1.
Indian Space Research Organisation
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The Indian Space Research Organisation is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bengaluru. Its vision is to space technology for national development, while pursuing space science research. The establishment of ISRO thus institutionalised space activities in India and it is managed by the Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of The Republic of India. ISRO built Indias first satellite, Aryabhata, which was launched by the Soviet Union on 19 April 1975 and 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 and these rockets have launched numerous communications satellites and earth observation satellites. Satellite navigation systems like GAGAN and IRNSS have been deployed, in January 2014, ISRO successfully used an indigenous cryogenic engine in a GSLV-D5 launch of the GSAT-14. On 18 June 2016 ISRO successfully set a record with a launch of 20 satellites in a single payload, on 15 February 2017, ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single rocket and created a world record. Raman and Meghnad Saha contributed to scientific principles applicable in space sciences, however, it was the period after 1945 which saw important developments being made in coordinated space research in India. Studies were carried out at research laboratories, universities, and independent locations, in 1950, the Department of Atomic Energy was founded with Homi Bhabha as its secretary. The Department provided funding for research throughout India. During this time, tests continued on aspects of meteorology and the Earths magnetic field, in 1954, the Uttar Pradesh state observatory was established at the foothills of the Himalayas. The Rangpur Observatory was set up in 1957 at Osmania University, Space research was further encouraged by the technically inclined Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik and opened up possibilities for the rest of the world to conduct a space launch, the Indian National Committee for Space Research was set up in 1962 by Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias first Prime Minister. The prime objective of ISRO is to space technology and its application to various national tasks. The Indian space programme was driven by the vision of Vikram Sarabhai, in 2008 India launched as many as 11 satellites, including nine from other countries and went on to become the first nation to launch 10 satellites on one rocket. ISRO has successfully put into two major satellite systems, Indian National Satellites for communication services and Indian Remote Sensing satellites for management of natural resources. In July 2012, the former President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam said that research was being done by ISRO, ISRO is managed by the Department of Space of the Government of India. Development and Educational Communication Unit, Ahmedabad, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, Bangalore
2.
Planet Labs
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Planet Labs, Inc. is an American Earth imaging private company based in San Francisco, CA. The company designs and manufactures Triple-CubeSat miniature satellites called Doves that are delivered into orbit as passengers on other rocket launch missions. Each Dove Earth observation satellite continuously scans Earth, sending data once it passes over a ground station, together, Doves form a satellite constellation that provides a complete image of Earth at 3-5 m optical resolution and open data access. Small size and a low cost enable the company to quickly prototype and test new designs. The images gathered by Doves provide up-to-date information relevant to climate monitoring, crop yield prediction, urban planning, with acquisition of BlackBridge in July 2015, Planet Labs had 87 Dove and 5 RapidEye satellites in orbit. In February 2017, Plant launched an additional 88 Dove satellites, Planet Labs was founded in 2010 as Cosmogia by former NASA scientists Chris Boshuizen, Will Marshall, and Robbie Schingler. It successfully launched two demonstration CubeSats, Dove 1 and Dove 2, in April 2013, Dove 3 and Dove 4 were launched in November 2013. In June 2013, it announced plans for Flock-1, a constellation of 28 Earth-observing satellites, the Flock-1 CubeSats were brought to the International Space Station in January 2014 and successfully deployed via the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer in mid-February. The company plans to launch a total of 131 satellites by mid-2015, in March 2014 co-founder and CEO Will Marshall presented at the TED conference in Vancouver. In January 2015, the firm raised $95 million in funding, as of May 2015, Planet Labs raised a total amount of $183 million in venture capital financing. In July 2015, Planet Labs acquired BlackBridge and its RapidEye constellation, the twenty Flock 2e 3U CubeSats were launched in 23 March 2016 on the Cygnus CRS OA-6 cargo mission. Twelve Flock-2p Dove satellites each of which weighs just 4.7 kg were launched by ISRO on 22 June 2016, the PSLV-C34 that carried the 12 Dove satellites lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. On February 15,2017, Planet launched 88 satellites, which was the largest fleet of satellites to be launched in history, the Dove satellites, collectively known as Flock 3p, rode aboard an ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. They head to a crossing time, sun-synchronous orbit at an approximate altitude of 500 kilometres. coms Dreamforce conference on 15 September 2015. Oriondata Internacional, reseller of PlanetScope and Rapideye images in Chile and others countries in Latin America
3.
