Oceansat-2 up: Will help keep better watch on seas, cyclones

It was the 15th consecutive successful mission for the 44-metre,
230-tonne launch vehicle, designated C-14 for this mission, ever since it failed
on its debut on September 20, 1993.

"The PSLV is like old wine, it's
improving with age,'' said ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair after what he said was
an excellent and precise launch. Oceansat-2, the country's second ocean studies
satellite that aims to aid fishermen in identifying fishing zones and weathermen
to forecast cyclones by measuring sea surface winds, was injected in a 728-km
orbit, exactly 1,081 seconds after lift-off at 11.51 am.

For those
who watched the clear skies above the spaceport in the Satish Dhawan Space
Centre, but for a few innocuous cloudy patches, there would have been little
indication of the initial glitches. During the 51-hour countdown (which began on
Monday), scientists discovered an anomaly in the reaction control package. "We
replaced it immediately. Normally, it would have taken a week, but we didn't
want to lose even a minute,'' Nair said later.

Ultimately, it was a
familiar sight, one witnessed many times before, as the PSLV zoomed into space
over the island's skyline. The cheers from the assembled crowd erupted much
before the sonic boom rolled towards them, as the rocket, tailed by a golden
flame, remained visible for nearly a minute.

The separation of each
stage and the ignition of the subsequent one occurred at almost precisely
planned moments. Three minutes after lift-off, the heat shield separated at an
altitude of about 125 km as the rocket cleared the dense atmosphere. The
18-minute flight was uneventful, as the 960-kg main payload, along with six tiny
satellites made for educational purposes by various universities reached its
orbit. Vice-president Hamid Ansari, who was present to watch the launch from the
control room, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, congratulated the ISRO
scientists for the successful mission.

The two solar panels of
Oceansat-2, which will provide the required power for the satellite to operate,
were deployed automatically soon after the orbital injection, and scientists
confirmed that a ground station in Troll, Antarctica, had seen the satellites'
activity from the polar region. The earth sensors had been turned on to orient
it towards the earth.

With the launch vehicle costing Rs 160 crore
and the main payload Rs 75 crore, it was described as a cost-effective mission
by the ISRO chairman. "The polar satellite launch vehicle, considered ISRO's
workhorse, can be compared to proven launchers like Ariane of France and Delta
of US,'' he said. "It's of a similar class,'' he said, when asked to compare the
PSLV with launch vehicles abroad known for their unfailing missions. Delta and
Soyuz were also equally reliable, and PSLV was in their league, he
added.

Oceansat-2, which will ensure continuity in services provided
by its predecessor Oceansat-1 since 1999, has the potential to considerably
enhance these services, thanks to its three payloads, said R R Navalgund,
director of the Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. It will provide data on
plant life in the ocean and changes in the oceans colour. The Ocean Colour
Monitor (OCM), one of the payloads, will help in identifying schools of fish,
their location, distance and depth from a particular spot, in monitoring algal
blooms a sudden increase in the population of algae in marine environments that
are potentially toxic and harmful to fish and in studying carbon-dioxide
concentration in the ocean, Navalgund said.

The scatterometer on
board will measure sea surface winds and provide data that can be used to
understand the formation of cyclones. The data will be available to
international scientists and can be used in real time for better
prognostication, he said. The third payload, ROSA (Radio Occultation Sounder for
Atmospheric Studies) will receive GPS signals and aid in developing profiles of
atmospheric parameters like temperature, humidity, density and
pressure).

Christened Cubesats, four of the six nano-satellites
launched by PSLV-C14 are educational satellites developed by European
universities two from Germany and one each from Turkey and Switzerland to test
new technologies. The four cubesats, each weighing only about one kg, were
released for operations, while Rubin 9.1 and Rubin 9.2 will remain attached to
the upper stage. These nano-satellites are meant for maritime applications and
weigh eight kg each.