Indian PSLV conducts 40th launch carrying a “modest” 31 satellites into LEO this time

by | Jun 23, 2017 | commercial launch services, India, Launches, Satellites, Seradata News

At 0359 GMT at 23 June a PSLV-XL rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota Island, India. The launch was the 40th flight of the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) in total, and the 17th utilising the “XL” configuration – with 6 S12 solid boosters. The primary payload on the launch was CARTOSAT-2E, the sixth in a line of civilian/military Earth Observation satellites. Alongside the primary payload, the rocket carried 29 cubesats for international customers and one Indian microsatellite.  While 31 satellite payloads carried is an impressive number for a single launch, this compares to a PSLV  launch earlier this year which flew 104 satellites.

A Indian PSLV-XL lifts off carrying CARTOSAT-2E and 30 other satellites. Courtesy of ISRO.

 

The mission’s total payload mass was 995 kg, 712 kg of which is represented by the primary payload, CARTOSAT-2E. The rest of the satellites consisted primarily of varying cubesat configurations, plus two larger microsatellites; the 15 kg NIUSAT from Noorul Islam University, India, and the 50 kg CE-SAT 1 from Canon Electronics, Japan. Amongst the cubesats on-board were eight Lemur spacecraft from the US firm Spire which have a dual meteorological/ship tracking role, and the first two satellites for Latvia (VENTA-1) and Slovakia (skCUBE).  There was also three test communications satellites aboard  for the new low Earth orbit Sky and Space Global constellation.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) is expecting to launch two more PSLV missions this year – for a total of four over the year – alongside potentially two more GSLV Mk II missions.

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

Categories

Archives

Tags

nasaspacexecoreviewsissesaArianespacevideochinaFalcon 9v1.2FT Block 525virgin galacticULAfalcon 9RoscosmosevaDGAspacewalkaviation weekaressoyuzIGTInternational Space StationRocket LabBeidouawardsBlue OriginStarlinkspaceSatellite broadcastingrussiamoonboeingAirbus DSISROCargo Return VehicleresearchOneWebmarsblogspaceshiptwojaxaorionmarsimpactdelayhyperbolaEutelsatdemocratrocketlunarhypertextobamagoogle lunar prizelaunchVegabarack obamaconstellationSEStourismnorthfiguresthales alenia spacespaceflightnode 2fundedIntelsatRaymond Lygo2009Lockheed MartinExpress MD-2Elon MuskAtlas Vromess2dassault aviationaviationLucy2008wk2sstlukradiomissilesuborbitaldocking portexplorationAriane 5 ECAVirgin OrbittestinternetLong March 2D/2sts-122Ariane 5Northrop GrummanSLSChina Manned Space EngineeringElectronflightspace tourism2010cotsnewspapermissile defensegalileospaceportExpress AMU 1Long March 4Cbuildspace stationaltairsoyuz 2-1aProton Minternational astronautical congressshuttlespace shuttleEuropean Space AgencyLauncherOneCosmosIntelsat 23scaled compositesnew yorkrulesAriane 6hanleybudgetatvVietnamshenzhoucongressMojaveboldenLong March 2COrbital ATKInmarsatcnesnew shepardiaclunar landerGuiana Space CenterkscApollolawsSpace Systems/LoralUK Space AgencyLong March 4BKuaizhou 1AILSprotonUS Air ForceTalulah RileydarpaElectron KSFalcon 9v1.2 Block 5Vega CeuAstriumSkylonpicturebaseusaastronautdragonlanderfiveeventTelesatNorth KoreaSSLAprilSNC50thinterviewLong MarchSea LaunchfalconWednesdaycustomerlinkatlantissuccessor