New Delhi, Oct 23 (IANS) Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is gearing up for another collaboration with the US, with its BlueBird-6 satellite, and a 6.5-tonne weighing satellite is expected to be launched by the year-end, said ISRO chairman Dr. V. Narayanan on Thursday.

The collaboration comes on the heels of the successful launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar Mission (NISAR) by ISRO in July.

“Blue Bird is a communication satellite. We have received the satellite, and we are working for the launch, and the launch vehicle build-up is going on,” Narayanan told IANS during a media briefing for ESTIC-2025.

“The date will be announced by the Prime Minister at the appropriate time,” he said, adding, “we are targeting to accomplish before this year’s end”.

The Block 2 BlueBird communications satellite, developed by the US-based AST SpaceMobile, will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on board India’s most powerful rocket LVM3.

BlueBird-6 is one of the heaviest commercial satellites, weighing 6.5 tonnes. The Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite arrived in India from the US on October 19.

Meanwhile, Narayanan also spoke about the Gaganyaan mission, the progress made under the country’s first human spaceflight mission.

Narayanan revealed that development work for the Gaganyaan Mission is nearing completion, “with about 85 to 90 per cent of subsystem-level activities finalised”.

“We are now conducting integrated tests and software validation. Three uncrewed missions will be launched before the crewed flight to ensure full safety and system reliability,” the ISRO Chief told IANS.

Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave (ESTIC 2025), scheduled from November 3 to November 5, at Bharat Mandapam, will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The event will focus on accelerating breakthroughs in key scientific domains and fostering collaborations across sectors.

Speaking about the conclave, Narayanan said that the event is not only for ISRO, but for the entire science and technology departments of the country.

“There are 13 science and technology departments involved. The event will mainly showcase our potential, appreciate talents, also understand the vision of each department, what is in the store, and how the Indian industry start-up ecosystems are contributing to the science and technology area, how the academia is involved,” the ISRO Chief said.

Dr. A. Rajarajan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, stressed the need for a lunar module launch vehicle to enable the landing of an Indian on Chandrayaan by 2040.

“We have configured a Lunar Module Launch Vehicle (LMLV), which is in the initial stages of design and configuration. It requires a 75,000 kg payload capability of LEO,” Rajarajan told IANS.

“We are taking care of advancing the manufacturing capability of this vehicle in all aspects,” he added, while emphasising the need for industry collaborations.

“Any vehicle development is challenging. It has its own cycle time. We have to put an ecosystem in place to manufacture everything, incorporate all the advancements that have happened all over the world to be on par in 2040,” Rajarajan said.

ESTIC 2025 is expected to unite Nobel Laureates, industry leaders, young innovators, women entrepreneurs, and emerging science leaders to define the next frontiers of science and technological innovation.

–IANS

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