3 days Ago By TOI News Desk
NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to reach a historic milestone with its 100th rocket launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in January, ISRO Chairman S Somanath announced. This achievement will be highlighted by a Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) mission, following Monday’s successful PSLV-C60 mission, which marked the 99th launch from the Sriharikota spaceport. India on Monday took a major step towards joining an exclusive group of nations with space-docking technology — the ability to mate two spacecraft in space.
ISRO successfully placed two small satellites, each weighing 220 kg, into orbit as part of the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) mission. The PSLV-C60 rocket, which lifted off just after 10 PM from the first launchpad at Sriharikota, placed the satellites into a 475-km circular orbit about 15 minutes later. The first satellite separated 15.
1 minutes after launch, followed by the second at 15.2 minutes. M Sankaran, Director of the UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), explained that the 'chaser' and 'target' spacecraft were launched with a small relative velocity, allowing them to move towards each other for potential future docking operations.
Speaking after the successful PSLV-C60 launch, Somanath highlighted the significance of the milestone: "So, all of you have seen the majestic lift-off and the launch of the SpaDeX (Space Docking Experiment) rocket, and for us, this is the 99th launch of any vehicle from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. That is also a very important number. So, we are going for the 100th launch at the beginning of the next year.
" Monday’s PSLV-C60 mission paves the way for more complex docking experiments, with Somanath noting, "There will be many more SpaDeX varieties, including complex missions of docking systems in the coming days." ISRO’s ambitious plans continue into 2025, with the NVS-02 navigation satellite scheduled for launch in January using a GSLV rocket. This follows the successful deployment of the NVS-01 satellite in May 2023, marking the first of the second-generation satellites for the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) services.
The PSLV-C60 launch was initially scheduled for 9:58 PM on December 30 but was rescheduled to 10 PM following a "conjunction study" to ensure no close proximity between satellites in orbit. Somanath explained the process: "If you find there is any close proximity between satellites, then we have to move the current satellite a little bit. Either, we delay it or make it early, so that this proximity condition does not occur.
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