In its thirteenth
flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)
SHAR, Sriharikota, today (April 28, 2008), ISRO’s
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C9, successfully
launched the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite
CARTOSAT-2A, the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1)
and eight nanosatellites for international customers
into a 637 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). PSLV-C9
in its ‘core alone’ configuration launched
ten satellites with a total weight of about 820 kg.
After the final count down, PSLV-C9
lifted off from the second launch pad at SDSC SHAR,
at 09:24 Hrs IST with the ignition of the core first
stage. The important flight events included the separation
of the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation
of the heatshield at about 125 km altitude after the
vehicle had cleared the dense atmosphere, second stage
separation, third stage ignition, third stage separation,
fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.
The 690 kg main payload, CARTOSAT-2A,
was the first satellite to be injected into orbit at
885 seconds after lift-off at an altitude of 637 km.
About 45 seconds later, Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1)
was separated after which all the nano satellites were
separated in sequence. The initial signals indicate
normal health of the satellites
CARTOSAT-2A
CARTOSAT-2A is a state-of-the art
remote sensing satellite with a spatial resolution of
about one metre and swath of 9.6 km. The satellite carries
a panchromatic camera (PAN) capable of taking black-and-white
pictures in the visible region of electromagnetic spectrum.
The highly agile CARTOSAT-2A is steerable along as well
as across the direction of its movement to facilitate
imaging of any area more frequently.
Soon after separation from PSLV fourth
stage, the two solar panels of CARTOSAT-2A were automatically
deployed. The satellite’s health is continuously
monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore
with the help of ISTRAC network of stations at Bangalore,
Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia
and Svalbard in Norway.
High-resolution data from CARTOSAT-2A
will be invaluable in urban and rural development applications
calling for large scale mapping.
Indian Mini Satellite (IMS -1)
Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), flown
as an auxiliary payload on board PSLV-C9, is developed
by ISRO for remote sensing applications. Weighing 83
Kg at lift-off, IMS-1 incorporates many new technologies
and has miniaturised subsystems. IMS-1 carries two remote
sensing payloads - A Multi-spectral camera (Mx Payload)
and a Hyper-spectral camera (HySI Payload), operating
in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic
spectrum. The spatial resolution of Mx camera is 37
metre with a swath of 151 km while that of HySI is about
506 metre with a swath of about 130 km. The data from
this mission will be made available to interested space
agencies and student community from developing countries
to provide necessary impetus to capacity building in
using satellite data. The versatile IMS-1 has been specifically
developed to carry different payloads in future without
significant changes in it and has a design life time
of two years.
Nano Satellites for International
Customers
Eight Nanosatellites from abroad are
carried as auxiliary payloads besides IMS-1 as well
as CARTOSAT-2A. The total weight of these Nanosatellite
payloads is about 50 Kg. Six of the eight Nanosatellites
are clustered together with the collective name NLS-4.
The other two nanosatellites are NLS-5 AND RUBIN-8.
NLS-4, developed by University of Toronto, Canada consists
of six nano-satellites developed by various universities.
Two of them - CUTE 1.7 and SEEDS - are built in Japan,
while the other four - CAN-X2, AAUSAT-II, COMPASS-1
and DELPHI-C3 are built in Canada, Denmark, Germany
and the Netherlands respectively. NLS-5 is also built
by University of Toronto and RUBIN-8 is built by Cosmos
International, Germany. The eight nanosatellite payloads
of PSLV-C9 are built to develop nano technologies for
use in satellites as well as for the development of
technologies for satellite applications.
In its twelve consecutively successful
flights so far, PSLV has repeatedly proved itself as
a reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle. It
has demonstrated multiple satellite launch capability
having launched a total of sixteen satellites for international
customers besides thirteen Indian payloads which are
for remote sensing, amateur radio communications and
Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1). PSLV was
used to launch ISRO’s exclusive meteorological
satellite, KALPANA-1, into a Geosynchronous Transfer
Orbit (GTO) in September 2002 and thus proved its versatility.
The same vehicle will be used to launch Chandrayaan-1
spacecraft, India’s first mission to Moon during
this year.
