India joins space observatory owners club with copy book launch

BENGALURU: The Indian Space Organisation ( ISRO) on Monday launched India’s first space observatory that will orbit the earth roughly over the equator for at least five years. During this period, astronomers in India and abroad will use it to study galaxies, black holes and other X-ray sources.

The observatory, called the Astrosat, will give Indian astronomers their own multi-wavelength telescope. "It is one of a kind," said former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan at the launch. "It will herald a new era in astronomical resaearch." Kasturirangan had initiated the Astrosat project during his tenure.

Although delayed, the Astrosat is still a unique satellite as it has the capability to use wavelengths all the way from visible light to x-rays, and look at objects simultaneously using through multiple wavelengths. This is supposed to help astronomers study certain celestial objects more closely. The Rs 178-crore satellite was launched on top of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which completed its 30th consecutive successful launch. It also carried six other small satellites on piggyback, including four from the US. It is the first time India has launched a satellite for the US. India has so far launched 51 satellites for customers abroad.

Soon after its separation from PSLVC30, the stretch version used for this flight, the two solar arrays of Astrosat were automatically deployed and the Spacecraft Control Centre at the Mission Operations Complex of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took control of the satellites. The Astrosat was built by ISRO along with the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) and Raman Research Institute (RRI) in Bangalore as well as some of the Universities in India and two institutions from Canada and the UK.

The Astrosat is often compared with the Hubble Telescope, but the two space observatories are different in size and capabilities, not to speak of the cost.