Posts: 42988 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 02-18-2017 03:08 PM
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) release
PSLV-C37 Successfully Launches 104 Satellites in a Single Flight
In its thirty ninth flight (PSLV-C37), ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully launched the 714 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites on Feb. 15 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the thirty eighth consecutively successful mission of PSLV. The total weight of all the 104 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C37 was 1378 kg.
PSLV-C37 lifted off at 0928 hrs (9:28 am) IST, as planned, from the First Launch Pad. After a flight of 16 minutes 48 seconds, the satellites achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 506 km inclined at an angle of 97.46 degree to the equator (very close to the intended orbit) and in the succeeding 12 minutes, all the 104 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined sequence beginning with Cartosat-2 series satellite, followed by INS-1 and INS-2. The total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV now stands at 46.
After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of the satellite. In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration following which it will begin to provide remote sensing services using its panchromatic (black and white) and multispectral (colour) cameras.
Of the 103 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C37, two — ISRO Nano Satellite-1 (INS-1) weighing 8.4 kg and INS-2 weighing 9.7 kg — are technology demonstration satellites from India.
The remaining 101 co-passenger satellites carried were international customer satellites from USA (96), The Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1), Israel (1), Kazakhstan (1) and UAE (1).
With today’s successful launch, the total number of customer satellites from abroad launched by India’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV has reached 180.
butch wilks Member
Posts: 333 From: Lowestoft, Suffolk, UK Registered: Mar 2007
posted 02-18-2017 03:09 PM
I've just been watching a video of the deployment of the record 104 mini satellites from their carriers on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. A great achievement for India and a good video to see.
But I have to say I'm a disturbed by it. They look like space mines being deployed from a Hollywood sci-fi space movie.I just had to think of the damage they would do to the ISS if they were in the same orbit or satellites up there now and to come. One day an aggressive government launch a set of mini satellites to take out satellites (I hope not). It could be as bad as in the film "Gravity."
I'd like to know if they up there for good or will they deorbit over time? As we have enough space junk up their now with out 104+ more item up there from this launch alone. Is it about time we started thinking about bringing them back or sending in to the sun to get rid of them at the end of their working life? Some are doing this now but not enough satellite operators are putting this option into their products.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42988 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 02-18-2017 03:20 PM
To quote from a 2015 article by Spaceflight Now, which addressed in part Planet Labs, the company behind 88 out of the 104 cubesats on the PSLV launch:
Space debris experts and most big international satellite operators have agreed to re-position spacecraft in low Earth orbit at low enough altitudes to naturally re-enter the atmosphere within 25 years at the end of their lives.
Most CubeSats range between the size of a Rubik’s cube and a shoebox, and all of the small satellites based on the CubeSat design have been tracked and catalogued by the U.S. military’s Joint Space Operations Center...
"The community's comfort with (CubeSats populating low Earth orbit) has been growing, I think," said Chris Boshuizen, Planet Labs' co-founder and chief technology officer. "We obviously need to set very firm codes of conduct to ensure that the commons of space is respected, and everyone is a responsible actor. Here at Planets Labs, we realize that being the first to do this, we have to set the best example of what best practices are, and we don't want to be the company to mess it up for everybody."
Planet Labs sends up most of its existing CubeSats to the space station aboard commercial resupply ships.
"We have very strict debris mitigation policies," Boshuizen said in an interview with Spaceflight Now in June. "Our principal response to that is to launch into very low orbits that self-clean, which is why we use the ISS for a lot of our demonstrations."
posted 02-18-2017 03:08 PM
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