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Bangalore , Dec. 30

2003 may not exactly qualify for a year of Indian space odyssey, though the national agency ISRO enters the New Year with some major milestones crossed.

Apart from firming up a new initiative like Chandrayaan-1 or the first Indian lunar probe on August 15, ISRO commissioned its GSLV or the two-tonne-class satellite launcher after two successful flights. The indigenous GSLV cryogenic engine that is under development also passed the crucial qualification test. On the whole, it has been a very eventful year and two of the four satellites flown during the year were on Indian launchers, its spokesman said.

The year 2004 will also see some important projects, the spokesman told Business Line. The new Insat series of seven communication satellites will be taken up starting with Insat-4A. Between April and June 2004, ISRO will fly its first operational 2-tonne satellite, an exclusive educational bird called Edusat on the GSLV. In the remote-sensing area, Cartosat-1 will fill the slot during the calendar year. "If you take the financial year 2004-05 into account, you will probably have the launch of Insat 4B and Cartosat-2 too," he said. The Cartosats are expected to give a major push to map-based developmental and commercial applications.

On September 1, in a change of guard at the top level within the organisation, Mr G. Madhavan Nair became the Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO, as Dr K. Kasturirangan became a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.

Among the major events of the year was the flight of the heaviest ever Insat, the 2,950-kg 3A, on April 10. The second test flight of the GSLV on May 8 carried the experimental Gsat-2. On September 28, the communication satellite Insat-3E was launched, followed soon by Resourcesat-1, the most advanced domestic remote sensing satellite, which was flown from the SHAR centre on October 17. On December 5, the indigenous cryo engine to replace the Russian ones passed its critical endurance test of nearly 1,000 seconds.

Apart from enhancing space services with its follow-on satellites, it also expanded the telemedicine network using Insat and launched pilots for using Edusat.

ISRO said its units also completed projects to prepare ground water prospect zone maps for seven States - Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Based on 25,000 wells drilled using these maps, it reported a success rate of 90 per cent.

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