PSLV success takes Isro plans to higher orbit
Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Wednesday successfully launched four satellites, including CARTOSAT-2, through its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7).
By TNN |
BANGALORE: Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Wednesday successfully launched four satellites, including CARTOSAT-2, through its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7).
The other satellites on the 10th flight of PSLV conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, were Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), Indonesia’s LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina’s PEHUENSAT-1. The launch took place at 9.23 am on Wednesday.
The successful launch comes after the organisation’s GSLV-F02 satellite launch vehicle crashed into the Bay of Bengal shortly after its launch from the SHAR centre in Sriharikota in July 2006. The four satellites have been placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 637 km with an inclination of 97.9 degree with respect to the equator.
The initial signals indicate their normal health, according to Isro. For the first time, a Dual Launch Adopter (DLA) was used in PSLV to accommodate two primary satellites in tandem. PSLV is Isro’s workhorse launch vehicle with nine consecutively successful flights so far.
Since its first successful launch in 1994, PSLV has launched seven Indian remote sensing satellites, an amateur radio satellite, HAMSAT, and four small satellites for foreign customers into 550-800-km high polar SSOs. It has also launched India’s exclusive meteorological satellite, Kalpana-1, into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). PSLV will also be used to launch India’s first spacecraft mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008.
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CARTOSAT-2, which was the main payload, is the 12th in the Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS) series. It is an advanced remote sensing satellite capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery and carries a panchromatic camera (PAN) to provide imageries with a spatial resolution of better than one metre and a swath of 9.6 km. Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), developed by Isro’s VSSC and ISAC, is a 550-kg capsule, intended to demonstrate the technology of an orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity conditions. After the completion of the experiments, the capsule will be de-orbited after a few days and recovered.
SRE-1 mission will provide valuable experience in such important fields like navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, hypersonic aero-thermodynamics facilitating the development of reusable thermal protection system (TPS), recovery through deceleration and floatation besides acquisition of basic technology for reusable launch vehicles.
SRE-1 carries two experiments, an Isothermal Heating Furnace (IHF) and a Biomimetic (Biomineralisation of Inorganic materials) experiment.
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