PSLV diligently accomplished the assigned manoeuvres of four stages, fuelled alternatively by solid and liquid propellants.
Scientists hail PSLV’s textbook style manoeuvres
SRIHARIKOTA: ISRO chairman Madhavan Nair is known for taking challenges, not throwing them. Tuesday was an exception, when he said: “We challenge any nation to do a launch with a better precision.” Nair had his reason. PSLV-C7 had just injected four satellites accurately in a Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) after a textbook take-off at 9.23, not a second later than planned. The green blip on screens in the mission control room moved steadily along the dotted line, showing that PSLV following the ideal trajectory all along its 22.27 minute journey from take-off to the point of injection of the last satellite 637 km from earth.
As scientists remained glued to the monitors, those on the rooftops of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre applauded as the 44-metre tall vehicle weighing 295 tonnes took off from the launch pad six km away and appeared over the canopy of trees with a resonant roar. The sunny weather ensured a clear view of the vehicle and the first stage separation at about 70 km was visible to the naked eye.
PSLV diligently accomplished the assigned manoeuvres of four stages, fuelled alternatively by solid and liquid propellants. A little more than 16 minutes after the take-off, Cartosat-2, the 12th in the IRS satellite series, mounted over a dual launch adopter (DLA) was injected at an altitude of 639 km. About 45 seconds later, DLA with the six-kg Argentinian Peuhuensat-1 was separated. Two minutes later, the 550-kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1) mounted inside DLA was put in orbit. Finally, 190 seconds later, the 56-kg Lapan-Tubsat (a joint venture of Technical University of Berlin and Lapan, the Indonesian Space Agency) was injected into the orbit.
PSLV-C7
44 metres tall, with six strap-on motors and a lift-off mass of 295 tonnes
It carried four satellites into a 637-km orbit
Four stages, with one of the world's largest solid propellant boosters in the first stage
Since its first successful launch in 1994, PSLV has launched seven IRS satellites
The successful launch of PSLV-C7 is a morale-booster after the failed mission of GSLV on July 10, 2006
What next
March 2007
A commercial PSLV flight will carry an Italian satellite
Dec 2007 GSLV launch
2008 Chandrayan-I will survey the surface of the moon
2015 Manned mission to space
2017 Reusable launch vehicles
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