Wideband Global SATCOM
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The Wideband Global SATCOM system is a high capacity satellite communications system planned for use in partnership by the United States Department of Defense and the Australian Department of Defence. The system is composed of the Space Segment satellites, the Terminal Segment users, DoD wideband satellite communication services are currently provided by a combination of the existing Defense Satellite Communications System and Global Broadcast Service satellites. According to United Launch Alliance, quoted on Spaceflight Now, A single WGS spacecraft has as much bandwidth as the entire existing DSCS constellation, canada has also signed on to become a partner. WGS also augments the current Ka-band Global Broadcast Service by providing additional information broadcast capabilities as well as providing new two-way capability on that band and it provides services to the US DoD and Australian Department of Defence. The IWS System supports continuous 24-hour-per-day wideband satellite services to tactical users, limited protected services will be provided under conditions of stress to selected users employing terrestrial modems capable of providing protection against jamming. The WGS satellites will complement the DSCS III Service Life Enhancement Program and GBS payloads, WGS will offer 4.875 GHz of instantaneous switchable bandwidth, thus each WGS can supply more than 10 times the capacity of a DSCS III Service Life Enhancement Program satellite. Once the full constellation of 6 WGS satellites is operational, they replace the DSCS system. WGS-1 with its 2.4 Gbit/s wideband capacity, provided greater capability, operation and usage of the system is broken into 3 segments. The end users of the services provided by the WGS are described by the DoD as the terminal segment. One of the applications is SATCOM-ON-The-Move which is now being extensively used on the military tactical vehicles for Blue Force Tracking. The satellite operators in charge of commanding and monitoring the satellites bus, like the DSCS constellation that WGS will replace, spacecraft bus will be commanded by the 3rd Space Operations Squadron of Schriever AFB, Colorado. The primary contractor for the satellites themselves is Boeing Satellite Development Center, on October 3,2007, Australias Department of Defence announced that the country would fund a sixth satellite in the constellation. Once in their orbits at an altitude of 22,300 mi, the program intends to use both the Delta IV and the Atlas V as launch vehicles. The Air Force Space Command estimates each satellite will cost approximately US$300 million, the first three WGS satellites form Block I of the space segment. WGS satellites 4,5,6 and 7 make up Block II, the first launch was conducted by United Launch Alliance on 1 October 10,2007. The satellite was carried by an Atlas V lifting off from LC-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, after launch, the WGS-1 satellite was given the US military designation USA-195. Its coverage area stretches from the U. S. western coast to Southeast Asia, Launch of the second satellite was also conducted by ULA, at 01,31 UTC on April 4,2009, using an Atlas V421. A ULA Delta IV flying from LC-37B at CCAFS launched the spacecraft on 6 December 2009
4.
Geosynchronous orbit
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A geosynchronous orbit is an orbit about the Earth of a satellite with an orbital period that matches the rotation of the Earth on its axis of approximately 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds. Over the course of a day, the position in the sky traces out a path, typically in a figure-8 form, whose precise characteristics depend on the orbits inclination. Satellites are typically launched in an eastward direction, a special case of geosynchronous orbit is the geostationary orbit, which is a circular geosynchronous orbit at zero inclination. A satellite in a geostationary orbit appears stationary, always at the point in the sky. Popularly or loosely, the term geosynchronous may be used to mean geostationary, specifically, geosynchronous Earth orbit may be a synonym for geosynchronous equatorial orbit, or geostationary Earth orbit. A semi-synchronous orbit has a period of ½ sidereal day. Relative to the Earths surface it has twice this period, examples include the Molniya orbit and the orbits of the satellites in the Global Positioning System. Circular Earth geosynchronous orbits have a radius of 42,164 km, all Earth geosynchronous orbits, whether circular or elliptical, have the same semi-major axis.4418 km3/s2. In the special case of an orbit, the ground track of a satellite is a single point on the equator. A geostationary equatorial orbit is a geosynchronous orbit in the plane of the Earths equator with a radius of approximately 42,164 km. A satellite in such an orbit is at an altitude of approximately 35,786 km above sea level. It maintains the position relative to the Earths surface. The theoretical basis for this phenomenon of the sky goes back to Newtons theory of motion. In that theory, the existence of a satellite is made possible because the Earth rotates. Such orbits are useful for telecommunications satellites, a perfectly stable geostationary orbit is an ideal that can only be approximated. Elliptical geosynchronous orbits can be and are designed for satellites in order to keep the satellite within view of its assigned ground stations or receivers. A satellite in a geosynchronous orbit appears to oscillate in the sky from the viewpoint of a ground station. Satellites in highly elliptical orbits must be tracked by ground stations
5.
