CHENNAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would be achieving a significant milestone in commercial satellites launch segment when its trusted workhorse launch vehicle PSLV-C30, will launch Astrosat, the first mission to be operated as a Space Observatory by ISRO along with six other foreign satellites from SHAR Range on September 28.
With this launch, ISRO would be crossing the half-century mark in terms of launch of commercial satellites ever since it launched the first ever satellite for foreign customer on May 26, 1999 using the PSLV-C2.
In its 31st flight PSLV-C30, would launch the 1,513 kg Astrosat into a 650 km orbit, along with six satellites from international customers — 76 kg LAPAN-A2 of Indonesia, 14 kg NLS-14 (Ev9) of Canada and four identical LEMUR satellites of USA together weighing about 28 kg.
The total payload weight of PSLV-C30 would be 1,631 kg.
ISRO sources said PSLV-C30 will be launched from First Launch Pad from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota, about 80 km from here, at 1000 hrs on September 28. The Launch Authorisation Board would meet on September 26 after which the countdown for the launch would begin, the sources said.
PSLV-C30 would be the tenth flight of PSLV in its ‘XL’ Configuration. The earlier nine flights of PSLV-XL were PSLV-C11/Chandrayaan-1, PSLV-C17/GSAT-12, PSLV-C19/RISAT-1, PSLV-C22/IRNSS-1A, PSLV-C25/Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, PSLV-C24/IRNSS-1B and PSLV-C26/IRNSS-1C, PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D, PSLV-C28/DMC3 missions. The sources said ASTROSAT crossed a major milestone as the Spacecraft was fully assembled and tests initiated.
ASTROSAT is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying distant celestial objects. The mission is capable of performing observations in Ultraviolet (UV), optical, low and high energy X-ray wavebands at the same time.
It is significant to note that ASTROSAT is the first mission to be operated as a space observatory by ISRO. All the payloads and sub-systems were integrated with the satellite. ”The mechanical fit checks of the satellite with PSLV payload adaptor were performed successfully. Last week, the spacecraft was fully assembled and switched on and the Spacecraft parameters are normal, indicating that everything is functioning well”, the sources said.
ASTROSAT carries four X-ray payloads, one UV telescope and a charge particle monitor.
Apart from ISRO, four other Indian institutions–Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and Raman Research Institute (RRI) — were involved in payload development.
Two of the payloads were in collaboration with Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and University of Leiscester (UoL), UK. About International customer satellites that would go piggyback along with Astrosat, ISRO said LAPAN-A2 is a microsatellite from National Institute of Aeronautics and Space-LAPAN, Indonesia. LAPAN-A2 is meant for providing maritime surveillance using Automatic Identification System (AIS), supporting Indonesian radio amateur communities for disaster mitigation and carrying out Earth surveillance using video and digital camera.
NLS-14 (Ev9) is a Nanosatellite from Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto Institute for Advanced Studies (SFL, UTIAS), Canada. It is a maritime monitoring Nanosatellite using the next generation Automatic Identification System (AIS). Four LEMUR nano satellites from Spire Global, Inc. (San Francisco, CA), USA, are non-visual remote sensing satellites, focusing primarily on global maritime intelligence through vessel tracking via the Automatic Identification System (AIS), and high fidelity weather forecasting using GPS Radio Occultation technology.
(UNI)
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