Bengaluru: A nanosatellite, Satish Dhawan Satellite (SD SAT) will carry a copy of the Bhagwat Gita, a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and names of 25,000 people to space by end of February 2021, said officials at Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-51 will be launching the nanosatellite on February 2. The nanosatellite called Satish Dhawan Satellite, or SD SAT is named after one of the founding fathers of India’s space programme.
The nanosatellite is developed by SpaceKidz India and it will be its second satellite after Kalamsat to be launched. SpaceKidz India is an organization dedicated to promoting space science among students.
SD SAT will also carry three scientific payloads – to study space radiation, magnetosphere, and to demonstrate a low-power wide-area communication network.
Dr Srimathy Kesan, founder and CEO of SpaceKidz India, released a statement that the group is very much excited about the launch of the satellite, he also said, “This will be our first satellite to be deployed in space. When we finalised the mission, we asked people to send in their names that will be sent to space. And, within a week we received 25,000 entries. Of these, 1,000 names were sent in by people from outside India.” The satellite has been completely developed in India, including the electronics and circuitry.
The idea of carrying Bhagwat Gita to space was added by Kesan because of other space’s missions as they also carried their holy books to space such as BIBLE. In India, this will create history because nothing like this has ever happened in India.
Kesan also revealed the reason behind carrying a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was to support the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat program. This will be for the first time in history that the Prime Ministers’ photograph will be carried to space on the top panel along with the words ‘Aatmanirbhar mission’.
ISRO has suggested some minor changes in the satellite after which the satellite will be launched on Sunday from Sriharikota. Sriharikota is a barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Shar Project settlement of Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh.