NEWS

On April 28, an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully launched 10 satellites. The 44-m long rocket lifted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 03:53:51 GMT (09:24 local time) and reached a polar, Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit a little over seven minutes later. Following burnout of the fourth stage of the carrier rocket, the payload consisting of 10 satellites were released. The PSLV flew in the Core Alone, configuration, with no solid rocket boosters around the first stage. All 10 satellites—the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2A, the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite and eight Nano Satellites developed by university students in Canada, Japan, Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands—were injected into the desired orbits successfully.

VIEWS

To launch a single satellite successfully is a demanding task. To launch 10 in a single mission is astounding. There is some uncertainty as to whether this achievement by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is a world record. The only other country believed to have sent into space a large number of satellites in a single launch is Russia. However, there is inconsistency in the various reports on the number of satellites on board the Russian space vehicle Dnepr launched in April 2007. The figure, quoted by various sources, varies between eight and 16. However, all reports maintain that the total weight was less than 300 kg as against 824 kg carried by the PSLV C9. In 2006, a Russian space vehicle with 18 satellites, including two Japanese nano satellites, ended in failure. US space agency NASA, meanwhile, has been launching regularly up to four satellites aboard a single launch vehicle.

What is far more difficult than the launch itself is to control the whole exercise from the ground and achieve a high degree of precision. The eight nano-satellites were released at intervals of 20 seconds and inserted into their designated orbits without mutual interference. After each release, the launch vehicle is required to be reoriented while moving at over seven km per second. The success of this mission has not only clearly established ISRO’s credentials to claim its fair share of the huge commercial launch market but also its capability to undertake new challenges in space exploration, the most immediate being the Chandrayaan I, unmanned mission to the Moon scheduled during the later part of this year. The indigenously developed cryogenic engine will be tried out for the first time on this mission. The next big challenge will be a robotic landing on the moon planned for 2012 followed by manned space flight around the earth by 2015. There is also talk of landing a man on the moon but this may not be attempted before 2025. There are also plans to send probes to Mars and the Sun. Tragically, ISRO is still not fully liberated from US sanctions, a factor that may impinge on the timeframe for the lunar probe.