SECOND
ROCKET LAUNCH PAD – SCI & TECH
News:
Honourable Prime Minister
Lays the Foundation Stone for India's Second Spaceport
What's
in the news?
●
In a momentous occasion for India's space
ambitions, Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi remotely laid the
foundation stone for India's second spaceport at Kulasekharapattanam, a coastal
village in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukudi district.
Key
takeaways:
●
The selection of Kulasekarapattinam offers
strategic advantages, particularly in
enhancing payload capability with its direct southward launch trajectory for
small launch vehicles.
Second
Rocket Launch Pad:
●
It is a new spaceport coming up at
Kulasekarapattinam, a coastal hamlet near the temple town of Tiruchendur in
Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil
Nadu.
●
Exclusively
serve the private sector, with no ISRO rocket launches planned from there.
●
It will be second after the space agency’s
existing Satish Dhawan Space Centre, founded in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota in
1971, with two launch pads.
Features:
●
It will focus on the launch of Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVs) on a commercial
basis.
●
It will house 35 facilities, including a
launch pad, rocket integration facilities, ground range and checkout
facilities, and a mobile launch structure (MLS) with checkout computers.
●
It would have the capacity to launch 24 satellites per year using a
mobile launch structure.
Why
Tamil Nadu?
●
Allowing for direct southward trajectories
ideal for launches using the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
●
Kulasekharapatnam space port will help save fuel for small rocket launches as the
port can launch rockets directly south over the Indian Ocean without requiring
crossing landmasses.
○
This is unlike the existing launch site at
the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which adds more fuel requirements for launching
into a polar orbit as rockets need to follow a curved path to the south to
avoid Sri Lanka’s landmass.
●
Equatorial
Proximity:
○
Closer proximity to the equator enhances
the velocity imparted by Earth's rotation, leading to increased payload
capacity for launch vehicles, particularly beneficial for geostationary
satellites.
●
Dogleg
manoeuvre:
●
It is a sharp turn that causes the rocket
to deviate from a straight flight path.
●
This manoeuvre requires more fuel in the
rocket which eats into the payload capacity of the launcher
Go
back to basics:
Small
Satellite Launch Vehicles:
●
SSLV is a 3-stage Launch Vehicle configured with three Solid Propulsion Stages and liquid propulsion-based Velocity
Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage.
●
SSLV is 2m in diameter and 34m in length
with lift off weight of 120 tonnes.
●
SSLV is capable of launching 500kg satellite in 500 km planar orbit.
●
The key features of SSLV are Low cost,
with low turn-around time, flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites,
Launch on demand feasibility, minimal launch infrastructure requirements