ISRO Launches India’s Largest Rocket with 36 Satellites :- ISRO’s LVM3 launch vehicle, in its sixth consecutive successful flight placed 36 satellites belonging to OneWeb Group Company into their intended 450 km circular orbit with an inclination of 87.4 degrees. With this, NSIL has successfully executed its contract to launch 72 satellites of OneWeb to Low Earth Orbit.
The vehicle took off with a total payload of 5,805 kg at 09:00:20 hours local time from the second launch pad at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota. It gained the required altitude of 450 km in about nine minutes of flight, achieved satellite injection conditions in the eighteenth minute, and began injecting the satellites in the twentieth minute.
The C25 stage performed a sophisticated maneuver to repeatedly orient itself in orthogonal directions and inject satellites into precise orbits with defined time gaps to avoid collision of the satellites. 36 satellites were separated in 9 phases, in a batch of 4. OneWeb confirmed the acquisition of signals from all 36 satellites.
This mission marked OneWeb’s second satellite deployment from India, highlighting the strong partnership with NSIL and ISRO. It was OneWeb’s 18th launch bringing the total of OneWeb’s constellation to 618 satellites.
