ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) recently announced that it would be launching five British satellites on July 10. This will be the thirtieth flight of the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and the biggest ever commercial mission by the space agency. Accordingly, PSLV-C28 is expected to take off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota next week.
This will be the ninth flight of the PSLV in ‘XL’ mode. India will send off three identical DMC3 optical Earth observation satellites developed in the UK by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL). Also aboard PSLV-C28 will be two British auxiliary satellites dubbed De-OrbitSail and CBNT-1, the first being a technology demonstrator nano satellite and the second, a technology demonstrator Earth observation micro satellite.
The total weight of the five satellites is roughly 1440 kilograms, making it ISRO’s heaviest commercial mission till date. The CBNT-1 tips the scales at 91 kilograms. The De-orbitSail built by Surrey Space Center, weighs 7 kilograms. As for the DMC3 satellites, each of them is 447 kilograms and almost 3 meters high. ISRO claims that it was quite a challenge to get them onto PSLV-C28. Special equipment had to be engineered just for the purpose of mounting them onto the launch vehicle.
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These covered a triangular deck christened Multiple Satellite Adapter-Version 2 and a circular sort of L-adapter. The main applications for the three DMC3 satellites include keeping watch on the environment, surveying the Earth’s resources, monitoring disaster-struck areas, offering data on management of urban infrastructure and so on. They are meant to specifically fulfill the need for high temporal resolution and high spatial resolution optical Earth observation.
PSLV-C28 / DMC3 Mission to be launched on July 10, 2015 – http://t.co/81cF9w15DM pic.twitter.com/RVmo8zTu8Z
— ISRO (@isro) July 3, 2015
The satellites are being sent off into orbit by India after a deal was inked between DMC International Imaging which is a subsidiary of SSTL, and ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited. The DMC3-1, DMC3-2 and DMC3-3 will be launched into a 647-kilometer Sun-Synchronous Orbit and have a 120-degree separation between them.