With this launch, India has entered a new era in space applications, says ISRO chief
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| The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off with India’s first dedicated navigation satellite IRNSS-1A close to midnight on Monday. |
India’s first dedicated navigation satellite, the IRNSS-1A, developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation, was successfully put in orbit on Monday night.
The
launch vehicle, PSLV-C22, bearing the 1,425-kg navigation satellite,
blasted off the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at the
scheduled lift-off time of 11.41 p.m.
As the
PSLV-C22 tore into the night skies and set off four stages of ignition
and separation, all the while gaining in altitude and velocity, down on
earth, twitchy mission controllers at the command centre awaited the
final confirmation of the mission’s success.
A round
of applause greeted the successful kick-starting of the fourth stage of
ignition, arguably the most critical component of the mission to place
the satellite in the targeted orbit.
About 20
minutes after the lift-off, the PSLV-C22 completed its task of injecting
the IRNSS-1A into a sub geosynchronous transfer orbit with a 284-km
perigee (nearest point to the Earth) and 20,650 km apogee (farthest
point from the Earth).
As the final act of the rocket
separating from the satellite unfurled on the giant screen at the
mission control room, the gathering of scientists and engineers broke
into cheers and applause.
Once again, Team ISRO had
pulled off with clockwork precision the roughly 65-hour countdown that
began on June 29 and ended in the lift-off close to midnight on July 1.
ISRO
Chairman K. Radhakrishnan, who congratulated the team, said that with
the successful launch, India had entered a new era in space
applications.
P.J. Kurien, Deputy Chairman, Rajya Sabha, said it was a great moment for the nation.
Yash Pal, one of the doyens of India’s space programme, was also present.
The
IRNSS-1A is the first of the proposed seven satellites in the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System. Apart from India, its benefits
would extend to a range of 1,500 km in the region.
With
a mission life of 10 years, it will deliver applications ranging across
terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management,
tracking of vehicles, guiding hikers and travellers, and visual-voice
navigation for drivers.
The PSLV-XL used for the
launch does not directly transfer satellites into a geosynchronous
orbit. Instead, it puts the satellite into an interim sub Geosynchronous
Transfer Orbit (sub-GTO), from where thrusters are used to push the
satellite into geosynchronous orbit.
Once it has
been injected into the preliminary orbit, solar panels of the satellite
are automatically deployed and the Master Control Facility at Hassan,
Karnataka, takes over the control of the satellite — from the initial
orbit raising manoeuvres to the final placement in the circular
geosynchronous orbit.
Some of the features of the
IRNSS-1A are two solar panels with ultra triple junction solar cells
that can generate about 1,660 watts of electrical power, Sun and star
sensors as well as gyroscopes to provide orientation.
It also carries Corner Cube Retro Reflectors for laser imaging and is endowed with a highly accurate Rubidium atomic clock.
Source: http://to.ly/mcoh
