PSLVC-35 with 8 satellites lifts off; SCATSAT injected in orbit

C S Sathish Anand
Sriharikota (AP):In its longest ever mission spread over two hours, India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV today successfully launched eight satellites, including the country’s SCATSAT-1 and five satellites from other nations, in two different orbits to achieve another milestone.

There were two Fourth Stage Engine restarts for the purpose of injecting the satellites into different orbits.

SCATSAT-1, the 371 kg primary satellite, was first injected in a 730 km Polar Sunsynchronous Orbit (SSO) after 17-odd minutes after the 44.4 metre tall PSLV-C35 lifted off at 9.12 AM from the spaceport here.

The rocket then achieved with precision the designated task of injecting the other satellites after over 2 hours and 15 minutes, in a lower polar orbit of 689 km.

The total weight of the payloads carried by PSLV in its 15th flight in ‘XL’ configuration was about 675 kg.

Besides SCATSAT-1, the other satellites which were injected in orbit were two Indian university satellites, PRATHAM and PISAT, three from Algeria– ALSAT-1B, ALSAT-2B and ALSAT-1N and one each from the US and Canada–Pathfinder-1 and NLS-19, respectively.

ISRO said the SCATSAT-1 is a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 scatterometer to provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users. The satellite carries Ku-band scatterometer which is similar to the one put onboard the Oceansat-2. The mission life of the satellite is five years, said ISRO.

ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar congratulated the scientists and described the achievement as a landmark and said data from SCATSAT would be made available within 180 minutes.

“After a long gap of almost two hours where the fourth stage has been manoeuvred, it has been restarted and the entire mission had gone on very successfully…Let me take this time to congratulate the entire ISRO team for the excellent job they have done…”

“Today has been an indeed a landmark day for us…We have been able to achieve a launch of eight satelites… our own Scatterometer which is actually a stop-gap arrangement between Oceansat-1 and Oceansat 2. This is a satellite which is going to provide ocean wind vectors to the global community for numeric weather forecasting model.

“This data will be made available within 180 minutes of acquisition of data.”

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Director, K Sivan said, “..This mission is an exciting mission…. an excellent mission. It is a longest mission with a lowest dispersion. We got the orbital dispersion from less than one kilometre. It is unbelievable.”

“…And all other customer satellites (three from Algeria and one each from the US and Canada) are injected precisely in the required orbit… This is the first time ISRO has established this in an orbited mission.”

Commenting on future launches by ISRO, he said, “We have historic GSLV Mark III mission we are planning for year end.

We also have human space programme also. Like that, exciting days are ahead…”

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Director Kunhi Krishnan said, “An exciting mission has been accomplished by PSLV.

Incidentally, the eighth launch of ISRO this year has delivered eight satellites into orbit.”

“As (VSSC Director) Dr Sivan mentioned this was the longest mission of PSLV… It is 2 hours 15 minutes but in the shortest campaign (process of integrating launch vehicle among others) in just 35 days. And this is for the first time two launches have taken place from Sriharikota in the same month,” he said.

“Coming days are going to be very hectic, very interesting with a variety of missions including the first developmental flight of GSLV Mark III,” he said.

The two academic satellites are PRATHAM, from IIT, Bombay, and PISAT, from BES University, Bengaluru and its consortium. While PRATHAM’s objective is to estimate Total Electron Count, PISAT’s mission is to design and develop a nanosatellite for remote sensing applications.

Algeria’s ALSAT-1B is an earth observation satellite meant for monitoring agriculture, environment and disasters, ALSAT-2B is a remote sensing satellite while ALSAT-1N is a technology demonstration satellite built for students.

Pathfinder-1 from USA is a commercial high resolution imaging microsatellite while the Candadian NLS-19 (CAN X-7) is again a technology demonstration satellite built to perform experiments to help reduce space debris and for tracking commercial aircraft.

On today’s longest ever PSLV flight that injected the SCASTSAT-1 and seven other satellites in different orbits, Kumar said adequate trials were conducted for the multi orbit mission, including on restarts.

There were two Fourth Stage Engine restarts for the purpose of injecting the satellites into different orbits.

“So before the actual mission we had the confidence that the systems will work as planned,” he said, recalling that ISRO had itself did a near similar feat many years ago.

“In fact we ourselves way back in the C3 mission had done (where) one of the small satellites was pushed upto a slightly higher orbit than the main satellite. But that was a small activity at that time,” he said.

ISRO had only “made use of thrusters and not the main engine, then,” he said, adding, in today’s case, the PS4 engine had been restarted twice.

Mission director B Jayakumar described today’s PSLV launch as “very complex and longest duration mission.”

“It was almost like two launches, two missions in a mission,” he said.

The challenges included power management, among others, and the ISRO team had effectively done it, he added.

PM congratulates ISRO on successful launch of satellites

New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi today congratulated ISRO scientists on the successful launch of advanced weather satellite SCSAT-1 and 7 other satellites, saying their “innovative zeal” has made India proud worldwide.

“Moment of immense joy & pride for India.

Congratulations to ISRO on successful launch of PSLV-C35/SCATSAT-1 and 7 co-passenger satellites,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.

“Our space scientists keep scripting history. Their innovative zeal has touched the lives of 125 crore Indians & made India proud worldwide”, he said.

India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV today successfully launched eight satellites, including the country’s SCATSAT-1 and five satellites from other nations, in two different orbits.

ISRO focusing on more launches

Sriharikota:With today’s successful launch of eight satellites, including India’s SCATSAT-1, space agency ISRO is focusing on more launches including that of a communication satellite from French Guiana next month.

“Today’s multi-orbit mission has proved PSLV’s ability and talks are already on with Algeria for more launches,” ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar told reporters.

Besides SCATSAT-1, the PSLV C-35 had injected two Indian university satellites, PRATHAM and PISAT, three from Algeria– ALSAT-1B, ALSAT-2B and ALSAT-1N and one each from the US and Canada–Pathfinder-1 and NLS-19, respectively, in different orbits.

ISRO has launched 79 satellites for 21 countries, he said.

The space agency’s forthcoming launches include that of communication satellite GSAT 18 from French Guiana next month even as GSLV Mk III is planned to be launched by the year end.

Resourcsesat 2A is scheduled to be launched in November this year, he said.

Kumar also batted for more industry participation in ISRO’s endeavour to further boost commercial launches for foreign vendors.

When asked about ISRO’s orderbook, Antrix corporation Chairman and Managing Director S Rakesh said it was about Rs 280 crore for the next 2-3 years.

Antrix revenue was Rs 1,790 crore during the year and Rs 1,717 crore in the previous year.

He said the company was growing and looking to consolidate on ISRO’s performance to generate more revenue.

Work was on on other satellites including Chandrayaan 2 and SAARC satellite, Kumar said even as he noted that Pakistan had opted out of the latter.

Some “issues” with Afghanistan and Bangladesh were “being sorted out,” he added.

PTI