ISRO’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle(SSLV) and How it differs from PSLV
What is the News?
ISRO’s Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thumbahas completed the design for the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), the ‘baby rocket’ billed as the quickest way to space for small size satellites. The SSLV promises on -demand access to space, with the rocket assembly taking a mere 15 days and minimum personnel to do so.
On the Launchpad, the SSLV will stand 34 m tall, 10m shorter than the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and around 15 m shorter than the MkII version of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch vehicle (GSLV).
What is SSLV?
- Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) is a launch vehicle being developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- The vehicle can launch dedicated payloads or multiple satellites into low earth orbit or sun-synchronous orbit.
- The payload will be 300 to sun synchronous orbit (SSO) and 500 kg to low earth orbit (LEO).
- It was developed with the aim of launching small satellites commercially at drastically reduced price.
- The first three stages of the vehicle use solid propellant, with a fourth stage being a velocity-trimming module.
How is SSLV different from PSLV?
- Small Satellite Launch Vehicle(SSLV) will stand 34 m tall, 10m shorter than the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV).
- SSLV is also a ‘thinner’ launch vehicle, possessing a diameter of just 2 m.
- PSLV launch involves 600 officials while SSLV launch operations would be managed by a small team of about six people.
- Unlike PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and GSLV(Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle), the launch readiness period of SSLV is expected to be less than a week instead of months.
- The SSLV can be assembled both vertically and horizontally whereas the PSLV and GSLVs are assembled vertically.
- The manufacturing cost of SSLV is expected to be 10% of that of PSLV and it will have a higher launch rate as compared to PSLV.