ISRO successfully launches seven Singaporean satellites onboard PSLV workhorse | Watch

ISRO successfully carried out its second launch mission this month, with the successful orbiting of seven Singaporean satellites using its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launcher, this morning (July 30). In a mission that lasted around 25 minutes, the Indian launch vehicle hurled the primary passenger DS-SAR radar-imaging, Earth observation satellite and six co-passenger satellites into the designated orbit.

"We have a very perfect orbit accomplishment," said ISRO Chairman Dr S Somnath.

This PSLV mission marks the successful launch of 431 foreign-origin satellites by the Indian space agencysince the year 1999.

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D Radhakrishnan, chairman and managing director of NSIL (ISRO's commercial arm) said that it was historic for a single customer (Singapore government and academia) to use the PSLV launcher for four launch missions. Referring to it as a "real record", he expressed faith that Singapore would use the services of ISRO-NSIL for many more missions that they have planned for the coming times.

Notably, it is after a hiatus of nearly five yearsthat ISRO performed two launches in a month. The last time was in November 2018, when ISRO performed launch missions of its LVM3/GSAT-19 and PSLV-HySIS, in quick succession.

The core-alone configuration (without strap-on boosters) PSLV rocket, which offers the least lifting power among PSLVs, lifted off at 6:31 am from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The total payload on board the rocket weighed around 425 kg.

"We have very exciting activities coming up now - the rocket's 4th and final stage is in a 535 km circular orbit. Soon, it will be lowered and brought down to an orbit of 300kms and it will happen in a span of 90 minutes. This will ensure that the spent stage has a lower lifespan as space debris. This is part of our conscious efforts to mitigate space debris and we can eventually bring down the upper stage in a controlled manner," the ISRO Chairman said.

Sharing updates on upcoming missions, ISRO Chairman Somnath told reporters that the 'TV-D1' Gaganyaan flight would be carried out in September. He said that the assembly of the L40-stage-based test vehicle was being carried out at the spaceport in Sriharikota and that the crew module would soon arrive there. 'TV-D1' will be the test flight of the Gaganyaan crew module and is meant to test the abort systems (ejection mechanism) of the crew module, in case of any mid-flight failure or emergency. This is a crucial system that saves the crew, by rapidly carrying the crew module far away from the launch vehicle and ensuring that the crew module safely splashes down in the ocean.

Speaking of the next orbital launch, ISRO Chairman mentioned that it would be PSLV-C57/Aditya-L1, an Indian mission to study the sun from a vantage point in deep space. This vantage point is known as Lagrangian Point 1 (L1) and is situated 1.5 million kilometres from the Earth. This probe is meant to study the various phenomenon occurring in the Sun and the Sun's atmosphere and the impact that it has on space weather.

According to ISRO, the payloads on Aditya L1 are expected to provide the most crucial information to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particles and fields.

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