The 25-hour countdown for the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) second dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited. (NSIL) began on Wednesday evening. The PSLV-C53, the 55 th flight of ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle, will carry on board three satellites from Singapore.
The three satellites — DS-EO, a Singaporean Earth Observation Satellite, NeuSAR, Singapore’s first small commercial satellite carrying a SAR (Search and Rescue) payload, and SCOOB-I satellite from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) — will be launched at 6.02 p.m on Thursday from the second launchpad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota.
The PSLV-C53, in its 15th mission using the ‘Core Alone’ variant, also proposes to demonstrate the utilisation of the spent upper stage of the launch vehicle as a stabilised platform for scientific payloads following the separation of the satellites, according to ISRO. The PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) activity is designed to perform in-orbit scientific experiments using the spent PS4, the uppermost stage of the PSLV, as an orbital platform and will be the first time that the PS4 stage would orbit the earth as a stabilised platform.
The experimental module will carry six payloads, including two from Indian space start-ups, Digantara and Dhruva Space.
The four stage, 44.4-m-tall PSLV-C53 has a lift-off mass of 228.43 tonnes and would inject the DS-EO, a 365 kg satellite, at an altitude of 570 km from the equator. The NeuSAR is a 155 kg satellite, while the Scoob-1 weighs 2.8 kg.
