 "Isro sets record with launch of 20 satellites")
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, PSLV-C34, a reliable workhorse of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), launched 20 satellites into orbits on Wednesday.
The success of the mission is expected to help the space agency get more orders from across the world, boosting its commercial operations.
The vehicle lifted off at 9.26 am from Sriharikota. It carried a 725.5-kg earth observation satellite for defence needs and 19 satellites for customers such as Google-owned Terra Bella and former NASA employees-owned Planet Labs. This is a record for Isro in terms of the number or satellites it is sending to space at one go.
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Isro Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said, "Let me congratulate the entire team for the wonderful job they have done in ensuring that we have been able to successfully put all the 20 satellites in a record time. We have a lot of activities ahead where we are attempting to complete a sequence of earth observation satellites and GSLV Mark II and Mark III later this year. I wish the entire Isro team wonderful days ahead."
Speaking to reporters, Kumar said over the next five year, around 70 satellites would have to be put into orbit. There are 34 satellites in orbit now, comprising communication, earth observation, navigation and space science satellites.
"Once the existing bottlenecks are removed and if there is a need for new facilities, we will go for that," Kumar said on if Isro would make a third launch pad at Sriharikota. "We can't take a private company's approach. There has to be certain minimum requirements for our government needs."
Isro is expected to take on competitors such as One Web in the small satellite launch space. One Web plans to hurl around 700 small satellites into space within a short timeframe.
Senior officials of Isro said the just-completed mission was tough, as the time available to get the systems ready was short. This could well be the norm, as the frequency of rocket launches were expected to go up from this year, to almost one launch every month. The space agency was looking at getting more industries on board to have an end-to-end satellite making process, they said.
Isro is making a consortium with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Godrej Aerospace and Larson and Toubro to assemble and launch PSLV rockets by 2020 for local needs and to tap global customers.
A day after the launch, Isro would meet industry players to decide on the course of action and 100-odd companies have registered for participation in the event. "They have to increase the capacity and new vendors needs to come in, so that end-to-end satellite making is possible. Everymonth we are seeing almost one satellite being launched, Indian industry also seeing a bigger part in this, reliable systems coming into place and it is opening up a market to provide their services to the global satellites point of view," said M Annadurai, director of ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC).
The move would help crunch the time to launch a PSLV rocket once in three weeks from India's space pad in Sriharikota as against the current norm of once every two months.
This year, the agency is expecting launch of Air Breathing propulsion, which will be very soon. There will also be launch of GSLV Mark II and by the end of the year, it would also see launch of GSLV Mark III.
"We are going to end this year by a historical launch of GSLV Mark III to carry the heaviest satellite by our own vehicle," said K Sivan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC).
The Air Breathing Propultion use atmospheric oxygen, which is available up to about 50 km of earth's surface to burn the fuel stored on-board thereby making the system much lighter, more efficient and cost effective.
