CHENNAI: India is all set to enter the big league of commercial spaceflight with the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) — C8 at Sriharikota on April 23.
PSLV-C8, the 11th in the series of polar satellite launch vehicles, will carry Agile, a 360-kg Italian satellite, to a 550 km orbit above earth. While a 180-kg indigenous Advanced Avionics Module (AAM) will also be placed in the launch vehicle, this is the first time India is launching a spacecraft with a foreign satellite as the main payload.
“This will be a benchmark launch for us, both scientifically and commercially,” Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) director BN Suresh told DNA.
The PSLV will be also be flying without the usual strap-on motors, another first for India. Since the weight of the payloads is much lesser than the vehicle’s capacity of over 1,600 kg, the other wise 295-tonne PSLV will weigh only 240 tonnes at lift-off. Once the satellite is injected into the orbit, the Italian space agency will take over its controls.
The AAM is an “incidental payload” of a third generation control, guidance and navigation system, being put through a real time test. It will function without interfering with the navigation of PSLV-C8, sending inputs of the flight to the ground station. Once in space, it has no further role.
The VSSC director said the PSLV-C8 launch will be decisive in terms of India’s plans to garner a considerable share of the commercial satellite launch market. “Besides the price (global rates vary from USD 15,000 to USD 20,000 per kg), track records and international relationships play major roles in getting commercial deals. Hence it is a new mission altogether for us. The success of PSLV-C8 will bring many commercial offers,” he said.
PSLV has a great track record with 10 consecutive successful launches. The only failure was that of PSLV-D1, the first in the series, which went off course owing to a software problem, back in 1993.
