| PSLV
Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV) is the first operational launch vehicle of India, which was designed to place
an Indian remote sensing satellite weighing one tonne in a 900 Km Polar sun synchronous orbit.
PSLV has a lift-off weight of about 294 tonne and is 44 M tall with four stages. The first
stage is 2.8 M diameter and has 138 tonnes of solid propellant, six solid propellant strap-on
motors each with 9 tonnes are attached to the first stage and rated as the third largest.
Solid booster in the world is equivalent to 14 times the core of an ASLV. The 2.8M diameter
liquid propulsion second stage carriage has 40.6 tonnes of propellant. The third stage is a
7.2 tonnes solid propellant motor the fourth stage is again a liquid propellant motor with two
tonnes of propellant. PSLV became operational after two successful developmental test-flights
conducted in October 1994 and March 1996. The first operational flight of this vehicle PSLV-C1
was conducted in September 29, 1997 when it placed the Indian remote sensing satellite,
IRS-ID, in a polar orbit. With the flight, PSLV has proved its capacity to launch 1200Kg class
payloads in 817 Km polar sun-synchronous orbit. |
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GSLV
Development of
Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle(GSLV) has been undertaken to achieve capacity to
launch 2500-Kg class of communication satellites in to geo-synchronous transfer orbit. INSAT-1
weighed 1200 Kg and INSAT-2, almost 2000 Kg. Typically, geo-stationary payloads now-a-days
need 2.5 M.tonnes. Hence the most efficient method of reaching the orbit is preferred. GSLV is
a three stage vehicle-the first stage employs a 129 tonnes solid propellant core motor with
four liquid propellant strap-ons with a loading of 40 tonnes each. The second stage is a
liquid propulsion system with a propellant loading of 37.5 tonnes and the upper stage is a
cryogenic engine with a loading of 12 tonnes using liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, that
remain liquid only at very low temperatures.
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