First flight of India’s newest rocket

The maiden flight of the SSLV or the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, India’s newest addition to its rocket fleet finally embarked on its first flight recently.

• The maiden flight suffered a setback, with “data loss” at the terminal stage, after three stages had “performed and separated” as planned.
• The satellites ended up being placed in an elliptical orbit, and are “no longer usable”.
• While the three solid fuel-based propulsion stages worked normally, the satellites were injected into a wrong orbit, due to failure of logic to identify a sensor failure.
• The new rocket was carrying an Indian Earth Observation Satellite, EOS-02, weighing 145 kg and AzaadiSat, made by 750 schoolgirls to celebrate 75 years of Independence under SpaceKidz India, weighing 8 kg.

Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV):

• The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is a three-stage launch vehicle configured with three solid propulsion stages and liquid propulsion-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage.
• Weighing around 110 tonne, SSLV is a 34-metres tall, 2-metre diametre (width) launch vehicle having a lift-off mass of around 120-tonne.
• The key features of SSLV are
• Low cost,
• low turn-around time,
• flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites,
• Launch on demand feasibility,
• minimal launch infrastructure requirements

Payload Capability:

• Single/Multi Satellites - Nano, Micro and Mini satellites
• Single Satellite up to 500kg in 500km planar orbit
• Multiple satellites ranging from 10kg to 300kg into 500km Planar Orbit