The 43.5-metre rocket lifted off at 9 am on Sunday from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-Sriharikota Range
Tirupati: India's largest rocket, Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3), on Sunday launched the heaviest payload ever from Indian soil, 36 satellites weighing 5,805 kg, from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Tirupati district.
The 43.5-metre rocket lifted off at 9 am Sunday from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre-Sriharikota Range (SDSC-SHAR) at Sriharikota in Tirupati district. Nine minutes later, it reached an altitude of 450 km in space.
It began injecting the satellites, belonging to the United Kingdom-based OneWeb Group, a global communications network, into the intended orbit after another 11 minutes.
Signalling the success of the mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said that OneWeb Group had confirmed the acquisition of signals from all 36 satellites.
"The C25 stage performed a sophisticated manoeuvre to repeatedly orient itself in orthogonal directions and inject satellites into precise orbits with defined time-gaps to avoid collision of satellites," Isro said.
Isro chairman Dr S. Somanath, who is also the secretary of the department of space, congratulated his team.
Speaking at the Mission Control Centre, Dr Somanath said: “It went up to the right orbit and placed the spacecraft at the right orbit with very minimal disturbances. This mission had the upgraded S200 motors with enhanced margins that are suitable for the upcoming Gaganyaan mission.”
He thanked NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), a public-sector undertaking, for its support and also OneWeb for its confidence in Isro. He said that the approvals and support from the government for commercial launches enhanced global confidence in LVM3.
NSlL, Isro's commercial subsidiary, signed an agreement with Network Access Associates Ltd of the UK (OneWeb Group Company) for launching 72 satellites into lower-earth orbits.
Isro launched the first batch of 36 satellites on October 23, 2022, and Sunday's launch completed the deal.
D. Radhakrishnan, chairman and managing director, NSIL, congratulated Isro and said it was a challenging mission, in terms of manoeuvrability.
OneWeb intends to have a network of 588 satellites for global coverage and is set to start operations this year after setting up 618 satellites, to ensure failsafe operations.
