New ISRO rocket launch TODAY! Watch it LIVE here
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the country's new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) today at 9:18 a.m. IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharito on India's southeastern coast. ISRO's SSLV caters to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to Low Earth Orbits on the basis of 'launch-on-demand'. In the first development, the SSLV-D1 mission will launch a 135 kg earth observation satellite-02 (EOS-02) formerly known as Microsatellite-2 into low earth orbit of about 350 km to the equator, the Indian space agency mentioned. The new rocket is 34-metre tall and weighs 120 tonnes.
On this first flight of the mission, the rocket will be carrying two satellites including the 135 kg EOS-02 Earth-observation satellite and an 8 kg CubeSat called AzaadiSAT built by 750 students of government schools facilitated by SpaceKidz India, which carries 75 different payloads, each of which weighs around 50 grams. AzaadiSAT is aimed to conduct a variety of "femto-experiments,” which will measure voice and data transmission for amateur radio operators, a solid state PIN diode-based Radiation counter to measure the ionising radiation in its orbit. ISRO says that CubeSat will also carry a selfie camera to the mission.
This new microsat series satellite EOS-02 is designed and realised by ISRO for earth observation offering advanced optical remote sensing operating in an infra-red band with high spatial resolution. Basically, it will provide high-resolution infrared imagery of our Earth.
Once the SSLV will successfully be launched in its orbit, then India will have three operational orbital rockets in its fleet, as the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)
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