Space-Based Infrared System
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The Space-Based Infrared System is a consolidated system intended to meet the United States infrared space surveillance needs through the first two to three decades of the 21st century. The SBIRS program is designed to provide key capabilities in the areas of missile warning, missile defense, SBIRS is an integrated system of systems that will include satellites in geosynchronous orbit, sensors hosted on satellites in highly elliptical orbit, and ground-based data processing and control. A complement of satellites in low earth orbit was planned as part of the program, SBIRS ground software integrates infrared sensor programs of the U. S. Air Force with new IR sensors. SBIRS continues to struggle with cost overruns, with Nunn-McCurdy breaches occurring in 2001 and 2005, by September 2007, the expected project cost had increased to $10.4 billion. The original contract consisted of 2 HEO satellite sensors and 2-3 GEO sensors with an option to buy a total of 5 GEOs, additionally, the government started a potential SBIRS High replacement program, writing out proposals in June 2006. On June 2,2009 Lockheed Martin announced it had awarded a contract for the third HEO payload and the third GEO satellite. On July 10,2009, Lockheed Martin was awarded $262.5 million as payment by the USAF towards the purchase of a fourth satellite. The first GEO satellite of the SBIRS program, GEO-1, was launched from Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V rocket on May 7,2011. In summary, as of January 2017, a total of nine satellites carrying SBIRS or STSS payloads had been launched, GEO-1, GEO-2, GEO-3, HEO-1, HEO-2, HEO-3, STSS-ATRR, STSS Demo 1 and STSS Demo 2. In June 2014, Lockheed Martin was contracted by the USAF to build GEO-5 and GEO-6, SBIRS High will replace the Defense Support Program satellites and is intended primarily to provide enhanced strategic and theater ballistic missile warning capabilities. SBIRS High GEO1 was launched on May 7,2011, two SBIRS sensors hosted on two classified satellites in highly elliptical orbit have already been launched, probably as part of the NROL-22 and NROL-28 launches in 2006 and 2008. USA184 and USA200 are believed by analysts to be ELINT satellites in the family of JUMPSEAT, the prime contractor for SBIRS is Lockheed Martin, with Northrop Grumman as the major subcontractor. Lockheed Martin also provides the satellite for SBIRS GEO, however, the first GEO launch, GEO-1, was successfully conducted on May 7,2011. According to a Reuters report, the first two SBIRS GEO satellites started operations in 2013, GEO-3 launched on 20 January 2017. The SBIRS Low contract is now managed by the Missile Defense Agency and has subsequently renamed to the Space Tracking. The SBIRS Low program was expected to consist of about 24 satellites in low earth orbit. The system was to have two major sensors, coordinated by a computer, a scanning infrared sensor, designed to acquire ballistic missiles in the early stages of flight. A tracking infrared sensor, designed to follow missiles, warheads, the tracking sensor would be cooled to very low temperatures
6.
Cygnus CRS OA-7
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Orbital and NASA jointly developed a new space transportation system to provide commercial cargo resupply services to the International Space Station. The OA-7 is named the S. S. John Glenn in honor of astronaut and senator John Glenn, the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth on Mercury 6 and the oldest to go to space on STS-95. Regrettably, the operational mission, Orb CRS-3, resulted was not successful due to spectacular Antares failure during launch. The company decided to discontinue the Antares 100 series and accelerate the introduction of a new propulsion, the Antares system will be upgraded with newly built RD-181 first stage engines to provide greater payload performance and increased reliability. In the meantime, the company contracted with United Launch Alliance for two Atlas V launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, CRS OA-4 flew in December 2015, the first Cygnus mission on the new Antares 230 was delayed to October 2016 and performed successfully. This particular mission, known as OA-7, will enable Orbital ATK to cover their initial CRS contracted payload obligation and it was switched to a third Atlas V rocket scheduled for March 2017, with Antares flights to resume with CRS OA-8E in July 2017. Production and integration of Cygnus spacecraft is performed in Dulles, VA, the Cygnus service module is mated with the pressurized cargo module at the launch site, and mission operations are conducted from control centers in Dulles and Houston. This is the seventh of ten flights by Orbital ATK under the Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA and this will be the fourth flight of the Enhanced sized Cygnus PCM. Total weight of cargo,3,200 kg or 3,500 kg depending on launch vehicle
7.
