Assembly of PSLV stopped to involve private sector in space missions
Deccan ChronicleNellore: The assembly of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which is due to launch an earth observation satellite in the third quarter, has been stopped at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota range, according to reliable sources. On August 4, Union minister of state for space, Jithendra Singh had told Nama Nageswara Rao in Parliament that the PSLV rocket, numbered C52, would launch EOS-04 in the third quarter. Apart from PSLV-C52, according to the minister, the GSLV-F10 was to launch the EOS3 in the third quarter followed in the fourth quarter by the first developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, SSLV-D1 with the EOS-02 and the launch of EOS-06 aboard the PSLV-C53. Searching for an explanation for the delay, a former ISRO engineer opined that the government’s decision to involve the private sector in space missions could be the reason for rocket launches getting rescheduled.