PSLV C-55 - SCI & TECH
News: ISRO
PSLV-C55 successfully launches two Singapore satellites into orbit
What's in the news?
● Indian
Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C55 (PSLV-C55)
carrying Singapore’s TeLEOS-2 as the
primary satellite and Lumelite-4 as a co-passenger satellite took off from the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on April 22 and placed the them into
the intended orbit.
Key takeaways:
● The
PSLV in its 57th mission has once again demonstrated its high reliablity and
its suitability for commercial missions of such class.
● PSLV-C55
is a dedicated commercial PSLV mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), for an
international satellite customer from Singapore.
Singapore Satellites:
● In
this mission, TeLEOS-2 a Synthetic
Aperture Radar satellite will be the primary satellite and Lumelite-4 a technology demonstration
nano-satellite will be co-passenger satellite.
● The
TeLEOS-2 satellite is developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing
the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering. Once deployed and operational,
it will be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various
agencies within the Government of Singapore.
Go back to basics:
Launch Vehicles:
● Launch
vehicles are meant only to deposit satellites
into space, after which they become useless.
● They
either burn up in space or add to the ever-increasing concern of space debris.
PSLV:
● PSLV
is the most reliable rocket used by ISRO to date. Its first launch was in 1994,
and it has been ISRO’s main rocket ever since.
● Apart
from Indian satellites, it also carries satellites from other nations into
space, like in the current mission, where it carried payloads from Singapore.
○ The
reason for this is that apart from being reliable, the PSLV is also more affordable
than the launch vehicles of many other countries.
● The
vehicle has launched numerous Indian and foreign customer satellites.
● Besides,
the vehicle successfully launched two spacecraft, Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013, that
later travelled to Moon and Mars respectively.
● Chandrayaan-1
and MOM were feathers in the hat of PSLV.
● PSLV
earned its title ‘the workhorse of ISRO’
through consistently delivering various satellites into low earth orbits.
● The
current mission includes the component, POEM-2,
which stands for PSLV Orbital Experimental Module.
Parts of PSLV:
PSLV
has four parts such as
● PS1
- a solid rocket motor augmented by
6 solid strap-on boosters.
● PS2
- a storable liquid rocket engine,
known as the Vikas engine.
● PS3
- a solid rocket motor that provides
the upper stages high thrust after the atmospheric phase of the launch.
● PS4
- the uppermost stage consisting of two Earth storable liquid engines.
Further Reference: Launch Vehicles