"Most Reliable": Ex-ISRO Chief On Satellite Launch To Study Black Holes

Lauding the launch of the PSLV-C58/XPOSAT mission which is scheduled for Monday, former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair on Sunday said that this rocket system has evolved as the most reliable and cost-effective one in the global scenario.

The mission is scheduled at 09:10 IST on Monday, the first day of the new calendar year 2024, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Talking to ANI, Madhavan Nair said, "The new year 2024 will be a significant one as far as ISRO programmes are concerned. The 60th launch of PSLV will take place on this day. When we look back in history, we started this journey in 1993 and since then, most of the missions have been successfully completed. This rocket system has evolved as the most reliable and cost-effective one in the global scenario."

The former ISRO Chairman also congratulated the ISRO for the achievement of the Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 missions.

"On this occasion, I congratulate ISRO for the fantastic achievements it has achieved in 2023, including the significant Chandrayaan-3 mission on the South Pole of the Moon, the Aditya L1 mission and the commercial launch competing against the Space X competition," Mr Nair said.

XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite) is the first dedicated scientific satellite from ISRO to carry out research in space-based polarisation measurements of X-ray emission from celestial sources.

The objectives of this to-be-launched mission are to measure the polarisation of X-rays in the energy band 8-30 keV emanating from about 50 potential cosmic sources through Thomson Scattering by the POLIX payload; to carry out long-term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources in the energy band 0.8-15keV by the XSPECT payload; and to carry out polarisation and spectroscopic measurements of X-ray emissions from cosmic sources by the POLIX and XSPECT payloads, respectively, in the common energy band.

The module houses 10 identified payloads, supplied by ISRO and IN-SPACe.

The scientific goals of the mission are to study the distribution of magnetic field, geometric anisotropies, alignment with respect to the line of sight, nature of accelerators in galactic cosmic X-Ray sources by measuring the degree of polarisation and its angle, structure and geometry of magnetic field of neutron stars, mechanism of X-Ray beaming and its relation with luminosity and mass of accretion rate of powered pulsars, and detailed understanding of galactic black hole binary sources, among others.

In a stellar display of prowess, India soared to new heights in 2023 with the successful soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the south pole of the moon and the launch of Aditya-L1, India's first solar mission.

These milestones not only secured India's standing in the global space economy but also fueled the engines for the private space sector in India.

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