Sriharikota: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will herald yet another milestone when the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) mission will take its maiden flight from the spaceport of Sriharikota on Sunday.

For the SSLV mission the countdown is reported to have been reduced from 25 hours to five hours and is expected to commence on Sunday at 4.18 hours while the lift off is scheduled at 9.18 am.

The SSLV will ferry Earth Observation Satellite-2 (EOS-2) and a co-passenger satellite AzaadiSAT into a Low Earth Orbit. SSLV is the new launch vehicle of ISRO capable of launching Mini, Mіcro ог Nano satellites (10 to 500 kg mass) to 500 km planar orbit. Earlier, ISRO was successful in its mission launches through its trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles (PSLV), Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV).

The ISRO officials said the launch of SSLV-D1 (first developmental flight) carrying the 142 kg EOS-02, equipped with an infrared camera with six metre resolution, and a micro satellite will take place from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. It will be followed by the separation and injection of AzaadiSAT about 50 seconds later.

AzaadiSAT

It is developed by the girl students from rural regions across the country who are part of ‘Space Kidz India’ team. They were provided guidance by ISRO scientists to build these payloads. AzaadiSAT carries 75 different payloads each weighing around 50 gms. The ground system developed by Space Kidz India would be utilised for receiving the data from this satellite.

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