On Sunday morning, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched India’s largest LVM3 rocket carrying 36 satellites from Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. LVM3 was launched at around 9 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
“LVM3 standing 43.5 metres tall and weighing 643 tonnes lifted off from the second launch pad rocket port carrying OneWeb’s final instalment of 36 Gen1 satellites”, said the officials.
According to reports, the LVM3 is a three-stage rocket, with the first stage using liquid fuel, the two strap-on motors using solid fuel, the second using liquid fuel, and the third using cryogenic fuel.
“Just over 19 minutes after the rocket’s take off, the process of satellite separation will begin. The separation of 36 satellites will happen in a phased manner”, as informed by the officials.
Earlier social media handle of OneWeb satellite communications company and a partner in this mission took to Twitter and said, “Our golden ‘Hello World’ mission patch for this launch reflects our initiation of global coverage this year”.
Collaboration between the UK and Indian space industries is also important, according to one web.
One Web further tweeted, “OneWebLaunch18 will see us launch 36 satellites with @isro and @NSIL_India from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. This mission marks OneWeb’s second satellite deployment from India, highlighting the collaboration between the UK and Indian space industries”.
On October 23, 2022, the ISRO launched 36 OneWeb satellites. It was the two organisations’ first satellite deployment collaboration.