ISRO successfully launches India’s heaviest rocket GSLV Mark-III

December 18, 2014

Sriharikota, Dec 18: India Thursday moved forward in rocket technology with the successful flight testing of its heaviest next generation rocket and the crew module.

firePrecisely at 9.30 a.m., the 630 tonne Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mark III) standing 43.43 metre tall freed itself from the second launch pad and with a reverberating deep throated roar, rose into the sky.

With a thick orange flame at its tail, the expendable rocket ascended towards the heavens with one way ticket as its design life span is just around five minutes.

The Rs.155 crore mission has twin purposes. The main purpose is to test the rocket's atmospheric flight stability with around four tonne luggage.

The second and incidental objective is to study the re-entry characteristics of the crew module-called Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment - its aero braking and validation of its end-to-end parachute system.

According to an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official, it will be of the size of a small bedroom and can accommodate two to three people. Just over five minutes into the flight, the rocket spat out the giant cup cake shaped 3.7-tonne crew module at an altitude of 126 km.

The crew module then descended towards Earth at a high speed. The speed was moderated remotely manipulating its on-board motors till 80 km above the earth.

From here the ballistic re-entry into the atmosphere began while the on-board thrusters were shut down. The crew module's heat shield was expected to experience a heat of around 1,600 degrees centigrade.

At an altitude of around 15 km, the module's apex cover separated and the parachutes were deployed.

The module soft crashed in Bay of Bengal near Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

From here, the crew modules multi-modal and multi-state transport journey would begin.

A naval ship tracking the signals from the module will pick up the module and deliver it at the Ennore Port near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. From there it will be brought to Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and then it will be taken to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvanthapuram in Kerala.

At the mission control centre there was no control on ISRO's scientists happiness at the success.

Speaking about the mission, ISRO's Chairman K. Radhakrishan said: "India started development of the rocket a decade ago and today completed the first experimental flight.

"The performance of the solid and the liquid engines were as expected," he said. "The unmanned crew module splashed in Bay of Bengal as expected," he added.

S. Somanath, project director of GSLV Mark III, said: "India now has a new launch vehicle. The payload capability of the Indian rocket has been enhanced significantly."

The Thursday mission success is sweet for the Indian space fraternity as it comes after successful launch of Mars Orbiter last year and older version of GSLV rocket powered by its own cryogenic engine early this year.

A cryogenic engine is more efficient as it provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant burnt.

This was the second mission of GSLV rocket during the last four years after two such rockets failed in 2010. The GSLV-Mark III is designed to be a three stage/engine rocket with a lift off weight of 630 tonnes.

The first stage comprises two identical S-200 large solid boosters with 200 tonne solid propellant, that are strapped on to the second stage, the L110 re-startable liquid stage.

The third stage/engine is the cryogenic. For the country ISRO perfecting the cryogenic engine technology is crucial as precious foreign exchange can be saved by launching communication satellites by itself.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Feb 2: The Supreme court on Monday decided to hear on March 4 a plea seeking registration of FIRs against politicians for hate speeches which allegedly led to violence in the national capital.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde agreed to hear the plea filed by riots victims.

The petition was mentioned for urgent listing by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the riots victims.

Gonsalves said that the Delhi High Court has deferred for four weeks the matters related to riots in the national capital despite the fact that people are still dying due to the recent violence.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

Hyderabad, Jul 13: Family members of Telugu poet and writer Varavara Rao, who is currently lodged in Navi Mumbai's Taloja jail in the Bhima Koregaon case, on Sunday appealed to the government for his immediate release in view of his deteriorating health.

Rao's wife P. Hemalatha and their three daughters urged the government to save his life by shifting him to a hospital or allow them to provide him with immediate medical care.

We want to remind the government that it has no right to deny the right to life of any person, much less an undertrial prisoner," they said.

His family members said they were very much worried about his deteriorating health. They said his health condition had been scary for over six weeks, ever since he was shifted in an unconscious state to JJ Hospital on May 28.

"Even as he was discharged from the hospital and sent back to jail three days later, there has been no improvement in his health and he is still in need of emergency healthcare," Hemalatha said.

"The immediate cause of concern now is that we are very much perturbed at the routine phone call we received from him on Saturday evening. Though the earlier two calls on June 24 and July 2 were also worrying with his weak and muffled voice, incoherent speech and abruptly jumping into Hindi. But the latest call, on July 11 is much more worrisome as he did not answer straight questions on his health and went into a kind of delirious and hallucinated talk about the funeral of his father and mother, the events that happened seven decades and four decades ago respectively," Rao's wife said.

She said her husband's co-accused companion took the phone from him and informed her that he is not able to walk, go to the toilet and brush his teeth on his own.

"We were also told that he is always hallucinating that we, family members, were waiting at the jail gate to receive him as he was getting released. His co-prisoner also said he needs immediate medical care for not only physical but also neurological issues. The confusion, loss of memory and incoherence are the results of electrolyte imbalance and fall of Sodium and Potassium levels leading to brain damage. This electrolyte imbalance may be fatal also."

Stating that Taloja Jail Hospital is not well equipped to handle this kind of serious ailment, they demanded that he be shifted to a fully equipped super specialty hospital to save his life and prevent possible brain damage and risk to life due to electrolyte imbalance.

"At the present juncture we are leaving aside all the pertinent facts like, that the case against him is fabricated; he had to spend 22 months in jail as an undertrial with the process turned into punishment; his bail petitions got rejected at least five times now and even the bail petitions with his age, ill-health and COVID vulnerability as grounds were ignored. His life is the top most concern for us right now. Our present demand is to save his life," the family said.

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Agencies
January 7,2020

New Delhi, Jan 7: Services at various bank branches and ATMs are likely to be affected as hundreds of employees will go on a bank strike across the country on Wednesday.

The bank strike is part of the Bharat Bandh call given by trade unions to protest against the labour reforms and economic policies of the Central government, according to reports.

The protestors' main demand during the Bharat Bandh is that the Centre should drop the proposed labour reforms.

A Bill in this regard was passed and proposes to merge 44 labour laws into four codes -- wages, industrial relations, social security, and safe working conditions.

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