The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its heaviest rocket, LVM3, for the sixth consecutive time from the Sriharikota spaceport. The rocket successfully placed 36 satellites belonging to the UK-based OneWeb group company into their intended orbits.
About The ISRO’s OneWeb Satellite Launch
The launch took place at 9 a.m. from the second launch pad situated approximately 135 kilometres away from Chennai, following a 24.5-hour countdown.
This marks the 18th launch for the OneWeb Group, while it is ISRO’s second mission of 2023, with the SSLV/D2-EOS07 mission in February being the first.
Significance of This launch
The upcoming launch will be the 18th for OneWeb, and it will expand the UK-based company’s existing constellation of 582 satellites.
As per the contract signed between ISRO’s commercial arm NSIL and OneWeb, a total of 72 satellites are set to be launched in two phases. The first phase, which included 36 satellites, was successfully launched on October 23, 2022, in the LVM3-M2/OneWeb India-1 mission.
This marks the second OneWeb fleet that India is launching, paving the way for the country’s foray into the commercial heavy lift-off space.
About OneWeb Constellation
The OneWeb Constellation operates in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Polar Orbit, where the satellites are arranged in 12 rings, also known as orbital planes.
Each orbital plane consists of 49 satellites, and they are inclined to be near-polar at an inclination of 87.9 degrees.
The satellites are placed at an altitude of 1200 km above the Earth’s surface, and each satellite completes a full trip around the Earth every 109 minutes.