Soyuz MS-04
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Soyuz MS-04 is a Soyuz spaceflight planned for 20 April 2017. It will transport two members of the Expedition 51 crew to the International Space Station, MS-04 will be the 133rd flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew will consist of a Russian commander and an American flight engineer, due to a decision to cut down the number of participating Russian astronauts in 2017, only two astronauts will be launched on Soyuz MS-04. Originally set to include 3 people, the crew assignments have been changed in November 2016 by NASA and RSA, of the original crew, Alexander Misurkin and Mark T. Vande Hei have been assigned to Soyuz MS-06 instead
8.
Satellite navigation
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A satellite navigation or satnav system is a system that uses satellites to provide autonomous geo-spatial positioning. It allows small electronic receivers to determine their location to high precision using time signals transmitted along a line of sight by radio from satellites, the system can be used for providing position, navigation or for tracking the position of something fitted with a receiver. The signals also allow the receiver to calculate the current local time to high precision. Satnav systems operate independently of any telephonic or internet reception, though these technologies can enhance the usefulness of the information generated. A satellite navigation system with global coverage may be termed a global satellite system. As of December 2016 only the United States NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, the Russian GLONASS, the European Unions Galileo GNSS is scheduled to be fully operational by 2020. China is in the process of expanding its regional BeiDou Navigation Satellite System into the global BeiDou-2 GNSS by 2020, India currently has satellite-based augmentation system, GPS Aided GEO Augmented Navigation, which enhances the accuracy of NAVSTAR GPS and GLONASS positions. India has already launched the IRNSS, with an operational name NAVIC and it is expected to be fully operational by June 2016. France and Japan are in the process of developing regional navigation systems as well, Global coverage for each system is generally achieved by a satellite constellation of 18–30 medium Earth orbit satellites spread between several orbital planes. The actual systems vary, but use orbital inclinations of >50°, Ground based augmentation is provided by systems like the Local Area Augmentation System. GNSS-2 is the generation of systems that independently provides a full civilian satellite navigation system. These systems will provide the accuracy and integrity monitoring necessary for civil navigation and this system consists of L1 and L2 frequencies for civil use and L5 for system integrity. Development is also in progress to provide GPS with civil use L2 and L5 frequencies, making it a GNSS-2 system. ¹ Core Satellite navigation systems, currently GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Global Satellite Based Augmentation Systems such as Omnistar and StarFire. Regional SBAS including WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS and GAGAN, Regional Satellite Navigation Systems such as Chinas Beidou, Indias NAVIC, and Japans proposed QZSS. Continental scale Ground Based Augmentation Systems for example the Australian GRAS, Regional scale GBAS such as CORS networks. Local GBAS typified by a single GPS reference station operating Real Time Kinematic corrections, early predecessors were the ground based DECCA, LORAN, GEE and Omega radio navigation systems, which used terrestrial longwave radio transmitters instead of satellites. These positioning systems broadcast a radio pulse from a known master location, the delay between the reception of the master signal and the slave signals allowed the receiver to deduce the distance to each of the slaves, providing a fix. The first satellite system was Transit, a system deployed by the US military in the 1960s
9.
