ISRO to launch 103 satellites on a single PSLV C37 rocket, know how all the satellites will be placed in orbit

In the first week of February Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launching 103 satellite at one go and will set another record with it. 

Dr K. Sivan, Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram, explained the details of how all the satellites will be placed in the orbit.

He said “The satellites will be separated from the launch vehicle in different directions. The separation angle and time of separation will be such that one satellite will not collide with another.”

The satellite separated from the launch vehicle will have a relative velocity of one metre per second. So after 1,000 seconds the distance between a satellite and the rocket will be 1,000 metres.

“The satellite that gets launched first will move at a relatively faster velocity than the next satellite that is launched. Due to different relative velocities, the distance between the satellites will increase continuously but the orbit will be the same,” he said.

“When the vehicle reaches the orbital condition, we will wait for the disturbances to die down before the preparation for separation begins,” 

Dr Sivan explained. At an orbital altitude of around 500 km, it would take the vehicle 90 minutes to complete one orbit. “So we have sufficient time to launch all the 103 satellites,” he added.

The Even one-degree difference in separation angle combined with relative velocity will ensure that no two satellites would collide. “The satellites will be injected into orbit at different locations at different angles, at different times and different orientations,” Dr Sivan said.

Earlier, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that with the launch of 103 satellites under single mission it aims at achieving maximise capability with each launch. It also said that its aim is not to set a record.

ISRO’s workhorse PSLV-C37 rocket carrying no less than 103 satellites will be launched in the first week of February. 100 out of the 103 satellites are foreign, while only 3 are Indian.