In a spectacular mission in which everything went according to plan for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C14) on September 23, 2009 blasted off from the Sriharikota Spaceport and put seven satellites in orbit.
The satellites included India’s Oceansat-2 and six foreign nano satellites. The launch carried out just three days after the 16th birthday of PSLV, the 15th successful flight of the launch vehicle in a row.
The first PSLV flight took place on September 20, 1993. Vice- President Md. Hamid Ansari witnessed the launch of PSLV-C14.
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The 960 kg Oceansat-2, built at a cost of Rs. 160-crore, is India’s 16th remote sensing satellite. It is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, sea state forecasting, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies.
An in-orbit replacement to Oceansat-1, used to study physical and biological aspects of oceanography, which has completed 10 years of its space journey, Oceansat-2 would have a mission life of five years.
Besides two German Rubin nano satellites, other Oceansat- 2 co-passengers are four cubesats: Beesat (built by Technical University, Berlin) UWE-2 (University of Wuerzburg, Germany), ITU-pSat (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) and Swiss Cube- 1 (Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland).
These nano satellites from European universities are educational spacecrafts intended for testing new technologies.
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PSLV-C14 during its path had four stages using solid and liquid propulsion systems alternately. The first stage, carrying 139 tons of propellant, was one of the largest solid propellant boosters in the world while the second stage carried 41.5 tons of the liquid propellant.
In the third stage, the satellite used 7.6 tons of solid propellant and the fourth had a twin engine configuration with 2.5 tons of liquid propellant. Oceansat-2 was injected into space fir it and the remaining one after another.
The mission was unique for PSLV as it is the first time that new AM CI ATS based avionics wore used for a typical sun synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO) mission A Core Alone Configuration of the vehicle with PS4L2.5 state was employed to put the satellites in orbit.
It was fifth mission of PSLV in core alone configuration. The eight bands Ocean Color Monitor carried by Oceansat-2 images a swath (strip of land or ocean) of 1420 km with a resolution of 360 meter and works in the visible and Near-infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
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Oceansat-2’s sactterometer, covens and swath of 1400 km and operates continuously. It sends out a radio signal in a narrow beam and detects the echo that comes back, can measure the speed and direction of surface winds over the ocean.
Such information can help weather models generate more accurate forecasts. The scaiterometer will be aid the long-term monitoring of polar sea ice.
Originally conceived as rocket to carry India’s earth-viewing satellites, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has evolved into a versatile and reliable launch vehicle.
Apart from successfully launching a dozen remote-sensing satellites, it has taken the Kalpana weather satellite and the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe into space. The PSLV has also shown it can put multiple satellites in orbit. In the course of 15 consecutive successful flights in as many years, the PSLV has launched a total of 39 spacecraft.