set after sorting out an anomaly detected in the propulsion system of one of the satellites on Wednesday, minutes before the launch.
The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency is using its proven Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for the mission.
