ISRO PSLV-C56 mission: ‘All 7 satellites placed successfully in right orbit,’ says chief S Somanath

India space agency, ISRO, on Sunday successfully launched its proven PSLV rocket carrying seven Singaporean satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. ISRO chief S Somanath congratulated citizens and informed them that all seven satellites have been successfully placed in the right orbit.

Around 23 minutes after lift-off, the primary satellite got separated and it was followed by six other co-passenger satellites, which were deployed into the intended orbits sequentially, ISRO said. The co-passenger satellites are 1. VELOX-AM, a 23 kg technology demonstration microsatellite, 2. ARCADE Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer (ARCADE), an experimental satellite, 3. SCOOB-II, a 3U nanosatellite flying a technology demonstrator payload, 4. NULloN by NuSpace, an advanced 3U nanosatellite enabling seamless Internet of Things connectivity in both urban and remote locations, 5. Galassia-2, a 3U nanosatellite that would be orbiting at low earth orbit, and 6. ORB-12 STRIDER, a satellite developed under an international collaboration, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said.

On the successful launch and separation of the satellites, ISRO posted on Twitter, “PSLV-C56/DS-SAR Mission: The mission is accomplished. PSLV-C56 vehicle launched all seven satellites precisely into their intended orbits. Thanks to @NSIL_India and Singapore, for the contract.”

Today’s mission was undertaken by ISRO’s commercial arm NewSpace India Limited.

In today’s dedicated commercial mission, the primary payload being carried by ISRO’s trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the DS-SAR Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite, which has been developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, Singapore. DS-SAR, a Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite is the primary satellite for the mission. Once deployed and operational, it will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore.

DS-SAR carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

This allows the DS-SAR to provide for all-weather day and night coverage and is capable of imaging at 1m resolution at full polarimetry.

Today’s mission is the 58th flight of PSLV and using the 17th vehicle with Core Alone Configuration. According to the space agency, a Core Alone version of the rocket means the vehicle would not use solid strap-on motors on its sides in the first stage as compared to other variants like PSLV-XL, QL, and DL which use six, four, or two boosters, respectively. PSLV has earned its title as the ‘Workhorse of ISRO’ through consistently delivering various satellites into low earth orbits, ISRO said. This is the second campaign to be undertaken by ISRO after the much-awaited Chandrayaan-3 mission which was launched on July 14 from the second launch pad, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre.