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PSLV-C35 to inject eight satellites in different orbits

In its first multi-orbital launch, India’s workhorse PSLV will on Monday inject eight different satellites, including the country’s weather satellite SCATSAT-1 and five from other nations, into two different orbits.

The countdown for the launch of SCATSAT-1 for ocean and weather related studies along with seven other satellites, is progressing satisfactorily, a top ISRO official on Sunday said. India’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C35, which will be launched from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota at 9.12 AM on Monday, will carry the 371 kg SCATSAT-1 along with seven other satellites, including from the US and Canada.

The total weight of all the eight satellites onboard PSLV C35 is about 675 kg, ISRO said.

“Countdown has started on Saturday and all things are moving satisfactorily,” ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar told reporters at the airport here. PSLV C-35 will be putting the satellites in two different orbits, he added.

While SCATSAT-1 will be released first into a 730 km Polar Sunsynchronous Orbit (SSO) after about 17 minutes, the rest will be injected into a lower orbit of 689 km after around two hours. There will be two re-ignitions of the launch vehicle for this purpose, Kumar said.

Besides SCATSAT-1, the others are PRATHAM and PISAT, two academic satellites from India, ALSAT-1B, ALSAT-2B and ALSAT-1N (all from Algeria) and Pathfinder-1 and NLS-19, from USA and Canada, respectively.

The 48-and-a-half-hour countdown for PSLV-C35/SCATSAT-1 Mission started at 8:42 AM on Saturday.

According to ISRO, this is the first mission of PSLV in which it will be launching its payloads into two different orbits. This will be the 15th flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration with the use of solid strap-on motors, it added.


ISRO to perform key manoeuvre on Mars Orbiter next year

With the Mars Orbiter Mission completing two years, ISRO on Sunday said it will be doing a “major event” of effecting a manoeuvre on the Orbiter next year to reduce the impact of an “eclipse duration” to allow the spacecraft “survive” for more time.

ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said the MOM had completed two years on Saturday, although its original mission life was slated to be six months, and that the space agency had released a lot of first year data beamed by its five payloads.

“Our next major event in the Mars Orbiter will be sometime in the beginning of next year when we will be doing a manoeuvre to reduce the impact of the eclipse duration the satellite is going to encounter,” he told reporters here.

He said during an eclipse the battery in the satellite has to support its operation and if the eclipse duration is “very long” then the battery may not be able to support it. “So we intend to do a manoeuvre of the spacecraft so that the impact of eclipse duration will reduce and with that we will be able to survive for many more years because the satellite still has large (amount of) fuel left in it,” he added.

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