 Hello, citizens of tomorrow! Today I wanted to talk about India's space program, especially their ambitions for human spaceflight. This is your space pod for April 21st, 2015. The Indian Space Agency is called the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO. It was founded in 1969 and they developed their own technologies for launching satellites into space in the 70s. Their first satellite was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19th of 1975, but their first satellite that they launched on their own rocket was actually launched on July 18th of 1980. And that was launched on their satellite launch vehicle, or SLV. India only launched the satellite launch vehicle four times and had an upgraded version, the augmented satellite launch vehicle, which gave them experience in having boosters on their rocket. However, that version was also only flown four times. The next rocket that India developed in the early 90s is called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, or PSLV. And it's been a real workhorse for India. It's launched 29 times and 27 of those launches were successes. One of them was a failure and another one was a partial failure because the rocket didn't deliver its satellite into the correct orbit, but the satellite's own propulsion was able to get it into the correct orbit, so it was a partial failure. Something that's really interesting about the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is that it alternates between solid rockets and liquid-fueled rockets. The first stage is a large solid rocket booster and can have additional solid rocket strap-on boosters on the side as well. The second stage is a liquid-fueled rocket that has their Vicos engine, which we'll talk about a little bit later. The third stage is another solid rocket, and the fourth stage is another small liquid-fueled rocket. The best thing about this rocket, though, is where it launches from, the Satish-Dwahan Space Center, launches downrange over the Indian Ocean. Because of that, they are unable to put satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Sun-synchronous orbits basically are putting satellites into orbit around Earth that are at the right altitude and the right inclination relative to the equator so that no matter where they are in their orbit around Earth, they are always exposed to sunlight. That way, their solar panels can always be charging energy and collecting energy, rather. As reliable and advantageous as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has been for India, as far as launching satellites into geostationary orbit, it can only deliver about 1500 kg or roughly 3,000 pounds into that orbit. And as far as launching larger GPS satellites and communication satellites, they needed a rocket that had more capability in order to send larger payloads into that orbit. So India started developing their Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle, or GSLV. And the GSLV has had quite a few hiccups during its history. Like the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, its first stage has a large solid rocket booster, as its core stage. But the Strap-On Boosters, instead of being additional solid rockets, are actually liquid-fueled rockets that also use their Vikas engine. The second stage of this rocket is also a liquid-fueled stage, and also uses the Vikas engine to power that. The third stage, however, is India's first attempt to have a cryogenic liquid-fueled rocket, as opposed to hypergolic liquid-fueled rockets, which all of their other liquid rockets up to this point have been. India lagged behind in developing this technology, so the first versions of the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle actually used Russian cryogenic upper stages for that rocket. All of the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicles that used the Russian upper stage were called the Mark I, and India's own cryogenic upper stage that they developed themselves were flown on their Mark II version, which is essentially the same as the Mark I, just with their own upper stage. Their first attempt of using their own upper stage on their Mark II version was on April 15, 2010, but that mission was a failure, so their first success was actually on January 5th of 2014. They also have a third version of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, which is much different than the Mark I or the Mark II, and it is that rocket which is going to enable their human spaceflight program. The GSLV Mark III is going to be a really good medium to heavy lift launcher. It's going to have two very large solid rocket boosters that are based on the core stage solid rocket booster that are used on the first stages of both the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II, well, and technically Mark I, II. The core first stage is going to be a liquid fueled rocket that is going to have two vikas engines clustered for the first time, and that of course is going to be hypergolic fuels. The third stage is going to be a cryogenic upper stage, and it's four meters in diameter, just like the core stage, and it's going to be powered by what they're calling the CE-20 cryogenic rocket engine. It's based off of the smaller CE-7.5 cryogenic rocket engine, which is used on the Mark II version of their GSLV rocket. The first flight of the GSLV Mark III happened on December 18th of 2014, and that was just a suborbital flight because the cryogenic upper stage was actually just a dummy stage. It was filled with liquid nitrogen to simulate the weight of the fuel, but it didn't have an engine because the engine isn't quite ready yet. The payload on that launch, though, was the first unmanned test flight of their manned orbital vehicle. This unmanned test flight was called the Crew Module Atmospheric Reentry Experiment, and its purpose was to test out the heat shield to make sure that they could withstand the temperatures of reentry, as well as structural integrity to make sure it could withstand the G-forces of reentry. It also tested out the parachutes on it, both the pilot, drogue, and main parachutes, which all deployed successfully, and it splashed down in the Bay of Bengal after only 20 minutes and 43 seconds of flight. It also had six really small liquid fuel thrusters that were able to give it some orbital maneuverability, and did give it extra propulsion after it separated from the dummy stage of the GSLV Mark III. All of the objectives for this test were a success, and this whole experiment is based off of their earlier Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, which was a much smaller capsule that tested out all of these similar technologies of the heat shield, the parachutes, and even the flotation devices once it splashes down in the ocean. India's plans for their orbital vehicles have it capable of being able to have three astronauts on board. The original design is called for two astronauts, but they sense of change that to have three astronauts on board. It will also have a service module with small thrusters and engines to be able to give it earth orbiting maneuverability, and eventually it would even have a docking port so that they could potentially collaborate with hopefully the United States, maybe Russia, and possibly even China as well. Anyway, I'd like to know what you think about India's human spaceflight program and whether or not you think they're going to be successful or not. Leave a comment on any of your favorite social media or write in the comment section down below, and while you're here don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. This is of course a crowdfunded show, and every single penny helps to be able to make these spacepods happen. Thank you so much to everyone who's contributed thus far, and we're already a fourth of the way towards our goal for making these spacepods sustainable, so if you're so inclined, we very much would appreciate any help that you can give us to make these spacepods happen. Thank you very much for watching this video. My name is Michael Clark. Tomorrow you're going to see a cool space pod from Lisa Stojanowski about international space station experiments, and you're going to see me again on Thursday. Not quite sure what I'm going to talk about, so I would appreciate suggestions. Thank you very much again for watching this, and I'll see you guys next time.