ISRO’s PSLV-C23

India’s national space agency, ISRO’s 230-ton PSLV-C23 successfully put five foreign satellites into a 660-km sun synchronous orbit in a smooth 20 minutes mission at the Indian space research organisation’s spaceport in Sriharikota. After a lift-off at 9:52 a.m. on June 30, 2014, the polar satellite launch vehicle-C23’s four stages came to life and fell off as a programmed. The 4-storey heat shield, as a protection against turbulence, split into two and fell in the Bay of Bengal. Soon, all five payload were in their slots at a height of more than 660km. ISRO launched the 714 kg French earth observation satellite SPOT-7, the 14kg German AISAT, the two 15kg Canadian NLS7.1 and the 7kg Singapore VELOX-1.

SPOT-7 would be placed diametrically opposite to SPOT-6, launched by ISRO IN 2012; and will form part of the existing earth observation satellite. Germany’s AISAT would focus on the global sea traffic monitoring system with the special emphasis on high traffic zones. Canadian satellites, both from university of Toronto, would perform two spacecraft precision formation flying using differential GPS.

Under the commercial arrangements that Antrix Corporation has entered into with foreign agencies, the PSLV has launched five satellites of four countries- France, Germany, Canada and Singapore. Antrix, the commercial arm of department of space, undertakes a number of initiatives to global market space products and services. PSLV, an expendable launch system, is developed and operated by ISRO to allow India to launch its Indian remote sensing (IRS) satellites into sun synchronous orbits, a service that was earlier commercial available only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small sized satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). So far, it has launched 65 satellites/space crafts. The list includes 35 foreign satellites from 19 countries like the UK, the Netherland, Japan and Israel. Some notable payload launched by the PSLV include India’s Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter mission. It is the most successful launched vehicle in ISRO, till date, with 25 consecutively successful flights out of 26 launches.

Click here for government certifications