Space Launch Time!

[xolo]

India's gonna launch a lunar lander/orbiter pair tonight! The whole thing looks very much like a Titan/Centaur clone to me. If you look closely, they've even got those roll modifier tanks, one on each strap-on, and then apparently two on the core stage. There's even a shroud around the core engine mounts, and an openwork adapter between the main and the sustainer. I wonder if that's what those two little tanks on the core really are? That makes less sense the more I consider it. And, I wondered then if those were some sort of humongous ullage motors, but the Indian's core motors start a few seconds before SRB burnout just like a Titan/Centaur, so you'd not need that. Some kind of trajectory modifier to keep the used stage from falling on land? It's a mystery to me.

Good luck to them!

Original posted at https://rain-gryphon.dreamwidth.org/98841.html