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India's SRE-1 Space Capsule Successfully Recovered |
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NEW DELHI, Jan. 23, 2007/Satnews Daily/ ― The Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) launched by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) from Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota on January 10, 2007 was successfully recovered on Monday after being maneuvered to reenter the earth's atmosphere and descend over Bay of Bengal about 140 km East of Sriharikota.
Since its launch, SRE-1 was going round the earth in a circular polar orbit at an altitude of 637 km. In preparation for its reentry, SRE-1 was put into an elliptical orbit by issuing commands from the Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) of ISTRAC at Bangalore on January 19, 2007, supported by a network of ground stations at Lucknow, Mauritius, Sriharikota, Biak in Indonesia, Saskatoon in Canada, and in Svalbard in Norway besides shipborne and airborne terminals.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said the main parachute was deployed at about 2 km altitude and finally, SRE-1 splashed down in the Bay of Bengal with a velocity of 12 m/sec (about 43 km per hour) at 09:46 am on Monday.
During its stay in orbit for the last 12 days, ISRO said the two experiments on board SRE-1 were successfully conducted under micro gravity conditions.
One of the experiments was related to study of metal melting and crystallisation under micro gravity conditions. The second experiment was intended to study the synthesis of nano-crystals under micro gravity conditions. This experiment can help in designing better biomaterials having closest proximity with natural biological products. The experimental results will be analysed in due course by the principal scientific investigators of the two experiments.
The successful launch, in-orbit operation of the on board experiments and reentry and recovery of SRE-1 has demonstrated India's capability in important technologies like aero-thermo structures, deceleration and flotation systems, navigation, guidance and control. SRE-1 is an important beginning for providing a low cost platform for micro-gravity experiments in space science and technology and return specimen from space.
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