Chennai: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is readying for its first mission of the year with the scheduled launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C44) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota on January 24.
Lifting off on board PSLV-C44 from the First Launch Pad are Kalamsat and Microsat-R.
Kalamsat is a student payload while Microsat-R is an imaging satellite. This will be PSLV’s 46th flight.
PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages.
The PSLV with 2 strap-on configuration has been identified for this mission and the configuration is designated as PSLV-DL.
ISRO says PSLV-C44 is the first mission of PSLV-DL and is a new variant of PSLV.
In PSLV-C44, the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
Kalamsat, a student payload will be the first to use PS4 as orbital platform.
On November 29, on its 45th flight, PSLV-C43 had successfully launched 31 satellites from Sriharikota.
It had first injected India’s Hyper-Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) and later 30 foreign customer satellites into the intended orbits.
R Umamaheswaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, told Onmanorama that ISRO is facilittaing students and youth to pursue their passion.
“Kalamsat is an ideal example and it is completely powered by young blood. It is a small satellite (10 x 10 x 10 cm) and is meant for HAM radio services. It is developed by Space Kidz India and their team including Rifath Sharook, Srimathy Kesan among others,” says Umamaheswaran.
Interestingly, ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan is scheduled to conduct a Samwad with Students (SwS), an interactive programme, during the Season 9 grand finale of Manorama-IBS Yuva Mastermind’ in Kochi on January 20.
SwS is ISRO’s new outreach initiative launched on January 1 this year with thousands of schools and colleges now vying for the same.
“We are planning SwS sessions in different parts of India in a phased manner,” says Umamaheswaran.
In a related space event, UNNATI (UNispace Nanosatellite Assembly & Training by ISRO) will be launched in Bengaluru on Thursday (Jan 17) at the U R Rao Satellite Centre.
UNNATI is a capacity building programme on nanosatellite development and it is an ISRO initiative to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE+50).
The first batch of this programme is starting on January 17 with 32 participants from 18 countries. Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh and Dr Sivan will be launching the event.
