ISRO gearing up for space station, Gaganyaan, lunar missions: Chairman Narayanan
is gearing up to launch its own space station into orbit, marking a bold leap in India's space ambitions, chairman
V Narayanan
said on Thursday. The
Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) chief also said the Department of Space, of which he is the Secretary, is working alongside various organisations to ensure the safety and security of the country's citizens.
"Take our country, for example - we have 11,500 km of coastline, and then there's the northern border. We have a vast border to monitor, and the government is working diligently to ensure our safety. There are responsible individuals and systems in place," he told reporters on the sidelines of a programme of Rammohan Mission here.
Narayanan said, "Currently, we have 57 satellites in orbit, serving the public by providing real-time updates and data on a wide range of issues, from weather forecasts to tele-education in the most remote areas."
About the space station, he said it will weigh over 50 tonnes.
On the recent failure of the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 mission, Narayanan described the setback an exception in ISRO's track record.
Live Events
He asserted that the setback cannot in any way derail ISRO's future programmes like Gaganyaan - which will be an important milestone for India's
space exploration
.
"Right now, we (ISRO) are also working on Chandrayaan-4 and Chandrayaan-5. Chandrayaan-5, in collaboration with Japan, will have a 6,400 kg lander carrying a 350-kg rover. It will have a life span of 100 days," he said.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander weighed 1,600 kg having a 25-kg rover.
Chandrayaan-4, to bring back sample from the lunar surface, will be launched in the next two-and-a-half years.
"Over the past several decades, India has moved on and is now placed among the top nations in space research and exploration," he added.
The eminent space scientist further said that ISRO is preparing for the country's first
human spaceflight
, called 'Gaganyaan'.
Narayanan said Gaganyaan's first mission will be an uncrewed test flight, which is expected to be launched in the coming days.
This will be followed by two missions with crew which are expected to be launched by ISRO in the near future, he added.
Earlier in the day, the ISRO chief addressed students of Ram Mohan Mission and Ram Mohan Mission High School on the 253rd birth anniversary of social reformer Rammohan Roy.
He paid glowing tributes to Roy and other social reformers who championed the causes of emancipation and women's uplift. Narayanan also highlighted the contributions of women space scientists in India's space programmes.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NDTV
16 minutes ago
- NDTV
From OpenAI To Meta: All You Need To Know About Chief Scientist Shengjia Zhao
Shengjia Zhao, a former OpenAI researcher, has been appointed chief scientist of Meta 's newly launched Superintelligence Lab, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last Friday. Mr Zhao, co-creator of ChatGPT and GPT-4, will work directly with Mr Zuckerberg and Meta's Chief AI Officer, Alexandr Wang, to steer the lab's scientific direction. He is also a co-founder of the lab, which aims to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) and improve Meta's Llama models. Mark Zuckerberg said Meta was committed to building "full general intelligence" and releasing its research as open source. Who Is Shengjia Zhao? Shengjia Zhao earned his Bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University in 2016, as per his LinkedIn profile. He completed a semester exchange in Computer Science at Rice University and then pursued a PhD in Computer Science at Stanford University. Following his PhD, Mr Zhao joined OpenAI in June 2022 as a Member of Technical Staff, where he worked for over three years until July this year. During this time, he co-created ChatGPT, GPT-4, and several OpenAI mini models, including GPT-4.1 and o3. He has now been appointed as the Chief Scientist of Meta's Superintelligence Lab. Mr Zhao has received several prestigious awards. In 2015, he was awarded the Google Excellence Scholarship. Four years later, he received the Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (QinF) for his contributions to research in AI while at Stanford. The same year, Mr Zhao was named a JP Morgan PhD Fellow. In October 2022, he was honoured with the ICLR 2022 Outstanding Paper Award, one of the top recognitions in the machine learning research community. Mr Zhao currently lives in San Francisco, California. He is fluent in English and Mandarin. Meta's Superintelligence Lab The Meta Superintelligence Lab (MSL) was launched by Meta to drive progress on its Llama models and pursue its broader goal of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI). According to Mark Zuckerberg, Shengjia Zhao is a co-founder of the lab. While Meta's original AI research is led by Yann LeCun under the FAIR division, MSL operates independently. Meta has poured billions into hiring top talent from rivals, including Google, OpenAI, Apple, and Anthropic. The company also acquired Scale AI for $14 billion, bringing its CEO, Alexandr Wang, on board as Meta's Chief AI Officer. Mr Zuckerberg has committed to investing hundreds of billions more in building vast AI data centres across the US.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Earth observation NISAR satellite will be launched on Jul 30, says ISRO chairman
