India has recovered from the experience of the first flight failure in August 2022, and today launched its new rocket-SSLV again. The satellite was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center and eventually deployed three satellites to the corresponding orbits as planned.
The mission team congratulated each other as the rocket carried the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) EOS-07 Earth observation satellite and two CubeSats and placed it in its designated orbit (450 km) 15.5 minutes after liftoff.
▲ Image source: ISRO
In an important moment in the history of ISRO and SSLV, the flight successfully demonstrated its ability to carry payloads weighing up to 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) to low Earth orbit.
According to ISRO’s mission description, the 344-pound (156-kilogram) EOS-07 is an experimental satellite whose mission objective is to develop and demonstrate new instruments in the short term, including millimeter-wave humidity probes and spectrum monitoring payloads, which they will use. Satellites observe the Earth for at least a year.
In addition to EOS-07, the other two satellites are the 22.5 lb (10.2 kg) Janus-1 and the 19.7 lb (8.7 kg) AzaadiSAT-2.
Built by the Indian-American company Antaris, Janus-1 is a technology demonstration “smart satellite,” according to ISRO’s mission description.
AzaadiSAT-2 was jointly developed by hundreds of female students from all over India to demonstrate LoRa (Long Range Radio) and amateur radio communication capabilities, measure radiation levels in space and demonstrate scalable satellite structures, among other things.
According to public information, SSLV is a four-stage rocket that is 112 feet (34 meters) tall. According to ISRO’s description, it is capable of launching a carrier weighing up to 1,100 pounds into low-Earth orbit. It was originally scheduled to be launched in 2018, but it was postponed several times due to the epidemic and other reasons.
According to reports, this rocket can be assembled within 72 hours by a team of only 5-6 people, and its cost is at least one-tenth of the rockets currently in use. It can carry out space launch missions every week, and it is a dedicated rocket for small and micro-satellites, which currently account for more than 90% of all satellites launched by India at present. For information about last year’s launch failure, “India’s SSLV launch vehicle failed its first flight, and the telemetry signal was lost at the final stage”.
