ISRO launches PSLV-C35 with SCATSAT-1 | Fusion - WeRIndia

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the weather satellite SCATSAT-1 along with seven other satellites successfully. This is the longest ever launch mission by ISRO lasting for more than two hours and 15 minutes.

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director K Sivan said that this is the first time a single rocket was used to place satellites in two different orbits. The mission was a success with all the satellites being placed in their required orbits.

The rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle+ (PSLV-C35) carried eight satellites and was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.12am. 17 minutes after the launch, the main payload of PSLV SCATSAT-1 was placed in the polar sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 730km.

The SCATSAT-1 satellite will be useful in giving weather forecast including cyclone detection and tracking. It will replace the Oceansat-2 satellite launched in 2009 which is now not working properly.

According to ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar, the SCATSAT-1 satellite would be a stop gap arrangement between Oceansat-1 and Oceansat-2.

Once the first satellite was launched, PSLV-C35 coasted for about an hour before the fourth-stage engine was reignited and shut down, for about 20 seconds. As a result, the rocket got the necessary thrust to get into the polar orbit at an altitude of 689km.

The engine restarted after an hour again and was cut in a minute to let it coast further. This led the rocket to the right spot for it to inject the rest of the satellites. Among the launched satellites were Pratham from IIT-Bombay and Pisat from PES University, Bangalore, and its consortium — and five other commercial satellites from Algeria, Canada and the US.

Mission director B Jayakumar said that this was a rather complex mission in terms of planning and execution, power management and thermal management.

Image credit: Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay (Free for commercial use)

Image Reference: https://pixabay.com/it/photos/satellite-iss-1030779/