10 January 2007: India's PSLV will set out on a path breaking flight

Sriharikota: The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C7, was successfully launched on Wednesday morning, 10 January, 2007. The landmark mission marks the country's first steps towards a manned mission into space, mainly due to the re-entry capsule that has been sent into space along with Indonesian and Argentinian payloads.

Indian space scientists may well be chewing their fingernails to the bone as countdown time approaches for what may well be a historic space flight for the Indian space industry. On January 10, 2007 the Indian space programme's workhorse, the PSLV-C7 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) will attempt to carry four satellites, including a recoverable spacecraft, into space.

The PSLV will be ferrying the Indian Cartosat-2, a 680-kg mapping satellite, and the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE, 550 kg), along with the Indonesian Lapan-Tubsat satellite (56 kg) and the Argentinian Pehuensat (six kg).

The January 10 flight of the PSLV will mark the first time that the country will attempt the launch of four satellites at the same time. Critically, for the country's future space programme, the launch will include the recoverable SRE, which will attempt to validate the ability of the country's space programme to recover an orbiting space capsule, as well as associated technologies.

According to an Indian Space Research Organisation official (ISRO), the SRE is intended to test a reusable thermal protection system, systems for navigation, guidance and control, hypersonic aero-dynamics, management of communication blackout, deceleration and floatation system and recovery experiments.

The Cartosat-2, an advanced remote sensing satellite, will have a single panchromatic camera onboard, that is capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery for cartographic, as well as a number of other applications. According to ISRO officials, the panchromatic camera is capable of providing spatial resolution imagery of objects on the ground, measuring less than one metre, and will have a swath of around 10 km. Interestingly, the satellite will also be highly agile with the capability of steering along, and across the track, up to plus-45 degrees.

The SRE will provide ISRO with critical data that will eventually help the organisation to develop a reusable launch vehicle (RLV), which will return to earth after placing a satellite in orbit. A RLV Technology Demonstrator, weighing 1.5 tonnes, is scheduled to be launched by the end of the year.

The RLV will use scramjet technology, which will see it generate speeds in excess of Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound. The aerothermodynamic characteristics of the RLV will allow it to withstand such speeds. Not only would such speeds put any place on earth within a 90 minute flight time, but also reduce launch costs tremendously. The RLV is designed to operate reliably like any other aircraft, with in-built abort and emergency landing capabilities