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Episode 78 – ISRO’s early Earth Observation Cameras with former chairman Mr Kiran Kumar

Mr Kiran Kumar studied physics, physical engineering and electronics in educational institutions in India including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore. He specialised in electro-optical imaging systems and in 1975 was recruited by Dr Yash Pal (one of a few key individuals who played a pivotal role in the early days of India’s space programme) to ISRO’s Space Application Centre in Ahmedabad.

During the 1970’s, state of the art imaging sensor consisted of photodiodes, vidicon tubes and photomultipliers. It was these analogue devices that he started working with before moving on to modern solid state devices such as Charged Couple Devices (CCDs). He contributed to imaging systems in India’s first remote sensing satellite (Bhaskara-1) and deep space missions to the Moon (Chandrayaan-1) and Mars (Mars Orbiter Mission).

A few highlights from the interview recorded on 22 September 2018

Had considered medicine as a career but a combination of not meeting the age criteria by 22 days and National College in Bangalore initiating a new Physics Honours course in 1968, he chose Physics.
Strongly influenced by physicist and ardent rationalist Dr.H.Narasimhaiah who later became the vice-chancellor of Bangalore University
Has a clear memory of Gagarin’s spaceflight in 1961 and Apollo 11 landing on the Moon in 1969.
Graduated in 1971, the same year that Vikram Sarabhai died. He never saw or met him.
In 1975, he was working on his Mtec at the IISc when India’s first satellite, Aryabhata was launched. He worked on Bhaskara – initially known as Satellite for Earth Observation
In the mid-1970s only four metropolitan areas in India had television reception. The SITE programme illustrated the benefits of satellite communication in delivering education to small rural communities across India.
During 1995-1999 – ISRO had the highest spatial resolution imaging capability from space in the civilian domain.
Using Commercial Off the Shelf products (or parts from COTS product) is not unusual for experimental space missions.
Moving into the Chairman’s role was not onerous. Previous experience as director of an ISRO centre provided the required experience.

Although Kiran Kumar stood down from the chairman’s role in January 2018, he remains active within ISRO.

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New audio -Rakesh Sharma in Space speaking Russian 7th April 1984

By Gurbir Leave a Comment

Soyuz T11 Crew

Recently two audio clips (see below) of Sharma’s broadcast have emerged. They were recorded in 1984 by Sven Grahn in Sweden. The audio clips are part of a TV broadcast transmitted on 7th April and captured over two orbits. The first clip Sharma talks about the Yoga experiments and in the second, we hear him for the first time speaking in Russian about the pictures of Indian leaders he took with him to space. He mentions the defence minister because Rakesh Sharma was a member of the Indian Airforce and had no connections with ISRO. The audio was originally recorded live by Sven Grahn and transcribed from Russian to English by Bart Hendrikx. Transcription and the audio clips below. My thanks to them both.

In 1984, Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma became the first Indian national and the 138th person to enter space. His trip into space was part of the USSR’s Interkosmos programme. During this programme, 14 non-Soviet cosmonauts travelled to the USSR’s Soyuz space station in low earth orbit stations between 1978 and 1988.

On Tuesday, 3 April 1984, at 10:38, Rakesh Sharma with Commander Yuri Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft. Ten minutes later, Soyuz T-11 was in a 224 kilometre LEO on its way to dock with the space station Salyut 7. After just over a week on Wednesday 11th April Sharma returned to Earth aboard Soyuz T-10 as planned to the USSR 46 km to the east of the city of Arkalyk.

During his 8 days, Sharma conducted several observations, experiments and participated in live TV broadcasts. His first broadcast and conversation with the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi took place on the 4th April and is well documented.

Sven Grahn and his equipment in 1974. Credit Sven Grahn.

Audio recorded in Real-time by Sven Grahn

14:45–14:50 UT 7/4/1984

Yuri Malyshev: (in Russian)

… in order not to spoil the experiment…
Yesterday, while we were flying over our country and doing experiments with our film cameras, I asked Rakesh to come to the window and look at the beautiful Kuril Islands, the volcanoes. As far as my native region is concerned, I would gladly invite Rakesh to the Volga region where I was born and to the Dnepr region where I grew up and would show him these two mighty and beautiful rivers … (inaudible)

Rakesh Sharma: (in English)

In order to conserve muscle tone as well as (inaudible). As everyone know this is due to the lack of gravity and tends to expand a bit. So for these exercises we have selected 5 (in audible) and other warming up exercises padma asana, and again we will go back and get some more readings which will then be compared before flight and after flight and then we will know. And no I have not done yoga before coming [to this] programme but that again makes me a better subject because there is no preconditioning involved. When I reached here it was without the help of yoga and I did yoga only here and therefore the results will be more interpretable.

16:20-16:24 UT 7/4/1984

Yuri Malyshev: (in Russian)

… television viewers in India and the Soviet Union. In this television report we want to talk about… (inaudible)

We have brought with us to the station pennants and flags of the Soviet Union and India, coats of arms, commemorative medals, envelopes. We are now showing you pennants made on the occasion of the joint Soviet-Indian spaceflight, diplomas. Right next to us is a medal of Gagarin made on the occasion of the 50th birth anniversary of Gagarin and awarded to the crew of the Salyut-7/Soyuz orbital complex, cosmonauts Kizim, Solovyov and Atkov. We have also brought with us symbolic items from India about which Rakesh Sharma will tell you more.

