![]() The PSLV-XL launch vehicle rolled out at Sriharikota First, prior to flight C37 | |
PSLV-XL launch | |
---|---|
Launch | 15 February 2017 , 03:58:00 UTC |
Operator | ISRO |
Pad | Sriharikota First |
Payload | 104 satellites
|
Outcome | Success |
PSLV launches | |
PSLV-C37 was the 39th mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) program and its 16th mission in the XL configuration undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Launched on 15 February 2017 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, the rocket successfully carried and deployed a record number of 104 satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits in a single mission, breaking the earlier record of launching 37 satellites by a Russian Dnepr rocket on 19 June 2014. This record was held until the launch of the Transporter-1 mission by SpaceX on 24 January 2021 which launched 143 satellites.
Its primary payload was the Cartosat-2D Earth observation satellite, while the secondary payloads included a total of 103 nanosatellites, including two experiments from ISRO. The 101 international satellites were launched as part of a commercial arrangement between several firms and ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited, run under the auspices of the Indian Government's Department of Space.
PSLV-C37 was launched from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 09:28 IST on 15 February 2017. It was the 39th flight of the PSLV and the sixteenth in the XL configuration. [1] It carried a total of 104 satellites including the primary payload Cartosat-2D. [2] [3] [4] The launcher started placing the satellites into polar Sun-synchronous orbits one after another after a flight of 16 minutes and 48 seconds. [2] [5] It first ejected the satellite Cartosat-2D at an altitude of approximately 510 kilometres (320 mi), with 97.46 degrees inclination, [1] followed by the two ISRO nanosatellites INS-1A and INS-1B. [2] [5] It then took 11 minutes for PSLV C-37 to place the remaining 101 "co-passenger" satellites into their intended orbits. [4]
Soon after separation from the launch vehicle, the two solar arrays on board the Cartosat-2D satellite were automatically deployed. Afterwards, ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru took 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 remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras," an ISRO statement read. The mission lasted 29 minutes. [5] [1] [4]
Originally, PSLV-C37 was set to launch on 27 January 2017 with 83 satellites. With the addition of twenty more satellites to the payload, the schedule was changed to 15 February 2017. [6] [7]
The rocket launched Cartosat-2D and 103 nanosatellites: two from India, one each from Kazakhstan, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates, along with 96 from the United States – 88 Dove satellites and 8 LEMUR satellites. [1] The three Indian satellites launched were Cartosat-2D, INS-1A, and INS-1B. [9] Arrangements for the launch of the 104 satellites were made between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited, under the auspices of the Indian Government's Department of Space, and the international customers. [10]
The Cartosat-2D weighs 714 kilograms (1,574 lb), and its design life is five years. [1] The two Indian nanosatellites, designated INS-1A and INS-1B, each carried two payloads from ISRO's Space Applications Centre and the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems. INS-1A carried a Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Radiometer (SBR) and a Single Event Upset Monitor (SEUM). INS-1B carried an Earth Exosphere Lyman-Alpha Analyzer (EELA) and Origami Camera as payloads. [1] They weigh 8.4 kilograms (19 lb) and 9.7 kilograms (21 lb) respectively and have been designed with a mission life of six months. [1] [5] An ISRO official said: "The nano satellites are an experimental class of satellites introduced by ISRO because there are requests from academic institutions to use them for data collection. The universities do not have the knowledge to build satellites and tend to take a long time… We want them to focus on the instruments as we can provide the nano satellite bus." [11]
The 103 co-passenger satellites weighed approximately 664 kilograms (1,464 lb), bringing the total payload mass to 1,378 kilograms (3,038 lb). [1] The total launch mass of the rocket was 320,000 kilograms (710,000 lb). [1] Among the 96 satellites belonging to US companies, 88 CubeSats were owned by Planet Labs, a private Earth imaging company based in San Francisco, California. [2] Weighing roughly 5 kilograms (11 lb) each, the satellites separated from the rocket in different directions to avoid collision. [12] With the launch of PSLV-C37, Planet Labs increased its fleet of satellites to 143, which was the largest private satellite fleet in operation at the time. [2] [13]
Eight Lemur-2 satellites belonging to Spire Global are to provide vessel tracking and weather measurement services. These satellites have a short lifetime of about two to three years requiring replacement at regular intervals. [2] [14]
PSLV-C37 used the rocket engine nozzle manufactured by Vijayawada, from Andhra Pradesh-based company Resins and Allied Productions (RAP). This is the 100th nozzle manufactured by RAP to be used in a PSLV. [15] [7] Several components of PSLV-C37 were manufactured by Larsen & Toubro at its advanced composite facility in Vadodara, Gujarat. The honeycomb deck panels used for mounting the heat shield and electronic packages on the upper stage of the PSLV, the antenna mount structure, and the 13 metres (14 yd) diameter bull gear were all manufactured by L&T. [16]
ISRO released a statement stating that it will recover half of the mission's cost from the foreign countries whose satellites it launched. [17]
With this launch, ISRO created a new world record for the largest number of satellites ever launched on a single rocket, surpassing the previous record of Russia, which in 2014 launched 37 satellites using Dnepr rocket. [18] [19] [20] This record set by ISRO stood until 24 January 2021, when SpaceX launched the Transporter-1 mission on a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 143 satellites into orbit. [21]
Imagery from the primary satellite, Cartosat-2D, is used for various land information system and geographical information system applications in India. [1] Data collected by the two Indian nanosatellites—the INS-1A and INS-1B—will be used by ISRO's Space Applications Centre and the Laboratory for Electro-Optics Systems. [11] The Dove satellites from the US are used to photograph the Earth for commercial, environmental, and humanitarian purposes. [22] Eight LEMUR satellites, weighing 4.6 kilograms (10 lb) each, carried two different payloads, namely SENSE for vessel tracking purposes and STRATOS for atmospheric measurements. [23] Al Farabi-1 satellite built by the students of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Nayif-1 satellite built by the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre, Dubai, and PEASSS satellite built by an all-European consortium of Partners, are technology demonstrator satellites whereas DIDO-2 built by SpacePharma from Switzerland is a micro-research satellite. [1] BGUSAT (Ben Gurion University SATellite) [24] built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in cooperation with Ben Gurion University [1] is designed as a research satellite. The satellites objectives are to explore atmospheric and weather phenomena in the infrared wavelength by imaging atmospheric gaseous contents and atmospheric glow. [25]
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV in 1993, only commercially available from Russia. PSLV can also launch small size satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).
