Success! ISRO Deploys Seven Singapore Satellites Using PSLV-C56, Aces Important Space Debris Mitigation Experiment

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) acccomplished a successful space mission in the early hours on Sunday (30 July).

The polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV-C56 lifted off with the DS-SAR satellite and six other co-passenger satellites, all of them from Singapore, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 6.31 am.

Within about 23 minutes, all the seven satellites were precisely placed in their intended orbits. The PSLV-C56/DS-SAR mission was declared a success.

With this mission, ISRO remarkably achieved two successful major launches in a little over two weeks' time.

ISRO Chairman S Somanath said they achieved the "perfect orbit" in this mission.

In his address, the ISRO chief congratulated NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a central public sector enterprise under the administrative control of the Department of Space, which had procured the PSLV-C56 to deploy the Singaporean satellites.

"And I want to congratulate the customers sponsored by Government of Singapore for having this mission on board PSLV, and their continued faith in our PSLV for deploying the spacecrafts from Singapore," Somanath said.

Singapore's "continued faith" in ISRO's PSLV is demonstrated by the fact that this was the fourth dedicated Indian space mission for Singapore, starting with the launch of the TeLEOS-01 satellite in 2015.

NSIL Chairman and Managing Director Dr Radhakrishnan Durairaj said this feat of "a single customer coming to PSLV continuously four times for a dedicated launch has been a real record."

Besides performing the primary mission of deploying the satellites, ISRO took special care towards space debris mitigation with a stage de-orbiting experiment in this mission.

The space agency lowered the spent PSLV fourth stage down from around 535 km circular orbit in 5 degree inclination to about 300 km.

The intent behind this move, Somanath explained, was to lower the life span of the spent stage in space, "primarily to make sure that the space debris mitigation problems are addressed through our conscious efforts to bring back the PSLV upper stage in a controlled manner..."

Mission Director Biju S R explained further that the roughly 500 km to 570 km orbit in which the Singapore satellites were deployed "is very much in demand for many satellites," adding, "We thought we will not be wandering there."

In this way, ISRO is clearing space for other satellites to be deployed in that orbit in the future.

In a tweet, ISRO said that this experiment will lower the life of the spent stage from over two decades to under two months before it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere.

In some lighter moments, Biju's enthusiastic remarks about PSLV's experiments in orbit drew laughter from both the ISRO and NSIL chiefs. "A very excited mission director there," Somanath quipped.

Meanwhile, the ISRO chief teased about the next PSLV mission, which is set to take place in August or early September.

Read here for details of the satellites deployed.