Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with successful launch, on Wednesday the 15 May 2017, of a record 104 satellites and putting them into orbit in a single mission on board PSLV-C37, has once again done proud to the country. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) injected India’s weather observation Cartosat-2 Series satellite and 103 nano satellites in the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) in a gap of about 30 minutes during a series of separations; after lift-off from the spaceport at Sriharikota. ISRO bettered Russian space agency’s record of launching 37 satellites at one-go in 2014. After a flawless flight, the rocket first put into orbit
714 kg Cartosat-2 Series satellite followed by the co- passengers – ISRO’s INS-1A and INS-1B, and 96 other nano satellites belonging to two US companies, and one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland and UAE. Each nano satellite weighs less than 10 kg.
A majority of the satellites have earth-imaging capability while the Indian cartographic satellite is capable of taking high resolution images. Cartosat-2 Series satellite, a remote sensing spacecraft with a five-year life span, would send images that would be utilised in coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, distribution of water, creation of land use maps among others.
India is already a cost-efficient satellite launcher. ISRO’s launch cost is around $15 million on the PSLV. Comparatively, SpaceX charges up to $60 million, China $70 million and European Union’s Ariane space launch vehicles a huge charge up to $150 million.
India joined Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in June 2016, and has access to high-end testing technology for its solid rocket booster propulsion system, which fires up the first stage of PSLV. Since India’s MTCR membership four PSLVs have been launched including the one above. Faster testing of the solid rocket booster means the period between two launches is reduced. With frequency of launches going up, more commercial payloads can be carried. Access to MTCR’s controlled items has led to major efforts in making India a bigger player in the $300 billion satellite launch market.
India had already set the example before the World when its Mangalyaan (in Sanskrit “Mars Craft”) – the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully entered Martian orbit on 24th September, 2014 after covering a distance of 670 million kilometers. The budget of that mission was extremely low and that had made the achievement even more spectacular. Everything in that had cost around $ 74 million only, which was less than the budget of a Hollywood movie. Other recently launched Mars orbiters have cost much higher, such as, MAVEN (NASA) cost $ 671 million, Mars Express (ESA) cost $ 386 million and Phobos- Grunt (Russia) cost $ 117 million. At that moment ISRO had become the fourth organization after NASA, the Soviet Union and ESA (Europe) that successfully reached Mars. India one decided to do it, achieved it unimaginably fast and no other nation had ever done it on the maiden voyage.
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