24-hour countdown for GSLV Mk3's first-ever commercial flight to begin Saturday

The 24-hour countdown for the first-ever commercial launch of India's heaviest rocket, the GSLV Mk3 is set to commence at 00:07 hrs on Saturday. The launch will be carried out from India's spaceport Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota on Sunday, 23rd October at 12:07 am.

The wee-hour launch is meant to place 36 satellites of UK-based OneWeb, in Low Earth Orbit, around 601kms above the earth's surface.

During the countdown, the rocket's systems and satellite health will be monitored. Liquid and cryogenic fuels that power the second and third stage of the rocket respectively would also be filled during the final hours of the countdown.

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OneWeb is a global communication network powered from space, enabling connectivity for governments, businesses and communities. The firm is implementing a constellation of Low Earth orbit satellites, which will be arranged in 12 orbital planes with 49 satellites in each plane; this constellation will have a total of 648 satellites.

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India's Bharti Enterprises serves as a major shareholder and investor in OneWeb. This is OneWeb's 14th launch overall and first-ever launch with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and its commercial arm NSIL.

The duration of the mission, from lift-off till separation of the first satellite will be a little over 19 minutes. This launch will mark the entry of the Indian GSLV Mk3 rocket into the global medium-lift commercial launch services arena, which has largely been a duopoly of American and European firms.

The GSLV Mk3 rocket is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-on motors (burns solid fuel), a core-stage liquid booster (burns a combination of liquid fuels) and a cryogenic upper stage (burns liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen). GSLV Mk III is designed to carry a 4-ton class of satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) or about 10 tonnes to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is about twice the capability of its predecessor, the GSLV Mk II.

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Thus far, ISRO has purely relied on its PSLV rocket (that can carry up to 1.75 tonnes to Low Earth Orbit), to do commercial launches. The addition of the GSLV MK3 to this list would mean that India can make a greater impact in the International market and thereby earn revenue from launching heavier customer satellites.

ISRO will be carrying out a similar launch of the GSLV Mk3 in early 2023, to place in orbit another batch of OneWeb satellites.

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