PSLV C22 blasts off with IRNSS-1A

[Yogi]

 

[SR-91]

going at 7.8 km per sec

forth stage ignited

 

[Gessler]

A first link: IRNSS-1A Launched

 

[SR-91]

750 sec into flight

 

[S-DUCT]

Satellite sucessfully injected into the orbit.
Congrats to everyone and ISRO.

 

[SR-91]

congrats ISRO

23rd successful flight of PSLV

 

[SpArK]

 

[Abingdonboy]

For a slum-filled, unsanitary supah pawa

 

[David James]

India's first dedicated navigation satellite placed in orbit


Sriharikota: India's first navigation satellite was successfully placed in orbit by an Indian rocket at midnight in copy book style.

With the successful launch of the first of the seven satellites planned under the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), India took the first step in joining the select group of nations having such a system.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K.Radhakrishnan said with the successful launch of the satellite, India had entered "a new era of space applications".

Exactly at 11.41 p.m., the rocket - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C22 (PSLV-C22) - standing around 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonnes roared off, turning the dark skies bright orange.

"We have had late evening and early morning launches. But this is the first time ISRO is launching a rocket around midnight," an ISRO official told IANS.

The expendable rocket had a single but important luggage, the 1,425 kg IRNSS-1A navigation satellite.

Blasting off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, around 80 km from Chennai, to the onlookers, the rocket looked like an inverted flare or torch with a long handle as it ascended towards the twinkling stars amidst the cheers of the gathered scientists and media persons.

ISRO scientists at new rocket mission control room were glued to their computer screens watching the rocket escaping the Earth's gravitational pull. At around 20 minutes into the flight, PSLV-C22 spat out IRNSS-1A.

Immediately on the successfully ejection, scientists at the mission control centre were visibly relieved and started clapping happily.

"I am extremely happy we had another excellent flight of our PSLV vehicle," Radhakrishnan said, adding it was the 23rd successful flight of PSLV and 4th of the XL variant, terming it an "extremely reliable vehicle".

Announcing the precise injection of the satellite in its designated orbit, he said: "India has entered a new era of space applications."

Famous scientist Yashpal and Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien were also present at the launch.

Soon after the ejection into the orbit the satellite's solar panels were deployed.

The satellite control was taken over by the Mission Control Facility (MCF) at Karnataka's Hassan. The MCF will manage the satellite's orbit raising operations firing the on-board motors till it is placed in the circular geosynchronous orbit.

The IRNSS-1A satellite is intended to provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and fleet management.

The satellite with a life span of around 10 years is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment - a regional navigational system developed by India designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line, the ISRO said.

While ISRO is silent on the navigation system's strategic application, it is clear that IRNSS will be used for defence purposes as well.

The system is similar to the global positioning system (GPS) of the US (24 satellites), Glonass of Russia (24 satellites), Galileo of Europe (27 satellites), China's Beidou (35 satellites) or the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System with three satellites.

The entire IRNSS system is expected to be in place by 2015 and the whole project is expected to cost around Rs.1,420 crore (over $230 million).

"All the seven satellites of the IRNSS are identical and the space agency will be rolling them out. Already the second one is getting ready for the year end or early 2014 launch," the official said.

"Only when all the seven satellites are up in the space the whole system will come into play. The earlier we have the full system it is better for all. For instance by 2015, the first satellite - IRNSS-1A - will be nearly one-and-a-half years old and its remaining life span will be eight-and-a-half years," he said.

He said once the regional navigation system is in place, India need not be dependent on others.

The IRNSS will provide two types of services -- standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is provided to all users and the latter is an encrypted service for authorised users.

The IRNSS system comprises of two segments - the space and the ground. The space segment consists of seven satellites of which three will be in geostationary orbit and four in inclined geosynchronous orbit.

The satellite will go around the Earth at a height of about 36,000 km, ISRO said.

The ground segment consists of infrastructure for controlling, tracking and other facilities.

The ISRO had planned to launch IRNSS-1A last month. But it had to put it off after finding a problem in one of the electro-hydraulic control actuators in the second stage engine.

Following the Monday's launch of the navigational satellite, the ISRO is planning to launch its communication satellite G-Sat14 using a heavier rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle - powered by a domestic cryogenic engine sometime in August.

It will be followed by the mission to Mars later this year. The launch of one more remote sensing satellite is also being planned before the end of the year.


India's first dedicated navigation satellite placed in orbit | NDTV.com

 

[Abingdonboy]

Great stuff guys, just brace yourself for the onslaught............................................

 

[Gessler]

1 in place, 6 more to go.

 

[David James]

1 in place, 6 more to go.

Its a matter of time:

"All the seven satellites of the IRNSS are identical and the space agency will be rolling them out. Already the second one is getting ready for the year end or early 2014 launch," the official said.

Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/indian-defence/261615-pslv-c22-blasts-off-irnss-1a-2.html#ixzz2Xp4mC2lg

 

[li0nheart]

For anybody who missed the launch...


Indian PSLV successfully launches IRNSS-1A navigation satellite
July 1, 2013 by William Graham
India have launched their Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Monday carrying IRNSS-1A, the first satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. Liftoff from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre occurred at 18:11 UTC (23:41 local time).


PSLV Mission:

The IRNSS-1A satellite is the first of seven which will make up the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The constellation will consist of four satellites in geosynchronous orbits inclined at 29 degrees, with three more in geostationary orbit. IRNSS-1A is one of the geosynchronous satellites, and is expected to be positioned at a longitude of 55 degrees east.

