Year-Ender 2021: A look at ISRO and its efforts in building India's space map

Ever since its establishment in 1969, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has conducted a total of 112 spacecraft missions and 82 launch missions. In all of these launches, ISRO has launched 12 satellites made by students from different Indian institutions and 342 satellites for different countries, as per the organisation's official records.

Considering ISRO's majorly successful run for the entirety of its existence, the year 2021 brought some bitter-sweet days which were a success in some aspects and a failure in others. Here's a look at everything grand that happened with India's space agency this year.

Launch of PSLV-C51 with Earth observation satellite Amazonia-1 (Feb 28)

The year for ISRO began with the launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C51 that lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on February 28. The rocket was carrying a Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1 along with 18 other passenger satellites. ISRO was successfully able to inject the Amazonia-1 satellite into orbit 17 minutes 23 seconds after the launch following which the 18 other satellites subtly separated from the PSLV in a predetermined sequence.

According to ISRO, Amazonia-1 is an optical earth observation satellite that provides remote sensing data for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analysis of diversified agriculture across the regions of Brazil. Interestingly, the launch of Amazonia-1 marked the first dedicated commercial mission of the Government's NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) that comes under the Department of Space (DoS). Besides, this was ISRO's 78th launch vehicle mission and it was on this date when ISRO's installation of satellites for foreign countries reached 342.

India's Satish Dhawan SAT (Feb 28)

Among ISRO's major launches also are the Satish Dhawan Satellite (SDSAT) and the UNITYsat that were also sent to the low-Earth orbit on February 28. The SDSAT was built by Space Kidz India whereas the UNITYsat was a result of collaboration between Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, Sriperumbudur (JITsat), GH Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur (GHRCEsat) and Sri Shakti Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore (Sri Shakthi Sat). 

ISRO's GSLV-F10 launch (Aug 12)

It was the launch of GSLV-F10 on August 12 which will be remembered as ISRO's failure. According to the agency, the mission was not accomplished as intended due to a technical anomaly that prevented the Cryogenic Upper Stage ignition. However, the first and second stage performances were normal, as per ISRO. 

ISRO avoids collision between Chandrayaan-2 and NASA's lunar orbiter

Although not as big as a rocket launch, this was still significant as a collision between ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 and NASA's Lunar orbiter could have two missions at once. ISRO had revealed in November that it was successful in relocating the Chandrayaan orbiter from its 100-kilometres circular, polar orbit to avoid close contact with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) near the Moon's north pole.

(Image: @ISRO/Twitter)