S V Krishna Chaitanya By

CHENNAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) reputation among international customers went another notch up on Wednesday after it successfully placed a record 20 satellites in their designated orbits in a single mission on board PSLV-C34 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

ISRO achieved the feat by putting India’s 727.5-kg earth observation Cartosat-2 series satellite, Google subsidiary Terra Bellas’s Skysat Gen 2-1, two student satellites and 16 other co-passenger satellites in the orbits along the marked trajectory with precision, besides performing complex maneuvers as part of ‘Plan Next Mission’ approach.

Fifty minutes after each satellite was injected into orbit and ensuring there was no collision of satellites, the PS-4 (the fourth stage) was re-ignited for five seconds and then shut down for 50 minutes and re-ignited for another five seconds. “This experiment was planned and executed to perfection. Now ISRO has the capability to launch satellites to multiple orbits, an ability that would attract several international customers,” K Sivan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said.

The lift-off happened at 9.26 am from the second launch pad and it took about 26 minutes for the ISRO to declare the launch successful.

ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar, while congratulating the entire team and foreign customers from Indonesia, Germany, Canada and the US, termed the launch historic. Shar director P Kunhikrishnan said ISRO had become a success symbol and this launch demonstrated its capability of handling satellites with multi-orbit challenges. The two student satellites received equal cheers, when they were successfully separated and put into the intended orbit. The 1.5-kg Sathyabamasat from Sathyabama University will collect data on greenhouse gases, while the 1-kg Swayam satellite from the College of Engineering, Pune will provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community.

This was the 35th consecutive successful mission of workhorse PSLV and the 14th in its ‘XL’ configuration. The total weight of all satellites carried was 1,288 kg. After a flight of 16.3 minutes, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 508 km inclined at an angle of 97.5 degree to the equator (very close to the intended orbit) and in the succeeding 10 minutes, all 20 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence.

The US has accounted for 13 satellites, including 12 Planet Labs Dove satellites each weighing 4.7 kg. Canada sent two and Germany and Indonesia one each. With this, the total number of satellites launched by PSLV so far has touched 113.

India’s ‘Navic’ up and running

ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar announced that all seven navigation satellites constellation that forms India’s own navigation system ‘Navic’ is fully operational. “All the seven navigation satellites signals are fully usable by ground receivers. They are in operation already. ” ISRO has already lifted the alert system. “We have an automatic alert system for each of the seven satellites. If there is a difficulty with the signal, the alert will be out preventing that particular satellite signal from being used. However, we have crossed that phase and already many of the private operators have started building receivers system fully based on Navic,” he said.

‘Smaller satellites’ market booming’

S Rakesh, director of ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) and chairman-cum-managing director of Antrix, a commercial arm of the national space agency, told Express on the sidelines that Antrix has earned an revenue of `1,800 crore last year and it would look to improve on it in 2016-17 with increasing amount of queries coming in from across the world. “We are finalising contracts with at least 8-10 customers. PSLV is now rated the most reliable launch vehicle in the world. With the newly acquired capability of sending satellites to multiple orbits, we have a good case for attracting fresh businesses. In fact, small satellites market is booming and our Indian industry role here will be crucial,” he said. ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar also acknowledged the fact that the future would be for smaller satellites.