ESA to assist Indian human spaceflight missions

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Enabling & Help

12/12/2024
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On 4 December 2024, the European Area Company (ESA) and the Indian Area Analysis Organisation (ISRO) signed an settlement that may see ESA present floor station assist to the missions in ISRO’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.

Scope of the assist

Representatives from ISRO and ESA signal an settlement that may see ESA present floor section assist to ISRO’s Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme

Gaganyaan is India’s first human spaceflight programme. It at present consists of three deliberate missions: two uncrewed missions adopted by one crewed mission. ESA will assist all three missions.

“The Community Operations Centre at ESA’s ESOC mission management centre in Germany will coordinate a collection of radio antennas within the international European Area Monitoring community (Estrack) that may allow ISRO to trace, monitor and command the Gaganyaan crew module all through every mission,” stated Octave Procope-Mamert, Head of Floor Facility Operations at ESA.

ESA’s Kourou anntena in communication with the Intuitive Machines IM-1 Moon mission earlier this 12 months

The primary Gaganyaan mission, at present foreseen for 2025, will probably be supported by ESA’s 15 m antenna in Kourou, French Guiana.

Following missions may also be supported by antennas owned by the German Aerospace Heart (DLR) and the Spanish Nationwide Institute for Aerospace Know-how (INTA), all linked by way of ESOC.

Subsequent steps

A suitcase-sized mannequin of the Gaganyaan radio gear will quickly arrive at ESOC in Germany for radio frequency compatibility testing on the web site’s Floor Section Reference Facility. The compatibility checks will be sure that the spacecraft’s radio transmitter and receiver can successfully talk with ESA’s antenna in Kourou.

ISRO Gaganyaan crew module

ESA and ISRO have a protracted historical past of spaceflight cooperation. Latest highlights embody ESA’s assist to ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Moon mission in 2023.

ESA’s floor stations are additionally downlinking the majority of the info gathered by ISRO’s Aditya-L1 photo voltaic observatory all through its mission to check the Solar and the origins of area climate.

ISRO, in the meantime, not too long ago oversaw the launch of ESA’s Proba-3 mission, the third mission of the Proba collection to be launched from India.

The 2 area businesses are dedicated to deepening this collaboration sooner or later, with ESA’s assist to ISRO’s human spaceflight programme seen as a big step ahead.