Daily dose of hullabaloo all around sometimes sink singular achievements without trace. One such is India’s space scientists’ successfully re-guiding a 550-kg space capsule back to earth from outer space on Jan 22. With this India joins the select group of only 3 countries (US, Russia and China) who have this ability. Of course, US and Russia are the torchbearers of this technology. Even China has sent and recouped manned shuttle. [Picture on left: PSLV-C6 blasting off; source]
The recouped space capsule spent only 12 days in space, sent as it was on Jan 10 ‘aboard’ the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) that carried 3 other ‘passengers’, 2 from other countries. While others are booked for permanent stationing in the eternity of outer space, this was due for return.
Return it did, obeying commands from earth stations as it was supposed to. From a height of 625 km above Atlantic Ocean, the space capsule journeyed back in precise schedule, entering earth’s atmosphere cruising at a speed of 8 km a second, withstanding 1500 degrees Celsius temperature while doing so.
As it started descending from the north, zooming across Atlantic Ocean and past North Pole and Russia, the first set of parachutes opened at 5 km above sea level, while the main parachute opened at 2 km height. The capsule then slowed down considerably, touching Bay of Bengal about 140 km southeast of Sriharikota at just 12 meters per second.
What does this mean to Indian space research? Yes, a poor country like ours has poured fortune for this. But for the first time it no longer seems a pipedream that India can send manned spacecraft in not-so-long future. We wait with great hope.
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