Andrew Yee[_1_]
January 16th 07, 09:40 PM
Indian Space Research Organisation
Bangalore, India
January 10, 2007
PSLV Successfully Launches Four Satellites
In its tenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR,
Sriharikota, today (January 10, 2007), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle, PSLV-C7, successfully launched four satellites -- India's
CARTOSAT-2 and Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), Indonesia's
LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's PEHUENSAT-1 into a 635 km high polar orbit. For
the first time, a Dual Launch Adopter (DLA) was used in PSLV to accommodate
two primary satellites in tandem.
After the final count down, PSLV-C7 lifted off from the first launch pad at
SDSC SHAR, at 9:23 am [0353 UTC] with the ignition of the core first stage
and four of the six strap-on motors. The remaining two strap-on motors were
ignited at 25 sec after lift-off. The important flight events included the
separation of the ground-lit strap-on motors, separation of air-lit strap-on
motors and the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation of the
heatshield at about 121 km altitude after the vehicle had cleared the dense
atmosphere, second stage separation, third stage ignition, third stage
separation, fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.
The 680 kg main payload, CARTOSAT-2, mounted over DLA, was the first
satellite to be injected into orbit at 981.3 sec after lift-off at an
altitude of 639 km. About 45 sec later, DLA with the 6 kg PEHUENSAT-1
mounted on it, was separated. 120 sec later, the 550 kg Space capsule
Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) mounted inside DLA was separated and finally,
190 sec later, the 56 kg LAPAN-TUBSAT, mounted on the equipment bay of PSLV
fourth stage was separated.
The four satellites have been placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 637
km with an inclination of 97.9 deg with respect to the equator. The initial
signals indicate their normal health.
PSLV is the workhorse launch vehicle of the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) with nine consecutively successful flights so far. Since
its first successful launch in 1994, PSLV has launched seven Indian remote
sensing satellites, an amateur radio satellite, HAMSAT, and four small
satellites for foreign customers into 550-800 km high polar SSOs. Besides,
it has also launched India's exclusive meteorological satellite, Kalpana-1,
into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV will also be used to launch
India's first spacecraft mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, during 2008.
The 44 m tall PSLV has a lift-off mass of 295 tonne. It is a four-stage
launch vehicle with the first and the third stages as well as the six
strap-ons surrounding the first stage using HTPB based solid propellant.
PSLV's first stage is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the
world. Its second and fourth stages use liquid propellants. PSLV's bulbous
payload fairing has a diameter of 3.2 metre. The vehicle has S-band
telemetry and C-band transponder systems for monitoring its health and
flight status. It also has sophisticated auxiliary systems like stage and
payload fairing separation systems.
PSLV was originally designed to put 1,000 kg class of India's remote sensing
satellites into a 900 km polar SSO. The payload capability of PSLV has been
successively enhanced and in today's flight, PSLV-C7, it launched four
payloads, in all weighing 1292 kg in addition to the DLA. Some of the
modifications incorporated in PSLV-C7 compared to the previous flight,
PSLV-C6, are:
* Use of Dual Launch Adopter
* Reduction of propellant from 2.5 tonne to 2 tonne in the fourth liquid
propellant stage, PS4
* Altitude based Day of Launch wind biased steering programme during Open
Loop Guidance
CARTOSAT-2, the twelfth in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series,
is an advanced remote sensing satellite capable of providing scene-specific
spot imagery. It will join the other six IRS satellites which are in service
-- IRS-1C, IRS-1D, OCEANSAT-1, Technology Experimental Satellite (TES),
RESOURCESAT-1 and CARTOSAT-1. It carries a Panchromatic camera (PAN) to
provide imageries with a spatial resolution of better than one metre and a
swath of 9.6 km. The satellite can be steered up to 45 deg along as well as
across the track. The data from the satellite will be used for cartographic
applications at cadastral level, urban and rural infrastructure development
and management, as well as applications in Land Information System (LIS) and
Geographical Information System (GIS).
