Eight ground stations and a deep space network: the Bengaluru centre that tracks every Indian mission

Background

From the moment a rocket lifts off until a satellite is safely in orbit, somebody has to keep a radio link open and know exactly where the vehicle is. That work belongs to the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network, based at Bengaluru. It carries out mission operations for the country's working remote sensing and scientific satellites, and provides telemetry, tracking and command services from lift-off until the satellite is injected into orbit, when it also works out a first estimate of the orbit reached. For this it has built a chain of ground stations: Bengaluru and Lucknow, Sriharikota, Port Blair and Thiruvananthapuram at home, then Mauritius, Brunei and Biak in Indonesia abroad, besides its deep space network stations. The network also supports the agency's deep space missions and develops radar for tracking launch vehicles and for weather use. It set up and runs the ground segment of the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System. Search and rescue work, disaster management services and space-based services such as telemedicine, tele-education and the Village Resource Centre programme are handled through it as well.