Bengaluru/Salem, Aug. 1 -- When the GSLV-F16 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on the evening of July 30, scores of researchers at the SonaSPEED laboratories in Salem and Bengaluru rejoiced, as the Simplex Permanent Magnet Stepper Motors developed and built by them had successfully powered the first ISRO-NASA Earth Observation Mission.

The Simplex Permanent Magnet Stepper Motors, forming part of the NISAR mission rocket built at the SonaSPEED laboratory in Bengaluru, deploy technology developed by researchers at Sona College of Technology's Sona Special Power Electronics & Electric Drives (SonaSPEED) division in Salem.

The SonaSPEED stepper motor helps control the fuel-mixture ratio in the actuator assembly o...