Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
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The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ( PSLV for short , Hindi ध्रुवीय उपग्रह प्रक्षेपण यान ) is an Indian launcher for light to medium payloads. The rocket will be launched by the Indian space agency ISRO from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on Sriharikota.
history
PSLV was developed in order to be able to launch Indian IRS exploration satellites with their own rockets, as it was previously dependent on the Soviet Union or Russia and their carriers.
The first launch took place in 1993 but was unsuccessful. Although the first stage worked without problems, in the second and third stages an error occurred in the attitude control system, which led to the missile crashing. The second PSLV started successfully after about a year. Since then, the PSLV has successfully launched several Indian as well as additional smaller foreign payloads into space. The first Indian space probe Chandrayaan-1 was also launched in 2008 with a PSLV to the moon .
technology
PSLV is a four-stage rocket consisting of two solid-state stages (first and third stages) and two liquid-fuel stages (second and fourth stages). In addition, the first stage in the basic version is supported by six smaller solid fuel boosters. In the PSLV-CA (Core Alone) version, these are omitted, whereupon the payload is reduced to 1100 kg in a sun-synchronous orbit. The first stage is one of the largest solid rocket rockets in the world and burns HTPB (Hydroxyl Terminated Poly Butadiene) as fuel. The first stage contained only 129 t of fuel until the third take-off (PSLV-Dx) and was then increased to 138 t (PSLV-Cx), with the maximum thrust also being increased from 4430 to 4628 kN from the PSLV-C4. It is also used as the first stage of the larger and stronger GSLV . The boosters are also solid rockets filled with HTPB, which are ignited one after the other (first four, then the remaining two). The second stage burns liquid fuel and is powered by a Vikas engine, which is a Viking 4A engine manufactured under license from the European Ariane 3 . The third stage also burns HTPB. The fourth stage has two engines that burn the fuel combination of monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide .
The height of the rocket is 44.4 m, the launch mass 294 t (data for the rocket variant PSLV-G 3, as it was used in the PSLV C6 mission). Since the first launch in 1993, the rocket has been continuously strengthened and improved, so that the version used today can bring over 1,600 kg into a polar orbit about 600 km high (initial launch version about 850 kg) and about 1,000 kg into a geostationary transfer orbit. The last version (the PSLV-XL) has improved boosters and can even put 1,800 kg into polar orbit. The first launch of this version took place on October 22, 2008 for Chandrayaan-1 . To launch the rocket, the Satish Dhawan Space Center has two launch facilities, the second (SLP - Second Launch Pad) was only inaugurated in 2005 with the start of the PSLV mission C6.
When the PSLV-C17 was launched, a computer system was used for the first time that exclusively used Indian Vikram 1601 processors in both redundant control computers. These had been tested when the PSLV-C12 was launched in 2009, where they were used in one of the two systems.
When the PSLV C-37 was launched on February 15, 2017, 102 individual satellites were launched for the first time. This represents a new record.
After the partial success of C-1 in September 1997, 36 successful launches followed. This series ended on August 31, 2017 when the payload fairing of C-39 did not open, preventing the missile from reaching the desired orbit.
| booster | 1st stage | 2nd stage | 3rd stage | 4th stage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| designation | PSOM | PS1 | PS2 | PS3 | PS4 |
| number | 6th | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Diameter (m) | 1 | 2.8 | 2.8 | 2 | 2.8 |
| Length (m) | 10 | 20th | 12.8 | 3.6 | 2.9 |
| fuel |
HTPB (solid) |
HTPB (solid) |
UH 25 + N 2 O 4 (liquid) |
HTPB (solid) |
MMH + N 2 O 4 (liquid) |
| Fuel mass (t) | 6 × 9 | 138 | 41.5 | 7.6 | 2.5 |
| Max. Thrust (kN) | 6 × 645 | 4762 | 800 | 246 | 14.6 |
| Burning time (s) | 44 | 106.4 | 147 | 109 | 515 |
Start list
→ See list of PSLV rocket launches .
Web links
- India's launch vehicles
- PSLV at ISRO (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Report about Chandrayan's start with PSLV (English)
- ↑ PSLV-C17 brings GSAT 12 into space
- ↑ India launches over 100 satellites with PSLV C37 | Manned Mars mission. Retrieved February 17, 2017 .
- ^ William Graham: Indian PSLV launch with IRNSS replacement satellite suffers apparent failure. nasaspaceflight.com, August 31, 2017, accessed on September 1, 2017 (English): "The rocket's last thirty-six consecutive launches, spanning almost twenty years, have been successful."