Indian Space Research Organisation's rocket 'Vyom' to blast off in February

Thiruvananthapuram: 'Vyom,' the first sounding rocket built by Indian students, will take to the skies in February 2012.

The 2.31-metre tall rocket will lift off from the Thumba launching site of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. 'Vyom' is a project of the students of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, the Indian Space Research Organisation academy at Valiyamala in the district for shaping space scientists.

The rocket, fully designed by BTech students with help from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre scientists, has already undergone three static tests and is awaiting final nod from the Main Safety Committee. The single-stage rocket weighs 89 kgs, and will fly 14 km skywards before plunging into the Arabian Sea.

"It will take 44 seconds to reach maximum altitude and will be airborne for 116 seconds in all," said Gagan Agarwal, fourth-year BTech Aerospace Engineering student and Systems Engineer for the project.

Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology  students have put up a detailed poster on 'Vyom' at the National conference on Space Transportation Systems which was inaugurated at Thumba on Friday by former President A P J Abdul Kalam.

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'Vyom' will have a tri-axis accelerometer as payload which will measure the acceleration of the rocket, said Dr K N Ninan, Emeritus Professor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. Sounding rockets are nothing new to Thiruvananthapuram as hundreds have been launched from the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre. But 'Vyom' will have the distinction of having the youngest designers.

Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology had launched the Sounding Rocket Project shortly after its inauguration in 2007. Students had formed separate teams for propulsion, aerodynamics, trajectory, structures and manufacturing under systems engineering for building the rocket. Successive batches of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology students, many of whom have been absorbed by Indian Space Research Organisation, had contributed to its design and development.

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