On Sunday, 2 November, India’s leading space agency ISRO launched the heaviest communication satellite, one of its kind indigenous ‘Bahubali’ rocket. The satellite was successfully placed in its orbit on Sunday.
CMS-03, which weighs 4,410 kg, was placed aboard LVM3-M5, making this a rare and remarkable feat for the country. According to ISRO, CMS-03 is a multi-band communication satellite that will provide access to the vast oceanic region and the Indian landmass and hence be used in various services. The satellite has been placed in its desired orbit, the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, and will replace the GSAT 7 series satellite launched in 2013.
The chairman of ISRO, V Narayanan, announced the successful launch of the satellite. He stated that the satellite was injected precisely during a post-launch conference at the Mission’s control centre. He also described LVM3 as ‘Bahubali’, signifying its heavy weightlifting capabilities.
He also highlighted that the last launch conducted by the rocket was the Chandrayan-3, which brought immense pride to the nation, making it the only country to successfully soft-land on the South pole of the moon. LVM3 has conducted eight launches, and all eight launches have been successful, which shows its 100% success rate, Narayanan highlighted.
The satellite launched today will provide data for the coming 15 years, and is a shining example in India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat journey. Talking about the process of injection, the chairman, who is also the secretary of the Department of Space, said that it was difficult to place the satellite in orbit due to unfavourable weather conditions, but once again the team proved its potential by succeeding at the launch.
LVM3-M5 is a three-stage launch vehicle; it has two solid motor strap-ons(S200), a liquid propellant at its core(L110), and its last stage, which is cryogenic(C25). This provides self-reliance to launch satellites heavier than 4,000 kgs in GTO. The other name given to LVM3 is Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle(GSLV) MkIII.
The vehicle is the latest one used by ISRO, and is important to launch heavier satellites from the Indian territory. It contains completely indigenous technologies with a record of all successful launches. The space agency has also revealed that for its upcoming Gaganyan mission, it will use the human-rated version of LVM3, which is termed HRLV.
