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Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
(ISRO) facilities all over India. ISRO headquarters in Bangalore provides overall direction for the organization. There are more than twenty facilities which support ISRO.


Facilities

ISRO has lots of different technical centres and facilities, which supports and enable it to work smoothly on a day to day basis. Such facilities are listed below under different sections.


Research facilities

;Vikram sarabhai space centre The largest ISRO base which is located in Thiruvananthapuram, is also the main technical centre and the venue for development of the SLV-3,
ASLV The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle or Advanced Satellite Launch Vehicle, also known as ASLV, was a small-lift launch vehicle five-stage solid-fuel rocket developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to place 150 kg satelli ...
, and PSLV series. The base supports TERLS and the
Rohini Sounding Rocket Rohini is a series of sounding rockets developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for meteorological and atmospheric study. These sounding rockets are capable of carrying payloads of between altitudes of . The ISRO currently uses ...
programme. It is also developing the GSLV series. ;Liquid propulsion systems centre The LPSC which is located in both Thiruvananthapuram and Bangalore, handles design, development, testing and implementation of liquid propulsion control packages, liquid stages and liquid engines for launch vehicles and satellites. The testing of these systems is largely conducted at IPRC at Mahendragiri. The LPSC, Bengaluru also produces precision transducers. ;Physical research laboratory PRL which is located in
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
, conducts research in Solar planetary physics, Infrared astronomy, Geo-cosmo physics, Plasma physics,
astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
, archaeology, and hydrology. It also operates the observatory at Udaipur. ;National atmospheric research Laboratory The NARL located in Tirupati, carries out fundamental and applied research in atmospheric and space sciences. ;Space applications centre The SAC located in
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
, deals with the various aspects of the practical use of space technology. Among the fields of research at the SAC are
geodesy Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equivale ...
, satellite based telecommunications,
surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...
, remote sensing, meteorology, environment monitoring etc. The SAC also operates the Delhi Earth Station, which is located in Delhi and is used for demonstration of various SATCOM experiments in addition to normal SATCOM operations. ;North-eastern space applications centre This facility located in Meghalaya, provides developmental support to North East by undertaking specific application projects using remote sensing,
GIS A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing Geographic data and information, geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with Geographic information system software, sof ...
, Satellite Communication and conducting space science research.


Test facilities

;ISRO propulsion complex The facility which is located in Mahendragiri was formerly called LPSC-Mahendragiri and was declared a separate centre. It handles testing and assembly of liquid propulsion control packages, liquid engines, and stages for launch vehicles and satellites.


Construction and launch facilities

;U R Rao satellite centre The venue of eight successful spacecraft projects located in Bangalore, is also one of the main satellite technology bases of ISRO. The facility serves as a venue for implementing indigenous spacecraft in India. The satellites '' Aryabhata'', '' Bhaskara'', '' APPLE'', and '' IRS-1A'' were built at this site, and the IRS and INSAT satellite series are presently under development here. This centre was formerly known as ISRO Satellite Centre. ;Laboratory for electro-optics systems This is the Unit of ISRO which responsible for the development of altitude sensors for all satellites and is located in Bangalore. The high precision optics for all cameras and payloads in all ISRO satellites are developed at this laboratory, located at Peenya Industrial Estate, Bengaluru. ;Satish dhawan space centre With multiple sub-sites the
Sriharikota Sriharikota is a Barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Shar Project settlement of Tirupati district in Andhra Pradesh, India. It houses the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, one of the two satellite launch centres in India (the o ...
island facility acts as a launching site for India's satellites. The Sriharikota facility is also the main launch base for India's sounding rockets. The centre is also home to India's largest Solid Propellant Space Booster Plant (SPROB) and houses the Static Test and Evaluation Complex (STEX). The Second Vehicle Assembly Building (SVAB) at Sriharikota is being realised as an additional integration facility, with suitable interfacing to a second launch pad. ;Thumba equatorial rocket launching station TERLS which is located in Thiruvananthapuram, is used to launch sounding rockets.


