In a significant development for India’s space aspirations, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Sivan has said that land acquisition for the second spaceport has reached an advanced stage as both the Indian government and the Tamil Nadu government have keenly been working on.
The need for a second spaceport has been in the pipeline for a long time and when completed it will help India launch smaller rockets, such as India’s upcoming rocket the SSLV (Small Satellite Launch Vehicle), in an efficient and effective manner from Kulasekarapattinam in the Thoothukudi (Tuticorin) district.
Dr K Sivan, the former chairman of ISRO under whose leadership India accomplished the successful Mars Mission or Mangalyaan said that that 1,200 acres of land in Tamil Nadu have been acquired and handed over to the Indian space agency for the construction of the country’s second spaceport.
He revealed this information while presiding over a college convocation ceremony in Coimbatore and said, the second spaceport project required 2,233 acres of land and that the work was underway to acquire the remaining portion and hoped the remaining acquisition could be completed in about two months and construction work would commence.
Sivan said it is important to have a second spaceport because the launch site will be further down south from the existing one at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh and that will allow complex maneuver that rockets would have to undertake when launched from Sriharikota.
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