On May 05- 2005, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C6), successfully launched the 1560 kg Indian Remote Sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-1, and the 42.5 kg HAMSAT into a 632 x 621 km high polar orbit. Both the satellites have been placed in polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
PSLV was designed and developed by ISRO to place 1,000 kg class Indian Remote Sensing satellites into polar Sun-synchronous Orbit (SSO). The launch demonstrates the ability of ISRO to put 1,600 kg class satellite into 618 km Sun Synchronous Orbit.
The PSLV rocket is 44.4 metre tall, and weighs 294 tonne and employs four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems. The first stage has large solid propellant boosters carries 138 tonne of Hydroxyl Terminated Poly Butadiene (HTPB) based propellant. The booster develops a maximum thrust of about 4,762 kN. Six strap-on motors, each carrying nine tonne of solid propellant produces 645 kN thrust.
The second stage employs indigenously built Vikas engine and carries 41.5 tonne of liquid propellant -- UH25 as fuel and Nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) as oxidiser. It generates a maximum thrust of about 800 kN. The third stage uses 7.6 tonne of HTPB-based solid propellant and produces a maximum thrust of 246 kN. The fourth and the terminal stage of PSLV has a twin engine configuration using liquid propellant. With a propellant loading of 2.5 tonne (Mono-methyl hydrazine and Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen), each of these engines generates a maximum thrust of 7.3 kN.
CARTOSAT-1: CARTOSAT-1 is the eleventh satellite in the Indian remote sensing satellite series. It is intended for cartographic applications. It carries two panchromatic cameras that take black-and-white stereoscopic pictures in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The imageries will have a spatial resolution of 2.5 metre and cover a swath of 30 km. The imageries will be useful for generating digital elevation maps for urban and rural development, land and water resources management, disaster assessment, relief planning and management and environmental impact assessment. CARTOSAT-1 also carries a Solid State Recorder with a capacity of 120 Giga Bits to store the images taken by its cameras.
Soon after its injection into orbit, the two solar panels of CARTOSAT-1 were deployed. The satellite health is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre of ISTRAC at Bangalore with the help of its network of stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia and Biak in Indonesia. Further operations on the satellite like, checking out the various subsystems,, switching on the cameras, and, finally, orbit trimming will be carried out in the coming days.
HAMSAT: HAMSAT is a Micro-satellite for providing satellite based Amateur Radio services to the national as well as the international community of Amateur Radio Operators (HAM).
With the successful launch of CARTOSAT-1 and HAMSAT today, PSLV has again proven its ability in launching satellites of different weight classes precisely into specified orbits.