Report by Shreya Agarwal
Sriharikota, 26th March: ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) launched 36 satellites of the OneWeb Group Company through its LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) on 26th March, 2023. The vehicle, 43.5 metres tall with a payload weighing 5805 kg was launched at 9:00:20 IST (Indian Standard Time) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Nine minutes after launch: reached the required altitude of 450km
Eighteen minutes after launch: acquired the conditions required to inject the satellites
Twenty minutes after launch: satellites were inserted in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in batches of four, in nine phases with an inclination of 87.4 degrees.
What’s the LVM-3?
LVM-3 stands for Launch Vehicle Mark-3. It is indigenously developed by the ISRO. It was previously called the GSLV Mk-III, which stands for Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III. It is the latest heavy lift launch vehicle of the ISRO. It can acquire a 4000 kg spacecraft launching capability to the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), very cost-effectively.
What do you mean by ‘geosynchronous’? It refers to the orbit of a satellite. When the time taken by a satellite to complete one revolution around the earth is equal to the time taken by the earth to complete a rotation i.e. 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4 seconds; the orbit is said to be geosynchronous.
What is OneWeb?
OneWeb is a “global communications network powered by a constellation of 648 satellites”. It offers high speed, low latency connections everywhere on the earth. It was founded in 2012 by Greg Wyler under the name ‘WorldVu’. Currently, the CEO of the company is Neil Masterson.
*Latency: delays in between the input given by the user and the output given by a certain software.
The ISRO-OneWeb collaboration?
NewSpace India Ltd (the commercial arm of ISRO) signed a contract with OneWeb to launch 72 satellites in space for a sum of 1000 crore rupees. The first 36 satellites were launched into orbit on 23rd October 2022 from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota. They were launched to an altitude of 601 km at an 87.4 degrees inclination. The launch occurred in nine stages and took 75 minutes.
This mission marked the 18th launch of OneWeb satellites, which brings the total number of its satellites in space to 618.