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PSLV to launch Israeli satellite

CHENNAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is busy preparing to launch an Israeli satellite called Polaris by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) between September 17 and 20 from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

A core-alone PSLV without its six strap-on booster motors strung around its first stage will put the Polaris in orbit.

It is a remote-sensing satellite that weighs about 300 kg. It can take pictures of the earth through cloud and rain, day and night.

The PSLV, a four-stage vehicle, is 44 metres tall and weighs 295 tonnes. In a core-alone configuration, it weighs about 230 tonnes minus the six strap-on booster motors. A satellite weighing about 1,600 kg can be put in orbit with a normal configuration. A core-alone can do that job with a satellite weighing around 600 kg.

The stages of core-alone are being stacked in the tall Mobile Service Tower of the first launch pad for the launch. This will be the PSLVs 12th flight and it is the second time that a PSLV is being used in a core-alone configuration. The maiden flight of the core-alone vehicle took place on April 23, 2007 when it put an Italian satellite called Agile in orbit.

Just as ISRO’s commercial wing, Antrix Corporation Limited, charged money from the Italian Space Agency to put the Agile in orbit, Antrix is receiving a handsome fee from the Israelis to orbit the Polaris.

Simultaneously, the launch campaign for the lift-off of ISRO’s Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is gathering momentum at the sophisticated second launch pad at Sriharikota.

If the weather holds good (there were rains over Sriharikota on Sunday) the GSLV will lift off at 4.30 p.m. on September 1 and deploy the INSAT-4C R, a communication satellite. The INSAT-4C R weighs 2,130 kg.

This is the first time in ISRO’s history that two launches will take place within a span of three weeks from Sriharikota — the GSLV on September 1 and the PSLV between September 17 and 20.

This year will be the busiest for ISRO, with four launches taking place. The first took place on January 10 when a PSLV put in orbit a recoverable satellite called Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE).

The SRE returned to the earth in ship-shape condition — splashed down in the Bay of Bengal on January 22 and was recovered. On April 23, another PSLV deployed Agile.

Four launches in a year from its own spaceport at Sriharikota is a record for ISRO. It has come a long way from the early 1980s when the SLV-3s and Augmented SLVs (ASLVs) would orbit Rohini satellites once in a year or two.

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