India's first midnight satellite launch set for Monday

CHENNAI: The countdown for the Monday midnight launch of an Indian navigation satellite is progressing smoothly with the liquid fuel filling for the fourth stage engine getting completed, an official said on Sunday.

"Yesterday (Saturday) evening, the filling of the liquid fuel in the fourth stage was completed and the fuel for the second stage will be filled during the countdown. In addition, pressurisation of the stages with gases will also be done," a senior official at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The 64.5 hour countdown began at 7:11am Saturday.

The 44-metre-tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) weighing 320 tonnes at lift-off is a four-stage rocket powered by solid and liquid propellants alternatively.

The solid fuel hydroxyl-terminated-poly-butadiene comes readily cast while the liquid fuel - unsymmetrical dimethyl-hydrazine-hydrate and 25 percent of nitrogen tetroxide for second stage and mono-methyl-hydrazine and mixed oxide nitrogen for fourth stage - are filled during the countdown.

The PSLV will blast off into the dark skies from Sriharikota, around 80 km from here, Monday night around 11.41pm carrying India's first navigational satellite the 1,425 kg IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System)-1A.

"We have had late evening and early morning launches. But this is the first time ISRO is launching a rocket around midnight," the ISRO official said.

The official said the launch time has been fixed taking into account the orbit and inclination at which the satellite will be injected into the space.

According to him, the weather at Sriharikota is fine and it may not pose any hindrance for the rocket launch.

He said ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan is expected to have a brief meeting with the media at the rocket port post-launch which will be around 12.45am on Tuesday.

Around 20 minutes into the launch, the rocket PSLV-XL will eject the navigational satellite at an altitude of 501 km.

The satellite is intended to provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management.

The satellite with a life span of around 10 years is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment -- a regional navigational system developed by India designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line, ISRO said.

The IRNSS will provide two types of services - standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is provided to all users and the later is an encrypted service for authorised users.

ISRO had planned to launch IRNSS-1A last month. But it had to put it off after finding a problem in one of the electro-hydraulic control actuators in the second stage engine.

The rocket was fully assembled with the satellite when the problem was detected during checks.

The second stage had to be dismantled to replace the actuator which is an assembly of several components. It weighs around 20 kg.

Following the Monday launch of the navigational satellite, ISRO is planning to launch its communication satellite G-Sat 14 using a heavier rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - powered by a domestic cryogenic engine some time in August this year.

Preparatory work for the G-Sat 14 launch is going ahead at the rocket launch pad in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from here.

It will be followed by the mission to Mars later this year. The launch of one more remote sensing satellite is also being planned before the end of the year.

PM sets target for infrastructure projects, approves proposals for 2 international and 50 domestic airports

New Delhi: In a bid to ramp up investor sentiment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday set an investment target of Rs 1.15 lakh crore in PPP (public private partnership) projects across infrastructure sectors in rail, port and power in the next six months. The proposals include Mumbai elevated rail corridor (Rs 30,000 crore), two international airports in Bhubneshwar and Imphal (Rs 20,000 crore) and power and Transmission projects (Rs 40,000 crore).
The decisions were taken at a meeting the Prime Minister held to finalise infrastructure projects for 2013-14 which was attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and the Ministers of Power, Coal, Railways, Roads, Shipping and Civil Aviation.
The meeting decided that the proposal for creating a rail tariff authority will be accelerated and brought before the Cabinet soon. The Prime Minister highlighted the need for ramping up investment in infrastructure to revive investor sentiment.

"For this purpose, a target of rolling out PPP projects of at least Rs 1 lakh crore in the next six months was set. A steering group is being formed to monitor the award and implementation of projects on priority basis," a PMO release said.
The Prime Minister emphasised that a lot of work was needed to be done to improve infrastructure sector and there should be no slackening of the pace of work, the release said. Ahluwaila also made a presentation about the performance of the six infrastructure ministries and the targets for 2013-14. The government, the release said, decided to form a steering group to monitor the award and implementation of projects.
Besides airports and Mumbai's elevated rail corridor projects, the group will also monitor two Locomotive projects (Rs 5,000 crore), accelerating E-DFC (Eastern-Dedicated Freight Corridor) (Rs 10,000 crore) and port projects (Rs 10,000 crore). In the civil aviation sector, apart from two new international airports, 50 new low cost small airports will be taken up by the Airports Authority of India.
Besides, a target for awarding eight greenfield airports was set for this year in PPP mode at Navi Mumbai, Juhu (Mumbai), Goa, Kannur, Pune (Rajguru Nagar Chakan), Sriperumbudur, Bellary and Raigarh. The statement said airport operations and maintenance through PPP contracts will be introduced in AAI airports and the airports considered for these are Chennai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.
Besides new low cost airports would be set up at 51 places in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. As far as ports were concerned, it stated that both the new ports on PPP mode -- one at Sagar (West Bengal) and the other Durgarajapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) -- approved by Cabinet will be awarded.
For funding of railway projects, the statement issued by PMO said an Inter-Ministerial Group of Railways, Finance and Planning will be formed for coming up with a "financing-cum- implementation mechanism in two months for clearing the large backlog of sanctioned projects of over Rs 200,000 crore in a prioritised and time-bound manner". As far as roads sector was concerned, the PMO emphasised that the slowdown in award of road projects should get reversed in view of the large number of relaxations that have already been provided to PPP road projects.
Concerned over delay in execution of the PPP projects, the Prime Minister asked ministries to ensure proper implementation and monitoring of projects especially roads, an according to an official. The PMO said, "Expressways will get focused attention and the Planning Commission will work with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to suggest an implementation mechanism for expressways."
Sources said given the poor performance of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry during 2012-13 when it could award barely 1,321 km of the 9,500 km target on account of factors like bidders shying away from projects, the PMO set a target of 5,000 km for the current fiscal. The target set was higher by about 1,000 km as the Road Ministry was in favour of fixing a target of 4,028 km for 2013-14.
As far as the target for award of roads on OMT (operate, maintain and transfer) mode was concerned, the PMO was in favour of fixing a target of 3,110 km. However, sources said the Road Ministry put its foot down and ultimately the target was revised to 1,295 km. On power front, the statement said, the Ministry will work with Planning Commission and Finance Ministry to resolve issues in the power sector and improve generation and transmission capacity.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia said that shortage in fuel supply was hurting the power sector. "The supply as part of the system has not been able to deliver as much fuel as was necessary," Montek said. "New policies for ramping up coal production will be put in place," PMO said.
Coal Secretary SK Srivastava said India will have to import 140 MT during the fiscal as compared to 135 MT last fiscal, of which 110 MT was imported for the power sector. Talking about the shortfall, Ahluwalia said production was much below the target during the 11th Plan and exuded hope that output will increase. Srivastava said coal production target has been fixed at 604 million tonnes (MT), including 482 MT for Coal India, for 2013-14. Last fiscal the production was recorded at 557 MT against the targetted 578 MT.

