At 10:48 PM EST on February 10, the D2 Small Launch Vehicle (SSLV) successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Indian Space Center in Sriharikot, India. SSLV-D2 carried an Earth observation satellite (EOS-07) and two other satellites. are satellites called Janus1 and AzadiSat2, which are placed in a circular orbit of 450 kilometers around our planet.

EOS-07 is a 156.3 kg satellite designed and developed by ISRO, while Janus-1 is a 10.2 kg satellite manufactured by the American company Antaris. AzaadiSAT-2 is an 8.7 kg satellite created by 750 female students under the guidance of Space Kidz India. The entire mission was successfully completed within 15 minutes of the flight. The success of the mission was important to ISRO, as the spacecraft did not make its maiden flight in August 2022.

During the August flight, SSLV encountered a problem during the second stage of separation. The rocket began to vibrate intensely, which then saturated all six accelerometers in the SSLV’s navigation system. This automatically puts the rocket into recovery mode, where it puts the two payloads in the wrong orbit.

SSLV was developed by ISRO (India Space and Research Establishment) to launch satellites into low Earth orbits on a launch-on-demand basis. The vehicle has a maximum payload of 500 kg and can carry multiple loads.

Following today’s successful launch, ISRO has established a strong position in the commercial small and micro satellite market. ISRO chief S Somanathan said the team is now preparing to launch the GSLV Mark III, which will carry 236 OneWeb satellites, as well as to demonstrate the landing of a reusable launch vehicle.