February 10, 2023 09:52 am | Updated February 13, 2023 05:28 pm IST – SRIHARIKOTA
SSLV-D2 took off exactly at 09:18 hours IST on February 10, 2023 from the primary launch pad on the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR, Sriharikota.
| Photo Credit: R. RAGU
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its second developmental flight of a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle — SSLV-D2 — and positioned three satellites in its exact orbit on February 10 morning.
The three satellites are ISRO’s Earth Observation Satellite – EOS 07, U.S.-based agency Antaris’ Janus-1 and Chennai-based house start-up SpaceKidz’s AzaadiSAT-2.
SSLV-D2 lifted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre-SHAR, Sriharikota at 9:18 a.m. This is the primary satellite tv for pc launch in 2023.
“The SSLV-D2-EOS-07 mission is successfully accomplished,” ISRO talked about on its Twitter deal with, a couple of minutes after the car took off. ISRO in an announcement stated: “The vehicle injected satellites into close to 450 km circular orbit at an inclination of 37.2 degrees. The tracking network took control of EOS-07 satellite. Deployment of the solar panels and the generation of power is confirmed.”
ISRO Chairman S. Somanath stated, “In its second attempt SSLV-D2 has placed the EOS-07 satellite in its intended orbit very accurately. Two more satellites -Janus-1 and AzaadiSAT-2 were also placed in the required orbit.”
The Chairman additional stated: “SSLV had its maiden flight SSLV-D1 and we had a narrow miss of placing the satellite in the orbit because of a shortfall in velocity. I’m happy to report that we have analysed the problems faced in SSLV D1 – identified the corrective actions and implemented it. We went through lot of studies to ensure that the vehicle will become success this time,” he added.
“And I’m happy this has been executed in reality. The orbit achieved by the vehicle today is exceedingly good,” Mr. Somanath stated.
Noting that this journey started in 2018, S.S. Vinod, Mission Director of SSLV, stated, “We had the maiden flight in August 2022 and we could not place the satellite in the intended orbit. Post that detailed analysis with a number of teams was carried out and we were able to pinpoint the problem in the system. We overcame that.”
He added, “And in a period of five months we have come back. And we will be coming back soon with the next launch of SSLV.”
It could also be recalled that the first developmental flight of SSLV lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on August 7, 2022, and ended as much as be a partial failure, because the rocket did not inject its satellite tv for pc payload of their meant orbits.
According to ISRO, the spacecraft was injected right into a extremely elliptical unstable orbit resulting from a shortfall in velocity, resulting in their decay and deorbiting instantly, regardless of the conventional efficiency of all strong propulsion levels.
Subsequent detailed evaluation of the flight occasions and observations ranging from the countdown, lift-off, propulsion efficiency, stage separations and satellite tv for pc injection revealed that there was a vibration disturbance for a brief period on the Equipment Bay (EB) deck throughout the second stage (SS2) separation. This affected the Inertial Navigation System (INS), leading to declaring the sensors defective by the logic in Fault Detection and Isolation (FDI) software program.
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About SSLV-D2
EOS-07 is a 156.3 kg satellite tv for pc designed, developed and realized by ISRO. The mission goal of EOS-07 is to design and develop payload devices suitable with microsatellite bus and new applied sciences, that are required for future operational satellites. Moreover, it’ll additionally design and develop a microsatellite accommodating new know-how payloads in a fast turn-around time.
New experiments embody mm-Wave Humidity Sounder and Spectrum Monitoring Payload. Weighing round 10.2 kg, Janus-1 is a know-how demonstrator, sensible satellite tv for pc mission based mostly on the Antaris software program platform. An 8.7 kg satellite tv for pc AzaadiSAT-2 is a mixed effort of about 750 lady college students throughout India guided by Space Kidz India, Chennai.
According to particulars offered by ISRO, SSLV caters to the launch of as much as 500 kg satellites to Low Earth Orbits on a “launch-on-demand” foundation. It supplies low-cost entry to house, gives low turn-around time and suppleness in accommodating a number of satellites, and calls for minimal launch infrastructure. It is configured with three strong propulsion levels and a velocity terminal module. It is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter car having a lift-off mass of 120 tonnes.
