New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has proposed setting up a third launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

The additional launch pad is intended to support increased launch frequency, landing requirements of future advanced launch vehicles and also to serve as a redundant launch pad for Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III class of vehicles.

While 27 Indian satellites are operational currently, there are 25 indigenous satellites under development including six GSATs, 13 observation satellites, three navigational satellites, and three space satellites—Aditya, the sun satellite; Astrostat, the astronomical satellite; and Chandrayaan-2, the moon satellite.

While Sriharikota has been identified as the possible site for the launch pad considering its distance from cities and utilization of existing launch pads, detailed studies on possible concepts and preliminary configuration have been carried out.

“Further work on design of the launch pad will be taken up at an appropriate time after finalizing the configuration of the advanced launch vehicle, operationalisation of GSLV MIII, programmatic requirements and resource availability," said a government statement.

This year is a busy one for Isro with the upcoming experimental flight of the GSLV MRK III with an indigenous cryogenic engine, the launch of remaining satellites to complete the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System, test of a reusable launch vehicle and the Astrosat.

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