Travel reduced, meetings put off

With Kerala battling COVID-19, the heavily-staffed units of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in Thiruvananthapuram have adopted precautions against the epidemic, even as they race to meet the tight mission schedules for 2020.

The district is home to three critical facilities of the national space programme — Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre and the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) — in addition to the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST).

The units have suspended biometric fingerprint scanning, disabled entrance turnstiles and confined internal meetings and travel to a minimum. Many conferences slated for the coming weeks have been put off. ISRO medical units have stepped up surveillance. Mission schedules have been left untouched, but the restriction on activity is likely to impact the ISRO launch calendar.

“Our work has not been severely affected so far. That said, the intensity of activity has definitely diminished. For instance, we have issued instructions restricting travel to the minimum. But hardware for space missions are manufactured all over India, and travel is necessary for conducting quality inspections. Official visits to Sriharikota (Satish Dhawan Space Centre) also have come down. All this can impact our overall schedule,” S. Somanath, director, VSSC, said.

ISRO missions lined up for 2020 include the Aditya mission to study the sun, the first unmanned test flight under the Gaganyaan programme and other satellite missions involving the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). All the units in Thiruvananthapuram are crucial players in all of these missions.