NEW DELHI: The Indian Space Research Organisation on October 23 successfully launched its heaviest rocket Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, putting in orbit 36 satellites of UK-based OneWeb satellite communications company.
The launch of the LVM-3, with its largest ever payload of 5,796 kg, also marked India’s entry into the global commercial launch service market.
“LVM3 M2/OneWeb India-1 mission is completed successfully. All the 36 satellites have been placed into intended orbits. @NSIL_India @OneWeb,” ISRO said in a tweet, minutes after Chairman S Somanath announced that 16 satellites have been placed in the desired orbits while the rest would take some more time.
Addressing the gathering at the Mission Control Centre, Somanath said Diwali celebrations started at Satish Dhawan Space Centre as LVM3 and its very first commercial mission have accomplished the orbit accurately.
“Now the rocket has entered into the orbit, 16 satellites out of the 36 satellites have been already injected. I wanted to tell you that this is a slow process of separating the satellites. The data of the separation of the remaining 20 satellites will come little later and mission operations of observing this separation is continuing,” he said.
