The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is looking at launching 22 satellites in a single mission by the end of June this year. This information was shared by space agency chairperson Kiran Kumar on Saturday. The national space agency plans to launch its 22 satellites in workhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C34.
Out of the 22 satellites that will be launched, three of them are made in India whereas the rest are commercial. The 19 satellites are from four international borders, including two from Canada weighing 115 kg, three from Germany weighing around 155 kg, one from Indonesia weighing 120 kg and the rest is from the USA weighing a total of 195 kg.
Out of the three satellites, two of the nanosatellites are developed by Indian students Swayam and Satyabamasat and the primary payload will be an earth observation satellite of India weighing about 710 kg.
Commenting on this latest development, Kiran Kumar, Chairman ISRO said:
After the currently reusable launch vehicle, the next experiment that we have to do, we need to worry about that. Also, other than that one of a cartographic series satellite will be launched.
Kumar further added, “The launch is scheduled for the end of next month, immediately after that we have scatterometer that is going to get launched then INSAT 3DR is to provide vertical temperature and humidity profile from a geostationary satellite.”
The first in a series of experiment flights for Reusable Launch Vehicle technology development is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX). This is also followed by the landing operation return flight Experiment (REX) and scramjet propulsion experiment (SPEX). In a single mission in 2008, the space agency had sent 10 satellites into the orbit.
