The Prime Minister recently laid the foundation stone for a new spaceport at Kulasekarapattinam in southern Tamil Nadu.

About Kulasekarapattinam Spaceport

It is a new spaceport coming up at Kulasekarapattinam, a coastal hamlet near the temple town of Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district in southern Tamil Nadu.

It will be second after the space agency’s existing Satish Dhawan Space Centre, founded in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota in 1971, with two launch pads.

It will focus on the launch of Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVs) on a commercial basis.

It will house 35 facilities, including a launch pad, rocket integration facilities, ground range and checkout facilities, and a mobile launch structure (MLS) with checkout computers.

It would have the capacity to launch 24 satellites per year using a mobile launch structure.

Spread over 2,350 acres, the Kulasekharapatnam spaceport will help save fuel for small rocket launches as the port can launch rockets directly south over the Indian Ocean without requiring crossing landmasses.

This is unlike the existing launch site at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, which adds more fuel requirements for launching into a polar orbit as rockets need to follow a curved path to the south to avoid Sri Lanka’s landmass.

It is estimated to cost Rs. 986 crore.

Key Facts about Small Satellite Launch Vehicles (SSLVs)

SSLV is a 3-stage Launch Vehicle configured with three Solid Propulsion Stages and liquid propulsion-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage.

SSLV is 2m in diameter and 34m in length with lift off weight of 120 tonnes.

The Neolithic Period, also called the New Stone Age, is the final stage of cultural evolution or technological development among prehistoric humans.

The term Neolithic is most frequently used in connection with agriculture, which is the time when cereal cultivation and animal domestication were introduced.

It is characterized by the beginning of a settled human lifestyle.

The Neolithic stage of development was attained during the Holocene Epoch (the last 11,700 years of Earth’s history).

The starting point of the Neolithic is generally thought to have occurred sometime around 10,000 BCE.

The Neolithic followed the Paleolithic Period, or the age of chipped-stone tools, and preceded the Bronze Age, or the early period of metal tools.

The Neolithic Revolution started in the Fertile Crescent, a region of the Middle East, where humans first took up farming.

Features of the Neolithic Age:

It was characterized by stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, dependence on domesticated plants or animals, settlement in permanent villages, and the appearance of such crafts as pottery and weaving.

The houses were built of mud and reed in rectangular or circular shapes.

Alcohol was first produced during this period, and architecture, as well as its interior and exterior decoration, first appeared.

Status objects like elaborate pottery and carved jades were placed in tombs during the Neolithic period. This practice suggests two things: Neolithic people’s belief in the afterlife and the emergence of social classes. Only important and wealthy individuals had the privilege of being buried with these precious objects

End of the Neolithic Age:

Towards the end of the Neolithic era, copper metallurgy is introduced, which marks a transition period to the Bronze Age, sometimes referred to as the Chalcolithic or Eneolithic Era.