AHMEDABAD (TIP): In a major technology demonstration which will cut down cost of satellite launches significantly, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will flight test an indigenously developed re-usable satellite launch vehicle for the first time in the last quarter of this year. This was revealed by Isro chairman A S Kiran Kumar on Thursday at Space Application centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad.

Kumar is here to be part of the Ruby celebrations or 40 years of Satellite Instructional Television Experiment that was undertaken in 1975 at Pij village in Nadiad. This was the country’s first DTH television project.

The main celebrations will be held on Friday morning at SAC with luminaries like Professor Yashpal, Dr PP Kale, former NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik. These scientists were part of the SITE project.

Later, Kumar revealed that three major missions like the Chandrayaan 2, Aditya and AstroSAT mission have been given the nod. “AstroSAT mission will be launched in September,” said Kumar. He added that South Korea is in discussion with India for deep space exploration missions.

He also told that the Prime Minister’s SAARC satellite mission has also registered significant progress.

Kumar also said that emphasis was being laid on encouraging universities and research institutions for micro and nano satellite missions.

Isro had recently launched nine US-made micro and nano satellites for the first time. “In the next one year you will see a good number of such micro and nano satellite projects being made by Indian institutions,” Kumar said.