ISRO places Brazil’s Amazonia-1, 18 other satellites in orbit
- Posted By
10Pointer
- Categories
Science & Technology
- Published
1st Mar, 2021
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Context
ISRO’s PSLV-C51 has successfully placed Amazonia-1, and 18 co-passenger satellites from India and the U.S.A. in their respective orbit successfully.
What is Amazonia-1?
- Amazonia-1 is optimized to peer at the cloud-covered region of its namesake, the Amazon forest, since it has infrared capabilities that allow it to look at the forest cover regardless of the weather.
- Brazil plans to use the satellite for "alert deforestation" in the region.
- The satellite is also Brazil's first independently designed, built and operated satellite, which country officials hailed after it reached orbit.
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Other Satellites
- The 18 other satellites include a mix of Indian and American craft.
- The Indian-built satellites include
- Satish Dhawan SAT (which studies radiation, space weather and communications)
- the UNITYsat trio (for radio relay)
- a technology demonstrator satellite called SindhuNetra
- The American ones include
- technology demonstrator called SAI-1 NanoConnect-2
- 12 "SpaceBees'' from Swarm Technologies, part of a larger constellation the company is building in low Earth orbit.
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What is PSLV?
- Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India.
- It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages.
- After its first successful launch in October 1994, PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India with 39 consecutively successful missions by June 2017.
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Other space launch vehicles
- Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3): Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3) was India's first experimental satellite launch vehicle, which was an all solid, four stage vehicle weighing 17 tonnes with a height of 22m and capable of placing 40 kg class payloads in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
- Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV): The Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) Programme was designed to augment the payload capacity to 150 kg, thrice that of SLV-3, for Low Earth Orbits (LEO).
- Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark II (GSLV Mk II): It is the largest launch vehicle developed by India, which is currently in operation. This fourth generation launch vehicle is a three stage vehicle with four liquid strap-ons. The indigenously developed cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS), which is flight proven, forms the third stage of GSLV Mk II. From January 2014, the vehicle has achieved four consecutive successes.
- GSLV Mk III: GSLV MK III, chosen to launch Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, is a three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle developed by ISRO. The vehicle has two solid strap-ons, a core liquid booster and a cryogenic upper stage.
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