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Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is yet to receive approval from the Indian government for the Venus mission (Shukrayaan) and the mission could, as a result, be postponed to 2031.
More on news:
- Shukrayaan-I will be a mission for an orbiter. A high-resolution synthetic aperture radar and a ground-penetrating radar are two of its current scientific payloads.
- From an elliptical orbit, the mission will likely research Venus’s geological and volcanic activities, emissions on the surface, wind speed, cloud cover, and other planetary features.
- In the budget year 2022–2023, ISRO was given an allocation of 13,700 crores, a small increase from the previous year.
- Gaganyaan, the human spaceflight mission, received the majority of it.
- Various industry groups have created a wishlist ahead of the upcoming budget announcement and in response to recent reforms in the private spaceflight sector, which include increases in local manufacturing and procurement.
- The best time to launch from Earth to Venus is once every 19 months or thereabouts.
- In case it misses the 2024 window, ISRO has “backup” launch dates in 2026 and 2028.
- But every eight years, new better windows present themselves that further cut down on the quantity of fuel needed for takeoff.
- The VERITAS and EnVision missions of the American and European space agencies, respectively, both have Venus missions scheduled for 2031, but “China might go anytime: 2026, 2027, whenever they want to go.
- The pandemic was mentioned by ISRO as the reason for delaying Shukrayaan I’s launch from mid-2023 to December 2024.
- Delays in manufacturing and obligations to commercial launch services have also had an impact on other ISRO projects, such as Aditya L1 and Chandrayaan III.