PSLV-C40/Cartosat-2 Series Satellite Mission: Jan 12, 2018

KapitaanAli · Jan 9, 2018

Jan 09, 2018
PSLV-C40/Cartosat-2 Series Satellite Mission
PSLV-C40

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its forty second flight (PSLV-C40), will launch the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 613 kg at lift-off. PSLV-C40 will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

The co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA. The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C40 is about 1323 kg.

The 28 International customer satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.

PSLV-C40/Cartosat-2 Series Satellite Mission is Scheduled to be launched on Friday, Jan 12, 2018 at 09:28 Hrs (IST).

KapitaanAli · Jan 10, 2018

Jan 09, 2018
Cartosat-2 Series Satellite
Cartosat-2 Series Satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C40. This remote sensing satellite is similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series and is intended to augment data services to the users.

The imagery sent by satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) as well as Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

KapitaanAli · Jan 10, 2018

Jan 10, 2018
Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) have cleared the 28 hr countdown of PSLV-C40/ Cartosat2 Series Satellite mission for Thursday, January 11, 2018 starting at 05:29hr IST
and the launch of PSLV-C40/Cartosat2 Series Satellite mission for Friday, January 12, 2018 at 09:29hr IST.

KapitaanAli · Jan 11, 2018

Jan 11, 2018
Propellant filling operation of fourth stage (PS4) of PSLV-C40 is under progress

About the French satellite.

PicSat project

The PicSat project was conceived in response to the predicted transit of the young exoplanet in the Beta-Pictoris star system. In order to catch and follow this possible transit, a continuous monitoring of the brightness of the Beta-Pictoris star is needed, which can only be achieved from space. Observing a transit of a young planet in front of its young star can provide with new information that will help better gain more insight into the process of planet and star formation. Beta-Pictoris b might only transit once every 36 years, so this is an occasion not to be missed!

An important innovative technological goal of the PicSat project is that of demonstrating the concept of injecting star light into an optical fibre onboard a satellite in Earth orbit.

The PicSat project started in 2014 and at the end of 2017 PicSat is ready to be launched into Earth orbit. PicSat is the first CubeSat fully developed at the Paris Observatory / LESIA laboratory in France, in collaboration with the Space Campus CCERES and the PSL Université Paris, that is ready for launch and that will be operated locally from the Paris Observatory. It is one of the first CubeSats that will perform astronomical observations.

The launch is near!
mroos, 2018-01-09 15:19:19

PicSat has been in India at the ISRO Sriharikota launch base since last month, and PicSat team members Mathias Lowak and Lester David have been on site to make sure that all is OK.

The launch is foreseen to happen on Friday 12 January at 4h48m AM Paris local time (9h28m local time in Shriharikota). It will happen on the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) mission C40, together with a collection of other CubeSats and the larger Cartosat mission. After the ignition of the rocket, it should be about 20 minutes to reach the altitude of 505km where PicSat it to be released from its launch pod. The initialisation sequence is then automatically started, and 30 minutes later the antennas will deploy.

Then somewhere between 8 and 10 in the morning local time, we expect to receive a signal from PicSat as it passes of the Paris region.

KapitaanAli · Jan 11, 2018

Jan 11, 2018
Propellant filling operation of fourth stage (PS4) of PSLV-C40 is completed. Countdown operations are progressing normally.

KapitaanAli · Jan 11, 2018

Jan 11, 2018
Mobile Service Tower (MST) withdrawal to parking end is completed. Preparations for propellant filling operation of Second Stage (PS2) are in progress.

KapitaanAli · Jan 12, 2018

https://twitter.com/x/status/951620879737282560

https://twitter.com/x/status/951591321730338816

https://twitter.com/x/status/951322170877083649

Here are 10 facts about the ISRO launch:

The 30 other satellites the PSLV will carry today include two other satellites from India and 28 satellites from six countries -- Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Scientists said the mission will be a unique one, since the satellites will be launched in two orbits. Thirty of the satellites will be launched in an orbit 550 km about, and one 359-km above the Earth.
This will be done through what scientists call the "multiple burn technology" under which the rocket's engine is switched off and then switched on to control its height.
The whole process of lift-off and the placing of satellites in two orbits will take 2 hours 21 minutes -- the longest so far. The 28-hour countdown for the launch of the PSLV started at 5.29 am on Thursday.
The 710-kg earth observation satellite the PSLV will carry is the third in the Cartosat 2 series. The last satellite of the series had been launched successfully in June 2016.
ISRO had brushed off speculations of sabotage after the last satellite launch failure.Scientists said a tiny but vital equipment of the rocket had failed, due to which its protective heat shield could not be separated.
The heat shield of a satellite is meant to protect it from the heat generated by the friction against atmosphere during take-off.
The IRNSS-1H was expected to replace one of the seven orbiting satellite of NAViC. Its launch became necessary after three atomic clocks of one satellite started malfunctioning. Atomic clocks provide navigational data, and they are crucial for a Global positioning system.
NAViC, a system of seven satellites, powers India's powerful homegrown Global Positioning System.
ISRO's workhorse PSLV rocket weighs nearly 320 tonnes and stands up to 44.4 meters, equivalent to a 15-storey building.