Chennai: In one of the most-inspiring and televised mid-night launches of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Kalamsat-V2, the world's lightest and first 3D-printed satellite, was injected into its designated orbit by PSLV-C44.
The post-launch scenes at Sriharikota saw ISRO chairman K Sivan inviting young students, the makers of Kalamsat-V2, stand next to the launch team, while addressing the nation.
"ISRO is open to all students of India. Bring to us your satellites and we will launch it for you. Let's make India a science-fairing nation," he said post-launch.
The social media exploded within minutes with many echoing that ISRO's student-connect steps will be a huge step in fanning the scientific temper across the country.
Built at a cost of just over Rs 12 lakh, Kalamsat-V2 is a communication satellite completely powered by young blood from Chennai-based Space Kids India.
It is a 10 cm cube nano-satellite (10 x 10 x 10 cm) weighing 1.2 kg with a life span of two months.
Microsat-R, an imaging satellite, with payloads from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), too was placed in its orbit during the launch.
DRDO's experimental payloads
DRDO played-down the launch of Microsat-R with sources saying that the payloads are meant for basic experiments.
"These (payloads) are for validating systems developed by various DRDO labs. These are experimental payloads. We will have bigger missions lined up in future," a DRDO official said.
The PSLV-C44 lifted off at 11:37 pm (IST) from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota.
This was ISRO's 46th flight.
About 13 minutes after lift-off, Microsat-R was successfully placed in a 274 km circular orbit. After injection, two solar arrays of the satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO Telemetry Tracking & Command Network at Bengaluru gained control of the satellite.
ISRO said subsequently the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle was moved to a higher circular orbit of 453 km after two restarts of the stage, to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments.
Kalamsat-V2, a student payload, first to use PS4 as an orbital platform, was injected into its designated orbit about an hour and 40 minutes after lift-off.
Today's flight marked the first mission of PSLV-DL, a new variant of PSLV with two strap-on motors.
Sivan said today's mission was unique as it was for the first time ISRO used the last stage of the rocket (PS4) as a platform to perform experiments in space.
Samwad spreads wing
Interestingly, ahead of the launch, Sivan held the third edition of Samwad with Students (SwS) at Sriharikota. Over 300 students from schools in the region had an opportunity to interact with him.
SwS is the newly-launched outreach initiative of ISRO to propel scientific temper among youngsters. The first edition was held in Bengaluru on January 1 and the second one at Kochi on January 20.
"Concentrate on the present with full sincerity. Dilemmas will disappear. A good student is not afraid of failure. Failures are important for learning, the open up new avenues," Sivan told the SwS participants.
R Umamaheswaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO, told Onmanorama that ISRO's outreach missions have touched the right chord with the youngsters across the country.
"We are overwhelmed by the response and the idea is to take the benefits of space to maximum people in the country, especially youngsters. We have started Year 2019 by taking inspiration from students," Umamaheswaran said.
Dream come true
Srimathy Kesan, CEO, Space Kidz India, told Onmanorama that her entire team has been hooked on to the launch of Kalamsat-V2 for the last few months.
"It's a dream come true for all of us as we had to wait for a while for this moment. It is a great day for all of us as there's nothing like launching your satellite in your own country," Srimathy said.
She said Space Kidz will launch bigger missions in days to come, including a lighter rover for moon mission.
"We are also working on a military drone in addition to do a biological satellite next. We want be part of all space missions of India," she said.
She said the entire team was extremely overwhelmed and awestruck visiting Sriharikota.
"Truly inspiring and we were thinking if what was happening around was real. The entire Kalamsat-V2 team was over the Moon after sitting inside ISRO's Mission Control and that too waiting to see our own satellite in orbit. Dr Sivan's words were so encouraging to the student community and I am sure it will inspire young India," Srimathy added.
