With launches on hold, Isro designing ventilators, making hand sanitisers

NEW DELHI: With the launch of rockets on hold for the time being, Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is busy developing a simple-to-operate ventilator in order to meet the country’s emergency demand for the key ICU medical equipment needed for critical Covid-19 patients.
S Somanath, director of Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told TOI, “We are designing a ventilator and making hand sanitisers and distributing them.”
Isro’s VSSC specialises in making rockets that launch satellites and interplanetary missions.With the Centre and state governments taking all measures to check community transmission of the novel coronavirus, they are simultaneously speeding up the production of ventilators. Isro is, therefore, lending a helping hand to the government in meeting the demand for ventilators. It is also providing in bulk hand santisers amid its shortage in markets.
Like other organisations, most of the Isro employees are working from home. With national lockdown in place, the VSSC has also closed its space museum till March 31 as a precautionary measure.
However, the VSSC director refused to give details about the next launch date for the country’s first Geo Imaging Satellite-1 (Gisat-1), whose launch was deferred on March 4 due to technical reasons.