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ISRO places Brazil’s Amazonia-1, 18 other satellites in orbit

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    1st Mar, 2021

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Verifying, please be patient.

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