MUMBAI: In the early hours of the Republic Day, around 20 children from Lucknow, Noida, and Bengalaru, left their footprint in space at an altitude of 1,18,000 feet.
This was through a joint space project of a Lucknow-based private organization, Kalam Labs, and the balloon facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at Hyderabad, which was supported by Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan.
Speaking to ToI on Sunday, Harshit Awasthi, co-founder of Kalam Labs, said over a period of 2 months, the children designed a satellite which was launched by a balloon at the TIFR’s balloon facility on Republic Day.
But, the main take away of this mission was that when the balloon with the satellite reached an altitude of 1,18,000 feet, the Indian tricolour was unfurled with the national anthem playing in the background.
Apart from the tricolour, a box attached to the balloon was equipped with 2 cameras and 4 sub-systems.
Awasthi said the balloon took off at 5.30 am and touched down at a spot about 200 km from Hyderabad, flying at a speed of 300 metres per minute.
The entire flight was monitored from a control room at the balloon facility.
During the nearly two-and-a-half hour flight on Republic Day, the Kalam Labs’ student-designed satellite was subjected to extreme conditions like freezing temperatures of -80 degrees C and high winds of up to 90 kmph. Despite the harsh flying environment, the satellite remained intact and was retrieved.
TIFR officials have been quoted as saying it was a unique experiment and carried out for the first time at the balloon facility.
This is the second time in the last one-and-a-half years when a space mission, mainly designed by students carrying the Indian tricolour, was unfurled in space.
The first was by the Chennai-based Space Kidz India, which unfurled the Indian tricolor at an altitude 1,06, 000 feet, to mark the 75th year of Indian Independence.
Kalam Labs, which provides a platform for star-struck children who are passionate about space, was founded by three students of BITS Pilani — Ahmad Faraaz, Sashakt Tripathi, and Harshit Awasthi — in 2021, when they were just 21.
This was through a joint space project of a Lucknow-based private organization, Kalam Labs, and the balloon facility of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) at Hyderabad, which was supported by Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan.
Speaking to ToI on Sunday, Harshit Awasthi, co-founder of Kalam Labs, said over a period of 2 months, the children designed a satellite which was launched by a balloon at the TIFR’s balloon facility on Republic Day.
But, the main take away of this mission was that when the balloon with the satellite reached an altitude of 1,18,000 feet, the Indian tricolour was unfurled with the national anthem playing in the background.
Apart from the tricolour, a box attached to the balloon was equipped with 2 cameras and 4 sub-systems.
Awasthi said the balloon took off at 5.30 am and touched down at a spot about 200 km from Hyderabad, flying at a speed of 300 metres per minute.
The entire flight was monitored from a control room at the balloon facility.
During the nearly two-and-a-half hour flight on Republic Day, the Kalam Labs’ student-designed satellite was subjected to extreme conditions like freezing temperatures of -80 degrees C and high winds of up to 90 kmph. Despite the harsh flying environment, the satellite remained intact and was retrieved.
TIFR officials have been quoted as saying it was a unique experiment and carried out for the first time at the balloon facility.
This is the second time in the last one-and-a-half years when a space mission, mainly designed by students carrying the Indian tricolour, was unfurled in space.
The first was by the Chennai-based Space Kidz India, which unfurled the Indian tricolor at an altitude 1,06, 000 feet, to mark the 75th year of Indian Independence.
Kalam Labs, which provides a platform for star-struck children who are passionate about space, was founded by three students of BITS Pilani — Ahmad Faraaz, Sashakt Tripathi, and Harshit Awasthi — in 2021, when they were just 21.
