The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a data relay satellite that will help maintain contact with the Gagangyaan mission after the launch, sources said. The satellite will be launched before the final leg of the Gaganyaan mission, which will send astronauts to the Lower Earth Orbit (LEO). The first leg - the unmanned mission - is to be launched in December.
“We’re planning to launch our own satellite, which will act as a data relay satellite before going for the first human space flight,” the sources said. The £80 million project has been approved and work has been going on, they added. Satellites in orbit cannot pass along their information to the ground stations on Earth if the satellite does not have a clear view of the ground station. A data relay satellite serves as a way to pass along the satellite’s information.
The NASA, with a robust human space mission programme, also has its own data relay satellite. Its tracking and data relay satellite allows it to have global coverage of all the satellites round the clock without having to build extra ground stations on Earth.
