ISRO’s PSLV-C53 successfully places satellites in intended orbit

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), on Thursday, successfully launched PSLV-C53/DS-EO from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, with the ISRO’s power-horse rocket placing the satellites exactly in the intended orbit.

This was the second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), designed to put in orbit the DS-EO satellite, along with two other co-passenger satellites from ST Electronics, Singapore.

At 6.02 pm, ISRO’s work-horse PSLV zoomed into the sky from the second launch pad carrying three satellites — DS-EO, a 365 kg satellite, and NeuSAR, a 155 kg satellite, both belonging to Singapore and built by Starec Initiative, Republic of Korea. The third was a 2.8 kg Scoob-1 of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

55th mission of PSLV

This was the 55th mission of PSLV and the 15th mission using the PSLV-Core Alone variant. It is the 16th PSLV launch from the second launch pad. The mission proposes to demonstrate the utilisation of the spent upper stage of the launch vehicle as a stabilised platform for scientific payloads subsequent to the separation of the satellites, says a release from ISRO.

The four-stage 44.4 m tall PSLV-C53 had a lift-off mass of 228.433, and precisely injected DS-EO satellite into an orbit at an altitude of 570 km measured from the equator.

PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) DS-EO carries an Electro-Optic, multi-spectral payload with 0.5 m resolution imaging capability. The POEM activity performs in-orbit scientific experiments using the spent PS4 stage as an orbital platform. It is the first time that the PS4 stage would orbit the earth as a stabilised platform.

POEM derives the power from the solar panels mounted around the PS4 tank and a Li Ion battery. It navigates using four sun sensors, a magnetometer, gyros & NavIC. It carries dedicated control thrusters using Helium gas storage. It is enabled with tele-command feature.

POEM carries six payloads, including two from Indian Space Start-ups Digantara and Dhruva Aerospace, enabled though IN-SPACe and NSIL.

After the successful launch, speaking from the mission control room, ISRO Chairman, S Somnath, said PSLV-C53 has placed the customer satellites of NSIL in the precise orbit of 570 km. This is yet another major mission in the month of June after the successful launch of India's communication satellite GSAT-24 by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana on June 22.

In today’s mission all the three satellites were placed in the right orbit, and further activities of the satellites will be taken up and the mission will be a complete success for customers. The orbital experimental module is going to be functional after the launch by taking over the fourth stage from the primary mission computer to another computer, which will take on from there. The PSLV fourth stage will be a stage generating power on board and stabilised with altitude control and also certain experiments hosted by some of the start ups, he said.

Mission Director, SR Biju, said: “PSLV was in a different configuration — Core Alone — this time and we are coming back to SLP with this variant after a long time. Certain changes had to be introduced to improve the productionisation of PSLV to meet the growing demands of the customers. The changes that were implemented have yielded results, he said.

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