PSLV-C35 to lift off with eight satellites on Monday morning

In its thirty seventh flight, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) satellite launching workhorse, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is scheduled to launch eight satellites in their orbits on Monday.

This is the first mission of PSLV in which it will be launching its payloads into two different orbits.

The PSLV-C35, carrying SCATSAT-1 for weather related studies, five foreign satellites and two satellites from Indian academic institutes, is scheduled to be launched at 9:12 a.m., on Monday. The 48 and a half hour countdown for the mission has started at 8:42 a.m. on Saturday.

The vehicle will be launched from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

 

The launch vehicle will carry around 675 kg, including the 371 kg SCATSAT-1, which is to help provide weather forecasting services to the user communities through the generation of wind vector products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking. It is a continuity mission for the Oceansat-2 satellite, launched in 2009.

SCATSAT-1 will be launched into 730 kilometre polar Sun Synchronous Orbit inclined at an angle of 98.1 degree to the equator whereas the two Indian institutes satellites and five satellites abroad will be placed in a 689 km polar orbit of 98.21 degree inclination later, using the multiple burn technology. 

This will be the first time the multiple burn technology, where the rocket engine will be switched off and switched on to change the orbit, to be used commercially, according to ISRO officials.

The international satellites to be launched include Pathfinder-1, a 44 kg commercial high resolution imaging micro satellite, three satellites from Algeria — ALSAT-1B, an earth observation satellite weighing 103 kg, ALSAT-2B, a high resolution remote sensing satellite weighing 117 kg, ALSAT-1N, a technology demonstration nanosatellite of 7 kg built as part of the programme for Algerian students, and a Canadian nanosatellite NLS-19, of 8 kg, developed as a technology demonstration to perform experiments to help reduce space debris and for tracking commercial aircraft.

The mission will also carry Pratham, a 10 kg satellite from IIT, Bombay to estimate the total electron count with a resolution of 1km x 1km location grid and PISAT, from PES University, Bengaluru and its consortium as part of its efforts to design and develop a Nanosatellite for remote sensing applications.

With the five foreign satellites to be put into orbit, the commercial launches of foreign satellites by ISRO is expected to touch a number of 79. According to the ISRO officials, there would be more foreign satellites to be launched for a fee in near future as Antrix in August has said that it has orders to launch around 68 foreign satellites in future.