SRIHARIKOTA, July 30: After the successful launch of the NISAR satellite, ISRO chairman V Narayanan on Wednesday announced that the next collaborative mission with NASA, the launch of the Blue Bird Block2 communication satellite, will be among nine major launches planned from this spaceport by the end of the current fiscal year.
Speaking at the Mission Control Centre here, he said these missions are being executed under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Before the end of this financial year, nine major launches are planned. The next major launch is the LVM3-M5 Mission, where the LVM3 rocket will deploy a communication satellite CMS-02,” he said.
Among the significant upcoming missions is another collaboration with NASA. Following Axiom-4 and today’s GSLV-F16/NISAR mission, this partnership will see ISRO’s LVM-3 vehicle launch the Blue Bird Block2, a communication satellite for the US.
“The next one is the launch of Blue Bird Block2 satellite, a communication satellite of the USA. We are going to launch the satellite by using our LVM-3 vehicle,” he said without elaborating.
Additionally, ISRO’s trusted workhorse PSLV-C61 is set to launch OCEANSAT-3A, while GSLV-F18 would deploy GISAT-1A satellite.
“We are also planning to launch a couple of SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle) missions,” Narayanan added.
“This will be followed by the first PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) which has been realised by the industrial consortium called as the PSLV-N1.
It is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Moti that a space sector reform was announced and this is the fruit of that reform.
The first launcher is going to be rolled out from the private industry consortium, which is going to launch a technology demonstrating satellite wherein we are going to demonstrate more than 30 technologies, including electric propulsion, quantum communication, so many technologies are planned to be demonstrated,” he said.
Among the future launches, the ISRO chief said the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F17) would deploy a navigation satellite NVS-03 within the current financial year.
ISRO on Wednesday successfully placed NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission onboard a GSLV-F16 rocket from this spaceport. (PTI)
