NEW DELHI: The work on the country’s second spaceport has started in Tamil Nadu as Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is gearing up for increased launch activities in coming years.Days after Union minister for department of space Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha in the current session that “the government has a proposal to set up a rocket launching pad near Kulasekarapattinam in Tamil Nadu”, Isro chairman K Sivan confirmed to TOI that the “land acquisition process has started in Tuticorin for the second spacesport”. Major space-faring countries have multiple rocket launch centres.Sivan said the Tuticorin spaceport will “mainly cater to launches of newly developed Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV or mini-PSLV). The initial launches (around two) of the SSLV will be from Sriharikota but once the second spaceport is ready, subsequent SSLV launches will be shifted there”. The Isro chairman also confirmed that the first launch of SSLV with “payload-lifting capability of around 500kg is due in the first quarter of 2020”. He said depending upon demands later, other rockets could also be launched from the proposed spaceport.Listing advantages of the TN spaceport, the Isro chairman told TOI that “straight southward launches will be possible as the launch centre in Tamil Nadu is on the seashore. Because of the straight path, we can carry more payloads. Currently, we can’t launch rockets southwards from Sriharikota (Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh) and all rockets have to fly around Sri Lanka. The rocket trajectory is not straight but has to be manoeuvred around Sri Lanka. That is the reason why we can’t carry more payloads in current launches from Sriharikota.” The TN spaceport will be ideal for putting satellites in the polar orbit through a PSLV and not for GSLV launches to the geostationary orbit.Another advantage of the proposed TN spaceport is that it will be closer to Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri in TN’s Tirunelveli district, which assembles the second and fourth stage engines of PSLV.“Area-wise, the launch centre in Tamil Nadu will be smaller than SHAR,” Sivan said. According to an estimate, the land requirement for the Tuticorin spaceport will be around 2,300 acres whereas Sriharikota is actually an island covering 145 sq km area with a coastal length of 27 km.If the country’s first Thumba equatorial rocket launching station in Kerala is also taken into account, the proposed TN spaceport will ideally be India’s third launch centre. Currently, no big rockets is launched from Thumba.