The unique Earth observation satellite NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will be launched through the GSLV-S16 on July 30, said ISRO chairman V 2,392 kg, NISAR is a unique Earth observation satellite and the first to observe the Earth with a dual-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar (NASA's L-band and ISRO's S-band) both using NASA's 12m unfurlable mesh reflector antenna, integrated to ISRO's modified 13k satellite will observe earth with a swath of 242 km and high spatial resolution, using SweepSAR technology for the first time, according to the space will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. "The Earth observation satellite jointly developed by ISRO and NASA will be sent into space on July 30 by the GSLV-F16 rocket made in India," Indian Space Research Organisation chairman V Narayanan said. It will be launched at a distance of 740 km. It can take pictures of the earth 24 hours a day in all weather conditions and the satellite can detect landslides, aid in disaster management and monitor climate change, he said while speaking to reporters at the airport here on Sunday night. "The satellite will benefit India, the US and the entire world... it is also crucial for monitoring earth's natural resources," he added. On Gaganyaan, India's human spaceflight Mission, Narayanan said a humanoid, called Vyommitra, will be sent into space in December this year. Once it proved to be successful, two other uncrewed missions would be launched next year. Following the success, the Gaganyaan Mission will be launched in March 2027 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.
Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Indian Express
NASA-ISRO joint satellite NISAR set to be launched on July 30: All you need to know
An earth observation satellite NISAR, jointly developed by NASA and ISRO, is set to be launched on July 30 at 5.40 pm from the country's only spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. Weighing 2,392 kg, NISAR — which stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar — is a one-of-its kind earth observation satellite and will be the first one ever to observe the Earth in two frequencies — NASA's L-band and ISRO's S-band. 'Each system's signal is sensitive to different sizes of features on Earth's surface, and each specialises in measuring different attributes, such as moisture content, surface roughness, and motion,' said NASA. Putting two radar systems on a single satellite is a unique engineering feat because the two systems require different sets of hardware, and yet have to function in a complementary fashion without interfering with one another. Costing around USD 1.5 billion, it is the most expensive earth observation satellite in the world, with ISRO contributing Rs 469.4 crores for the satellite. The satellite will be launched on the GSLV-F16 and be put in a 734 km sun synchronous orbit — an orbit in which the satellite reaches over a place at the same time each day. The satellite will scan the entire globe every 12 days, proving a series of very detailed images of the Earth's surface. NISAR will provide an unprecedented view of the planet. With two radar systems in place, the satellite would be able to provide very high-resolution data, in all types of weather conditions, and both during the day and the night. The satellite is powerful enough to capture changes as small as one centimetre in size during its repeated observations over the same terrain. It will therefore be able to study the dynamic processes happening on Earth's surface, like retreat of glaciers, movement of sea ice, the path of a storm, changes in vegetation and forest cover, and even the movements during earthquakes and volcanoes. Scientists expect this satellite to provide new insights into our understandings of processes like climate change or natural hazards and better prepare for them. It can also help with practical applications such as tracking the changes in soil moisture or mapping surface water levels. 'The satellite will benefit India, the US and the entire world… it is also crucial for monitoring earth's natural resources,' ISRO chairman V Narayanan added. There have been several delays in NISAR's launch, with the last year's scheduled launch getting postponed after technical issues. There was a need to fix the one of the key components of the satellite — a 12-metre unfurlable antennae — for which the satellite was shipped back to the United States.