Satish Dhawan Space Centre
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Satish Dhawan Space Centre or Sriharikota High Altitude Range is a rocket launch centre operated by Indian Space Research Organisation. It is located in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, Sriharikota Launching Range was renamed in 2002 after ISROs former chairman Satish Dhawan. SDSCs current director is P. Kunhikrishnan and he took over from M. Y. S. Prasad on 1 June 2015 after the latter retired from service. Sriharikota island was chosen in 1969 for a launching station. The centre became operational in 1971 when an RH-125 sounding rocket was launched, SHAR was named as Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, on 5 September 2002, in memory of Satish Dhawan, former Chairman of the ISRO. The SHAR facility now consists of two pads, with the second built in 2005. The second launch pad was used for beginning in 2005 and is a universal launch pad. The two launch pads will allow multiple launches in a year, which was not possible earlier. Indias lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 launched from the centre at 6,22 AM IST on 22 October 2008, Indias first Mars orbiter Mangalyaan was launched from the centre on November 52013, which was successfully placed into Mars orbit on 24 Sep 2014. SHAR will be the base for the Indian human spaceflight program. A new third launchpad will be specifically to meet the target of launching a manned space mission by 2017. Satish Dhawan Space Centre is located in Sriharikota, an island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh. Features like a good launch azimuth corridor for various missions, nearness to the equator, SHAR covers a total area of about 145 km2 with a coastal length of 27 km. Prior to its acquisition for ISRO by the Indian Government, it was a plantation of Eucalyptus. This island is affected by both south-westerly and north-easterly monsoons, but heavy rains come only in October and November, thus many clear days are available for out-door static tests and launchings. SHAR is linked to Sullurupeta by a road across Pulicat Lake, Sullurupeta has connectivity with other parts of India by Indian Railways and is on a National Highway 5 that connects it to Chennai and Kolkata. Originally known as the Sriharikota High Altitude Range and later named after Satish Dhawan, the first flight-test of Rohini-125, a small sounding rocket which took place on 9 October 1971 was the first ever spaceflight from SHAR. Since then technical, logistic and administrative infrastructure have been enhanced, together with the northerly Balasore Rocket Launching Station, the facilities are operated under the ISRO Range Complex headquartered at SHAR
10.
Iridium satellite constellation
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The Iridium satellite constellation is a satellite constellation providing voice and data coverage to satellite phones, pagers and integrated transceivers over the Earths entire surface. Iridium Communications owns and operates the constellation and sells equipment and access to its services, the constellation consists of 66 active satellites in orbit required for global coverage, and additional spare satellites to serve in case of failure. Satellites are in low Earth orbit at a height of approximately 485 mi, orbital velocity of the satellites is approximately 17,000 mph. Satellites communicate with neighboring satellites via Ka band inter-satellite links, each satellite can have four inter-satellite links, two to neighbors fore and aft in the same orbital plane, and two to satellites in neighboring planes to either side. The satellites orbit from pole to pole with an orbital period of roughly 100 minutes. This design means there is excellent satellite visibility and service coverage even at the North and South poles. The over-the-pole orbital design produces seams where satellites in counter-rotating planes next to one another are traveling in opposite directions, the constellation of 66 active satellites has 6 orbital planes spaced 30 degrees apart, with 11 satellites in each plane. This reduced set of 6 planes is sufficient to cover the entire Earths surface at every moment, because of the shape of the Iridium satellites reflective antennas, the satellites focus sunlight on a small area of the Earths surface in an incidental manner. This results in an effect called Iridium flares, where the satellite appears as one of the brightest objects in the night sky. The Iridium satellite constellation was conceived in the early 1990s, as a way to reach high Earth latitudes with reliable satellite communication services, early calculations showed that 77 satellites would be needed, hence the name Iridium – after the metal with atomic number 77. It turned out that just 66 were required to complete the blanket coverage of the planet with communication services, the constellation was launched to orbit in the late 1990s and the first telephone call was made over the network in 1998. However, although the system met its requirements, it was not a success in the market. Insufficient market demand existed for the product at the points on offer from Iridium as set by its parent company Motorola. The company failed to earn revenue sufficient to service the debt associated with building out the constellation and Iridium went bankrupt, the constellation continued following the bankruptcy of the original Iridium corporation. Users include journalists, explorers, and military units, the satellites each contain seven Motorola/Freescale PowerPC 603E processors running at roughly 200 MHz, connected by a custom backplane network. One processor is dedicated to each antenna, and two processors are dedicated to satellite control, one being a spare. Late in the project an extra processor was added to perform resource management, the cellular look down antenna has 48 spot beams arranged as 16 beams in three sectors. The four inter-satellite cross links on each operate at 10 Mbit/s
