New feat: Isro puts remote sensing satellite into orbit

Chennai: Isro successfully tested the indigenous navigation system NAVIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) on Wednesday as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle using the NAVIC system successfully placed the remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A into orbit.

The PSLV-C36 rocket lifted off at 10.25 am from the first launch pad in the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. After a flight of about 18 minutes, the 1,235 kg satellite was launched into the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit at the altitude of 827 km.

Speaking to this newspaper after the successful launch, Isro Chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said, “The PSLV has put the Resourcesat-2A satellite into the precise orbit. We had the number of piggyback experiments including the processor which had produced excellent results.”

Isro had tested the NAVIC receiver in the launch vehicle. “It makes use of our own navigation satellites’ data to determine the position of the launch vehicle during the course of its trajectory,” he said. After separation, the two solar arrays of RESOURCESAT-2A deployed automatically and ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over the control of the satellite.

“Satellite is now already in pre-active stabilising condition. Now the scientists will wait about a week before they turn on the payload,” Mr Kiran Kumar said.

Terming the launch as “fantastic” and “exciting”, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre director K. Sivan said, “This is the first time we used our own NAVIC System to navigate PSLV. We have got beautiful videos of the satellite injection this time from the cameras in the launch vehicle.”

The launch vehicle had five powerful cameras to monitor the separation of each stage of the launch vehicle.

For the first time, Isro filled the fuel remotely for all the stages during this launch. “We already had the remote filling system for PS2. After making few changes, we have made PS4 amenable for remote filling. Hereafter, without any manual intervention, we can control the filling operation of PSLV rockets,” P. Kunhikrishnan, director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

“In GSLV already we are having remote controlled fuel filling for the second stage, cryogenic stage and strap-on motors,” he added.  

The data sent by RESOURCESAT-2A will be useful for agricultural applications like crop area and crop production estimation, drought monitoring, soil mapping, cropping system analysis and farm advisories generation.