In its 43rd flight, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C41) successfully launched the 1,425 kg IRNSS-1I Navigation Satellite on Thursday from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
PSLV-C41 lifted off at 0404 hrs (4:04 am) IST from the First Launch Pad. After a flight lasting about 19 minutes, the vehicle achieved a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 281.5 km and an apogee (farthest point to earth) of 20,730 km inclined at an angle of 19.2 degree to the equator. At this point, IRNSS-1I separated from PSLV.
After separation, the solar panels of IRNSS-1I were deployed automatically. ISRO’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan, Karnataka took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, orbit manoeuvres will be performed from MCF to position the satellite at 55 degree East longitude in the planned Geosynchronous Orbit with an inclination of 29 degree to the equator.
IRNSS-1I is the latest member of the ‘Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC)’ system. NavIC, also known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), is an independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1,500 km around the Indian mainland.
A number of ground facilities responsible for IRNSS satellite ranging and monitoring, generation and transmission of navigation parameters, satellite control, network timing, among others have been established in many locations across the country as part of NavIC.
Till now, PSLV has successfully launched 52 Indian satellites and 237 customer satellites from foreign customers.
Nine months after the failure its last navigation satellite IRNSS-1H in August 2017, India’s space agency ISRO is all set to launch another navigation satellite to complete the indigenous GPS system, as a part of the series of IRNSS navigation satellites from its spaceport in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on April 12.
IRNSS is similar to US’ Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia’s Glonass and Europe’s Galileo. China and Japan also have similar systems, ‘Beidou’ and ‘Quasi Zenith’.
The new PSLV-C41/IRNSS-1I Mission will lift off on Thursday morning, April 12, 2018 at 04:04 Hrs (IST). The last one in the series, IRNSS-1H launched last year on August 31 aboard the PSLV-C39, was unsuccessful. IRNSS-1I will replace IRNSS-1A, the first of the 7 navigation satellites in the series, which was rendered ineffective after its three rubidium atomic clocks failed.
“The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will launch IRNSS-1I satellite from the first launch pad in Sriharikota on April 12 at 4.04 a.m.,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.
India’s PSLC in its 43rd flight (PSLV-C41) in XL configuration will launch IRNSS-1I Satellite from First Launch Pad (FLP) of SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota. The ‘XL’ configuration of PSLV is used for the 20th time and the IRNSS-1I is the 8th satellite to join the NavIC navigation satellite constellation.
IRNSS-1I is the eighth navigation satellite to join the IRNSS space segment consisting of previous satellites — IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G — launched by PSLV-C22, PSLV-C24, PSLV-C26, PSLV-C27, PSLV-C31, PSLV-C32 and PSLV-C33 in July 2013, April 2014, October 2014, March 2015, January 2016, March 2016 and April 2016 respectively.
Barring IRNSS-iH which was a failure, like all other IRNSS satellites, IRNSS-1I also has a lift-off mass of 1425 kg and its configuration is similar to IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G.
IRNSS-1I will carry two types of payloads – navigation payload and ranging payload. The navigation payload of IRNSS-1I transmits signals for the determination of position, velocity and time. It will operate in L5-band and S-band, besides rubidium atomic clocks.
The ranging payload of IRNSS-1I consists of a C-band transponder, which facilitates accurate determination of the range of the satellite and it carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for LASER Ranging.
IRNSS navigation satellites
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an indegenous GPS system to meet the user requirements of the positioning, navigation and timing services over India and its neighbourhood, to provide fairly good accuracy to the user. The IRNSS will provide Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS).
The navigation satellite series consist of seven satellites, three in GEO stationary orbit (GEO) and four in Geo Synchronous Orbit (GSO) with inclination of 29° to the equatorial plane. This constellation of seven satellites was named “NavIC” (Navigation with Indian Constellation) and dedicated to the nation on the occasion of successful launch of IRNSS-1G, the seventh and last satellite of NavIC.
