The strides made by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are highly commendable as it is not only in the forefront of science, but is also becoming a key commercial enterprise. And in June this year, it created yet another record. ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in its 36th flight (PSLV-C34) successfully launched the 727.5 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 19 co-passenger satellites on June 22, 2016 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the 35th consecutively successful mission of PSLV and the 14th in its ‘XL’ configuration. The total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C34 was 1,288 kg.

Russia Holds the Record

After PSLV-C34 lift-off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the first stage, the subsequent important flight events, namely, strap-on ignitions and separations, first stage separation, second stage ignition, heat-shield separation, second stage separation, third stage ignition and separation, fourth stage ignition and cut-off, took place as planned. After a flight of 16 minutes 30 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 508 km inclined at an angle of 97.5 degrees to the equator and in the succeeding ten minutes, all the 20 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence. In 2008, ISRO had launched ten satellites. Currently, Russia holds the world record for placing the most number of satellites in a single launch. Its Dnepr rocket launched 37 satellites in 2014.

Remote Sensing Services

After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras.

The imagery sent by the Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, precision study, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System and Geographical Information System applications.

Involvement of Students

Of the 19 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C34, two i.e. SATHYABAMASAT weighing 1.5 kg and SWAYAM weighing one kg, are university/academic institute satellites and were built with the involvement of students from Sathyabama University, Chennai, and College of Engineering, Pune, respectively.

The remaining 17 co-passenger satellites were international customer satellites including 13 from the United States, two from Canada and one each from Germany and Indonesia. With the success of this mission, the total number of satellites launched by ISRO’s workhorse PSLV has reached 113, of which 39 are Indian and the remaining 74 from abroad.

The Chairman of ISRO, A.S. Kiran Kumar said that the PSLV has ‘done its job.’ “Each of these small objects that you are putting into space will carry out their own activity, which is independent of the other and each of them will live a wonderful life for a finite period for which they have been designed,”

Google’s Satellite in Orbit

The 13 US-made small satellites were also placed in orbit. These include an Earth imaging satellite made by Terra Bella, a Googleowned company. The 110-kg Google satellite called SkySat Gen-2 is capable of taking very high resolution images and high definition video. The launch of the 20 satellites, weighing about 1,288 kg, cost about half of what is incurred by other space agencies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while congratulating the scientists tweeted “20 satellites in a go! @isro continues to break new barriers.”

India’s Cartosat-2 series is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A and 2B. The images sent by Cartosat satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications.

India is on the verge of becoming a space superpower. However, it has some major challenges as the PSLV can only launch satellites up to a weight of 1,800 kg. The currently operational Mk-II version of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) can handle payloads weighing 2,500 kg. But the GSLV Mk-III, now under development, will be capable of launching satellites weighing close to 5,000 kg.

According to market reports nearly 200 small satellites will be launched in the period 2014 to 2023 and India is perfectly positioned in this segment.