Rakesh Sharma: (in Russian)

As Yuri Malyshev already told you, these are portraits of our leaders : Mahatma Gandhi, who we call the father of the homeland, did a lot to fight colonialism, Jawaharlal Nehru, the father of Indira Gandhi, our president Zail Singh, our prime minister Indira Gandhi, who is well known, and our Defence Minister Ramaswamy Venkataraman. We have also brought the coat of arms of our Air Force, the coat of arms…. (inaudible)

Episode 77 – Satellite tracking – the early days

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Sven Grahn has been working in the space field in one way or another for over fifty years. Officially retired, he continues to work as a project leader of a student satellite at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

He is perhaps best known for his work in tracking satellites launched by the secretive Soviet Union during the 1960s and 1970s.In those pre-internet days, his work along with others helped to identify individual mission characteristics such as mission types, members of the crew, take off and landing times. He recorded over 1000 conversations from orbiting spacecraft as they flew over Sweden.

In this interview, he speaks about

The impact of the space race on his choice of career
His work on sounding rockets and meteorology in Sweden and beyond
Satellite tracking. What he tracked, heard and recorded using radio and tape recorders.
How he came to research and write about the satellite tracking conducted at Jodrell Bank radio telescope in England

As an 11-year-old, Sven had seen Sputnik in the sky over Sweden with his own eyes. I started by asking him how the onset of the space race had impacted his choice of career?

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Amazon Ebook Promotion. 99p from 11th-15th July – Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester

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Next week marks the 57th anniversary of the world’s first cosmonaut’s visit to the UK. Three months after his historic spaceflight on 12th April 1961, the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin came to Britain. He was here for 5 days. It was not planned that way. Initially, his visit did not include meeting the Prime Minister or the Queen but his visit evolved through the political posturing of the Cold War and he met both.

His visit to Manchester was the only one outside London. Invited by the Amalgamated Union of Foundry Workers (Gagarin had trained as a foundry worker), he visited the union’s HQ in Old Trafford, a factory in Trafford Park and was hosted by the Mayor at the Town Hall in Albert Square.

He arrived at Ringway Airport (now Manchester International Airport) at 10am on Wednesday 12th July and by 4pm he headed back there for his flight to Heathrow. To mark this anniversary, the ebook “Yuri Gagarin in London and Manchester” is being promoted on Amazon for 99p (or cents in USA) between 11th and 15th July. For book reviews – see here. A 91% discount on the normal price.

A timeline of his 5 days in London and Manchester below.

Tuesday 11^th July

10:30 Arrival at Heathrow [Guardian 11/7/1961]

11:45 Soviet Embassy [Daily Worker 10/7/1961]

13:00 Earl’s Court [Guardian 12/7/1961]

15:00 Press conference in Fashion Hall Earl’s Court [Guardian 12/7/1961]

16:15 BIS medal award at the end of the press conference [Flight 20/7/1961]

16:30 Leave Earl’s Court [Guardian 12/7/1961]

17:30 Evening reception at Soviet Embassy [Daily Worker 10/7/1961]

Wednesday 12^th July

10:00 Arrival at airport [Manchester Evening News 11/07/1961]

10:45 AUFW Medal Ceremony [Guardian 12/7/1961]

11:35 Metropolitan-Vickers at Trafford Park [Manchester Evening News 11/7/1961]

12:45 Manchester Town Hall [Manchester Evening News 11/7/1961]

16:30 Manchester Airport

Thursday 13^th July

11:00 Mansion House – Lord Mayor of London [Daily Worker 13/7/1961]

11:45 Tower of London – Gv. Sir Thomas Butler [Daily Worker 13/7/1961]

13:20 Burlington House – Royal Society

15:00 Return to USSR Embassy

15:45 Meet PM at Admiralty House [Prem 11-3543 12/07/1961 National Records Archive]

16:15 Lays wreath at the cenotaph

16:30 Air Ministry in Whitehall – Secretary of State for Air [Daily Worker 13/7/1961]

18:00 Hyde Park Hotel GB USSR Association [Daily Worker 13/7/1961]

19:30 Muscovites-Association cancelled. Sightseeing tour instead [Guardian 14/7/1961]

22:15 Back at USSR Embassy [Daily Worker 13/7/1961]

Friday 14th July

12:50 Buckingham Palace [FO 371-159606 12/07/1961 National Records Archive]

14:45 Soviet Embassy

15:30 Earl’s Court [Daily Worker 14/7/1961]

16:00 Highgate Cemetery [Time is uncertain; The Times 15/7/1961 says “Evening”]

16:40 Soviet Embassy – British Soviet Friendship Society [Daily Worker 14/7/1961]

21:00 Earl’s Court Live BBC TV interview (at 21:30) from Earl’s Court with Richard Dimbleby, Tom Margerison, science editor of the Sunday Times, and Yuri Fokin of the Soviet Television Service [Daily Worker 14/7/1961]

22:15 Soviet Embassy

Saturday 15th July

11:00 Leave Soviet Embassy for Airport [Daily Worker 15/07/61]

11:45 Press conference at Airport

12:35 Depart for Soviet Union [Daily Worker 15/07/61]

18:05 Arrive in Moscow [FO 371-159606 12/07/1961 National Records Archive]