All the satellites will be visible at all times in the Indian region. All the seven Satellites of NavIC are functioning from their designated orbital positions, said ISRO. IRNSS-1H launched in August 2017 was the only unsuccessful mission in the series.
The Ground segment comprises of TTC & Uplinking Stations, Spacecraft Control Centre, IRNSS Timing Centre, CDMA Ranging Stations, Navigation Control Centre and Data Communication Links.
Applications or uses of NavIC:
Applications of IRNSS navigation (NavIC) satellites include several uses for fishermen going to sea, weather forecast, warning on crossing international waters inadvertantly. Merchant ships will benefit while navigating to their destination in the ocean routes, in disastrous situations using its current location.
In road transport, NavIC, with its position service, helps the travellers to go from one location to the other and enables transport operators to track their vehicles and goods.
For Indian Railways, NavIC helps in alerting the road users at Unmanned Level Crossings to avoid accidents by closely monitoring the approaching trains. Geo-tagging and Geo-fencing techniques of NavIC help in developing virtual maps.
By Linking position information from NavIC with Geo-Informatics Systems where several layers of information are linked on maps and satellite imagery, a host of location based services are offered to the general public. Using such features, one could easily locate a restaurant, shop, college, bus-stop, office, hospital, fuel pump, picnic spot, etc.
Survey of land utilization, port operations, precision agriculture, road and rail alignments, etc. are possible with NavIC. When integrated with mobile phones, can bring a major transformation in the delivery of customized applications to the consumer segment.
ISRO, the Indian space agency has lost contact with its GSAT-6A satellite, two days after its perfect launch. ISRO Chairman K. Sivan on Sunday said the agency is working overnight to restore the link and put the satellite in its intended orbit soon.
The 2,000kg satellite, costing the agency over Rs 240 crore was to be placed in its intended orbit 36,000 km above ground level after three orbit-raising manoeuvres from the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan near Bangalore.
The GSAT-6A was to provide platform for satellite based mobile communication applications with a lifespan of about 10 years. It was to complement 2015 satellite the GSAT-6.
“The first two manoeuvres had worked as they were intended to but as the third manoeuvre was going to be fired, the satellite stopped responding. We are going through the data meticulously to establish a link with the satellite,” said Sivan, who took charge as the space agency’s chief in January.
After its successful launch on March 29 at 16:56 Hrs (IST), the first orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A Satellite was successfully carried out by LAM Engine firing for 2188 sec from 09:22hr IST on March 30, 2018, reported ISRO earlier.
The successful Orbit Determination results from this LAM firing changed the GSAT-6A’s apogee X perigee height to 36412 km X 5054 km, with an inclination at 11.93 degrees. Its orbital period was reported to be 12 hours and 45 minutes.
It was not unusual for a spacecraft to go into safe mode and remian incommunicado due to weather disturbances but it should have returned to normal mode once the ground control revives it, which did not happen despite two days already lost in the process. If not insured, it is likely to deal another dent in ISRO’s budget planning.
GSLV-F08 is the 12th flight of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) and Sixth flight with indigenous Cryogenic Stage. The Launch of GSLV-F08 carrying GSAT-6A took place from the Second Launch Pad (SLP) in Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
In August last year, India’s backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 ended in a failure after a perfect launch but due to non-separation of its heat shield during the final leg of the launch sequence.
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the Moon, is a totally indigenous mission comprising of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover. It envisages complex tasks like soft-landing, Rover separation and movement on the lunar surface, in addition to operations of Orbiter, informed Minister Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Several new technology elements have been developed indigenously and tests are being carried out for validation. Orbiter has completed Thermo-vacuum test which is one of the major milestones, he said.
Lander Sensors and Actuators are tested on ground to validate the performance and the results are satisfactory, while rover flight model is under assembly, said the minister. Payloads are in various stages of delivery for Spacecraft integration, he informed the House.
