ISRO’s reliable work horse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 31st flight (PSLV-C30), launched the indigenous 1,513 kg Astrosat into a 650-km orbit. Along with Astrosat, six satellites from international customers were launched in this PSLV flight.

The rocket had a precise lift off at 10 a.m. from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR.

Within a few seconds, the rocket roared in to the clear blue sky leaving behind a trail of thick smoke witnessed by a large contingent of media persons assembled at the terrace of the media centre located nearly 5 km from the launch pad.

“It was yet another text book launch,” said an ISRO official.

The successful launch was also a milestone for ISRO, which has now over 50 foreign satellites into their intended orbit. Till today’s launch, ISRO has so far launched 45 foreign satellites on a commercial basis.

International customers PSLV-C30 carried LAPAN-A2, a micro-satellite from Indonesia; NLS-14 (Ev9), a nanosatellite from Canada; four Lemur nano satellites from the US.

After injection into Orbit, the two solar panels of Astrosat were automatically deployed in quick succession. The spacecraft control centre at Mission Operations Complex of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru started managing the satellite during its mission life.

AS Kiran Kumar, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said that it was a very eventful day with the workhorse PSLV successfully launching Astrosat. “A wonderful job they (scientists) have done,” he told from the mission control room.

It took nearly a decade to develop a full-fledged astronomy satellite as multiple research institutions were involved in the programme along with ISRO, he later told newspersons.

Celebration time It was double celebration time for the Indian space programme.

First, on September 24, Mars Orbiter spacecraft completed one year of its life around the red planet.

Now it’s time to celebrate another major success with today’s launch of Astrosat, India’s first dedicated astronomy satellite or a space observatory to look at objects in the sky from multiple wavelengths.

Astrosat now joins the elite group of three other space observatories – Hubble of the US, Spektr R of Russia and Suzaku of Japan – in astronomical observations.

The indigenous ₹178-crore Astrosat, an orbiting telescope, is being referred to as a miniature version of the Hubble, the US-European joint space observatory.

“We cannot compare Astrosat with Hubble as ours is smaller in size. However, our’s is no way inferior to the Hubble in features,” said an ISRO official.

A milestone So far, ISRO satellite missions were either applications oriented or scientific in nature.

For instance, the first Indian satellite Aryabatta was a scientific satellite, followed by scientific satellite missions like SROSS and Youthsat. Besides, IRS-P3 and GSAT-2 carrying on board piggyback scientific experiments. Chandrayaan-I and Mars Orbiter Mission (MoM) explored the Moon and Mars respectively. MoM releases images once in every two-and-half days.

There are loads of pictures sent by MoM in the last one year that are being used by students and scientists, said Kumar.

However, Astrostat is the next major space science mission to be undertaken by the ISRO, said a senior official.

On the significance of Astrosat, an official said that India has ground-based telescopes such as the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune and the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Ladakh.

However, without a space telescope, scientists so far relied on the telescopes operated NASA and the European Space Agency to study ‘radiation bands’ that carry information about neutron stars, newly born or exploding stars and the spiralling hot gases around black holes.

Now, Indian scientists can use the indigenous Astrosat for their research.

It will help in understanding high energy processes in binary star systems containing neutron stars and black holes, estimate magnetic fields of neutron stars and study star birth regions and high energy processes in star systems lying beyond the galaxy, said an ISRO official.

After the success of the satellite-borne Indian X-ray Astronomy Experiment, which was launched in 1996, the ISRO approved the development for a full-fledged astronomy satellite, Astrosat, in 2004.

Astrosat carries four X-ray payloads, one UV telescope and a charge particle monitor.  Apart from ISRO, four other Indian institutions – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and Raman Research Institute – were involved in the payload development.

Two of the payloads are in collaboration with Canadian Space Agency and University of Leiscester, UK.

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