Four Kerala PSUs part of India's first solar exploration mission Aditya-L1

Kochi: As India's first solar exploration satellite reached space, four Kerala public sector undertakings, including Keltron, have reason to be delighted as they too have contributed to this achievement by the country.

Various products indigenously developed and manufactured by the four PSUs - Keltron, Steel and Industrial Forgings Limited (SIFL), Travancore Cochin Chemicals (TCC) and Kerala Automobiles Ltd (KAL) - have been used in the Aditya L1 mission.

This milestone achieved by the PSUs was highlighted by state Industries Minister P Rajeev in a Facebook post.

The minister said 38 electronic modules manufactured by the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (Keltron) were used in the PSLV-C57 launch vehicle used to send the Aditya L1 satellite into space.

In addition to that, Keltron also provided testing support for various types of electronics models required for the mission, he said.

Rajeev further said that the forgings for the various stages of the Aditya L1 launch vehicle were indigenously developed by SIFL.

The SIFL also indigenously developed various other forgings and components for the launch vehicle's propellor tank, engine and rocket body, he said.

Besides Keltron and SIFL, TCC too played a role in the mission, the minister said.

The state-owned chemical company supplied the 150 metric tonnes of sodium chlorate crystals required for the project, he said.

Apart from all that, various components required for the rocket's satellite separation system were supplied by KAL, the minister said in his post.

Not just Aditya-L1, but Chandrayaan-3 mission too saw the contribution of Kerala PSUs.

Six public sector companies and 20 private companies from Kerala participated in the Chandrayaan-3 mission, which successfully demonstrated a soft landing on the Moon's south pole -- the first by any country in the world.

The PSUs - Keltron, KMML, SIFL, TCC, KAL and Small Industries Development Corporations (SIDCO) - had contributed to the lunar mission.

The Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML), a major public sector undertaking (PSU) under the state government, had played a crucial role in supplying the vital titanium sponge metal for the engine parts of the country's third lunar mission.

The KMML is the only supplier of titanium in the country.

India's maiden solar mission, Aditya L1, on September 2 set off on a 125-day journey to the Sun in its attempt to study various elements relating to Earth's nearest star.

The spacecraft, after traveling about 1.5 million km from the Earth over 125 days, is expected to be placed in a Halo orbit around the Lagrangian point L1 which is considered closest to the Sun.

Among others, it will send pictures of the Sun for scientific experiments.

The objectives of the Aditya-L1 mission includes study of the coronal heating, solar wind acceleration, Coronal Mass Ejections (CME), dynamics of solar atmosphere and temperature anisotropy.