Soon after its separation from the DLA, the two solar arrays of CARTOSAT-2
were automatically deployed to generate the electrical power for the
satellite. The satellite health is being continuously monitored from the
Spacecraft Control Centre of ISTRAC at Bangalore with the help of its
network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia,
Biak in Indonesia, as well as support from Svalbard ground station in Sweden
for the initial phase of the CARTOSAT-2 mission. Further operations on the
satellite like orbit trimming, checking out the various subsystems and,
finally, switching on the cameras will be carried out in the coming days.
With ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, as the lead Centre, CARTOSAT-2
was realised with major contributions from Space Applications Centre (SAC),
Ahmedabad, LPSC at Bangalore, and IISU, Thiruvananthapuram. ISTRAC is
responsible for initial and in-orbit operation of CARTOSAT-2. The National
Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad receives and processes the data from
CARTOSAT-2.
Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1): Space capsule Recovery Experiment
(SRE-1), developed by ISRO's VSSC and ISAC, is a 550 kg capsule, intended to
demonstrate the technology of an orbiting platform for performing
experiments in microgravity conditions. After the completion of the
experiments, the capsule will de-orbited after a few days and recovered.
SRE-1 mission will provide valuable experience in such important fields like
navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, hypersonic
aero-thermodynamics facilitating the development of reusable thermal
protection system (TPS), recovery through deceleration and floatation
besides acquisition of basic technology for reusable launch vehicles.
SRE-1 carries two experiments, an Isothermal Heating Furnace [IHF] and a
Biomimetic (Biomineralisation of Inorganic materials) experiment. IHF will
be operated to perform metallurgical experiments while Biomimetic experiment
will be operated to perform Biomimetic synthesis. SRE-1 comprises
aero-thermo structure, spacecraft platform, deceleration and floatation
system besides the micro-gravity payloads. It has a sphere-cone-flare
configuration with a spherical nose of about 0.5 m radius, base diameter of
2 m and 1.6 m height. The capsule is made of mild steel. The parachute, pyro
devices, avionics packages of triggering unit and sequencer, telemetry and
tracking system and sensors for measurement of system performance parameters
are placed inside SRE capsule.
Two days before de-orbiting, SRE-1 will be placed in a Repetitive Elliptical
Orbit. Subsequently, it will be reoriented and deboost rocket is fired to
make it reenter the earth's atmosphere. Close loop guidance system is
employed during deboost and coasting phases leading to its recovery. On
re-entry, after initial aerodynamic braking, a parachute system will reduce
the touch down velocity. SRE-1 will splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, east of
Sriharikota coast. A floatation system will keep SRE afloat and enables its
recovery.
SRE-1 is being tracked and monitored by ground stations at Bangalore,
Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak in Indonesia, Bearslake in Russia, Saskatoon in
Canada and Svalbard in Sweden/Transo in Norway.
LAPAN-TUBSAT and PEHUENSAT-1: LAPAN-TUBSAT and PEHUENSAT-1 were launched
under commercial agreements. LAPAN-TUBSAT is a cooperative venture between
Indonesian Space Agency, LAPAN and Technical University of Berlin. It is an
earth observation satellite besides a technical demonstrator in control
systems. The 56 kg LAPAN-TUBSAT carries two Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
cameras with ground resolutions of 5 m and 200 m respectively. It also
carries an experiment for message store and forward system.
PEHUENSAT-1 is a 6 kg Argentinean nano-satellite meant to serve educational,
technological and scientific fields. PEHUENSAT-1, developed by University of
Comahue of Argentina, AMSAT (Amateur Satellite Association of Argentina) and
Argentina Association for Space Technology, is intended to provide an
experiment platform to perform amateur radio experiments between colleges
and universities of Argentina.
With its ninth consecutively successful launch today, PSLV has once again
proved its reliability and versatility to orbit multiple satellites and
launch satellites in different types of orbit. In today's launch, several
improvements to the vehicle and the Dual Launch Adopter have been proved in
flight.