Tracking and control facilities

;Indian deep space network IDSN network which is located in Bangalore, receives, processes, archives and distributes the spacecraft health data and payload data in real-time. It can track and monitor satellites up to very large distances, even beyond the Moon. ;National remote sensing centre The NRSC which is headquartered in Hyderabad, applies remote sensing to manage natural resources and study aerial surveying. With centres at Balanagar and Shadnagar it also has training facilities at
Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
acting as the
Indian Institute of Remote Sensing The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing is a premier institute for research, higher education and training in the field of remote sensing, geoinformatics and GPS technology for natural resources, environmental and disaster management under the In ...
. ;ISRO telemetry, tracking and command network This facility's headquarters is located in Bangalore and it also has a number of ground stations throughout India and the world.
Software development Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development invol ...
, Ground Operations, Tracking Telemetry and Command (TTC), and support is provided by this institution. ISTRAC has Tracking stations throughout the country and all over the world in Port Louis ( Mauritius), Bearslake ( Russia), Biak ( Indonesia) and Brunei. ;Master control facility MCF which is located in both
Hassan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...
and Bhopal, is mainly used for geostationary satellite orbit raising, payload testing, and in-orbit operations are performed at this facility. The MCF has Earth stations and the Satellite Control Centre (SCC) for controlling satellites. A second MCF-like facility named 'MCF-B' is being constructed at Bhopal. ;Space situational awareness control centre This facility which is located in Peenya and Bangalore, has a network of telescopes and radars are being set up under the Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management to monitor space debris and to safeguard space-based assets. The new facility will end ISRO's dependence on
Norad North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and protection ...
. The sophisticated multi-object tracking radar installed in Nellore, a radar in Northeast India and telescopes in Thiruvananthapuram, Mount Abu and North India will be part of this network. ;Directorate of space situational awareness and management To reduce dependency on North America Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) for space situational awareness and protect the civilian and military assets, ISRO is setting up telescopes and radars in four locations to cover each direction.
Leh Leh () ( lbj, ) is the joint capital and largest city of Ladakh, a union territory of India. Leh, located in the Leh district, was also the historical capital of the Kingdom of Ladakh, the seat of which was in the Leh Palace, the former res ...
, Mount Abu and
Ponmudi Ponmudi (the Golden Peak) also known as Kashmir of Kerala is a hill station in the Peringamala gramapanchayath of Trivandrum District of Kerala in India. It is located 22km west of Vithura town, 53 km north-east of Trivandrum City, 78&n ...
were selected to station the telescopes and radars that will cover North, West and South of Indian territory. The last one will be in Northeast India to cover the entire eastern region. Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota already supports Multi-Object Tracking Radar (MOTR). All the telescopes and radars will come under Directorate of Space Situational Awareness and Management (DSSAM) in Bengaluru. It will collect tracking data on inactive satellites and will also perform research on active debris removal, space debris modelling and mitigation. For early warning, ISRO began a ₹400 crore (4 billion; US$53 million) project called Network for Space Object Tracking and Analysis (NETRA). It will help the country track atmospheric entry,
intercontinental ballistic missile An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons c ...
(ICBM), anti-satellite weapon and other space-based attacks. All the radars and telescopes will be connected through NETRA. The system will support remote and scheduled operations. NETRA will follow the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IASDCC) and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOSA) guidelines. The objective of NETRA is to track objects at a distance of in GTO. India signed a memorandum of understanding on the Space Situational Awareness Data Sharing Pact with the US in April 2022. It will enable
Department of Space The Department of Space is an Indian government department responsible for administration of the Indian space program. It manages several agencies and institutes related to space exploration and space technologies. The Indian space program und ...
to collaborate with the Combined Space Operation Center (CSpOC) to protect the space-based assets of both nations from natural and human-made threats. On 11 July 2022, ISRO System for Safe and Sustainable Space Operations Management (IS4OM) at Space Situational Awareness Control Centre, in Peenya was inaugurated by
Jitender Singh Jitender may refer to: * Jitender Singh Malik, Indian politician; * Jitender Singh Tomar, Indian politician; * Jitender Kumar (boxer, born 1988) Jitender Kumar (born 18 July 1988) is an Indian flyweight boxer. He won the bronze medal in the f ...
. It will help provide information on on-orbit collision, fragmentation, atmospheric re-entry risk, space-based strategic information, hazardous asteroids, and space weather forecast. IS4OM will safeguard all the operational space assets, identify and monitor other operational spacecraft with close approaches which have overpasses over Indian subcontinent and those which conduct intentional manoeuvres with suspicious motives or seek re-entry within South Asia. ;ISRO system for safe and sustainable space operations management On 7 March 2023, IS4OM conducted successful controlled re-entry of decommissioned satellite Megha-Tropiques after firing four on-board 11 Newton thrusters for 20 minutes each. A series of 20 manoeuvres were performed since August 2022 by spending 120 kg fuel. The final telemetry data confirmed disintegtration over Pacific Ocean. It was part of a compliance effort following international guidelines on space debris mitigation.


