Soaring beyond limits: India's venture into global satellite launch market

 It’s 9:18 AM in Sriharikota, the faces are filled with elation, and the sky has been submerged with a gleaming red glare as SSLV-D2 blasts off, carrying three satellites and a heavy weight of billion hopes.

SSLV-D2 is a small satellite launch vehicle developed by ISRO to carry payloads of up to 500 kg in a cost-effective manner. SSLV is a beacon of hope for the blooming Indian satellite industry. With its smaller size and rapid assembly time, SSLV offers a solution for both affordability and accessibility. Being only 2 meters in diameter and having a height of just 34 meters, it also provides an excellent turnaround time. Even though the first operational launch of SSLV on August 7, 2022, was unsuccessful. ISRO scientists have quickly turned the table with this launch in a mere span of 5 months.

Payload accommodation in SSLV-D2

The launch vehicle carried three satellites, EOS-07, Janus-1, and AzaadiSAT-2. EOS-07 was ISRO’s satellite weighing 156.3 kg. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, its task was to experiment with mm-Wave Humidity Sounder(MHS) and Spectrum Monitoring Payload(SMP). Janus-1, one of the two passenger satellites, belonged to Antaris, a space company based in the USA, and weighed 10.2kg. The other passenger satellite was AzaadiSAT-2, developed by 750 girls across India. This satellite was developed in a venture by a Chennai based startup ‘Space Kidz India’. Weighing around 8.7 kg, this satellite has 75 experiments installed, primarily dealing with health data. 

Sequence followed by SSLV-D2

In conclusion, With the successful launch of SSLV-D2, ISRO has yet again hinted that it is going to be a major player in the global satellite market.

For further reading:

https://www.isro.gov.in/media_isro/pdf/Missions/SSLV/SSLV_D2_EOS_07_DigitalBrochure.pdf

- Sanskar (MS21234)