Indian Space Research Organisation to launch youth satellite

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch a dedicated satellite for scientific experiments pursued by the undergraduate and post-graduate students from various universities in India. Annoucing this project in Bangalore on Thursday, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair said that the launch of this satellite is expected sometimes next year on-board a polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) sometimes next year.

The launch vehicle will carry the auxiliary satellite with scientific experiments developed by the undergraduate and post-graduate students from various universities in India, Russia and other countries. Apart from the payload (auxiliary satellite), the launch vehicle will also carry a mini remote sensing satellite.

According to ISRO, this project is the brain-child of A P J Abdul Kalam, who at the same event in Bangalore termed this project as an 'youth satellite.'

Earlier, ISRO had made an announcement of opportunities to institutions and universities to send experiment proposals which can be part of the launch. "We are in the process of building the satellite, a part of which will be dedicated for the youths. We are planning to launch this from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota off the Andhra Pradesh Coast, next year," said Nair, addressing the conference to celebrate the golden jubilee celebrations of the National Aerospace Laboratory.

According to an ISRO spokesperson, this will help the student community conduct experiments in remote sensing and observing outer space.

The experiment will also help in galactic observation, atmospheric studies among many other experiments, he added.

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