After reaching the 100 km lunar orbit, the Lander housing the Rover will separate from the Orbiter. After a controlled descent, the Lander will soft land on the lunar surface at a specified site and deploy a Rover, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The mission will carry a six-wheeled Rover which will move around the landing site in semi-autonomous mode as decided by the ground commands. The instruments on the rover will observe the lunar surface and send back data, which will be useful for analysis of the lunar soil.
The Chandrayaan-2 weighing around 3290 kg and would orbit around the moon and perform the objectives of remote sensing the moon. The payloads will collect scientific information on lunar topography, mineralogy, elemental abundance, lunar exosphere and signatures of hydroxyl and water-ice.
To be carried by GSLV-F10,Chandrayaan-2 Mission is planned during first half of 2018.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will launch its next satellite on August 31.
ISRO said it would put into orbit the IRNSS-1H satellite at 18:59 hours on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, using the rocket PSLV-C39 from Sriharikota. The payload would augment the capacity of India’s seven-satellite ‘NavIC’ constellation or the GPS equivalent in space.
The NavIC constellation consists of 3 IRNSS satellites located in suitable orbital slots in the geostationary orbit and the remaining 4 in geosynchronous orbits with the required inclination and equatorial crossings in two different planes. Configured identially, all the seven satellites are equipped with I-1K Bus to be compatible on-board the ISRO workhorse PSLV vehicle.
The first satellite in the series, IRNSS-1A developed a technical snag earlier, as its rubidium atomic clock failed in space, requiring the current satellite, which will take over the mantle of the first payload in the series.
IRNSS is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. It is designed to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area. An Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.
IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.
Some applications of IRNSS:
Terrestrial, Aerial and Marine Navigation
Disaster Management
Vehicle tracking and fleet management
Integration with mobile phones
Precise Timing
Mapping and Geodetic data capture
Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
Within months after successfully launching more than 100 satellites at one go, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C38 successfully launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on Friday, June 23, 2017 in its 39th consecutively successful mission of PSLV.
PSLV-C38 lifted off at 9:29 am IST from the First Launch Pad from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. After a flight of about 16 minutes, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 505 km inclined at an angle of 97.44 degree to the equator in the next 8 minutes, all the 31 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV in a predetermined sequence beginning with Cartosat-2 series satellite, followed by NIUSAT and 29 customer satellites. With today’s launch, the total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV are 48.
After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at ground at Hassan, near Bangalore took over the control of the satellite. In few days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration and orbit. Soon, the satellite will provide remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras, said ISRO in a statement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated ISRO on its 40th successful PSLV launch. He said, “Congratulations to ISRO on its 40th successful Polar satellite launch carrying 31 satellites from 15 countries. You make us proud.”
One of the 30 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C38 include the 15 kg NIUSAT, a University/Academic Institute satellite from Nurul Islam University, Tamil Nadu, India, while the other 29 were international customer satellites from USA (10), United Kingdom (3), Belgium (3), Italy (3), Austria (1), Chile (1), Czech Republic (1), Finland (1), France (1), Germany (1), Japan (1), Latvia (1), Lithuania (1) and Slovakia (1).
ISRO’s PSLV launch has so far lofted off 209 foreign customer satellites, said ISRO.
The first developmental flight (GSLV MkIII-D1) of India’s heavy lift launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III was successfully conducted today (June 05, 2017) evening from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota with the launch of GSAT-19 satellite.
This was the first orbital mission of GSLV MkIII which was mainly intended to evaluate the vehicle performance including that of its fully indigenous cryogenic upper stage during the flight. Weighing 3136 kg at lift-off, GSAT-19 is the heaviest satellite launched from the Indian soil.
After a twenty five and a half hour smooth countdown, the mission began with the launch of the 640 ton GSLV Mk-III at 5:28 pm IST from the Second Launch Pad as scheduled with the ignition of its two S200 solid strap-on boosters. Following this, the major phases of the flight occurred as scheduled. The upper stage of GSLV MkIII vehicle is a new cryogenic stage (C25) indigenously configured, designed and realised by ISRO.
