Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday said it will be launching – the second dedicated commercial mission of its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) – ‘PSLV-C53’ carrying three satellites from Singapore on June 30. The launch vehicle carrying DS-EO satellite along with two other co-passenger satellites is scheduled to lift off at 18:00 hours IST from the Second Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The countdown of 25 hours leading to the launch begins at 17:00 hours IST on June 29. The mission, which is designed to orbit DS-EO satellite along with two other co-passenger satellites from ST Electronics, Singapore, proposes to demonstrate the utilization of the spent upper stage of the launch vehicle as a stabilized platform for scientific payloads subsequent to the separation of the satellites.
This will be the 55th mission of PSLV and 15th mission using the PSLV-Core Alone variant, and is the 16th PSLV launch from the second launch pad. A four stage, 44.4 m tall PSLV-C53 has a lift-off mass of 228.433 t, and would inject DS-EO satellite into an orbit with semi-major axis of 6948.137 + 20 km, at an altitude of 570 km measured from the equator, with a low inclination of 100+ 0.20. The three satellites are- DS-EO, a 365 kg and NeuSAR, a 155 kg satellite both belonging to Singapore and built by Starec Initiative, Republic of Korea, and the third satellite is a 2.8 kg Scoob-1 of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. DS-EO carries an Electro-Optic, multi-spectral payload with 0.5 m resolution imaging capability, while NeuSAR is Singapore’s first small commercial satellite carrying a SAR payload, which is capable of providing images in day and night and under all weather conditions.
SCOOB-I satellite is the first satellite in the Student Satellite Series (S3-I), a hands-on student training program from the Satellite Research Centre (SaRC) at Singapore’s NTU School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) activity performs in-orbit scientific experiments using the spent PS4 stage as an orbital platform, ISRO said, it is the first time that the PS4 stage would orbit the earth as a stabilized platform. Attitude stabilization is achieved using a dedicated NGC system, it said, POEM derives the power from the solar panels mounted around the PS4 tank and a Li Ion battery. It navigates using four sun sensors, a magnetometer, gyros and NavIC, and carries dedicated control thrusters using Helium gas storage. It is enabled with the telecommand feature.
POEM carries six payloads including two from Indian Space Start-ups M/s Digantara and M/s Dhruva Aerospace, enabled though IN-SPACe and NSIL.
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Source: News18