• ISRO successfully launched PSLV-C56 carrying seven Singaporean satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and placed them into intended orbits. 

• The 44.4 metre tall rocket lifted off from the first launch pad at Sriharikota, one minute after the prefixed time of 6.30 am. 

• Around 23 minutes after lift-off, the primary satellite got separated and it was followed by six other co-passenger satellites, which were deployed into the intended orbits sequentially. 

• PSLV-C56/DS-SAR is the dedicated commercial mission of NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).

• It is the 58th flight of PSLV and it uses the 17th vehicle with Core Alone Configuration. 

• A Core Alone version of the rocket means the vehicle does not use solid strap-on motors on its sides in the first stage as compared to other variants like PSLV-XL, QL, and DL which use six, four or two boosters, respectively. 

• PSLV has earned its title as the “workhorse of ISRO” through consistently delivering various satellites into Low Earth Orbits. 

NewSpace India Limited

• The NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a central public sector enterprise (CPSE), under the administrative control of the department of space (DOS) was established on March 6, 2019. 

• NSIL is the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with the primary responsibility of enabling Indian industries to take up high technology space related activities.

• It was set up to meet the ever-increasing demands of the Indian space programme and to commercially exploit the emerging global space market. 

• In June 2020, the government enhanced the role and scope of NSIL to encompass more responsibilities in the primary business areas.

DS-SAR satellite

• The primary payload carried by ISRO’s trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the DS-SAR Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite, which has been developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, Singapore. 

• The 360-kg satellite, upon deployment at an altitude of 535 km into a Near-equatorial Orbit (NEO), would be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the government of Singapore. 

• ST Engineering would use the satellite for multi-modal and higher responsiveness imagery and geospatial services for their commercial customers. 

• The satellite carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload developed by Israel Aerospace Industries. The payload allows DS-SAR to provide for all-weather day-and-night coverage and it is capable of imaging at 1-metre resolution. 

The co-passenger satellites are:

i) VELOX-AM: It is a microsatellite developed by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, for technology demonstration of Additive Manufacturing (AM) payloads.

ii) Atmospheric Coupling and Dynamics Explorer (ARCADE): It is a 27U microsatellite designed and built by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in collaboration with the INSPIRE (International Satellite Program in Research and Technology) consortium. ARCADE carries iodine based solid propellant propulsion module, based on Hall effect thruster for orbit maintenance during the low altitude mission.

iii) SCOOB-II: It is a 3U CubeSat designed and developed by a student team at Satellite Research Centre (SaRC), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The satellite is designed for a 6-month mission lifetime. SCOOB-II utilises a three-axis controlled reaction wheel assembly for attitude control.

iv) NuLIoN: It is a 3U nanosatellite developed by NuSpace as the seed satellite for a LEO equatorial constellation providing continuous LoRaWAN IoT services.

v) Galassia-2: It is an educational 3U nanosatellite by National University of Singapore (NUS). The main mission of GALASSIA-2 is to perform an inter-satellite link (ISL) with TeLEOS-1. Galassia-2 will demonstrate the capability of using Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) multispectral imagery for space applications.

vi) ORB-12 STRIDER: It is developed under an international collaboration, coordinated by Singapore-based ALIENA, including Orbital Astronautics as bus providers, and Aurora Propulsion Technologies as sub-system co-developers. It will demonstrate next generation propulsion systems catered specifically for small satellite constellations.

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