Sriharikota: ISRO's PSLV rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sunday, successfully placing seven Singaporean satellites into their intended orbits.
ISRO reported that the primary satellite split about 23 minutes after launch, and that it was followed by six co-passenger satellites, which were placed into their intended orbits in sequence.
ISRO's commercial arm, NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), is responsible for this project, which follows this month's highly anticipated launch of Chandrayaan-3.
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath announced that all seven satellites aboard the PSLV-C56, including the principal satellite DS-SAR and six co-passenger spacecraft, have been successfully deployed into their intended orbits.
"This is the PSLV's mission for NSIL, and I want to congratulate the customers sponsored by the Government of Singapore for having this mission on board PSLV and for their continued faith in our PSLV for deploying the spacecrafts (satellites) from Singapore," he stated at the Mission Control Centre.
Again, my sincere congratulations to NSIL on the success of this mission and the excellent orbital parameters that have been achieved for the Singaporean satellites on board. To those who watched the launch early this morning, "I want to say thank you for your support and congratulate you on a job well done. We will be back with another PSLV mission in August or early September," he added.
ISRO tweeted, "PSLV-C56/DS-SAR Mission: The mission is successfully accomplished" after the satellites were safely launched and deployed. Using its PSLV-C56 rocket, India successfully placed seven satellites into their designated orbits. For the deal, we'd like to thank @NSIL_India and Singapore. D Radhakrishnan, chairman and managing director of NewSpace India Ltd, said, "My heartiest congratulations to team ISRO for the PSLV project across various centres for giving us such a marvellous and precise mission and I don't think the customer would have asked for anything better than what we have just seen in today's mission.
A single customer (the Singaporean government) coming to PSLV continuously four times for a dedicated launch has been a real record and reflects the type of trust the customer has laid on the personnel here, as far as I am concerned. I know Singapore has plans for many more missions in the future, and I know they will continue to rely on our services and the most reliable launcher, the PSLV that we have offered the service, and I know they will give us many more opportunities to give them the best launch in the international community.
The primary payload for today's commercial mission is the DS-SAR Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite, which was developed by a joint effort between the Singaporean government's space agency (DSTA) and ST Engineering Singapore.
After being launched into a Near-equatorial Orbit (NEO) at a height of 535 km, the 360-kg satellite would be used to meet the satellite imagery needs of various departments within the Singaporean government.
The satellite would be used by ST Engineering to provide commercial clients with multi-modal and better responsiveness imaging and GIS services.
The satellite is equipped with an IAI-created Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload. With its payload, DS-SAR can provide day-and-night coverage in all weather and take images with a resolution of just 1 metre.
The 25-hour countdown that began on Saturday ended at the scheduled time of 6.31 am, and the 44.4-meter-tall rocket took off from the first launch pad at this spaceport, with thick gases streaming from its tail.
Sriharikota is on the eastern coast, some 135 kilometres from Chennai.
The co-passenger satellites are 1. VELOX-AM,a 23 kg technology demonstration microsatellite, 2. ARCADE Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer (ARCADE), an experimental satellite, 3. SCOOB-II, a 3U nanosatellite flying a technology demonstrator payload, 4. NULloN by NuSpace, an advanced 3U nanosatellite enabling seamless Internet of Things connectivity in both urban and remote locations, 5. Galassia-2, a 3U nanosatellite that would be orbiting at low earth orbit and 6. ORB-12 STRIDER, a satellite developed under an international collaboration, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said.
This is PSLV's 58th launch, and the 17th time the rocket has used its Core Alone Configuration.
The space agency explains that the Core Alone form of the rocket is distinguished from others like the PSLV-XL, QL, and DL by the absence of solid strap-on motors on the sidewalls of the vehicle during the first stage.
ISRO claims that PSLV is the "Workhorse of ISRO" since it reliably places a wide variety of satellites into geostationary orbit.
After the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14 from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, here, ISRO is preparing to launch its next mission.
Chandrayaan-3 is presently engaged in orbit-raising manoeuvres. ISRO scientists successfully completed the fifth orbit-raising manoeuvre for the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on July 25, clearing the way for the spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit and begin its voyage towards the Moon on August 1.
PSLV-C55/TeLEOS-2 was successfully launched in April to provide services to customers in Singapore, and today's mission is the second in this series.—Inputs from Agencies