From REAL ENGINEERING uploaded May 18 2025 HERE.
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Like all space agencies India's ISRO is of dual-use military civilian benefit, particularly in rocket booster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO#Launch_vehicles satellite sensors and guidance research. Wikipedia reports https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISRO :
"The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
is India's national space agency, headquartered
in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by
the Prime Minister of India, with the Chairman of ISRO also
serving as the chief executive of the DoS. It is primarily responsible for
space-based operations, space
exploration, international space cooperation and the development of related
technologies.[3] The
agency maintains a constellation of imaging, communications and remote
sensing satellites. It operates the GAGAN and IRNSS satellite navigation systems. It has
sent three missions to the Moon and one mission to Mars.
Formerly known as the Indian National Committee
for Space Research ISRO was set up in 1962 by the Government of
India. It was renamed as ISRO in 1969.
ISRO built India's first
satellite Aryabhata which was launched by
the Soviet space agency Interkosmos in
1975.[8] In
1980, it launched the satellite RS-1 on board the indigenously built launch
vehicle SLV-3, making India the seventh country to
undertake orbital launches. It has subsequently developed various small-lift and medium-lift launch vehicles, enabling
the agency to launch various satellites and deep space missions. It is one of the
six government space agencies in the world that possess full launch
capabilities with the ability to deploy cryogenic engines, launch extraterrestrial missions and artificial
satellites.[9][10][b] It is
also the only one of the four governmental space agencies to have demonstrated
unmanned soft landing capabilities.[11][c]
ISRO's programmes have played a
significant role in socio-economic development. It has supported both civilian
and military domains in various aspects such as disaster management, telemedicine,
navigation and reconnaissance. ISRO's spin-off technologies have
also aided in new innovations in engineering and other allied domains.[12]
The arrival of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in 1990s was a major boost for the Indian space
programme. With the exception of its first flight in 1994 and two partial
failures later, the PSLV had a streak of more than 50 successful flights. The
PSLV enabled India to launch all of its low
Earth orbit satellites, small payloads to GTO and hundreds of foreign satellites.[32] Along
with the PSLV flights, development of a new rocket, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV) was going on. India tried to obtain upper-stage
cryogenic engines from Russia's Glavkosmos but
was blocked by the US from doing so. As a result, KVD-1 engines
were imported from Russia under a new agreement which had limited success[33] and
a project to develop indigenous cryogenic technology was launched in 1994,
taking two decades to reach fulfillment.[34] A
new agreement was signed with Russia for seven KVD-1 cryogenic stages and a
ground mock-up stage with no technology transfer, instead of five cryogenic
stages along with the technology and design in the earlier agreement.[35] These
engines were used for the initial flights and were named GSLV Mk.1.[36] ISRO
was under US government sanctions between 6 May 1992 to 6 May 1994.[37] After
the United States refused to help India with Global Positioning System (GPS)
technology during the Kargil war, ISRO was prompted to develop its own
satellite navigation system IRNSS (now NaVIC
i.e. Navigation with Indian Constellation) which it is now expanding further.[38]
21st century
In 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urged scientists to
develop technologies to land humans on the Moon[39] and
programmes for lunar, planetary and crewed missions were started. ISRO
launched Chandrayaan-1 aboard PSLV in 2008, purportedly the
first probe to verify the presence of water on the Moon.[40]
ISRO launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (or Mangalyaan)
aboard a PSLV in 2013, which later became the first Asian spacecraft to enter
Martian orbit, making India the first country to succeed at this on its first
attempt.[41]
Subsequently, the cryogenic upper
stage for GSLV rocket became operational, making India the sixth country to
have full launch capabilities.[42] A
new heavier-lift launcher LVM3 was introduced in 2014 for heavier satellites and
future human space missions.[43]
On 23 August 2023, India achieved its
first soft landing on an extraterrestrial body and became the first nation to
successfully land a spacecraft near the lunar
south pole and fourth nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the
Moon with ISRO's Chandrayaan-3, the third Moon mission.[44] Indian
moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 (lit. "Mooncraft"),
saw the successful soft landing of its Vikram lander at 6.04
pm IST (12:34 pm GMT) near the little-explored southern pole of the Moon in a
world's first for any space programme.[45]
India then successfully launched its
first solar probe, the Aditya-L1, aboard a PSLV on 2 September 2023.[46][47]
On 30 December 2024, ISRO
successfully launched the SpaDeX mission, pioneering spacecraft
rendezvous, docking, and undocking using two
small satellites.[48][49] On
16 January 2025, the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking
and Command Network's Mission Operations Complex verified that the docking
process was successful. India became the 4th country — after USA, Russia and
China — to achieve successful Space Docking.[50][51][52] ISRO
also successfully managed to control two satellites as a single entity after
docking.[53]
Launch facilities
Future projects
ISRO is developing and operationalising more powerful and less pollutive rocket engines so it can eventually develop much heavier rockets. It also plans space station above earth where astronauts can stay for 15–20 days. The time frame is 5–7 years after Gaganyaan,[150] to develop electric and nuclear propulsion for satellites and spacecraft to reduce their weight and extend their service lives.[190] Long-term plans may include crewed landings on the Moon and other planets as well.[191]"
