ISRO’s PSLV takes record for launch with most satellites aboard

by | Feb 15, 2017 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and its Antrix commercial launch provider subsidiary, gained kudos for achieving the first orbital launch with more than 100 payload spacecraft aboard. The PSLV-XL rocket launch carried 104 individual satellites – most of which were in the 1-10 kg cubesat/nanosat class. The launch took place from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, India, at 0358 GMT on 15 February. It marks the 38th consecutive success for the PSLV vehicle.

PSLV lifting off with its record breaking payload. Courtesy of ISRO.

PSLV lifting off with its record breaking payload. Courtesy of ISRO.

 

The primary payload was the 714 kg Cartosat 2D remote sensing satellite for ISRO itself which was being launched into a near polar Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit of circa 500 km altitude. The other Indian payloads were the two ISRO Nano Satellites (INS), INS-1A/-1B. This platform is designed to act as a dedicated PSLV co-payload and may be utilised for a number of mission types.

PSLV deploys its multiple cubesats. Courtesy: ISRO

PSLV deploys its multiple cubesats. Courtesy: ISRO

The remaining 101 commercial satellite payloads carried included; 88 Flock (Dove) earth observation, 5 kg, 3U-cubesats owned and operated by the Planet firm. Eight Lemur 3U-cubesats for Spire, these units carry GPS radio occultation antennas for weather prediction services as well as a maritime tracking payload.

The five other cubesat passengers consist of; PEASSS a European Union technology validation experiment, DIDO-2 a test spacecraft to exhibit microgravity research technologies, BGUSat a student built cubesat from Ben-Gurion University, Al-Farabi another student project from Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and Nayif-1 an educational satellite carrying an amateur communications payload (FUNcube 5).

Matthew Wilson contributed to this article.

About Seradata

Seradata produce the renowned Seradata database. Trusted by over 100 of the world’s leading Space organisations, Seradata is a fully queryable database used for market analysis, failure/risk assessment, spectrum analysis and space situational awareness (SSA).

For more information go to https://www.seradata.com/product/

Related Articles

Soyuz 2-1a launches Progress MS-23 cargo freighter to ISS

At 1256 GMT on 24 May 2023, a Soyuz-2-1a rocket was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome near Tyuratam, Kazakhstan. Aboard was Read more

End of the line: Virgin Orbit’s assets are sold off

The Sir Richard Branson initiated Virgin Orbit project, having been in bankruptcy protection, is now formally at an end with Read more

China launches trio of sats into LEO for two universities

At 0800 GMT on 21 May China successfully launched a Long March 2C (CZ-2C) rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Read more

Axiom Space launch puts first Arab woman in ISS with the second private astronaut mission to the station

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, at 2137 GMT on 21 May, Read more

New orders: Five UAE SAR satellites order goes to Finland’s Iceye

Finland's ICEye firm has been awarded an order to develop and build five synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) equipped satelites for Read more

SpaceX launches five Iridium-NEXT and fifteen OneWeb sats plus a OneWeb test spacecraft called Joey-Sat for its competitors

SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9v1.2FT Block 5 rocket from Vandenberg, California, USA at 1316 GMT on 20 May 2023. Read more

Blue Origin gets NASA’s vote for second cryogenic lunar lander which will be under much less time pressure than SpaceX

Having lost out in the competition to produce NASA's initial lander for its Human Landing System (HLS) Blue Origin's National Read more

Inmarsat orders three small GEO Inmarsat-8 satellites from newspace manufacturer Swissto12

Inmarsat, - a British GEO operator undergoing a purchase by Viasat - has ordered three GEO satellites from newspace entity, Read more

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochina25virgin galacticfalcon 9ULARoscosmosDGAFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 5evaaviation weekspacewalkaressoyuzIGTBeidouawardsInternational Space StationspaceBlue OriginSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonStarlinkCargo Return VehicleRocket LabresearchboeingmarsblogAirbus DSOneWeborionISROimpacthyperbolamarsdelayjaxaspaceshiptwodemocratgoogle lunar prizerocketlunarhypertextobamaEutelsatlaunchVegatourismconstellationbarack obamafiguresSESnorthspaceflightthales alenia spacenode 2fundedRaymond LygoIntelsat2009romeAtlas VExpress MD-2dassault aviationss2Elon MuskLockheed MartinaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiotestmissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationVirgin OrbitinternetAriane 5 ECAChina Manned Space EngineeringSLSsts-122missile defensenewspapercotsgalileospace tourismflight2010Ariane 5Express AMU 1spaceportbuildspace stationaltairNorthrop GrummanElectronshuttleProton Minternational astronautical congressscaled compositesIntelsat 23LauncherOneEuropean Space AgencyCosmoshanleybudgetrulesnew yorksoyuz 2-1aLong March 4CLong March 2D/2Ariane 6shenzhouspace shuttleVietnamatvboldencongressMojaveLong March 2Cnew shepardOrbital ATKGuiana Space CenteriaccnesksclawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyInmarsatLong March 4BILSUS Air ForceprotonTalulah RileyApollodarpaSkylonAstriumlanderpictureeuusaastronautdragonbaselunar landerfiveeventVega CSSLAprilSNCinterview50thSea LaunchfalconWednesdaycustomerlinkLong Marchatlantissuccessor7TelesatSpace InsuranceKuaizhou 1AFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5