ISRO- The unstoppable ‘Yaan’

The Indian Space Research Organisation is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to “harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration.”

As per the analysis it will not be good to compare ISRO with any other space agency as it never possessed the same ambitions or the fundings like any other organisations. Despite that, ISRO has always achieved commendable results.

Let us compare the budget of ISRO with some prominent space agencies:

NASA 18 billion dollars

ESA 7 Billion dollars

ISRO 3 Billion dollars

The data given above clearly indicates the aim and objective of ISRO since its inception: Ambitious and Cost effective.

ISRO built India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, which was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975. It was named after the mathematician Aryabhata. In 1980, Rohini became the first satellite to be placed in orbit by an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLV-3. ISRO subsequently developed two other rockets: the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for launching satellites into polar orbits and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) for placing satellites into geostationary orbits.

ISRO sent a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, on 22 October 2008 and a Mars orbiter, Mars Orbiter Mission, on 5 November 2013, which entered Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, making India the first nation to succeed on its first attempt to Mars, and ISRO the fourth space agency in the world as well as the first space agency in Asia to reach Mars orbit. On 18 June 2016, ISRO launched twenty satellites in a single-vehicle, and on 15 February 2017, ISRO launched one hundred and four satellites in a single rocket (PSLV-C37), a world record.

‘ISRO’s designs have always been a matter of talk and are compared to Space X most of the times. But the thing that makes ISRO different from Space X is being Super reliable and very much cost-effective.’

ISRO believes in Brilliant engineering solutions rather than focusing on money and budget issues.

ISRO’s Mangalyaan mission was the only successful Mars mission on the first try. For that, ISRO had to perform 6 orbit raising maneuvers over 3 weeks before heading to mars because the SLV was not like Falcon to reach directly to Mars.

As per ISRO’s Director, “ISRO solves problems with engineering solutions.”

ISRO did not have the fundings that NASA had, it did not have the start-up mind and institution that Space X had, but none of this stopped ISRO from doing something extraordinary and the journey continues with the launch of Chandrayaan II.

Article Reference: Wikipedia