India’s new rocket misses its first launch
Last Saturday, August 6, India proceeded at the first launch of its new SSLV rocket or Small Satellite Launch Vehicle. It is a launcher designed to send small satellites into space. It can carry a payload with a maximum mass of 500 kg in low orbit. Unfortunately, the launch did not go as planned since the rocket failed to place satellites in correct orbit.
According ISRO or Indian Space Research Organization, the rocket’s three solid-fuel first stages functioned properly. It’s at level 4th stage running on liquid fuel that there has been a problem. ISRO officials indicated during the launch that there was data loss, and 5 hours later they announced that the mission was a failure.
ISRO President S. Somanath said in a video released after the launch that the vehicle’s performance was good, however, it ultimately left the two satellites in poor orbit. The satellites were placed in an elliptical orbit when they were supposed to be placed in a circular orbit.
Find the cause of the problem
In a post on Twitter, ISRO officials said a sensor failure that was not detected in time caused the placement in the wrong orbit. The organization plans to investigate the cause of the failure.
According to Somanath, what they will do now is identify this specific problem and try to find out why this isolation took place, and why the satellites were placed in this wrong orbit. He added that ISRO would use the survey to correct the problems before a second test flight of the SSLV rocket.
Lost loads
Regarding the two payloads that were to be placed in circular orbit, it is known that the main payload was an experimental Earth observation satellite called EOS-02. It weighed 135 kg, and according to ISRO’s explanations, the series to which it belongs offers advanced optical remote sensing operating in the infrared band with high spatial resolution.
For its part, the second satellite was an 8 kg cubesat called AzaadiSAT. The craft had on board 75 small loads which were made by female students across India. Their goal was to conduct a variety of “femto-experiments”.
When the new SSLV rocket is fully operational, India will have 3 launcher models in its fleet. The two launchers which are already in service are the PSLV or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle which can send a 1,750 kg payload into a sun-synchronous polar orbit, and the GSLV or Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle which can launch a 5,000 kg payload into low orbit, or a 2,500 kg payload into geostationary transfer orbit.
SOURCE: Space.com
