ISRO's 2nd space port to be a ‘polar shift'?

The national space agency may be planning to separate its two satellite launchers fully or partially and move some or all polar or PSLV launches to a new second site when — or if — it happens in the coming years.

The seed of a second space port has been sown after the Prime Minister's office green-flagged a feasibility study for it earlier this month.

ISRO's lone space port, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in coastal Andhra Pradesh, launches the smaller PSLV and the heavier GSLV rockets.

Last week, Dr K. Radhakrishnan, ISRO's Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, indicated that a second launch complex, still a thought now, could work for polar launches, mainly to put in orbit national remote-sensing satellites and small foreign spacecraft in a low-Earth orbit (LEO) for a fee. It would be part of the 12th FiveYear Plan that begins next year.

However, the geostationary satellites — 2-tonne-plus communications that are slotted in medium orbits 36,000 km away from ground — would remain with SDSC.

Tacit moves

In recent years, ISRO is increasingly, but tacitly, building and launching Earth observation satellites for the military, for full or partial use. They are put in pole-to-pole motion in LEOs 400-600 km away.

One learned view is that a new launch complex could be located further North of SDSC, so that it would be closer to the MoD's Balasore test range in the neighbouring Odisha.

SDSC, formerly SHAR, was built in the 1970s and has made incremental investments, including a Rs 300-crore second launch pad in the 2000s. It now plans a third pad.

Time-taking process

To build a new complex from scratch along with its tracking, telemetry, command centres and an on-site solid propellant plant could take many years and Rs 10,000-20,000 crore. There was no official confirmation on this.

Within the country, SDSC, located on the eastern Bay of Bengal coast on a reclaimed island two hours or 70 km by road from Chennai, is considered the best location to prevent rocket stage debris from falling on residential places during launches. It now falls into the Bay.

Mr M.C. Dathan, Director of SDSC, told Business Line , “Theoretically, if we go slightly towards the North (of Sriharikota) there will be an advantage of steering the polar launcher. We can get a payload benefit (or capability to lift an additional) 300 kg or so.”

A second complex could be warranted for certain flights when the number of launches increases in a few years, he said.

Mr Dathan said SDSC's two pads can handle eight launches a year. “If pressed, they can do a couple of more launches in ten available months.”

Before every satellite is sent up, the launch pad needs a 45-day pre-launch ‘campaign' and a 15-day post-launch refurbishing of burnt-out systems.

According to Mr Dathan, “The constraint is not the launch complex, but the production of the stages. We are enhancing this capability of the industrial partners.”