PSLV set for another fully commercial launch

 

Next Tuesday’s PSLV rocket launch with all six Singapore satellites had a full dress rehearsal at Sriharikota on Saturday.

The December 16 launch is to be formally cleared on Sunday by two decision-making bodies — the Mission Readiness Review Committee and the Launch Authorisation Board — after they take stock of the preparations, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

With the two bodies approving, the PSLV will put six Singapore spacecraft, small and mid-sized, into a 550-km orbit at 6 p.m. on that day.

The upcoming flight of PSLV-C29 is the 32nd flight of the Indian light-lift launcher. It is also the sixth time it will carry to space only foreign satellites of customers, according to the official.

For the 11th time, it will fly in the core-alone or bare-bones format, without the six/four small appendage strap-on solid-fuelled rockets.

The dress rehearsal involves a dry launch drill involving the participating centres — mainly launch port Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in coastal Andhra Pradesh and the respective centres that will take over satellite operations after the launch.

The customers’ respective operating agencies take charge of the spacecraft as soon as the launcher ejects them into space.

Since 1999, the PSLV, marketed by ISRO arm Antrix Corporation, has launched for a fee 51 small and medium-sized satellites (of up to 700 kg) of customers of 20 countries; it is seen to be gaining traction for small, experimental and Earth observation satellites in the international market.

The official said the PSLV has been a proven, reliable vehicle and one of its kind in the launchers category.

Quelle: TheHindu

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty-second flight (PSLV-C29), will launch six satellites of Singapore into a 550 km circular orbit inclined at 15 degrees to the equator. Of these six satellites, TeLEOS-1 is the primary satellite weighing 400 kg whereas the other five are co-passenger satellites which include two micro-satellites and three nano-satellites. PSLV-C29 will be launched from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the eleventh flight of PSLV in 'core-alone' configuration (without the use of solid strap-on motors).

Along with TeLEOS-1, the five co-passenger satellites launched are VELOX-CI (123 kg) micro-satellite; VELOX-II (13 kg) 6U-Cubesat technology demonstrator; Athenoxat-1, a technology demonstrator nano-satellite; Kent Ridge-1 (78 kg), a micro-satellite; and Galassia (3.4 kg ) 2U-Cubesat.

The launch is scheduled at 18:00 hrs (IST) on Dec. 16, 2015 from (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota

Quelle: ISRO

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