On November 26, 2022, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C54 rocket from First Launch Pad (FLP) Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh (AP).
- This is the 56th flight of PSLV, and the 24th Flight of the PSLV-XL version with 6 PSOM-XLs.
Satellites carried by PSLV-C54 rocket:
It carried 9 satellites viz. India’s Earth Observation Satellite -06 (EOS-06), also known as Oceansat-3, and the 8 nanosatellites viz. ISRO Nano Satellite-2 for Bhutan (INS-2B), Anand Satellite, 4 Astrocast satellites, and 2 Thybolt satellites.
About Satellites:
EOS-06
Weighing 1,117 kgs, it is built by ISRO for use by departments and ministries in the Government of India. Â It is third generation satellite in the Oceansat series, which provides continued services of Oceansat-2 with enhanced payload capability.
- It carried four payloads viz. Ocean Color Monitor (OCM-3), Sea Surface Temperature Monitor (SSTM), Ku-Band Scatterometer (SCAT-3), ARGOS.
INS-2B
Weighing 18.28 kgs, India-Bhutan SAT will provide high-resolution images to Bhutan for the management of its natural resources. It is a collaborative mission between India and Bhutan. It has the following two payloads:
- NanoMx, a multispectral optical imaging payload developed by Space Applications Centre (SAC)
- APRS-Digipeater, which is jointly developed by DITT (Department of Information Technology & Telecom)-Bhutan and U R Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), Bengaluru (Karnataka).
Anand:
Weighing 16.51 kgs Satellite, Anand is developed by India’s Bengaluru (Karnataka)-based startup Pixxel. It is a three axis stabilized nano satellite which act as technology demonstrator for miniaturized electro-optical payload.
Thybolt:
Weighing around 1.45 kgs, it is 0.5U spacecraft bus with 2 two Satellites from Dhruvaspace, India. It includes a communication payload to enable rapid technology demonstration and constellation development for multiple users
Astrocast:
Weighing 17.92kg, it is a 3U spacecraft with 4 Satellites from Spaceflight Inc, US (United States). They were a technology demonstrator for the Internet of Things (IoT) as the payload.
Key Points:
i.India has assisted in building up the capacity of Bhutanese engineers through hands-on training at the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC) Â in Bengaluru.
ii.ISRO is planning to have its mission to the sun with its satellite Aditya-L1, a coronagraphy spacecraft to study the solar atmosphere, with a PSLV rocket in 2023.
Recent Related News:
i.NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a CPSE (Central Public Sector Enterprises) under the Department of Space (DoS) and the commercial arm of ISRO, signed two launch service contracts with M/s Network Access Associated Limited (M/s OneWeb), United Kingdom, for launching OneWeb LEO Broadband.
ii.ISRO has named Dr. Sankarasubramanian K, a senior solar scientist at URSC, Bengaluru, Karnataka, as the Principal Scientist of Aditya-L1 mission.
About Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO):
Chairman– S. Somanath
Headquarters– Bengaluru, Karnataka
Establishment– 1969
