Today, ISRO’s LVM3 launch vehicle, in its sixth consecutive successful flight placed 36 satellites belonging to OneWeb Group Company into their intended 450 Km circular orbit with an inclination of 87.4 degrees. With this, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has successfully executed its contract to launch 72 satellites of OneWeb to Low Earth Orbit.
The vehicle took off with a total payload of 5,805 kg at 09:00:20 hours local time from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)-SHAR, Sriharikota. It gained the required altitude of 450 Km in about nine minutes of flight, achieved satellite injection conditions in the eighteenth minute and begun injecting the satellites in the twentieth minute. 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 collisions of the satellites. 36 satellites were separated in 9 phases, in a batch of 4. OneWeb confirmed the acquisitions of signals from all 36 satellited.
The mission marked OneWeb’s second satellite deployment from India, highlighting the strong partnership with NSIL and ISRO. It was OneWeb’s 18th launch bringing the total of OneWeb’s constellation to 618 satellites.
This is the second mission for Network Access Associates Limited, United Kingdom (OneWeb Group Company) under a commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) to launch 72 satellites to Low-Earth Orbits (LEO). The first set of 36 satellites was launched in LVM3-M2/OneWeb India-1 mission on October 23, 2022.
In this mission, LVM3 placed 36 OneWeb Gen-1 satellites totalling about 5,805 kg into a 450 km circular orbit with an inclination of 87.4 degrees. This is the sixth flight of LVM3.
The LVM3 had five consecutive successful missions, including the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
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