PSLV

Active

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

Sept. 20, 1993

Description

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun-synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV in 1993, commercially available only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small size satellites into Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Specifications
  • Stages
    4
  • Length
    44.0 m
  • Diameter
    2.8 m
  • Fairing Diameter
    2.8 m
  • Launch Mass
    295.0 T
  • Thrust
    4847.0 kN
Family
  • Name
    PSLV
  • Family
  • Variant
  • Alias
  • Full Name
    PSLV
Payload Capacity
  • Launch Cost
    $21000000
  • Low Earth Orbit
    3800.0 kg
  • Geostationary Transfer Orbit
    1200.0 kg
  • Direct Geostationary
  • Sun-Synchronous Capacity
    1750.0 kg

Indian Space Research Organization

Government
Chairman: S. Somanath
ISRO 1969

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the space agency of the Government of India headquartered in the city of Bangalore. Its vision is to "harness space technology for national development while pursuing space science research and planetary exploration."

Upcoming Spaceflights


PSLV | SPADEX (Space Docking Experiment)

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
TBD December, 2024
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

SPADEX (Space Docking Experiment) is an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) technology mission to demonstrate autonomous docking between 2 spacecraft in orbit. The mission will involve two spacecraft (Chaser and Target) rendezvous and docking together, plus testing attitude control of the combined spacecraft under docked conditions. The Chaser and Target spacecraft will then be separated for operating other payload. The mission is critical to develop rendezvous and docking abilities for ISRO’s future human spaceflight and lunar sample return missions.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | TDS-01

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
TBD December, 2024
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

TDS-01 (Technology Demonstration Satellite-01) is an Indian geostationary orbit technology demonstration satellite carrying payloads for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar and the CSIR-CEERI, Pilani. Payloads to be tested included an internally developed 300 mN electric powered thrusters, atomic clocks, travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA) & a quantum communication suite (QuTDS).

Geostationary Transfer Orbit
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PSLV | RISAT-2A

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
TBD December, 2025
Status: To Be Determined
Mission:

RISAT-2A is the third in the series of radar imaging RISAT satellites. The satellite carries a sophisticated synthetic aperture radar that operates at 5.35 GHz in C band.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | SCATSat-1

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Sept. 26, 2016, 3:42 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

ScatSat-1 is a microsatellite of 371 kg and a mission life of 5 years. It is tasked to provide weather forecasting, cyclone prediction, and tracking services to India. This launch will also carry 7 other satellites, the 117kg Alsat-2B, the 103kg Alsat-1B & the 7kg Alsat-1N earth observation satellites for Algerian Space Agency, the 44kg Pathfinder-1 earth imager for Blacksky, the 8kg CanX-7 deorbiter for UTIAS Space Flight Laboratory, the 10kg Pratham Ionospheric Tomographer for IIT Bombay and the 5.25kg PiSat earth imager for PES University.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | Resourcesat-2

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
April 20, 2011, 4:42 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Unknown Mission

There are no mission or payload details available for this launch.


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PSLV | Cartosat 2 & SRE 1

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Jan. 10, 2007, 3:54 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Indian Earth observation and re-entry technology satellites

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | Cartosat-1

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
May 5, 2005, 4:45 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Cartosat-1 or IRS-P5 is a stereoscopic Earth observation satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit, and the first one of the Cartosat series of satellites. The eleventh satellite of ISRO in IRS series.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit
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PSLV | Resourcesat

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Oct. 17, 2003, 4:52 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

The Resourcesat-1 satellite was launched to ensure systematic and repetitive coverage of the earth’s surface.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | KALPANA-1

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Sept. 12, 2002, 10:23 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Kalpana-1 was the first dedicated meteorological satellite launched by Indian Space Research Organisation using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on 12 September 2002. The satellite is three-axis stabilized and is powered by solar panels, getting up to 550 watts (0.74 hp) of power. The METSAT bus was used as the basis for the Chandrayaan lunar orbiter mission of 2008.

Geostationary Orbit
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PSLV | TES

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Oct. 22, 2001, 4:53 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) is Indian remote sensing and photo-reconnaissance satellite. The 1108 kg satellite carries a one-meter resolution panchromatic camera is an experimental satellite to demonstrate and validate, in orbit, technologies that could be used in the future satellites of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was successfully placed in 572 km Sun-synchronous orbit on 22 October 2001 using the PSLV-C3. The PSLV-C3 also injected two more satellites: PROBA, a Belgian satellite and BIRD, a German satellite.

Sun-Synchronous Orbit
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PSLV | IRS-P4 & Uribyol-3

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
May 26, 1999, 6:22 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

IRS-P4 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) or Oceansat is the first indian satellite primarily built for Ocean applications. Kitsat (Korean Institute of Technology Satellite 3), renamed on orbit as Uribyol 3, was the first Korean satellite in true sense and was launched by an Indian PSLV-G (2) rocket in May 1999.

Polar Orbit
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PSLV | IRS-1D

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Sept. 29, 1997, 4:47 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

IRS 1C and 1D (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) were the second version of the series of indigenous state-of-art remote sensing satellites. Skipper was an international project initiated by BMDO to measure the bow-shock UV emissions from reentering bodies at different speeds and heights.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | IRS-P3

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
March 21, 1996, 4:53 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

IRS-P3 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) was an Indian experimental earth observation satellite.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | IRS-P2

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Oct. 15, 1994, 5:05 a.m.
Status: Launch Successful
Mission:

IRS-P2 (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) was an Indian experimental earth observation satellite.

Low Earth Orbit
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PSLV | IRS-P1

Indian Space Research Organization | India
Satish Dhawan Space Centre, India
Sept. 20, 1993, 5:12 a.m.
Status: Launch Failure
Mission:

IRS-1E (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite) satellite was an experimental Indian earth observing satellite, which was derived from the engineering model of IRS-1A incorporating a Monocular Electro-Optical Stereo Scanner developed by DLR, Germany, and a LISS-I camera similar to that on IRS-1A.

Low Earth Orbit
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Falcon 9
Success
2 days, 9 hours ago
Starlink Group 6-66
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

A batch of 24 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.


Soyuz 2.1a
Success
2 days, 13 hours ago
Progress MS-29 (90P)
31/6 - Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan

Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station.


Starship
Success
4 days, 3 hours ago
Integrated Flight Test 6
Orbital Launch Mount A - SpaceX Starbase, TX, USA

Sixth test flight of the two-stage Starship launch vehicle.


Falcon 9
Success
5 days, 7 hours ago
GSAT-20 (GSAT-N2)
Space Launch Complex 40 - Cape Canaveral SFS, FL, USA

GSAT-20 is an Indian geostationary Ka-band high-throughput communications satellite. GSAT 20 is reportedly built on the I-6K unified modular bus a…


Falcon 9
Success
5 days, 20 hours ago
Starlink Group 9-12
Space Launch Complex 4E - Vandenberg SFB, CA, USA

A batch of 20 satellites for the Starlink mega-constellation - SpaceX's project for space-based Internet communication system.