The cryogenic stage used liquid Hydrogen and liquid Oxygen as propellants with a total loading of 28 tons. The stage is powered by a 20 ton thrust cryogenic engine (CE20) operating on “gas generator cycle”. The performance of the engine and stage during the mission was as predicted. About sixteen minutes after lift-off, GSAT-19 satellite was successfully placed in orbit.
Soon after its separation from GSLV, the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka assumed control of the satellite. GSAT-19 is a high throughput communication satellite.
In the coming days, GSAT-19 orbit will be raised from its present Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) to the final circular Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the satellite’s Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. During the final phase of this operation, the solar panels and antenna reflectors of the satellite will be deployed. The satellite will be commissioned into service after its positioning in the designated slot in the GSO following in-orbit testing of its payloads.
In its 39th flight PSLV-C37, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite and 103 other satellites on Wednesday morning, February 15, 2017, at 9:28 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
This is the 38th consecutively successful mission of PSLV, which weighed 1,378 kg, that lifted off from the First Launch Pad.
Within 16 minutes 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degree to the equator and in the succeeding 12 minutes, all the 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV.
In a predetermined sequence Cartosat-2 followed by INS-1 and INS-2 separated, making the total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV to 46.
The two arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of it. Next, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras.
The imagery from the Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.
The data sets will be useful for urban planning of 500 cities under the Amrut Planning Scheme. The government initiative of 100 smart city programme in which these data sets could be used for master plan preparation.
Of the 103 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C37, two – ISRO Nano Satellite-1 (INS-1) weighing 8.4 kg and INS-2 weighing 9.7 kg – are technology demonstration satellites from India.
The remaining 101 co-passenger satellites carried were international customer satellites from USA (96), The Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1), Israel (1), Kazakhstan (1) and UAE (1).
The complex mission involved many technical challenges like realising the launch of a large number of satellites during a single mission within the time frame sought by the customers from abroad. With today’s successful launch, the total number of foreign satellites on PSLV has reached 180.
In its 38th flight (PSLV-C36), ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 1,235 kg RESOURCESAT-2A Satellite on Wednesday morning (December 07, 2016) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.
After PSLV-C36 lift-off at 10:25 am IST from the First Launch Pad with the ignition of the first stage, the subsequent important flight events, namely, strap-on ignitions and separations, first stage separation, second stage ignition, payload fairing separation, second stage separation, third stage ignition and separation, fourth stage ignition and cut-off, took place as planned.
After a flight of 17 minutes 05 seconds, the vehicle achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 824 km height inclined at an angle of 98.725 degree to the equator (very close to the intended orbit) and 47 seconds later, RESOURCESAT-2A was separated from the PSLV fourth stage.
After separation, the two solar arrays of RESOURCESAT-2A deployed automatically and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide imagery from its three cameras. The data sent by RESOURCESAT-2A will be useful for agricultural applications like crop area and crop production estimation, drought monitoring, soil mapping, cropping system analysis and farm advisories generation.
Like its predecessors RESOURCESAT-1 and 2, RESOURCESAT-2A has a unique 3-Tier imaging system with Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS), Linear Imaging Self Scanner-3 (LISS-3) and Linear Imaging Self Scanner-4 (LISS-4) cameras. The AWiFS provides images with a sampling of 56 metres, a swath of 740 km and a revisit of 5 days whereas the LISS-3 provides 23.5 metre sampled images with 141 km swath and a repitivity of 24 days. LISS-4 provides 5.8 metre sampled images with 70 km swath and a revisit of 5 days.
"With today’s launch, the PSLV has yet again demonstrated its reliability," said ISRO in a statement. The total number of satellites launched by India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV including today’s RESOURCESAT-2A has now reached 122, of which 43 are Indian and the remaining 79 are from abroad.
