ORIGIN: INDIA
Images: ISRO
INTRODUCTION
The Indian Space program, since its inception, has been guided by the vision of Dr Vikram Sarabhai, considered as the father of Indian Space program, he laid emphasis on the application of space technology for finding solutions to the problems of the common man and the society at large. Self-reliance in space technology has been the important motto and goal for India's policy makers. In 1969, Dr. Vikram A Sarabhai created the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Since then ISRO has been remarkably successful with the active participation of several great scientists and administrators. ISRO is the nodal agency to manage and implement all space related activities in India. The services in communication, broadcasting, meteorology, military reconnaissance, interplanetary and Lunar missions are now been provided by spacecrafts designed and built in India. They have also mastered the elusive and exclusive Cryogenic technology and conversely building Semi-Cryogenic stage as well and shortly poised to launch heavier boosters to place satellites in the 5-ton class. India has pursued a reasonable and a well-balanced program, nicely adapted to the nation's developmental needs. While ISRO has put together a systematic rocket launch vehicle building program, they have also significantly concentrated on the two of the most important areas for a large and developing country such as India, building telecommunications and remote sensing applications.
PSLV: The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the workhorse rocket of ISRO with an outstanding success rate among medium lift rocket systems. The success of the PSLV is an important milestone for the Indian space industry. India has achieved self-sufficiency in launching its operational satellites. The PSLV is a unique vehicle which employs both liquid and solid fuel engines, and it is ISRO's workhorse. The PSLV can place a satellite weighing about three tonnes in low earth orbit (LEO), at a height of 400 to 600 km. It can also deploy satellites weighing up to 1,500kg in Polar Sun Synchronous orbit at a height of 750km above the earth. This versatile and flexible vehicle can handle a LEO, a polar and a GTO orbit. The Payload capacity to Low Earth Orbit is 3,250 kilograms (7,170 lb) and Helio-Synchronous or Sun-Synchronous Orbit is 1,600 kilograms (3,500 lb) and to Geostationary Transfer Orbit is 1,410 kilograms (3,110 lb). The vehicle configuration is as follows, total height is 44 meters (144 feet), diameter is 2.8 meters (9 feet+) and Gross Mass is 295 tons. The first-stage or the core stage employs solid fuel with a total thrust of 486Kn with a specific impulse of 269 seconds with a total burn time of 105 seconds. The fuel used is Hydroxyl-Terminated Polybutadiene (HTPB). The core stage is mated to 6 solid strap-on boosters (only in the PSLV-G and PSLV-XL versions) using HTPB as fuel. The second-stage employes 1 Vikas liquid engine using Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine (UDMH) and Nitrogen Tetroxide (N2O4) as fuel, and the third-stage is also a solid fuel motor while the fourth-stage is a liquid stage using Monomethyl-Hydrazine and Dinitrogen Tetroxide/Nitrogen Dioxide as fuel.
