Six Launches In 2022, ISRO To Launch All Rockets In Its Fleet - SSLV, PSLV, GSLV MK-II, MK-III
In terms of satellite missions, ISRO is looking at launching EOS-6 Earth Observation Satellite, NVS-01 Navigation satellite for NavIC, one communication satellite mission GSAT-24
Five years after its maiden developmental flight in 2017, India's heaviest rocket GSLV Mk3 will be used for launching a commercial satellite in 2022. This is significant given how India has only been utilizing variants of its most-reliable PSLV rocket for commercial missions thus far.
While the PSLV is capable of placing satellites weighing nearly 1,750kg into Polar orbits(where strategic satellites and imaging satellites are placed), whereas the GSLV rocket can place 4-ton class satellites into the Geosynchronous Transfer orbit(GTO).
Satellites placed in GTO are eventually moved to the Geosynchronous orbits, which are approximately 36,000kms above the earth's equator, where communication and weather-monitoring satellites belong.
ISRO has been launching foreign satellites and those of its customers only on PSLV rockets, because of the rocket's high reliability of delivering as many as 52 successful missions out of 54 launches.
In case of the GSLV MK-III, it has been launched four times and performed the mission objectives successfully on all four attempts, but all of these have been to fulfil India's national requirements and not those of customers.
Notably, it is the human-rated version(specially modified to carry astronauts) of the same GSLV MK-III that will be used for India's Gaganyaan Mission to send astronauts to space.
In 2022, India will be performing six rocket launch missions - two launches of PSLV, two developmental flights of the new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), one launch of GSLV, one launch of GSLV MK-III.
In terms of satellite missions, ISRO is looking at launching EOS-6 Earth Observation Satellite, NVS-01 Navigation satellite for NavIC, one communication satellite mission GSAT-24.
These details were revealed in India's lower house of parliament by Jitendra Singh, the Minister overseeing the Department of Space. Accomplishing these six launches in 2022 would mean that ISRO is launching all of its current operational vehicles in a single year.(SSLV is not yet operational, but will make its debut)
However, some big-ticket, highly-anticipated missions such as Chandrayaan-3, Aditya L-1, first unmanned flight of Gaganyaan etc. don't find a mention in this list.
Notably, Minister Jitendra Singh himself had made an announcement earlier this year regarding Chandrayaan-3 being launched in August 2022. According to ISRO, the pandemic and resultant lockdowns had caused disruption and delay to the Indian state-run space agency's launch activity.
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