Cartosat-3 is an advanced Indian Earth observation satellite built and developed by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which replaces the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS) series. It has a panchromatic resolution of 0.25 metres making it one of the imaging satellite with highest resolution in the world at the time of launch and MX of 1 metre with a high quality resolution which is a major improvement from the previous payloads in the Cartosat series.
Cartosat-2B is an Earth observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit and the fourth of the Cartosat series of satellites. The satellite is the seventeenth satellite in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series to be built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
SRMSAT is a Nanosatellite built by students at Sri Ramaswamy Memorial University in India. The satellite is an Indian Technology demonstration and Earth observation satellite which is operated by the SRM Institute of Science and Technology. This nanosatellite was used to monitor Greenhouse gases in atmosphere.
TUGSAT-1, also known as BRITE-Austria and CanX-3B, is the first Austrian satellite. It is an optical astronomy spacecraft operated by the Graz University of Technology as part of the international BRIght-star Target Explorer programme.
The Cartosat is a series of Indian optical Earth observation satellites built and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The Cartosat series is a part of the Indian Remote Sensing Program. They are used for Earth's resource management, defence services and monitoring.
Cartosat-2C is an Earth observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and is a fifth flight unit of Cartosat series of satellites. It is a geostationary satellite and appears stationary over a place on the earth. The satellite is built at space application centre Ahmedabad, launched and maintained by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was launched on 22 June 2016.
PSLV-C34 was the 36th mission of the PSLV program and 14th mission of PSLV in XL configuration. The PSLV-C34 successfully carried and deployed 20 satellites in the Sun-synchronous orbit. With a launch mass of 320,000 kilograms (710,000 lb) and payload mass of 1,288 kilograms (2,840 lb), the C34 set a new record of deploying the maximum number of satellites by Indian Space Research Organisation in a single mission. The PSLV-C34 carried One Cartosat-2 satellite, SathyabamaSat, Swayam & 17 other satellites from United States, Canada, Germany & Indonesia.
PSLV-C6 was the sixth operational launch and overall ninth mission of the PSLV program. This launch was also the fifty-fourth launch by Indian Space Research Organisation since its first mission on 1 January 1962. The vehicle carried and injected India's two satellites; Cartosat-1 and HAMSAT into the Sun-synchronous orbit. PSLV-C6 was launched at 04:44 hours Coordinated Universal Time on 5 May 2005 from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Cartosat-2E is an Earth observation satellite developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and is the seventh in the Cartosat series. It is designed to collect high-resolution, large-scale imagery for use in urban planning, infrastructure development, utilities planning, and traffic management.
Cartosat-2D is an Earth observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) and the fifth of the Cartosat series of satellites. The satellite is built, launched and maintained by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Cartosat-2D has a mass of 714 kg.
PSLV-C38 was the 40th mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) program and its 17th mission in the XL configuration. PSLV-C38 successfully carried and deployed 31 satellites in Sun-synchronous orbit. It was launched on 23 June 2017 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Microsat-TD was an Earth observing satellite developed by ISRO. Its launch marked India's 100 satellites in space. This satellite could capture images at night by imaging in infrared spectrum.
ISISPACE (Innovative Solutions In Space) is a Dutch NewSpace company based in Delft dedicated to the design, manufacture and operation of CubeSats.
B. Codanayaguy is an Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer at the ISRO. She is responsible for the instrumentation of control systems for the solid rocket motors used in rocket launches. She was given the highest award for women in India, the Nari Shakti Puraskar, at the Presidential Palace in 2017.
PSLV-C46 was a mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, launched on Thursday, May 22, 2019, at 05:30 Hrs (IST) by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. In this mission, the 'Core-Alone' configuration of PSLV was flown.
PSLV-C47 was a mission of the Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, launched on Thursday, November 27, 2019, at 09:27 Hrs (IST) by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.