India’s newest rocket, the 34-meter-tall and 120-ton Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), will blast off from the first launch pad at Sriharikota Rocket Port on August 7 at 9:18 a.m. during its flight inaugural, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said on Thursday.
The three-stage SSLV-Developmental 1 (SSLV-D1) is powered primarily by solid fuel (99.2 tons total) and also has a velocity tuning module (VTM) powered by 0.05 tons of liquid fuel for precise injection of satellites.
The rocket with a maximum baggage carrying capacity of 500 kg will carry an Earth observation satellite-02 (EOS-02) formerly known as Microsatellite-2A weighing about 145 kg.
After just over 12 minutes of flight, the SSLV-D1 will put the EOS-2 satellite into orbit.
Before that, the rocket will coast – moving due to momentum and not propelled by its engines – twice for about four minutes.
The piggyback luggage will be the eight kg AZAADISAT built by 750 public school students facilitated by SpaceKidz India.
According to ISRO, the SSLV is a ready-to-transfer rocket with modular and unified systems with standard interfaces for industry production.
SSLV design drivers are low cost, low lead time, flexibility to accommodate multiple satellites, on-demand launch feasibility, minimum launch infrastructure requirements and others, ISRO said. .
ISRO’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd, plans to transfer the SSLV technology for production in the private sector.
The Indian space agency said the EOS-02 satellite is an experimental high spatial resolution optical imaging satellite. The goal is to build and fly an experimental imaging satellite with a short turnaround time and on-demand launch capability.
According to ISRO, new technologies made for the microsat series of spacecraft include payloads with common front-end optics and a metallic primary mirror made with the limited mass and volume of the Microsat bus.
With the new one included in its product line, ISRO will have three rockets: the Polar Satellite Launcher, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launcher and the SSLV.
