Sriharikota:Space dock experiment: Spacecraft injected into right orbit, ISRO eyes a new technical feat By S Vijay Karthik (Eds: Minor edits) Sriharikota, (Andhra Pradesh), Dec 31 (PTI) Two spacecraft that would help ISRO demonstrate space docks, a crucial technology for future space missions, were successfully separated and placed into the desired orbit late Monday, the country’s space agency said.
“The PSLV C60 Spadex mission has been accomplished involving the Spadex A&B satellites,” said mission director M Jayakumar.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief S Somanath said the rocket placed the satellites in the right orbit of a circular orbit of 475 km after a flight of more than 15 minutes.
“So as far as we’re concerned, the rocket has put the spacecraft into the right orbit and the SpaDeX satellites have moved one after the other, and over time it will travel even greater distances, about 20 km away. and then the rendezvous and docking process begins.
And we hope that the docking process can take place in another week and the nominal time will be about January 7,” he said in his speech from the Mission Control Center.
The most important part of this mission is the POEM-4 with 24 payloads from startups, industries, academia and also from ISRO centres, he said.
These will be fired on Tuesday morning. Scientists would work through the night to ensure that the POEM-4 reaches the desired orbit level to carry out the operation, Somanath said.
Later, talking to reporters at the Satish Dhawan Space Center, Somanath said the PSLV-C60 mission placed the two SpaDeX satellites weighing 220 kg in a circular orbit and 475 km instead of the expected 470 km. This mission also features the POEM-4 carrying 24 payloads to conduct research and development.
“They are payloads and not satellites. They will be added to the fourth stage (of the PSLV rocket) for conducting experiments in the next two months. The upper stage of the PSLV rocket will be lowered to a lower orbit of up to 350 km and that process is currently underway. After that, we will have to continue many activities,” said Somanath, who is also secretary of the Ministry of Space.
About the Space Docking Experiment, he said the scientists would have many operations at the ISTRAC Bengaluru from December 31 and expected the docking condition to happen ‘possibly on January 7’.
So we will be able to see that from the Control Centre, ISTRAC, Bengaluru. All those activities of docking, including broadcasting the onboard camera images of the docking processes, he said.
Somanath, flanked by SpaDeX Project Director N Surendran, Jayakumar and directors of the various centers said that ISRO was very proud of this achievement and expressed hope that the goal of the SpaDeX mission can be achieved in the coming days.
Really an important mission for us, you know, with the reforms in the space sector and the expansion of space activities. Then we have manned spaceflight programmes, building space stations etc. This (Monday) mission is so crucial for us to work on future missions like Chandrayaan-4, and also missions to the moon, he said.
I believe this is not the first SpaDeX and there will be many more SpaDeX varieties in the coming days, including complex versions of docking systems, he said.
We had two launches of the PSLV from the same launch pad which is the first launch pad in December. So after the first launch (on December 5 for the PSLV-C59/Proba-3 mission), the Satish Dhawan Space Center team quickly took advantage of the opportunity (for Monday’s mission), he said.
Surendran said: I would like to congratulate the PSLV team for the consecutive successful launch of PSLV in a month. It’s a record, we also placed our twin babies in a perfectly circular orbit, as per our requirements.
“I’m happy to say that our solar arrays have been successfully deployed and the spacecraft is traveling and keeping their wings pointed toward the dock, and this is expected to happen around the first week of January,” he said.
As you know, the space sector is going through a phase to enable private players to meet the growing demand. As per policy guidelines, SpaDeX was first assembled and integrated here, he said.
The PSLV-C60 mission, dubbed as a prelude to ISRO setting up its own space station by 2035, would also see India join an elite club in achieving this feat, which is expected to happen in the coming days take place.
The 44.5-meter-tall rocket carried two spacecraft: Spacecraft A and B, each weighing 220 kg, which would assist with docking in space, satellite maintenance and interplanetary missions.
After the culmination of the 25-hour countdown that began on Sunday, the rocket lifted off from the first launch pad at this spaceport at 10 pm, emitting thick orange fumes and thunderous sounds on the island, located about 135 km east of Chennai. .
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