[NOTE: An image supporting this release is available at
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c7/photos/layout33.jpg (27KB)]
Bangalore, India
January 10, 2007
PSLV Successfully Launches Four Satellites
In its tenth flight conducted from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR,
Sriharikota, today (January 10, 2007), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle, PSLV-C7, successfully launched four satellites -- India's
CARTOSAT-2 and Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), Indonesia's
LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's PEHUENSAT-1 into a 635 km high polar orbit. For
the first time, a Dual Launch Adopter (DLA) was used in PSLV to accommodate
two primary satellites in tandem.
After the final count down, PSLV-C7 lifted off from the first launch pad at
SDSC SHAR, at 9:23 am [0353 UTC] with the ignition of the core first stage
and four of the six strap-on motors. The remaining two strap-on motors were
ignited at 25 sec after lift-off. The important flight events included the
separation of the ground-lit strap-on motors, separation of air-lit strap-on
motors and the first stage, ignition of the second stage, separation of the
heatshield at about 121 km altitude after the vehicle had cleared the dense
atmosphere, second stage separation, third stage ignition, third stage
separation, fourth stage ignition and fourth stage cut-off.
The 680 kg main payload, CARTOSAT-2, mounted over DLA, was the first
satellite to be injected into orbit at 981.3 sec after lift-off at an
altitude of 639 km. About 45 sec later, DLA with the 6 kg PEHUENSAT-1
mounted on it, was separated. 120 sec later, the 550 kg Space capsule
Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) mounted inside DLA was separated and finally,
190 sec later, the 56 kg LAPAN-TUBSAT, mounted on the equipment bay of PSLV
fourth stage was separated.
The four satellites have been placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 637
km with an inclination of 97.9 deg with respect to the equator. The initial
signals indicate their normal health.
PSLV is the workhorse launch vehicle of the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO) with nine consecutively successful flights so far. Since
its first successful launch in 1994, PSLV has launched seven Indian remote
sensing satellites, an amateur radio satellite, HAMSAT, and four small
satellites for foreign customers into 550-800 km high polar SSOs. Besides,
it has also launched India's exclusive meteorological satellite, Kalpana-1,
into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV will also be used to launch
India's first spacecraft mission to moon, Chandrayaan-1, during 2008.
The 44 m tall PSLV has a lift-off mass of 295 tonne. It is a four-stage
launch vehicle with the first and the third stages as well as the six
strap-ons surrounding the first stage using HTPB based solid propellant.
PSLV's first stage is one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the
world. Its second and fourth stages use liquid propellants. PSLV's bulbous
payload fairing has a diameter of 3.2 metre. The vehicle has S-band
telemetry and C-band transponder systems for monitoring its health and
flight status. It also has sophisticated auxiliary systems like stage and
payload fairing separation systems.
PSLV was originally designed to put 1,000 kg class of India's remote sensing
satellites into a 900 km polar SSO. The payload capability of PSLV has been
successively enhanced and in today's flight, PSLV-C7, it launched four
payloads, in all weighing 1292 kg in addition to the DLA. Some of the
modifications incorporated in PSLV-C7 compared to the previous flight,
PSLV-C6, are:
* Use of Dual Launch Adopter
* Reduction of propellant from 2.5 tonne to 2 tonne in the fourth liquid
propellant stage, PS4
* Altitude based Day of Launch wind biased steering programme during Open
Loop Guidance
CARTOSAT-2, the twelfth in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series,
is an advanced remote sensing satellite capable of providing scene-specific
spot imagery. It will join the other six IRS satellites which are in service
-- IRS-1C, IRS-1D, OCEANSAT-1, Technology Experimental Satellite (TES),
RESOURCESAT-1 and CARTOSAT-1. It carries a Panchromatic camera (PAN) to
provide imageries with a spatial resolution of better than one metre and a
swath of 9.6 km. The satellite can be steered up to 45 deg along as well as
across the track. The data from the satellite will be used for cartographic
applications at cadastral level, urban and rural infrastructure development
and management, as well as applications in Land Information System (LIS) and
Geographical Information System (GIS).