IRNSS-1A will eventually be co-located with a second satellite at 55 degrees east, while two more satellites will be placed at 111 degrees east. The geostationary satellites will operate at 34, 83 and 132 degrees east. The IRNSS system is expected to provide navigation signals to India with an accuracy of up to 20 meters.

The IRNSS-1A satellite is based on the I-1K satellite bus and has a fuelled mass of 1,425 kilograms (3,141 lb), or a dry mass of 614 kg (1,354 lb).

It is powered by two solar arrays, which generate up to 1,660 watts of power. The spacecraft is expected to operate for ten years.

Monday’s launch, which marked the twenty-fourth flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, was designated as flight number C22.

The rocket flew in the PSLV-XL configuration, which was first used in 2008 to launch the Chandrayaan 1 spacecraft to the Moon. To date, the PSLV-XL has made three flights – also deploying the GSAT-12 communications satellite, and the RISAT-1 radar imaging satellite.

The PSLV is India’s most reliable rocket, with twenty one successful launches from twenty three attempts. Monday’s launch was the rocket’s twentieth successful launch.

The first of its two past failures occurred on the maiden flight, which lost attitude control at second stage separation and as a result failed to achieve orbit. The other failure was the first operational launch, in September 1997, when a fourth stage helium leak led to the rocket placing the IRS-1D satellite into a lower-than-planned orbit which significantly reduced the spacecraft’s operational lifespan.

The PSLV-XL is a four-stage carrier rocket augmented at liftoff by six boosters. The second and fourth stages are liquid-fuelled, while the first and third stages and boosters use hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene-based solid propellant.

The first stage is a PS1, which utilities an S-138 solid rocket motor. During the early stages of flight, six PS0M-XL strap-on solids, powered by S-12 motors, will augment the first stage’s thrust. The use of PS0M-XL solids, in place of the smaller S-9 powered PS0M solids used on the regular PSLV, is the main difference between the PSLV-XL and the standard PSLV.

The second stage of the PSLV, the PS2, is powered by an L40 Vikas engine, derived from the Viking engine developed for the European Ariane rocket. It is fuelled by UH25 propellant – a mixture of unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine and hydrazine hydrate, and uses dinitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer. The third stage, or PS3, has an S-7 solid motor.


The final stage is the PS4, which burns monomethylhydrazine oxidised by MON-3 – a mixture of nitric oxide, dinitrogen tetroxide and nitrogen dioxide. The PS4 is powered by two L-2-5 engines.

Monday’s launch took 20 minutes and 25.4 seconds from liftoff to the deployment of IRNSS-1A into its initial transfer orbit. The target orbit for the PSLV C22 mission was a geosynchronous transfer orbit with an apogee of 20,650 kilometers (12,831 miles), a perigee of 284 kilometers (176 miles), and an inclination of 17.86 degrees. Documentation gives a margin of error of 675 kilometers (419 miles) in apogee, 5 kilometers (3 miles) in perigee, and 0.2 degrees in inclination.

The C22 mission outline began with the ignition of the first stage. Half a second later, the first pair of boosters also ignited, with the second pair igniting two tenths of a second after that. The PSLV lifted off from its launch pad and began its climb towards orbit. Twenty five seconds into the flight, the third pair of strapon boosters ignited.

The strapon motors have a burn time of around 69.5 seconds, so seventy seconds after launch the first pair were jettisoned. The second pair followed suit a tenth of a second later. A minute and 32 seconds after liftoff, the air-lit solids also separated.

The first stage burned for 115 seconds, after which it separated from the second stage. Two tenths of a second after staging, the second stage ignited to begin its own 151.7-second burn. The payload fairing, termed a “heat shield” by ISRO, separated 93.8 seconds into second stage flight.

Third stage ignition occurred 1.2 seconds after the second stage burns out and separates, with the third stage burn lasting around 110 seconds. Third stage burnout was followed by a coast phase lasting around 144 seconds, before the stage separated.

The fourth stage then continued to coast for 156.4 more seconds before igniting. This eight minute, 32.4 second burn concluded powered flight for the C22 mission. Thirty seven seconds after burnout, IRNSS-1A separated from the PSLV.

Following its separation from the carrier rocket, IRNSS-1A will maneuver into geosynchronous orbit. To accomplish this, it is equipped with an apogee motor generating 440 newtons (100 lb) of thrust, and twelve smaller maneuvering thrusters which each produce 22 newtons (5 lb). Burns will be made at perigee during the fifth and eighth orbits to raise the satellite’s apogee to geosynchronous altitude.

Following this, apogee burns on the ninth, eleventh and twelfth orbits will circularize the orbit and increase inclination from 17.86 degrees to 29 degrees.

The PSLV will fly from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The older of the two launch complexes in use for PSLV and GSLV launches, the pad can accommodate either of the two rockets; however GSLV launches are usually made from the Second Launch Pad. Unlike the Second Launch Pad, where rockets are stacked in an assembly building and then rolled to the launch pad, rockets flying from the First Launch Pad are assembled on the launch pad.

PSLV C22 is India’s second orbital launch this year, following February’s successful deployment of the SARAL satellite and several secondary payloads. India’s next scheduled launch is expected to occur in the first week of August, when the GSLV Mk.II will fly its second demonstration mission. This will be the first GSLV launch since two back-to-back failures in 2010.

The next PSLV launch is scheduled for October with the Mangalyaan spacecraft bound for Mars. The second IRNSS satellite is expected to be launched next March.

Indian PSLV successfully launches IRNSS-1A navigation satellite | NASASpaceFlight.com

 

[agamdilawari]

 

[TheFlyingPretzel]

Congratulations! Looks like a job well-done!