MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Satellite SRE-I, with the floatation system on top, being lifted from Coast Guard vessel "Sarang" at the Ennore port, near Chennai, on Monday. — Photo: K. Pichumani

CHENNAI: India's initiative to recover a satellite launched from Sriharikota on January 10 turned out to be a "a grand success" on Monday, with the capsule "gently" splashing down at 9.44 a.m. in the Bay of Bengal, about 140 km east of the Sriharikota island .

Soon after the satellite "landed," the floatation system opened and the capsule started floating. A helicopter from Coast Guard vessel "Sarang" located the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-I), which had dye-markers, and divers immediately went into action.

The satellite was brought on board "Sarang" and the vessel sailed into the Ennore harbour, 45 km from Chennai, around 6 p.m. on Monday. The satellite was taken to Sriharikota at night for analysis.

The accomplishment is a boost to the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO)'s plans to send an astronaut into space in 10 years from now and bring him back. The breakthrough is a forerunner to the organisation mastering the re-entry and recovery technologies. It is also a boost to ISRO's plans to build a reusable launch vehicle.

There was elation at the Mission Control Centre (MCC) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota when the SRE-I, weighing 555 kg, fell on the waters at the chosen time.

After the satellite plunged into the atmosphere at a velocity of 29,000 km an hour and withstood 1,400 to 2,000 degrees Celsius of heat, its parachutes opened with ballet-like precision one after another about five km above the earth's surface.

Applause erupted at the MCC when the satellite made its plunge into the waters. ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) Director B.N. Suresh, SDSC Director M. Annamalai and the former Director of SDSC, K. Narayana, hugged one another and shook hands.

Mr. Nair called the recovery "historic and a thrilling moment for ISRO."

"Everything is pucca"

In Bangalore, S.K. Shivakumar, Director, ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC), called the recovery "a grand success."

Other top ISRO engineers said: "Everything is pucca. Everything went as per prediction."

ISTRAC is one of the several ground stations, which tracked the satellite.

Building and recovering the satellite was a challenge on several fronts.

It had to withstand fiery heat while plunging into the atmosphere after being in orbit for 12 days at an altitude of 635 km; the mechanism that would open the three parachutes in sequence had to work; its deceleration systems had to function efficiently; and the floatation system had to inflate to make the SRE-I, made of mild steel, float. The SRE-I, in a spherical cone shape, had two payloads and they conducted experiments in microgravity.

With Monday's achievement, ISRO's multimission that began on January 10 is an unalloyed success. That day the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) lifted off and put four satellites in orbit.

Related Stories:
Technological breakthrough: Madhavan Nair
Successful recovery: Coast Guard chief
Excitement at Ennore

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