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Tamil Nadu
Focus on developing recoverable launch vehicles
| ‘Aim is to bring down cost of putting payload into orbit’ |
M. Krishnasamy (second right), Programme Director, ISRO, receiving the ‘For the sake of Honour’ award, instituted by the Rotary Club of Tirupur North, from the office-bearers of the Club in Tirupur on Sunday. —
Tirupur: Space research in the country is now focusing on development of recoverable and reusable launch vehicle technologies to bring down the cost of putting payload into the orbit, according to M. Krishnasamy, Programme Director (Remote sensing and small satellite systems), Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
In a tete-a-tete with children organised by Rotary Club of Tirupur North here on Sunday, he pointed that at present, the cost of sending payload to the orbit stood at a whopping $ 25,000 per kg. “We (ie ISRO) plan to come out with recoverable launch vehicles next year,” he said.
This step, according to him, will be a forerunner to the plans envisaged to propel Indians into space exclusively using indigenous technologies, facilities and inputs by 2014-15.
He also explained the achievements of ISRO, started with the launching of the first rocket on November 21, 1963. “The 75 mm- diameter rocket launched on that day from the ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, situated at Thumba in Thiruvananthapuram, marked the beginning of country’s rocketry programmes,” he said.
Earlier, Mr. Krishnasamy received the ‘For the sake of honour’ award given away by the Rotary Club of Tirupur North for his stupendous contribution to the space research.
The Club also conferred vocational excellence awards to Ahil S. Mani, president of Tirupur Industrial Federation; Raja A Shanmugam, chairman of NIFT-TEA Fashion Institute; and P Selvakumar, a siddha practitioner.
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