Soon after its separation from the DLA, the two solar arrays of CARTOSAT-2
were automatically deployed to generate the electrical power for the
satellite. The satellite health is being continuously monitored from the
Spacecraft Control Centre of ISTRAC at Bangalore with the help of its
network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia,
Biak in Indonesia, as well as support from Svalbard ground station in Sweden
for the initial phase of the CARTOSAT-2 mission. Further operations on the
satellite like orbit trimming, checking out the various subsystems and,
finally, switching on the cameras will be carried out in the coming days.
With ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC), Bangalore, as the lead Centre, CARTOSAT-2
was realised with major contributions from Space Applications Centre (SAC),
Ahmedabad, LPSC at Bangalore, and IISU, Thiruvananthapuram. ISTRAC is
responsible for initial and in-orbit operation of CARTOSAT-2. The National
Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad receives and processes the data from
CARTOSAT-2.
Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1): Space capsule Recovery Experiment
(SRE-1), developed by ISRO's VSSC and ISAC, is a 550 kg capsule, intended to
demonstrate the technology of an orbiting platform for performing
experiments in microgravity conditions. After the completion of the
experiments, the capsule will de-orbited after a few days and recovered.
SRE-1 mission will provide valuable experience in such important fields like
navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, hypersonic
aero-thermodynamics facilitating the development of reusable thermal
protection system (TPS), recovery through deceleration and floatation
besides acquisition of basic technology for reusable launch vehicles.
SRE-1 carries two experiments, an Isothermal Heating Furnace [IHF] and a
Biomimetic (Biomineralisation of Inorganic materials) experiment. IHF will
be operated to perform metallurgical experiments while Biomimetic experiment
will be operated to perform Biomimetic synthesis. SRE-1 comprises
aero-thermo structure, spacecraft platform, deceleration and floatation
system besides the micro-gravity payloads. It has a sphere-cone-flare
configuration with a spherical nose of about 0.5 m radius, base diameter of
2 m and 1.6 m height. The capsule is made of mild steel. The parachute, pyro
devices, avionics packages of triggering unit and sequencer, telemetry and
tracking system and sensors for measurement of system performance parameters
are placed inside SRE capsule.
Two days before de-orbiting, SRE-1 will be placed in a Repetitive Elliptical
Orbit. Subsequently, it will be reoriented and deboost rocket is fired to
make it reenter the earth's atmosphere. Close loop guidance system is
employed during deboost and coasting phases leading to its recovery. On
re-entry, after initial aerodynamic braking, a parachute system will reduce
the touch down velocity. SRE-1 will splashdown in the Bay of Bengal, east of
Sriharikota coast. A floatation system will keep SRE afloat and enables its
recovery.
SRE-1 is being tracked and monitored by ground stations at Bangalore,
Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak in Indonesia, Bearslake in Russia, Saskatoon in
Canada and Svalbard in Sweden/Transo in Norway.
LAPAN-TUBSAT and PEHUENSAT-1: LAPAN-TUBSAT and PEHUENSAT-1 were launched
under commercial agreements. LAPAN-TUBSAT is a cooperative venture between
Indonesian Space Agency, LAPAN and Technical University of Berlin. It is an
earth observation satellite besides a technical demonstrator in control
systems. The 56 kg LAPAN-TUBSAT carries two Charge Coupled Device (CCD)
cameras with ground resolutions of 5 m and 200 m respectively. It also
carries an experiment for message store and forward system.
PEHUENSAT-1 is a 6 kg Argentinean nano-satellite meant to serve educational,
technological and scientific fields. PEHUENSAT-1, developed by University of
Comahue of Argentina, AMSAT (Amateur Satellite Association of Argentina) and
Argentina Association for Space Technology, is intended to provide an
experiment platform to perform amateur radio experiments between colleges
and universities of Argentina.
With its ninth consecutively successful launch today, PSLV has once again
proved its reliability and versatility to orbit multiple satellites and
launch satellites in different types of orbit. In today's launch, several
improvements to the vehicle and the Dual Launch Adopter have been proved in
flight.
[NOTE: An image supporting this release is available at
http://www.isro.org/pslv-c7/photos/layout33.jpg (27KB)]