ISRO Launches 7 Satellites In 20 Minute
Sunday, October 4, 2009
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Thursday, September 24, 2009: After the untimely loss of its lunar mission Chandrayaan, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has once again proved its capabilities. India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C14, in its 16th mission launched 958 kg Oceansat-2 and six nano-satellites into a 720 km intended Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO) on 23 September 2009. The Oceansat-2 satellite mainframe systems derive their heritage from previous IRS missions and launched by PSLV-C14 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Oceansat-2 carries three payloads including an Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM-2), Ku-band Pencil Beam scatterometer (SCAT), developed by ISRO; and Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmosphere (ROSA) developed by the Italian Space Agency. Apart from Oceansat-2, four CUBESATs and two RUBIN are the foreign satellites launched by PSLV-C14 on 23 September. The four CUBESATs are educational satellites from European universities, each weighing around one kg and developed to perform technology demonstration in space. The satellites are launched inside a Single Picosatellite Launcher (SPL) also weighing one kg, which is a dedicated European launch adaptor to deploy a CubeSat. RUBIN-9 consists of two spacecrafts Rubin-9.1 and Rubin-9.2 weighing 8kg each and will primarily be used for the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for maritime applications. These are non-separable payloads that will be mounted at an angle of 45deg to the PSLV EB deck. Rubin-9.1 is developed by Luxspace and has a mission objective of providing an insight into the issue of message collisions that limit detection in areas of dense shipping. The main purpose of the Rubin-9.2 spacecraft is to test and qualify nano technologies from Angstrom company Sweden and to continue space based maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS) receiver experiments (started with Rubin-7 and Rubin-8 missions). Rubin-9.2 is similar to the Rubin-8 launched on PSLV-C9 in April 2008. Commenting on this milestone, the President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil has congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation for successfully placing seven satellites in Earth orbit, after the launch of PSLV C14. She said, "ISRO's capabilities have once again been highlighted through this launch and the placement of these satellites in safe Earth orbit." She is confident that Oceansat-2 will provide valuable data on the climate, as the satellite studies the interaction between the oceans and the atmosphere. |
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