Five Satellites successfully launched by PSLV from UK

The thirtieth flight of ISRO’s PSLV-C28 has been successful in launching five satellites from UK. The flight of the polar satellite launch vehicle was conducted from SDSC (Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR), Sriharikota on July 10, 2015. Among these five satellites, three are DMC3 commercial Earth Observation satellites and the other two are smaller satellites. All five were launched in to the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit. However, the intended orbit was of 647 km height. The total weight of the satellites came around 1440 kg at the time of lift – off. This launch was a part of the agreement made between DMCii (DMC International Imaging), UK and Antrix Corporation Limited. DMCii is owned by SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Limited) and Antrix Corporation is ISRO’s commercial arm. ISRO is a GOI company under DOS (Department of Space). This is the thirtieth consecutive successful flight of PSLV.

Image: ISRO

In the launch PSLV was used in its heaviest version i.e., “XL” version. It had six first stage strap – on motors. What makes this flight unique is the first time use of the ‘XL version’ for exclusively launching foreign payloads. Till now only the “core alone” i.e., the lighter version of PSLV was being used for launching payloads. PSLV holds a record of launching 45 satellites successfully for foreign customers. The total count of successful satellite launches is 77. PSLV has made 29 successful launches from 1994 to 2015 with 32.04 tons of total mass. Out of this 14% i.e., 4.64 tons is of 45 foreign satellites. The vehicle has been proving versatility and reliability over the time and again. It has launched satellites in various orbits including low earth orbits, Geosynchronous Transfer orbits and polar Sun Synchronous orbit. PSLV has therefore been named at the ‘workhorse launch vehicle of India”.

After a smooth countdown of 62.5 hours the PSLV-C28 weighing 320 ton lifted off from FLP (First Launch Pad) at SDSC at 2158 hrs IST with the first stage ignition. Following stages included ignition of strap-ons, separation of strap-ons and first stage and second stage ignition. Finally the payload was separated at an altitude of 118 km where the dense atmosphere has cleared off. Then followed the ignition and separation of the second, third and fourth stages. Once it reached the proper orbit, the 3 DMC satellites took 18 minutes for successful deployment. After this the two smaller satellites namely Nanosatellite De-OrbitSail and Microsatellite CBNT-1 were also deployed successfully. The two satellites weighed 7 kg and 91 kg respectively. This commercial launch has added another score to the PSLV’s launching capability.