Human resource development

;Indian institute of remote sensing The Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) which is located in
Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislative As ...
, is a premier training and educational institute set up for developing trained professionals (P.G. and PhD level) in the field of remote sensing, geoinformatics and GPS technology for natural resources, environmental and disaster management. IIRS is also executing many R&D projects on remote sensing and GIS for societal applications. IIRS also runs various outreach programmes (Live & Interactive and e-learning) to build trained skilled human resources in the field of remote sensing and geospatial technologies. ;Indian institute of space science and technology The institute which is located in Thiruvananthapuram, offers undergraduate and graduate courses in Aerospace Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering (Avionics), and Engineering Physics. The students of the first threebatches of IIST were inducted into different
ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...
centres. ;Development and educational communication unit The centre located in
Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...
, works for education, research, and training, mainly in conjunction with the INSAT programme. The main activities carried out at DECU include GRAMSAT and
EDUSAT EduSAT is an Italian microsatellite which was launched in August 2011. The satellite was built and is operated by the Sapienza University of Rome in conjunction with the Italian Space Agency ASI, and is primarily used for educational outreach an ...
projects. The Training and Development Communication Channel (TDCC) also falls under the operational control of the DECU. ;Space technology incubation centres The S-TICs opened at premier technical universities in India to promote startups to build applications and products in tandem with the industry and would be used for future space missions. The S-TIC will bring the industry, academia and ISRO under one umbrella to contribute towards research and development (R&D) initiatives relevant to the Indian Space Programme. These Centers are located at the following Places: *
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar (NIT Jalandhar or NITJ), formerly Regional Engineering College Jalandhar, is a public engineering university located in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. It has been declared as an Instit ...
* Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology *
National Institute of Technology Agartala National Institute of Technology Agartala (NIT Agartala or NITA) is a technology-oriented institute of higher education established by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India in Agartala, India. It was founded as Tri ...
*
National Institute of Technology, Rourkela National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela or NITRKL or NITR), formerly Regional Engineering College Rourkela is a publicly funded institute of higher learning for engineering, science and technology located in the steel city of R ...
* Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology * National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli ;Space innovation centre In line with its ongoing effort to promote R&D in space technology through industry as well as academia, ISRO in collaboration with Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla, Sambalpur, Odisha, has set up Veer Surendra Sai Space Innovation Centre (VSSSIC) within its campus at Sambalpur. The objective of its Space Innovation Research Lab is to promote and encourage the students in research and development in the area of space science and technology at VSSUT and other institutes within this region. Space Innovation Centres are located in the following Places: * Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology at Burla, Sambalpur ;Regional academy centre for space All these centres are set up in tier-2 cities to create awareness, strengthen academic collaboration and act as incubators for space technology, space science and space applications. The activities of RAC-S will maximise the use of research potential, infrastructure, expertise, experience and facilitate capacity building. Regional Academy centre for Space are located in the following places: * Gauhati University *
National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra (NIT Kurukshetra or NITKKR) is a public technical and research university located in Kurukshetra. In December 2008, it was accredited with the status of Institute of National Importance (INI). It is ...
*
Malaviya National Institute of Technology Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur (MNIT or NIT Jaipur) is a public technical university located in Jaipur, India with, an emphasis on science, engineering and management. Formerly known as Malaviya Regional Engineering Colleg ...
*
National Institute of Technology Karnataka National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), also known as NITK Surathkal, formerly known as Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC), is a public technical university at Surathkal, Mangalore. It was founded in 1960 as KREC while to ...
* National Institute of Technology Patna * Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi ;Advance space research group Like NASA funded Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) managed by California Institute of Technology (Caltech), ISRO with
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) is a government-aided institute and deemed university for the study and research of space science, located at Valiamala, Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. It is the first universit ...
(IIST) implemented a joint working framework in 2021 in which an Empowered Overseeing Committee (EOC) under Capacity Building Programme Office (CBPO) of ISRO located in Bengaluru will approve all short, medium and long term space research projects of common interest. In return, an Advance Space Research Group (ASRG) formed at IIST under the guidance of EOC will have full access to ISRO facilities. The primary aim is to transform IIST into a premier space research and engineering institute by 2028–2030 that can lead future space exploration missions of ISRO.


Commercial and marketing facilities

These facilities come under the administrative control of
Department of Space The Department of Space is an Indian government department responsible for administration of the Indian space program. It manages several agencies and institutes related to space exploration and space technologies. The Indian space program und ...
(DOS) and are used to promote and market ISRO's products and services. ;Antrix corporation limited Set up as the marketing arm of ISRO,
Antrix Antrix Corporation Limited ( ISO 15919: ) is an Indian government-owned company under the administrative control of the Department of Space. It was incorporated in September 1992, as a commercial and marketing arm of ISRO by prompting, comme ...
's job is to promote products, services and technology developed by ISRO. ;NewSpace india limited Set up for marketing spin-off technologies, tech transfers through industry interface and scale up industry participation in the space programmes.


Other facilities

* Balasore Rocket Launching Station (BRLS), Balasore, Orissa *
Bhaskaracharya Institute For Space Applications and Geo-Informatics Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Applications and Geoinformatics (BISAG) is a national agency by the Government of Gujarat to facilitate to provide services and solutions in implementing map-based GeoSpatial Information Systems. BISAG's SATCO ...
(BISAG), Gandhinagar *
Human Space Flight Centre The Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) is a body under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to coordinate the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme. The agency will be responsible for implementation of the ''Gaganyaan'' project. The first c ...
(HSFC),
Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
* Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC),
Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
*
Integrated Space Cell The Integrated Space Cell was the nodal agency within the Government of India which oversees the security of its space based military and civilian hardware systems. It was to be jointly operated by all the three services of the Indian Armed Forces ...
* Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune *
ISRO Inertial Systems Unit The ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU) is a research and development unit of the Indian Space Research Organisation located in Vattiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram that specialises in inertial sensors and systems in satellite technology. Its specializ ...
(IISU), Thiruvananthapuram


See also

* NASA facilities


References


Sources

* * {{Cite book, last1=Suri, first1=R.K., last2=Rajaram, first2=Kalpana, title="Space Research", Science and Technology in India, pages=411–448, isbn=81-7930-294-6, location=New Delhi, publisher=Spectrum