@isro completed the first blow down test of the newly installed Trisonic Wind Tunnel at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the space agency’s lead rocket-building agency, on Thursday. 1/n
Trisonic Wind Tunnel is a system to aid aerodynamic design of rockets and re-entry spacecrafts by characterising a scaled model by evaluating forces, moments, load distribution, unsteady pressures, acoustic levels etc. 2/n
Arguing that this is a major step towards India’s increasing self-reliance in the aerospace sector, Isro said: “The tunnel has an overall length of about 160m and has a maximum cross section of 5.4m… 3/n
…The tunnel can be used for testing various space vehicles in three flight regimes — below the speed of sound, at the speed of sound and above the speed of sound — hence the name trisonic wind tunnel.” 4/n
It added that the tunnel can simulate flight conditions from 0.2 times the speed of sound (68 m/s) to 4 times the speed of sound (1360 m/s). 5/n
“The huge structure was built with several hundred tonnes of steel and was implemented through Tata Projects India Ltd in association with Aiolos Engineering Corporation, Canada and fully realised by industries across India… 6/n
…including Walchandnagar Industries, Pune, Acoustic India, Tiruchirappalli, Artson Engineering, Nashik, Summits Hygronics, Coimbatore, Hydrocare Fluid Power Systems, Bengaluru and Siemens Energy, Ahmedabad,” Isro said. 7/n
Hypersonic Vehicle: In a tweet unrelated to the wind tunnel, Isro said the space agency along with agencies from the three armed forces, jointly conducted Hypersonic vehicle trials. 8/n
“The trials achieved all required parameters and demonstrated Hypersonic vehicle capability,” Isro said, without divulging any more details about the project. n/n
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In line with its renewed mandate to hand hold and encourage private industry, @isro and @SocialAlphaIN have launched a new innovation platform for the space sector: SpaceTech Innovation Network or #SpIN. 1/n
This is India’s first dedicated platform for innovation curation & venture development for space entrepreneurial ecosystem. 2/n
“A one-of-its-kind public-pvt collaboration for space startups, SMEs, #SpIN is a step in providing stimulus to India’s space reform policies & will work towards identifying & unleashing mkt potential of most promising space tech innovators & entrepreneurs,” Isro said. 3/n
Today, @RRI_Bangalore (in pic) said in a first-of-its-kind work, using data from an Indian telescope, scientists have determined properties of radio luminous galaxies formed just 200-mn yrs after #BigBang — a period known as #CosmicDawn. 1/n
Pointing out that telescopes, both ground and space-based, are aiming to capture faint signals from the depths of the cosmos to better the understanding of our Universe, RRI said they used the Shaped Antenna measurement of the background RAdio Spectrum-3 (#SARAS3) telescope. 2/n
For the study, SARAS-3, indigenously designed and built at RRI, was deployed over Dandiganahalli Lake and Sharavathi backwaters, located in Karnataka, in early 2020 (see pic). 3/n
Space-tech start-up @AgnikulCosmos today said it has established India’s first launchpad designed and operated by a private player. The facility, situated at Sriharikota, was inaugurated by Isro chairman S Somanath on Nov 25. 1/n
The facility which was designed by Agnikul and executed with support from Isro and Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center (IN-SPACe) has two sections to it — the Agnikul launchpad (ALP) and the Agnikul mission control centre (AMCC). 2/n
“Critical systems connecting these two sections, which are 4km away from each other are redundant to ensure 100% operationality during countdown… 3/n
#Update Been under the weather the last couple of days. Another weekend, another key launch. A 3-in-1 mission for @isro on Nov 26: #PSLVC54 to launch 7 commercial, one diplomatic & 1 main national satellites.
#Thread to put things in one place, I may not be around tomorrow: 1/n
Last Friday, a private single-stage rocket became the first non-Isro launch vehicle to ever enter the space agency’s spaceport in Sriharikota, which already boasts of 620 launch missions, including sounding rockets (see image/doesn’t include #VikramS). 2/n
This Saturday, the main payload is a satellite for national objectives designed and developed for ocean studies, the Oceansat-3 or Earth observation Satellite-06 (EOS-06). This is part of a series of satellites from Isro dedicated to oceanography and atmospheric studies. 3/n
Space startup @BellatrixAero today opened a new facility in Bengaluru that would expedite the firm's prototyping and rolling out of new models, supplementing its testing lab incubated at the @iiscbangalore. 1/n
This facility is part of the company’s expansion plans that will also see a $76-million manufacturing facility come up near @BLRAirport by the end of next year. I first reported that Bellatrix signed an MoU regarding this ($76-mn) facility with the state government. 2/n
The new facility was inaugurated by @isro chairman S Somanath, who visited the firm’s IISc lab before inaugurating this. Somanath expressed confidence that private sector firms like Bellatrix could address some key challenges in the Space sector and complement Isro. 3/n
Earth observation satellite by @PixxelSpace#Anand will be among seven satellites @NSIL_India will launch as ride-sharing payloads along with @isro’s #Oceansat3, tentatively scheduled to be launched on a #PSLVC54 on Nov 26. 1/n
Pic for representation
Anand will be the first privately developed Earth observation satellite to be launched from India and second from the Pixxel stable. 2/n
The firm had launched Shakuntala using a SpaceX rocket in April 2022. Aside from Anand, NSIL will launch two private communication satellites (Thybolt) for Dhruva Space and four other satellites (Astrocast) for US firm Spaceflight. 3/n