PSLV - C37 going to be a World Record

PSLV-C37

ISRO is going to launch a record 103 satellites at one single rocket, PSLV – C37.It has planned to launch at first week of Feb.

The space agency had earlier planned a launch of 83 satellites in the last week of January, of which 80 were foreign ones. With the addition of 20 more foreign satellites,100 out of 103 are foreign once while only 3 are Indian. PSLV – C37 planned to launch at first week of Feb.

History:

The highest number of satellites launched in a single mission is 37, a record that Russia set in 2014. The US space agency NASA launched 29.

The launch will be a major feat in country’s space history as no exercise on this scale has been attempted before.

What is PSLV?                                                              

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, commonly known by its abbreviation PSLV, is an expendable launch system developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into Sun-synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV, commercially available only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small size satellites into geostationary transfer orbit.

About PSLV – C37:

These will be 100 micro-small satellites, which will be launched using a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle)-C37. The weight of the payload will be 1350 kgs, of which 500-600 kgs will be the satellite’s weight.

How Satellites placed in Orbit:

Indian space agency is going to place satellites into orbit and said the every satellite will be separated in different angle and at different time from the launch vehicle in order to prevent collision between satellites.

The satellite separated from the launch vehicle will have a relative velocity of one metre per second. So after 1,000 seconds the distance between a satellite and the rocket will be 1,000 metres. The satellite that gets launched first will move at a relatively faster velocity than the next satellite that is launched. Due to different relative velocities, the distance between the satellites will increases continuously but the orbit will be the same.

When the vehicle reaches the orbital condition, space agency will wait for the disturbances to die down before the preparation for separation begins. At an orbital altitude of around 500 km, it would take the vehicle 90 minutes to complete one orbit. So space agency have sufficient time to launch all the 103 satellites.