INVOLVEMENT OF STUDENTS

THE STRIDES MADE BY

the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are highly commendable as it is not only in the forefront of science, but is also becoming a key commercial enterprise. And in June this year, it created yet another record. ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in its 36th flight (PSLV-C34) successfully launched the 727.5 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 19 co-passenger satellites on June 22, 2016 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the 35th consecutively successful mission of PSLV and the 14th in its ‘XL’ configuration. The total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C34 was 1,288 kg. Of the 19 co-passenger satellites carried by PSLV-C34, two i.e. SATHYABAMASAT weighing 1.5 kg and SWAYAM weighing one kg, are university/academic institute satellites and were built with the involvement of students from Sathyabama University, Chennai, and College of Engineering, Pune, respectively.

The remaining 17 co-passenger satellites were international customer satellites including 13 from the United States, two from Canada and one each from Germany and Indonesia. With the success of this mission, the total number of satellites launched by ISRO’s workhorse PSLV has reached 113, of which 39 are Indian and the remaining 74 from abroad.

The Chairman of ISRO, A.S. Kiran Kumar said that the PSLV has ‘done its job.’ “Each of these small objects that you are putting into space will carry out their own activity, which is independent of the other and each of them will live a wonderful life for a finite period for which they have been designed,”