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The Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro's) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket PSLV-C28 carrying five British satellites was launched successfully on Friday. It would take 19 minutes from blast off to place the satellites into the Orbit.
The mission is the heaviest commercial mission for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rockets till date and is Isro's first commercial mission in 2015.
Exactly at 9.58 p.m, the PSLV-XL rocket, standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonne, blasted off with fierce orange flames from the Sriharikota space station, near Chennai.
The rocket is carrying five British satellites cumulatively weighing around 1,440 kg as its luggage and will sling them into their intended orbit just over 19 minutes into its flight.
This is the 30th launch for Isro's PSLV, which is now one of the most reliable rockets in the World. It's been in the service for the last 20 years and has launched 40 satellites for 19 countries. PSLV was also used for some of the important Indian missions, including Chandrayaan, Mars Orbiter Missionand others.
Isro had only 15 minutes window (which means it can postponed the launch only 15 minutes on any technical or other difficulties from the actual schedule time) to launch the rocket. But thankfully it could launch on time.
As mentioned earlier, this is the heaviest commercial mission for PSLV rocket till date, though its total carrying capacity for such missions is around 1,750 kg. France's SPOT 7 satellite, weighing 714 kg, was the heaviest single foreign satellite carried by a PSLV rocket until now. It was launched on June 30, 2014.
Of the five British satellites on board, three are identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites weighing 447 kg. Of the other two satellites, CBNT-1 weighs 91 kg and also is an optical earth observation technology demonstration microsatellite, while the De-OrbitSail weighs 7 kg and is an experimental nano satellite for demonstration of large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting.
After 17 minutes' flight, the rocket will eject the DMC3 satellites one after another, followed by De-OrbitSail and CNBT-1 satellites. The satellites were built by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. The De-OrbitSail is built by Surrey Space Centre. The whole process will take 19 minutes' time.
According to Isro, the DMC3 constellation, consisting of three advanced mini-satellites DMC3-1, DMC3-2 and DMC3-3, are designed to address the need for simultaneous high spatial resolution and high temporal resolution optical earth observation.
Launched into a single low earth orbit plane and phased with a separation of 120° between them, these satellites can image any target on the earth’s surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring of disasters.
Isro officials earlier said that accommodating the three DMC3 satellites, each with about three meters height, within the existing payload of the PSLV was a major challenge. A circular L-adaptor and a triangular Multiple Satellite Adapter-Version 2 (MSA-V2) were designed and realised by Isro for this specific purpose.
