India to launch electronic intelligence satellite April 1
Transportation of PSLV-C45 Liquid Second stage to Vehicle Assembly Building. PHOTO | ISRO
What you need to know:
According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a new variant of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will first put the 436kg Emisat into a 749 km orbit
New Delhi. India on April 1 will launch an electronic intelligence satellite Emisat for the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) along with 28 third party satellites and also demonstrate its new technologies like three different orbits with a new variant of PSLV rocket.
According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a new variant of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket will first put the 436 kg Emisat into a 749 km orbit.
After that, the rocket will be brought down to put into orbit the 28 satellites at an altitude of 504 km.
This will be followed by bringing the rocket down further to 485 km when the fourth stage/engine will turn into a payload platform carrying three experimental payloads including Automatic Identification System (AIS) from ISRO for Maritime satellite applications capturing messages transmitted from ships.
Other experiemental payloads will include an Automatic Packet Repeating System (APRS) from AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation), India - to assist amateur radio operators in tracking and monitoring position data and Advanced Retarding Potential Analyser for Ionospheric Studies (ARIS) from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) - for the structural and compositional studies of ionosphere, the space agency said.
The whole flight sequence will take about 180 minutes from the rocket’s lift-off slated at 9.30 a.m. on April 1.
The 28 international customer satellites (24 from US, 2 from Lithuania and one each from Spain and Switzerland)- will weigh about 220 kg.
“It is a special mission for us. We will be using a PSLV rocket with four strap-on motors. Further, for the first time we will be trying to orbit the rocket at three different altitudes,” ISRO chairman K. Sivan had earlier told IANS. (Gadget 360)
