India’s space agency ISRO is soon going to introduce a launch-on-demand service providing rockets to carry small satellites to the space. The new rocket could be prepared for flight within 72 hours on demand.

The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), which is going to ferry small satellites, including space science payloads built by students weighs around 500kg, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has informed. The SSLV is also going to enhance the capability of the country in the security and disaster management applications.

ISRO chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan has informed, “It (the SSLV) will be the country’s smallest and most economical launch vehicle”. ISRO hopes to increase the frequency of building small satellites for both commercial customers as well as the academic institutions, through the SSLV. The SSLV’s first flight is scheduled for July 2019.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan also said, “Students could focus only on the payloads, as the payloads would be plugged into SSLV and launched”, it will be a part of the ongoing outreach programme of the ISRO, which seeks to expand its collaboration with academic institutions within and also outside the country.

Technology analysts are also of the view that the SSLV will enhance surveillance capabilities. V. Siddhartha, a Space and Defence Research expert said, “A launch-on-demand service would add to our existing space-based remote-sensing assets what might be called a bespoke surveillance capability tailored to specific military or civilian requirement as it arises”.

The specially designed SSLV will now be a part of the ISRO’s workhorse rockets, which includes, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that can carry of up to 4,000kg of payloads.

ISRO is also planning to conduct its first ever-automatic landing test this year. The test of the reusable launch vehicle (RLV), a craft that is designed to deliver payloads into low-Earth orbit and return to land on a runway as the American Space Shuttle did.

In the RLV landing test, a helicopter is going to hoist and release the RLV at an altitude, which is about 3km from where the craft would land on its own, guided by onboard computers. A senior space official said, “The test will evaluate automatic navigation, steering, landing gear, alignment to the runway and touchdown”.

ISRO scientific secretary, R. Umamaheswaran also said, “The RLV is expected to reduce the cost of access to space. No one has a full-fledged RLV today. It is a futuristic vehicle, we’re about 20 percent towards the RLV goal.”

ISRO chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan also announced ISRO’s upcoming projects in 2019 and said the Chandrayaan-2 lunar lander mission is expected to launch between March 25 and April 30. ISRO also plans to launch GSAT20, a telecommunications satellite, which is going to provide 100 gbps broadband connectivity and a satellite each for microwave remote sensing and advanced geographic imaging by October this year.