Pradeep's Space Newsletter #54
Chandrayaan 3
Chandrayaan 3 is now on the way to the Moon.
Orbit achieved after Third EBM (July 20): 71,351 km x 233 km
Orbit achieved after Fourth EBM: 1,27,603 km x 236 km
Orbit achieved after Trans Lunar Injection (TLI): 3,69,328 km x 288 km
The next important day is 5 August 2023 when the spacecraft will perform a crucial maneuver called a Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI) at perilune (the closest point of the orbit to the Moon).
PSLV-C56/DS-SAR
ISRO flew the commercial PSLV-C56 mission for NewSpace India Ltd. (NSIL) and the Singapore Government. The mission launched DS-SAR and 6 other nanosatellites.
Other ISRO updates
ISRO announces NISAR Utilization Programme for access to data from NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)
ISRO conducts hot test of the Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion System on 26 and 27 July 2023. Three more hot tests are slated at the Liquid Apogee Test Facility at ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) at Mahendragiri.
IN-SPACe (India’s private space regulator) enabled the testing of the Raman-II engine of Skyroot Aerospace. The Raman-II engine will power the fourth stage of Vikram-I launch vehicle. The test was done at the Liquid Thruster Test Facility (LTTF) in IPRC.
ISRO collaborated with the Indian Navy to recover Crew Module Mockup (CMRM) at the Naval Dockyard, Vishakapatnam. The recovery trials were practiced for recovery of the Crew Module during the first development flight of the Test Vehicle.
IN-SPACe announced opportunity to carry payloads on the fourth stage of the PSLV after completion of the mission (called POEM)
IN-SPACe has a consultation paper out on Earth Observation. It has invited comments till 31 August 2023.
IN-SPACe had put out an Expression of Interest for the manufacturing of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV). Pawan Goenka, Chairman, IN-SPACe says they have received 20 Expressions of Interest from Indian companies.
Blog Updates
I wrote about the last piece of debris from the Mission Shakti on my blog.
Jatan Mehta has started his second space blog, Space Brew.
NewSpace
Sasha Thomas, a Biotech Scientist at Vellon Space writes about pharmaceutical research happening in microgravity in space. There’s a good summary of the research already done in space.
Satsure and Rabo Partnerships (a unit of the Dutch Rabobank group) announced a partnership that seeks to provide space agricultural data for better lending decisions, post-lending monitoring and loan collection based on space agricultural data. The primary aim is to help small un-banked farmers.
Updates from Dhruva Space on their July 2023 newsletter.
Pixxel won the iDEX Prime (Space) grant to develop a Miniaturized Multi-payload Satellite for the Indian Air Force.
LinkedIn News India summarizes how NewSpace companies are hiring talent from ISRO. This present a nice insight on the need for developing talent in the space domain.