The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Sunday early morning launched 36 satellites in its heaviest rocket. It has done this from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The rocket is named LVM3 Baahubali.
This 43.5-meter tall rocket was scheduled to start its journey from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota at 12.07 am on Sunday.
This launch is the first for LVM-3-M2 to place the satellites in the Low Earth Orbit, unlike the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.
This ISRO’s rocket, LVM3, carried 36 satellites of a private communications firm OneWeb. Meanwhile, Scientist S Somanath, Chairman of ISRO, said that another set of 36 OneWeb satellites would be launched by the LVM3 in the first half of next year. Interestingly is that this rocket is said as one of the heaviest for its ability to carry satellites up to 8,000 kgs.
Sharing the same, ISRO in its official Twitter account, wrote,” LVM3 – M2/OneWeb India-1 Mission: Launch scheduled at 0007 hrs. IST on October 23, 2022. Cryo stage, equipment bay (EB) assembly completed. Satellites are encapsulated and assembled in the vehicle. Final vehicle checks are in progress”.
This mission is being undertaken by ISRO as part of the commercial arrangement between NewSpace India Ltd and United Kingdom-based Network Access Associates Ltd (OneWeb Ltd), ISRO said.
According to the space agency, this mission would carry the heaviest payloads with 36 satellites of OneWeb becoming the first Indian rocket with a heavy payload of almost 5,796 kgs.
