ISRO rocket successfully deploys 3 new satellites into orbit
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the SSLV-D2 rocket on Friday morning. The rocket placed three satellites into the orbit shortly after it’s launch from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
“Mission accomplished”, ISRO tweeted after the SSLV-D2 rocket whizzed through the sky from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at exactly 9:18 am today morning. The rocket, during its 15 minute flight, carried one each of a mini, micro and a nano satellite, that it successfully placed into the 450 km circular orbit around the Earth.
After the successful launch, ISRO announced on twitter: ‘Mission is accomplished successfully. SSLV-D2 placed EOS-07, Janus-1, and AzaadiSAT-2 into their intended orbits.”
The three satellites placed into their respective orbits by the rocket are ISRO’s EOS-07, US-based firm Antaris’ Janus-1 and Chennai-based space start up SpaceKidz’s AzaadiSAT-2, an 8.7 kg satellite developed by 750 girl students from across India.
This was second developmental flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) by ISRO with the space agency carrying out the first test on August 9, last year which had partially failed. The first SSLV had failed to inject its satellite payload in their intended orbits.
Read Also: Debt-ridden Mumbai man kills wife, commits suicide
ISRO’s SSLV are intended to cater to the emerging small and microsatellite commercial market and launch up to 500 kg satellites to low earth orbits on ‘launch-on-demand’ basis.
The SSLV provides low-cost access to space, offers low turn-around time and flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, and requires minimal launch infrastructure.
An investigation into the failure of SSLV-D1 by ISRO revealed that the mission failed after the upper stage of the launch vehicle injected the satellite into a highly elliptical unstable orbit due to a shortfall in velocity.
It also revealed that there was a vibration disturbance for a short duration on the Equipment Bay (EB) deck during the second stage separation. The vibration affected the Inertial Navigation System (INS), resulting in declaring the sensors faulty by the logic in the Fault Detection & Isolation (FDI) software.
The failure detection logic identified a degraded accelerometer and isolated it for improved mission performance.
During the second stage separation, all six accelerometers experienced measurement saturation due to high vibration levels for a short duration. This malfunction initiated a salvage mode with the purpose of saving the mission, but it could not inject the satellite into a safe orbit.
Supreme Court recommends 5 names for elevation as High Court Chief Justices
