ISRO To Launch India's First Student Made Satellite Tomorrow

The countdown for the flight Thursday night of an Indian rocket carrying the Microsat R imaging satellite of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Kalamsat student satellite will begin later on Wednesday, an Indian space agency official said.

ISRO is planning to have the launch at about 11:40 pm tomorrow night. The launch mission PSLV-C44 won’t just launch a satellite but will be the first in the world to use the rocket as a platform for experiments in space as well.

"We will be launching the 700-kg Microsat R and Kalamsat with a new PSLV variant. In order to reduce the weight and increase the mass, an aluminum tank is used for the first time in the fourth stage," K Sivan, Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), told IANS.

🇮🇳 #ISROMissions 🇮🇳#PSLVC44 to launch #Kalamsat and #MicrosatR from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on January 24. Kalamsat is a student payload while Microsat-R is an imaging satellite.

Stay tuned for updates. pic.twitter.com/cbYzkR4s7n
— ISRO (@isro) January 16, 2019

Kalamsat is a communication satellite with a life span of two months. The nanosatellite is a 10cm cube weighing 1.2 kg. The satellite cost was about Rs 12 lakh.

Kalamsat will be the first to use the rocket's fourth stage as an orbiting platform. The fourth stage will be moved to a higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbiting platform for carrying out experiments. It is named after former Indian president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and was built by an Indian high school student team, led by Rifath Sharook, an 18-year-old from the Tamil Nadu town of Pallapatti. It is the world's lightest and first ever 3D-printed satellite.

In its normal configuration, the rocket would have six strap-on motors hugging its first stage. However, the PSLV that would be flying on January 24 with Microsat R and Kalamsat will be a two strap-on motors configuration and is designated as PSLV-DL.

The rocket PSLV-C44 is the first mission of PSLV-DL and is a new variant.

About 14 minutes into the flight the rocket would eject Microsat R at an altitude of about 277km. This would start functioning at an altitude of 450km in about the 103rd minute after lift-off.

The Kalamsat would be the first to use the rocket's fourth stage as an orbital platform. The fourth stage would be moved to a higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments, ISRO had said.