SRO successfully launched five British commercial satellites on board PSLV-C28 from Sriharikota on July 10, in one of heaviest commercial mission ever undertaken by it.
Here’s all that there is to know about the said mission in particular and satellite launches in general:
What are the various satellite orbits?
There are three key satellite orbits – high, medium and low. The high-earth orbit is at a height of about 35,780 km; the mid-earth and low-earth orbits are 2,000-35,780 km and 180-2,000 km, respectively.
A geosynchronous satellite orbits the earth at the same speed as the planet’s rotation on its axis and hence remains in the same position with respect to the earth.
What are LVs?
Launch vehicles (LVs) are the instruments used to put satellites in their respective orbits.
India took its first step in outer space on November 21, 1963 when Indian scientists launched the first sounding rocket from Indian soil.
Although India started developing launch ve t hicles in the early 1970s, it took about two decades to reach operational ability.
What were SLV and ASLV?
Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) was India’s first experimental launch vehicle capable of placing 40 kg payloads in low-earth orbits.
After the success of the SLV programme, ISRO launched the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) programme. This launch vehicle augmented the payload capacity to 150 kg, thrice that of SLV, and was used to validate critical technologies for future launch vehicles.
What is PSLV and when did it become operational?
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the system used to launch low orbit satellites to sun synchronous polar orbits. It was the next stage of the SLV and ASLV programmes and was developed to launch Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites.
The first developmental launch of PSLV was done in 1993 and the vehicle failed to put remote sensing satellite IRS-1E into orbit. The vehicle became operational after the launch of the IRS-1D satellite on September 29, 1996. Since 1999, the vehicle has also launched foreign satellites.
PSLV has launched over 40 satellites for 19 countries. It was also used for launching Chandrayaan-1 and the Mars Orbiter Mission.
Is India capable of launching geosynchronous satellites?
Despite the success of the PSLV programme, India was not capable of launching INSAT type heavy communication satellites in geosynchronous orbits. Such capability was only possible after the development of cryogenic engines based on liquefied gas.
India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) programme started in the 1990s and according to a 1991 agreement, a Russian company was supposed to provide the engine for the cryogenic stage of the launch. In 1992, the US imposed sanctions and the Russian company backed out of the deal.
Later, Russia agreed to sell seven cryogenic engines to India. These were used to fuel the early GSLV launches. In 2014, India succeeded in a GSLV launch using indigenous cryogenic technology.
Source from India Defence News.
