Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
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In brief
The Times of India, Jul 13 2015
PSLV has launched over 40 sats for 19 countries
What are the various satellite orbits?
There are three key satel lite orbits -high, medium and low. The high-earth or ge osynchronous orbit is at a height of about 35,780 km from the surface of the earth The mid-earth and low-earth orbits are 2,000-35,780 km and 180-2,000 km above the sur face, respectively.
A geosynchronous satel lite orbits the earth at the same speed as the planet's ro tation on its axis and hence remains in the same position with respect to the earth. Be cause of their apparent sta tionary position, these satel lites are useful for communication (phones, TV radio) and weather monitor ing. Most scientific and re mote sensing satellites are in low-earth orbit. The mos commonly used low-earth or bit is the polar orbit. Satel lites placed in this orbit move around the earth from pole to pole. The polar orbit is sun synchronous -which means that it passes a spot on the earth at the same time each day . For in. stance, a sun synchro nized satellite can measure Delhi's air quality every day at, say, 12 noon.
How are satellites placed in orbits?
Launch vehicles (LVs) are the instruments used to put satellites in their respective orbits. India took its first step in outer space on November 21, 1963 when Indi , an scientists launched the first sounding rocket from In dian soil. Although India started developing launch ve t hicles in the early 1970s, it took about two decades to reach operational ability.
What were SLV and ASLV?
Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) was India's first experimental launch vehicle capable of placing 40 kg payloads in low-earth orbits.
After the initial failure in a 1979 launch, on July 18, 1980 SLV-3 successful ly launched Rohini (RS-1) making India the sixth country to have the capability of launching satellites.
After the success of the SLV pro gramme, ISRO launched the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) programme.This launch vehicle augmented the payload capacity to 150 kg, thrice that of SLV , and was used to validate critical technologies for future launch vehicles.
What is PSLV and when did it become operational?
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the system used to launch low orbit satellites to sun synchronous polar orbits. It was the next stage of the SLV and ASLV programmes and was developed to launch Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites.
The first developmental launch of PSLV was done in 1993 and the vehicle failed to put remote sensing satellite IRS-1E into orbit. The vehicle became operational after the launch of the IRS-1D satellite on September 29, 1996. Since 1999, the vehicle has also launched foreign satellites.
PSLV has launched over 40 satellites for 19 countries.It was also used for launching Chandrayaan-1 and the Mars Orbiter Mission.
Is India capable of launching geosynchronous satellites?
Despite the success of the PSLV programme, India was not capable of launching INSAT type heavy communication satellites in geosynchronous orbits. Such capability was only possible after the development of cryogenic engines based on liquefied gas.
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) programme started in the 1990s and according to a 1991 agreement, a Russian company was supposed to provide the engine for the cryogenic stage of the launch.In 1992, the US imposed sanctions and the Russian company backed out of the deal. Later, Russia agreed to sell seven cryogenic engines to India.These were used to fuel the early GSLV launches. In 2014, India succeeded in a GSLV launch using indigenous cryogenic technology.