185 flight cadets, including 21 women, inducted into IAF

Hyderabad: As many as 21 women are among the 185 flight cadets joined the fraternity of the Indian Air Force on Saturday, after completion of their successful one year rigorous training in different branches.

At an impressive combined graduation parade held at the Air Force Academy,  Dundigal near Hyderabad, Chief of Army Staff General Bikram Singh presented the Commission to them, on behalf of the President of India.

Besides 4 Indian Navy officers and 1 Indian Coast Guard officer were also awarded flying brevet on the the occasion. The passing out parade was culmination of the completion of  the one year rigorous training of the cadets in different branches at Air Force Academy, Air Force Administrative College, Coimbatore, Air Force Stations at Hamikpet and Begumpet.

 Addressing the cadets after reviewing the parade, the Army Chief called upon them to continue to work hard and create their own professional qualities with confidence, courage, integrity and compassion, make them good leader.  He hoped that the newly commissioned cadets will perform their  duties well and bring glory to the service and motherland. He said that the ascendancy of Air Power has been amply displayed in recent wars and inter-service cooperation will continue to remain a key element in future operations.

He told the cadets, "You are going to join a elite force that is going to play a major role in future conflicts.  There can be nothing more satisfying than participating in the defence of our own country".

General Bikram Singh was received by the Air Marshal Rajinder Singh, AOC-in-C Training Command and Air Marshal RG Burli, Commandant , Air Force Academy.

General Bikram Singh presented 'President's Plaque and Chief of Air Staff''s 'Sword of Honour' to flying officer Amandeep Arey, Commander of the parade, for standing firsing in overall order of merit in the pilots course. Flying officer Ravi Ranjan and flying officer Anshu Kumar Singh were awarded 'President's Plaque' for standing first in overall order of merit in ground duty and navigation branches respectively.

Traditional fly past by Kiran, Hawk, newly inducted Pilatus aircrafts and Chetak helicopters, while An-32 and Dornier aircrafts flew the crisp “Small Boy” formation kept the audience spell bound.  An exhilarating low level aerobatic display by Su-30 aircraft, kept Parade spectators enthralled.  A breath taking performance by Akash Ganga Para Jump Team & Air Warrior Drill Team was appreciated by one and all.  

On the penultimate night, the Army Chief attended as chief guest a ceremonial guest night with passing out flight cadets and their parents wherein he presented trophies and medals to cadets, excelled in their respective branches.

DGCA to allow pilots to take nap during long flights

NEW DELHI: The next time you hear snoring sound on the public announcement system of a long flight, don't be surprised. Pilots are soon going to be allowed to take a nap — at the wheels in the cockpit — for up to 40 minutes on long flights when the aircraft is cruising and not during ascending or descending phases.

The pilot and co-pilot will be allowed to sleep only one at a time and when one of them is napping, the cabin crew in charge will call up the awake pilot every 20 minutes (during night) and every half an hour (during day) to ensure that the other person also does not join the snoring. It will be allowed on at least three hour long flights.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) is proposing to make this change based on best practices abroad, subject to strict conditions. Aviation regulators in US, Canada, Europe, UK, Hong Kong and many other developed countries allow this "controlled rest" as studies have shown that this to be a "another line of defence to manage fatigue risks. This practice was allowed after a Nasa study in 1992 showed a pilot was likely to be more alert if he or she takes a short nap during the non-critical phase of a flight.

"Controlled rest will be at the discretion of the captain and by only one flight crew at a time in the operating seat. (It will be allowed in cruise phase when) weather conditions are benign and weather-related deviation is not required," the draft civil aviation requirement issued by DGCA says. The commander can end the co-pilot's controlled sleet at any time as per flight requirement.

"The resting pilot shall keep his seat belt and harness fastened and move the seat aft to such a position that unintentional interference with controls is minimized... During controlled rest, the non-resting captain cannot leave his seat for any reason," the draft says. This rest will be allowed on long flights after the aircraft is at cruise altitude and will be terminated half an hour before descent begins.

Senior pilots welcome this move as they say this happens even now. "A few minutes' sleep is very freshening. This is still happening in cockpits when one pilot goes to sleep and the other remains alert. But at present, the sleep is not peaceful as pilots know this is something that is not allowed. The DGCA move to officially allow it in cruise phase is welcome," said a senior training captain.