PSLV C56 Mission, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), New Space India Ltd (NSIL)

PSLV C56 Mission

• Context (TH | LM ): During PSLV C56 mission, ISRO’s PSLV successfully placed seven Singaporean satellites into intended orbits.

Significance of PSLV C56 Mission

• PSLV C56 mission is the second commercial mission of ISRO’s NSIL.
• The mission is designed to mitigate the space debris problem.
• Normally, after a successful mission, a rocket stays in orbit for “decades” as space debris, before re-entering into Earth’s atmosphere.
• But in this mission after placing customer satellites at an altitude of 536 km, the rocket will be lowered into a 300 km high orbit.
• Due to the orbit-lowering, the duration of space debris generated from this mission in space will be reduced to two months.

Space debris (space junk or orbital debris) refers to non-functional, defunct, or abandoned objects of human space activities orbiting the Earth. They are potentially hazardous for the orbiting satellites.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)

• PSLV is an indigenous expendable launch system developed in the 1990s by ISRO.
• It is called the ‘workhorse of ISRO’ because it has the highest number of successful launches.

Expendable launch system: It is used only once to carry a payload into space. E.g. PSLV, GSLV, etc.

Orbits in which PSLV Places Satellites

Polar and Near Polar (e.g. sun-synchronous orbit) Lower Earth Orbits

• PSLV was developed to place satellites (mostly remote sensing satellites) in polar and near polar (e.g. sun-synchronous orbit) Lower Earth Orbits.
• E.g., Astrosat (India’s first space observatory)

Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits

• Initially PSLV was developed to place satellites only on Low Earth Orbits. But, in the last decade, PSLV was successful in sending several satellites also toward geosynchronous transfer orbits.
• E.g. Chandrayaan-1 (India’s first lunar probe) and Mars Orbiter Mission or Mangalyaan (India’s first interplanetary mission).

Stages of PSLV

• PSLV is a four stage launch vehicle.
  • First stage and third stage are solid-fuelled stages.
  • Second stage and fourth stage are liquid-fuelled stages.
  • The second stage engine, Vikas, is a derivative of France’s Viking engine.

New Space India Ltd (NSIL)

• New Space India Ltd (NSIL) is a Public Sector Enterprise (under the Companies Act, 2013).
• It is under the administrative control of the Department of Space.
• It is the commercial wing of the ISRO.
• Objective: to commercially exploit the Research and Development work of the ISRO.

Space Business Activities of NSIL

• Owning satellites for Earth Observation and Communication applications.
• Building satellites and launching them as per demand.
• Providing launch services for satellite belonging to customer.
• Building launch vehicles through Indian Industry and Launch as per satellite customer requirement.
• Space-based services related to Earth Observation and Communication on a commercial basis.
• Satellite building through Indian Industry
• Technology Transfer to Indian Industry
• Marketing spin-off (commercial) technologies and products/services emanating out of ISRO.